Harman-Kardon AVR 147 Manual Setup, Step Two - Measure Speaker Distances, Advanced Functions

ADVANCED FUNCTIONS

Manual Setup

The AVR 147 is flexibly designed to be used with almost any loudspeak- ers available. The flexibility arises from the AVR 147’s capability to be configured to match the characteristics of your particular speakers, and to compensate for the acoustic characteristics of your room.

EzSet/EQ automatically detects the capabilities of each speaker, and optimizes the AVR 147’s performance in your system. However, if for some reason you are unable to run EzSet/EQ, e.g., you have misplaced the microphone, or if you wish to make further adjustments to the set- tings made by EzSet/EQ, you may use the Manual Setup on-screen menus as described in this section.

Before beginning manual setup you will need to have fully installed your AVR, placed your loudspeakers in their correct locations within the room (see Speaker Placement section on page 19), and connected them

to the AVR. You will need the specifications for each of your speakers, which may usually be found in the owner’s guide for the speakers or on the manufacturer’s Web site. If necessary, contact the manufacturer to obtain the frequency range specification. Although the output-level setting portion of manual setup may be performed “by ear,” we recommend that you purchase an SPL (sound-pressure level) meter at a local electronics store.

We suggest that you record your configuration settings in the appropri- ate places in Tables A3 through A7 in the appendix in case you need to reenter them after a system reset, or if the AVR’s Master Power Switch is turned off or the unit is unplugged for more than four weeks.

If you send the lowest notes to small satellite speakers, you won’t hear these notes very well, and you may even damage the speaker by going beyond its capabilities. If you send the highest notes to the special-pur- pose subwoofer, you may not hear them at all.

With proper bass management, the AVR 147 divides the source signal at a crossover point. All information above the crossover point is played through the satellite speaker (front left/right, center or surround left/right), and all information below the crossover point is played through the sub- woofer. This enables each loudspeaker in your system to perform at its best, delivering an enjoyable sound experience.

Step Two – Measure Speaker Distances

Ideally, all of your speakers were placed in a circle, each at the same distance from the listening position. However, your room may not be ideal, and you may have had to place some speakers a little further away than others. This could affect the overall sound of the receiver, as sounds that are supposed to arrive simultaneously from different speakers blur due to different arrival times.

The AVR 147 has a delay adjustment that enables the receiver to compensate for real-world speaker placements.

Before you begin making adjustments, measure the distance from each speaker to the listening position, and note it in the Table A3 worksheet in the appendix. Even if all of your speakers are the same distance from the listening position, you should enter your speaker distances into the Delay Adjust menu, which is described in Step Three.

Step One – Determine Speaker Size

Without using EzSet/EQ, the AVR 147 can’t detect how many speakers you’ve connected to it; nor can it determine their capabilities. For this part of the system setup, you will need to consult the speaker’s technical specifications.

The specification you’re looking for is the frequency response, which is usually given as a range, e.g., 100Hz – 20kHz (±3dB). This specifi- cation tells you whether the speaker is able to play sounds that are very high- or low-pitched, represented by the high and low frequencies.

We are concerned with the lowest frequency that each of your main speakers is capable of playing, which is 100Hz in this example. Use the Table A5 worksheet in the appendix to note this number as the crossover for that speaker (not the same as the crossover frequency listed in the speaker’s specifications).

Your subwoofer’s frequency response will include only the very lowest frequencies, since the subwoofer is designed to play only bass materials. A typical frequency response for a subwoofer is 25Hz – 150Hz. In this case, the higher number is most important and should be noted in the worksheet.

The purpose of entering this information into the AVR 147 is to program the receiver’s bass management, which determines which speakers the receiver will use to play back the low-frequency (bass) portion of the source program.

Step Three – Manual Setup Menu

Now you are ready to program these adjustments into the receiver. It’s best to sit in the usual listening position and make the room as quiet as possible. Don’t worry if you make a mistake; you can always go back and change these settings.

With the receiver and video display turned on, press the OSD Button on the remote to display the Master Menu (see Figure 39). Use the ¤ Button on the remote to move the cursor to the MANUAL SETUP line, and press the Set Button to display the Manual Setup menu.

See Figure 80.

Figure 80 – Manual Setup Menu Screen

EzSet ACTIVATE: The first line in the Manual Setup menu indicates whether you have run EzSet/EQ and whether the settings obtained by EzSet/EQ have been activated as the starting point for manual setup.

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