Harman Kardon AVR 347 Owner's Manual

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Contents

47ADVANCED FUNCTIONSMuch of the AVR 347’s performance is handled automatically, with littleintervention required on your part. However, the AVR 347 is a sophisti-cated component, and is capable of being customized to suit yourparticular system and your tastes. In this section we describe some ofthe more advanced adjustments available on the AVR 347. You mayreturn to this section later, when you have become more familiar withyour receiver.Audio Processing and Surround SoundAudio signals output by sources are encoded in a variety of formats thatcan affect not only the quality of the sound but the number of speakerchannels and the surround mode. You may also manually select a differ-ent surround mode, although for certain types of audio signals, themodes available will be limited in certain ways, as described below.Analog Audio SignalsAnalog audio signals usually consist of two channels – left and right.The AVR 347 offers three basic options for playback of analog audio:1. Analog Bypass Mode: In this mode, the 2-channel signal is passeddirectly to the volume control, without being digitized or undergoingany processing for bass management or surround sound. Therequirements for selecting analog bypass mode are:a) The analog audio inputs for the source must be selected. If neces-sary, press the Digital Button on the remote and use the ⁄/¤Buttons to make the selection.b) The tone controls must be disabled by setting TONE MODE to OUT.Either use the Input Setup menu in the full-OSD system to makethis change, or press the Tone Mode Button on the front panel orremote and use the ‹/› Buttons (⁄/¤ on the remote) until theTONE OUT message appears.c) The Surround Off mode must be selected. The easiest way toselect the Surround Off mode is to press the Stereo Button on theremote until the Surround Off icon is lit (and the DSP icon is not lit)in the front-panel display.2. DSP Surround Off Mode: The DSP Surround Off mode digitizes theincoming signal and applies the bass management settings, includingspeaker configuration, delay times and output levels. This mode isdesirable when your front speakers are small, limited-range satellitesand you are using a subwoofer. Both the DSP and Surround Off iconswill be lit when this mode is active. Press the Stereo Button on theremote repeatedly to select this mode.3. Analog Surround Modes: One of the main benefits of a surroundreceiver such as the AVR 347 is its ability to process 2-channelaudio signals to produce multichannel surround sound in a varietyof modes, even when no surround sound has been encoded in therecording. Among the available modes are the Dolby Pro Logic II/IIxmodes, the Dolby Virtual Speaker modes, the DTS Neo:6 modes, theLogic 7 modes, the Hall and Theater modes and the Stereo modes.Digital Audio SignalsDigital audio signals offer the benefit of greater capacity, which allowsrecording artists to encode center and surround channel informationdirectly into the signal. The result is improved sound quality and startlingdirectionality, since each of these channels is reproduced discretely.Alternatively, the artist will encode only two channels, but the digitalsignal allows for a higher sampling rate, which delivers greater detail.High-resolution recordings usually sound extraordinarily distortion-freeat all frequencies, but especially at high frequencies.Multichannel digital recordings usually are found in the 5.1-, 6.1- or7.1-channel formats. The channels included in a 5.1-channel recordingare front left, front right, center, surround left, surround right and LFE.The LFE channel is denoted as “.1” to represent the fact that it is notfull-range, being limited to the low frequencies.6.1-Channel recordings add a single surround back channel, and7.1-channel recordings add surround back left and surround backright channels to the 5.1-channel configuration. New formats, such asDolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus, may be available in 7.1-channelconfigurations on the future. The AVR 347 will not be able to play native7.1-channel programs unless the source device outputs a 5.1- or6.1-channel version.NOTE: In order to use the 6.1- and 7.1-channel surroundmodes, e.g., Logic 7 7-channel Cinema, the AVR 347 must beconfigured so that the Surround Back channels are enabled.See the Manual Setup section on page 53 of the AdvancedFunctions section for more information.Digital formats include Dolby Digital 2.0 (two channels only), DolbyDigital 5.1, Dolby Digital EX, DTS 5.1, DTS-ES (6.1 Matrix andDiscrete), DTS 96/24 and 2-channel PCM modes in 32kHz, 44.1kHz,48kHz or 96kHz.When a digital signal is received, the AVR 347 detects the encodingmethod and the number of channels. The appropriate icon will light inthe front panel for Dolby Digital and DTS signals. The number of chan-nels encoded will scroll once across the front panel display as threenumbers, separated by slashes (e.g., “3/2/.1”).The first number indicates the number of front channels in the signal:“1” represents a monophonic recording, usually an older program thathas been digitally remastered or, more rarely, a modern programfor which the director has chosen a special effect.“2” indicates the presence of the left and right channels, but nocenter channel.“3” indicates that all three front channels (left, right and center) arepresent.The second number indicates whether any surround channels are present:“0” indicates that no surround information is present.“1” indicates that a matrixed surround signal is present.“2” indicates discrete left and right surround channels.