Harman-Kardon HK3490 Speaker Connections, Subwoofer, Connecting Source Devices to the HK

There are different types of audio and video connections used to connect the receiver to the speakers and video display, and to connect the source devices to the receiver. To make it easier to keep them all straight, the Consumer Electronics Association has established a CEA® 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

	Left	Right
Front (FL/FR)

Digital Audio Connections

Coaxial

OpticalInput

Video Connections

Composite

CONNECTIONS

1 2 3

Figure 2 – Binding-Post Speaker Terminals With Bare Wires

The HK 3490 features two sets of speaker connections, with each set allowing connection of a left and right loudspeaker. This allows you to place a second set of speakers in another room, or even outdoors, when weather-resistant loudspeakers are used. You may play both sets of speakers simultaneously, one set at a time or neither set when using the headphones or making recordings. Use the Speaker 1/2 Buttons to activate or deactivate each pair of speakers. It is not possible to select different sources for each speaker pair.

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 contain two wire conductors, or leads, inside plastic insulation. The two conductors are usually differentiated by using different colors, or stripes, or by adding a ridge to the insulation. Sometimes the wires are different colors, one being copper red and the other silver.

The differentiation is important because each speaker must be connected to the receiver’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 receiver’s positive terminals, performance can suffer, especially for the low frequencies.

Always connect the positive terminal on the loudspeaker, which is usually colored red, to the positive terminal on the receiver, also colored red. Similarly, always connect the black negative terminal on the speaker to the black negative terminal on the receiver.

The HK 3490 uses binding-post speaker terminals that can accept banana plugs

+ or bare-wire cables.

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.

Subwoofer

The subwoofer is a specialized type of loudspeaker used to play only the low frequencies (bass), which require much more power than the other speaker channels. To obtain the best results, most speaker manufacturers offer powered subwoofers, in which the speaker contains its own amplifier on board. Usually, a line-level (nonamplified) connection is made from the receiver’s Subwoofer Output to a corresponding jack on the subwoofer, as shown in Figure 3, but sometimes the subwoofer is connected to the receiver using the left and right speaker outputs, then the left and right speakers are connected to terminals on the subwoofer. The same full-range signal is output through both jacks. Thus, you have the option of connecting each jack to the line-level input on a separate subwoofer. If you have only one subwoofer with a single line-level input, connect it to the right Subwoofer Output on the HK 3490.

Connect the Subwoofer Trigger Output for each subwoofer to the corresponding trigger input on its amplifier. This enables the subwoofer to turn on or off together with the HK 3490. To further conserve energy, when the trigger connection is made, turn the Subwoofer Link Switch on to turn the subwoofer off when the corresponding pair of main speakers are not being used, such as during muting, when headphones are being used, or when the main speakers are turned off using the Speaker 1/2 switch.

L

R

Subwoofer

Figure 3 – Subwoofer

Connecting Source Devices to the HK 3490

The HK 3490 is designed to process audio and video input signals, playing back the audio and displaying the video on a television or monitor connected to it. These signals originate in what are known as “source devices,” including your DVD player, CD player, DVR (digital video recorder) or other recorder, tape deck, game console, cable or satellite television box, or MP3 player. Although the tuner is built into the

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