Harman-Kardon HS 500 owner manual Connections, Connecting External Source Devices to the HS

CONNECTIONS

There are different types of audio and video connections used to connect the HS 500 to the speakers and video display, and to connect any source devices to the HS 500. To make it easier to keep them all straight, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has established a color-coding standard. Table 1 may be helpful to you as a reference while you set up your system.

Table 1 – Connection Color Guide

Audio Connections

LeftRight

Front (FL/FR)

Center (C)

Surround (SL/SR)

Subwoofer (SUB)

Digital Audio Connections

Coaxial

OpticalInput

Video Connections

Composite

S-Video

HDMI™ Connections

HDMI

Types of Connections

This section will briefly review different types of cables and connections that you may use to set up your system.

Speaker Connections

Speaker cables carry an amplified signal from the receiver’s speaker terminals to each loudspeaker. Speaker cables generally contain two wire conductors, or leads, inside plastic insulation. The two conductors are usually differentiated in some way, by using different colors, or stripes, or even by adding a ridge to the insulation.

The differentiation is important because each speaker must be connected to the HS 500’s speaker-output terminals using two wires, one positive (+) and one negative (–). This is called speaker polarity. It’s important to maintain the proper polarity for all speakers in the system. If some speakers have their negative terminals connected to the HS 500’s positive terminals, performance can suffer, especially for the low frequencies.

Always connect the positive terminal on the loudspeaker, which is colored red, to the positive terminal on the HS 500, which is colored as shown in the Connection Color Guide (Table 1). Similarly, always connect the black negative terminal on the speaker to the black negative terminal on the HS 500. The wires in the speaker system included with your HS 500 Home Theater System are color-coded with bands.

The HS 500 uses binding-post speaker terminals that can accept banana plugs or bare-wire cables, should you wish to upgrade your system in the future.

Banana plugs are simply plugged into the hole in the middle of the terminal cap. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Binding-Post Speaker Terminals With

Banana Plugs

+

Bare wire cables are installed as follows (see Figure 2):

1.Unscrew the terminal cap until the pass-through hole in the collar is revealed.

2.Insert the bare end of the wire into the hole.

3.Screw the cap back into place until the wire is held snugly.

Figure 2 – Binding-Post Speaker Terminals With Bare Wires

Subwoofer

The subwoofer is a specialized type of loudspeaker that is usually connected in a different way. The subwoofer is used to play only the low frequencies (bass), which require much more power than the other speaker channels. In order to obtain the best results, the HS 500 includes a powered subwoofer that contains its own amplifier on board. A line-level (nonamplified) connection is made from the HS 500’s Subwoofer Output to a corresponding jack on the subwoofer.

See Figure 3.

Although the subwoofer output looks similar to the analog audio jacks used for the various components, it is filtered and only allows the low frequencies to pass. Don’t connect this output to your other devices.

Although doing so won’t cause any harm, performance will suffer.

Pre-out Subwoofer

Figure 3 – Subwoofer

Connecting External Source Devices to the HS 500

The HS 500 is designed to process audio input signals. These signals originate in what are known as “source devices,” including the internal DVD/CD player, a DVR (digital video recorder) or other recorder, a tape deck, a game console, a cable or satellite television box, a flash drive or an MP3 player. Although the tuner and disc player are built into the HS 500, they also count as sources, even though no external connec- tions are needed, other than the FM and AM antennas.

In general, separate connections are required for the audio and video portions of the signal. The types of connections used depend upon what’s available on the source device, and for video signals, the capabilities of your video display.