Harman Kardon AVR 7550HD Owner's Manual

Also see for AVR 7550HD: Worksheet Quick start guide Service manual

44ADVANCED FUNCTIONSSTEP FOUR – Setting Channel OutputLevels ManuallyFor a conventional 2-channel receiver, the balance control affectsthe stereo imaging by adjusting the relative loudness of the left andright channels.With up to seven main channels, plus a subwoofer, imagingbecomes both more critical and more complex. The goal is toensure that each channel is heard at the listening position withequal loudness.EzSet/EQ II calibration can handle this critical task for you, simplyand automatically. However, the AVR’s Adjust Speaker Levels menuallows you to calibrate the levels manually, either using the system’stest tone or while playing source material.1. Make sure all speakers have been placed and connected correctly.2. Adjust the number of speakers, crossover, distance and sub modefor each speaker in your system, as described in Step Three.3. Measure the channel levels in one of these ways, and adjust thechannel levels using the Adjust Speaker Levels menu:a) Preferably, use a handheld SPL meter set to the C-Weighting,Slow scale. Adjust each channel so that the meter reads 75dB.b) By ear. Adjust the levels so that all channels sound equally loud.c) If you are using a handheld SPL meter with source material,such as a test disc or an audio selection, play it and adjust theAVR’s master volume control until the meter measures 75dB.Press the AVR Settings Button to display the menu system, and thennavigate to the Speaker Setup line. Press the OK Button to displaythe Speaker Setup menu. Select Setup Listening Position 1 or 2,press the OK Button, and then navigate to the Level Adjust line.Press the OK Button to display the Adjust Speaker Levels menu.See Figure 32.Figure 32 – Adjust Speaker Levels MenuAll of the speaker channels will appear with their current level settings.Reset Levels: To reset all levels to their factory defaults of0dB, scroll down to this line at the bottom of the menu and pressthe OK Button.To set your levels using the AVR 7550HD’s internal test tone, adjustthe TEST TONE line as follows:Test Tone: Determines whether the test tone is active. To begin,press the OK Button repeatedly to select the OFF, AUTO or MANUALsetting. Manually moving the cursor out of the channel listings areaof the screen automatically stops the test tone.When this setting reads AUTO, the test tone will automaticallycirculate to all channels, pausing for a few moments at each channeland then moving to the next channel several seconds later, asindicated by the highlight bar. Adjust the level for any channelwhen the test tone is paused there, using the 7/3 Buttons. Usethe 1/5 Buttons to move the cursor to another line, and the testtone will follow the cursor.When this setting reads MANUAL, the test tone will not move to thenext channel until you use the 1/5 Buttons.Individual Channels: If you are using an external sourceto set your output levels, navigate to each channel and use the7/3 Buttons to adjust the level, as desired, between –10dBand +10dB.When you have finished adjusting the speaker levels, select theBack option or press the Back/Exit Button. Record the level settingsin Table A3 in the appendix.AUDIO EFFECTSTo adjust other audio settings, such as the tone controls, to improveperformance, press the Audio Effects Button to display the AudioEffects menu (see Figure 24). The menu may also be accessed fromthe Setup Source menu by pressing the Info Settings Button andselecting Audio Effects.NOTE: The settings in the Audio Effects menu affect eachsource independently.Dolby Volume: See page 33 for an explanation of DolbyVolume processing and its benefits. Refer to Table 3 on that pagefor an explanation of each of the Dolby Volume settings.Tone Control: Determines whether the treble and basscontrols are active. When it’s off, the tone controls are “flat”, withno changes. When it’s on, the bass and treble frequencies areboosted or cut, depending upon the tone-control settings. When ananalog audio source is in use and the 2-Channel Stereo surroundmode is selected, setting the Tone Control to “Off” places the unitin analog bypass mode.Treble and Bass: Boost or cut the high or low frequencies byup to 10dB by using the 7/3 Buttons to change the temperaturebar setting. The default setting is 0dB, at the center of the tempera-ture bar.LFE Trim: Attenuates the loudness of the subwoofer. The settingdefaults to the maximum of 0dB. Press the 7/3 Buttons to reducethe level by up to 10dB; the setting will appear as a negative number.EQ: This setting activates or deactivates the equalization settingsobtained when the EzSet/EQ II process was run. The settings aresaved for reactivation at a later listening session.Speaker Setup: Select Position 1 or 2 to activate the speakerconfiguration settings saved for the desired position. The settingsmay be configured either by running the EzSet/EQ II process andsaving the results, or manually, as explained in the Manual SpeakerSetup section on page 41.When you have finished, press the Audio Effects Button or theBack/Exit Button.