Kenwood HTB-204 Owners Manual

Congratulations!

The HTB-204 Home Theater System will make watching movies at
home more fun than ever. To connect your speakers to the receiver
follow the instructions on this sheet. To learn how to operate your
receiver please read and follow the instruction manual included in
the receiver’s box. If you’re also connecting other equipment, such
as a TV, VCR, DVD player, CD player or other source component, use
the receiver’s manual in combination with the manuals that came
with those components.

Placing Your Speakers

Place the speakers as shown in the diagram below. While you’re set­ting the speakers up, keep these points in mind:

• If the subwoofer causes discoloration of the TV picture, move it
away from the TV until the discoloration disappears.

• Since the center speaker is magnetically shielded, you can place it
right on top of the TV without worrying about picture
discoloration.

• You can hang the speakers on the wall using heavy-duty picture­hangers.

• Placing the subwoofer next to a wall yields more deep bass out­put than placing it away from a wall. Placing the subwoofer in a
corner yields the deepest bass output overall.

Connecting Your Speakers

Important: Do not plug the receiver’s power cord into AC out­lets until you have properly connected all of the speakers.

Connect the speakers as shown in the main diagram.
In each case, connect the colored speaker wire to the red
terminals on the speaker and receiver, and connect the black speak­er wire to the black terminals on the speaker and receiver.

To make connecting the speakers easier, we have color-coded the
speaker wire and the terminals on the speakers, labeled the termi­nals on the receiver, and pre-stripped the insulation from the ends of
the wire.

Note that the receiver’s left and right front speaker outputs connect to
the inputs of the subwoofer, and the left and right speakers themselves
connect to the subwoofer’s outputs.

Setting Up Your Receiver

Before your use your system, you need to set up your new receiver
to match the speaker system and your listening room. The receiver
has a Quick Setup procedure that makes this easy. After you’ve
made all of the connections, follow these steps. (You’ll be using the
remote control):

Quick Connect Guide

HTB-204

Activating the Speakers

First you need to tell the receiver what speakers your system has and where it
should send the bass.

1. Press the SETUP button on the remote. The receiver’s display will read SUBW ON.

2. Since your system’s subwoofer is powered by the front speaker outputs and
not by the subwoofer preout, press either of the

MULTI CONTROL buttons on

the remote once so the display reads SUBW OFF. This shuts off the sub­woofer preout and sends the bass to the front speaker outputs. The sys­tem’s subwoofer retains the bass and sends the rest of the sound to the
front speakers.

3. Press the SETUP button again. The display will read CNTR NML (normal). Leave
the center speaker set this way. This sends the center channel bass to the
left and right speaker outputs (where it will go to the subwoofer).

4. Press the

SETUP button again. The display will read SURR ON. Leave the sur-

round speakers set this way. This turns on the surround speakers.

5. Press the setup button on the remote five times to exit the setup mode.

Balancing the Speakers

You can use your ears to balance the volume levels of all the system’s speakers
for your room and listening position. When all of the speakers are set at the
same volume level, your system will create a more realistic, spacious surround
sound environment.

1. Sit in the seat where you will be watching movies. Eliminate as many exter­nal noises as possible.

2. Turn the receiver’s volume control up to between -20dB and -25dB. For
greatest accuracy, the level balancing should be done at a moderately loud
listening level.

3. Press the SETUP button four times. The display will read Lch 0dB, the left
speaker icon will flash and you will hear test noise circulate from speaker to
speaker. (The display will change and the speaker icons will flash to indicate
which speaker is playing the test noise.)

4. Using the left front speaker as a reference, carefully listen to the volume
level of the noise through each speaker. If the noise is much louder or softer
through one speaker than it is through the left front speaker, wait until the
display shows that speaker and press the upper

MULTI CONTROL button on the

remote. The test noise will stay in that speaker. Using the MULTI CONTROL but­tons, adjust the speaker’s volume until it’s the same as the left front speaker.

5. Repeat Step 4 for each speaker until they all play at the same volume level.
Fine-tune the levels as necessary.

6. Do not be concerned with the volume setting number readout on the dis­play while you’re doing the balancing: this is for reference purposes only.
Once you have balanced all the speakers you should write each speaker’s
volume setting down for reference.

7. Press the

SETUP button on the remote four times to exit the setup mode.

Setting the Speaker Distances

This last step adjusts the timing of all the speakers so that their sound arrives
at the listening location at the proper time.

1. Measure the distance from each speaker to your seat. Write the distances down.

2. Press the

SETUP button on the remote six times. The display will read 10FT

3.0M, and the left and right speaker icons will flash.

3. Press the

MULTI CONTROL buttons until the display matches the distance from

your left and right speakers to your listening position. (Each 0.3 meter incre­ment equals one foot.)

4. Press the SETUP button again and repeat step 3 for the center speaker, and
again for each surround speaker.

5. When you’ve finished setting the speaker distances, press the

SETUP button

once to exit the setup mode.