Onkyo TX-SR503 Connecting Your Speakers, Speaker Configuration, Attaching the Speaker Labels

Connecting Your Speakers—Continued

Speaker Configuration

For the best surround-sound experience, you should con- nect seven speakers and a powered subwoofer.

The following table shows which channels you should use based on the number of speakers that you have.

Number of speakers:	2	3	4	5	6	7
Front left	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Front right	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Center		✓		✓	✓	✓
Surround left			✓	✓	✓	✓
Surround right			✓	✓	✓	✓
Surround back*					✓
Surround back left						✓
Surround back right						✓

*If you’re using only one surround back speaker, connect it to the left (L) SURROUND BACK SPEAKERS terminals.

No matter how many speakers you use, a powered sub- woofer is recommended for a really powerful and solid bass.

Before using the AV receiver, you must specify which speakers are connected and their sizes (see page 32). To get the very best from your surround-sound system, you should also specify the distance between the listener and each individual speaker so that the sound from each speaker arrives at the listener’s ears at the same time (see page 50). In addition, you should set the level of each individual speaker to achieve an equal balance (see page 50.)

Attaching the Speaker Labels

The AV receiver’s positive (+) speaker terminals are color-coded for ease of identification. (The negative (–) speaker terminals are all black.)

Speaker terminal	Color
Front left	White
Front right	Red
Center	Green
Surround left	Blue
Surround right	Gray
Surround back left	Brown
Surround back right	Tan

The supplied speaker labels are also color-coded and you should attach them to the positive (+) side of each speaker cable in accordance with the above table. All you need to do then is to match the color of each label to the corresponding speaker terminal.

Speaker Connection Precautions

Read the following before connecting your speakers:

•American model only: You can connect speakers with an impedance of 6 ohms or higher. If you use speakers with a lower impedance, and use the ampli- fier at high volume levels for a long period of time, the built-in protection circuit may be activated.

•Other models: You can connect speakers with an impedance of between 4 and 16 ohms. If the imped- ance of any of the connected speakers is 4 ohms or more, but less than 6 ohms, be sure to set the Mini- mum Speaker Impedance to “4 ohms” (see page 32). If you use speakers with a lower impedance, and use the amplifier at high volume levels for a long period of time, the built-in protection circuit may be activated.

•Disconnect the power cord from the wall outlet before making any connections.

•Read the instructions supplied with your speakers.

•Pay close attention to speaker wiring polarity. In other words, connect positive (+) terminals to only positive

(+) terminals, and negative (–) terminals to only nega- tive (–) terminals. If you get them the wrong way around, the sound will be out of phase and will sound unnatural.

•Unnecessarily long, or very thin speaker cables may affect the sound quality and should be avoided.

•Be careful not to short the

positive and negative wires. Doing so may damage the AV receiver.

•Don’t connect more than one cable to each speaker termi- nal. Doing so may damage the AV receiver.

•Don’t connect one speaker to several terminals.

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