Harman-Kardon HKS 9 - Manual (Page 5)

SPEAKER CONNECTIONS 5
Connection Guide
IMPORTANT NOTE: B efore making speaker
connections, be certain that your receiver
or audio power amplifier is turned off and,
preferably, unplugged from its AC power
source.
Speakers and electronics terminals have
corresponding (+) and (–) terminals. Most
manufacturers of speakers and electronics,
including Harman Kardon, use red to
denote the (+) terminal and black for
the (–) terminal.
Newer Harman Kardon receivers conform to
the new CEA standard and therefore use a
color other than red for the (+) terminal to
indicate some speaker positions: e.g., blue
for surround left positive (+). However, the
black terminal will always be the negative (–)
connection. Please see the owner’s guide for
your AVR Series receiver for further details.
Although the HKS 9 speakers may be placed
in the front, side surround or surround back
positions, the speaker wires provided with the
system have been color-coded brown for the
surround back left speaker and tan for the
surround back right speaker. When used with
the HKTS 18 system, it is recommended that
you maintain the color-coding system for all
cables to simplify setup, and to ensure that
each wire in a channel pair (e.g., front left and
right) is the same length as its partner.
The (+) lead of the speaker wire is noted
with a stripe. It is important to connect both
speakers identically: (+) on the speaker to
(+) on the amplifier and (–) on the speaker
to (–) on the amplifier. Wiring “out of phase”
results in thin sound, weak bass and a poor
stereo image.
With the advent of multichannel surround
sound systems, connecting all of the speakers
in your system with the correct polarity
remains equally important in order to preserve
the proper ambience and directionality of the
program material.
To connect the supplied speaker wires to
the satellite speaker terminals located on
the bottom of each speaker, press the red
or black tab, insert the bare end of the wire
into the hole and release the tab. Gently
tug on the wire to make sure that it is
fully inserted.
Configuring Your Receiver or
Processor
Many receivers and processors feature
programmable bass-management capability,
which allows the component to output the
lowest frequencies (the bass information)
exclusively to a separate subwoofer speaker,
or to a main speaker that is capable of
handling low frequencies, or sometimes to
both. During the setup process you will be
asked to specify whether the speaker for
a given channel is “Large” or “Small.” The
terms “Large” and “Small” do not refer to
physical size, but to the size of the frequency
range the speaker is capable of handling.
When configuring your receiver or processor
for the channels where HKS 9 speakers are
being used, select “Small.”
SPEAKER CONNECTIONS
Front-, Surround- or Surround Back-Channel
Receiver/Amplifier Output
Left Right
+
–
+
–
– + – +
Left Speaker Right Speaker
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