6 SPEAKER CONNECTIONS
Speaker Connections
Speaker-Level Connection Guide
IMPORTANT NOTE: Before making speaker
connections, be certain that your receiver or
audio power amplifier is turned off and prefer-
ably unplugged from its AC power source.
Speakers and electronics terminals have
corresponding (+) and (–) terminals. Most man-
ufacturers 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
CEA standard and therefore use a color other
than red or black 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 receiv-
er for further details.
Although the HKS 4 speakers may be placed in
the front, side surround or surround back posi-
tions, the speaker wires provided with the sys-
tem have been color-coded brown for the sur-
round back left speaker and tan for the surround
back right speaker. When used with the HKTS 11
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 indicated
with a stripe and has the colored band
corresponding to the speaker’s position. It is
important to connect all 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 program-
mable bass-management capability, which
allows the component to output the lowest fre-
quencies (the bass information) exclusively to a
separate subwoofer speaker, or to a main speak-
er 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 configur-
ing your receiver or processor for the channels
where HKS 4 speakers are being used, select
“Small.”
