Harman Kardon AVR 354 Owner's Manual

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Harman Kardon AVR 354 Owner's Manual Manual pdf 19 page image

19There are different types of audio and video connections used toconnect the receiver to the speakers and video display, and to connectthe source devices to the receiver. To make it easier to keep them allstraight, the Consumer Electronics Association has established theCEA® color-coding standard. See Table 1.Table 1 – Connection Color GuideTypes of ConnectionsThis section will briefly review different types of cables and connections.Speaker ConnectionsSpeaker cables carry an amplified signal from the receiver’s speakerterminals to each loudspeaker. Speaker cables contain two wire conduc-tors, or leads, inside plastic insulation. The two conductors are usuallydifferentiated in some way, by using different colors, or stripes, or byadding a ridge to the insulation. Sometimes the wires are different,colors e.g. copper-colored and silver.The differentiation is important because each speaker must be connectedto the receiver’s speaker-output terminals using two wires, one positive(+) and one negative (–), referred to as speaker polarity. It’s importantto maintain the proper polarity for all speakers in the system, or perform-ance can suffer, especially for the low frequencies.Always connect the positive terminal on the loudspeaker, which is usuallycolored red, to the positive terminal on the receiver, which is colored asshown in the Connection Color Guide (Table 1). Similarly, always connectthe black negative terminal on the speaker to the black negative terminalon the receiver.The AVR 354 uses binding-post speakerterminals that can accept banana plugsor bare-wire cables. Banana plugs aresimply plugged into the hole in the middleof the terminal cap. See Figure 1.Figure 1 – Binding-Post Speaker Terminals With Banana PlugsBare wire cables are installed as follows (see Figure 2):1. Unscrew the terminal cap until the pass-through hole in the collar isrevealed.2. Insert the bare end of the wire into the hole.3. Hand-tighten the cap until the wire is held snugly.Figure 2 – Binding-Post Speaker Terminals With Bare WiresSubwooferThe subwoofer is a specialized type of loudspeaker used to play onlythe low frequencies (bass), which require much more power than theother speaker channels. In order to obtain the best results, most speakermanufacturers offer powered subwoofers, in which the speaker containsits own amplifier on board. Usually, a line-level (nonamplified) connectionis made from the receiver’s Subwoofer Output to a corresponding jackon the subwoofer, as shown in Figure 3, but sometimes the subwooferis connected to the receiver using the front left and right speaker outputs,as with passive in-wall subwoofers, and then the front left and rightspeakers are connected to terminals on the subwoofer.Although the subwoofer output looks similar to the analog audio jacksused for the various components, it is filtered and only allows the lowfrequencies to pass. Don’t connect this output to any other devices.Although doing so won’t cause any harm, performance will suffer.Figure 3 – SubwooferConnecting Source Devices to the AVRThe AVR 354 is designed to process audio and video input signals,playing back the audio and displaying the video on a television ormonitor connected to the AVR. These signals originate in what areknown 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 isbuilt into the AVR, it also counts as a source, even though no externalconnections are needed, other than the FM and AM antennas and theXM antenna module.Separate connections are required for the audio and video portions ofthe signal, except for digital HDMI connections. The types of connectionsused depend upon what’s available on the source device, and for videosignals, the capabilities of your video display.SubwooferPreout1 2 3+Audio ConnectionsLeft RightFront (FL/FR)Center (C)Surround (SL/SR)Surround Back (SBL/SBR)Subwoofer (SUB)Digital Audio ConnectionsCoaxialOpticalVideo ConnectionsComponent Y Pb PrCompositeS-VideoHDMI™Connections (digital audio/video)HDMIInputCONNECTIONS