Bi-Amping Your Front Speakers; Bi-Wiring Your Speakers - Pioneer VSX-1018AH-S Operating Instructions Manual

08 Other connections
• Use the SPEAKERS button on the front panel to
select a speaker system setting.
As mentioned above, if you have selected Normal, the
button will simply switch your main speaker system (A)
on or off.
AUTO SURR/ HOME STANDARD
STREAM DIRECT THX SURROUND
PHONES
MULTI-ZONE
CONTROL ON/OFF SPEAKERS SPEAKERS
Press repeatedly to choose a speaker system option:
• SPA – Sound is output from speaker system A and
the same signal is output from the pre-out terminals.
• SPB – Sound is output from the two speakers
connected to speaker system B. Multichannel
sources will not be heard. The same signal is output
from the surround back channel pre-out terminals.
• SPAB – Sound is output from speaker system A (up
to 5 channels, depending on the source), the two
speakers in speaker system B, and the subwoofer.
The sound from speaker system B will be the same as
the sound from speaker system A (multichannel
sources will be downmixed to 2 channels).
• SP (off) – No sound is output from the speakers. The
same sound is output from the pre-out terminals
(including from your subwoofer, if connected) as
when selecting speaker system A (above).

Bi-amping your front speakers

Bi-amping is when you connect the high frequency driver
and low frequency driver of your speakers to different
amplifier (in this case, to both front and surround back
terminals) for better crossover performance. Your
speakers must be bi-ampable to do this (having separate
terminals for high and low) and the sound improvement
will depend on the kind of speakers you're using.
1 Connect your speakers as shown below.
This illustration below shows the connections for bi-
amping your front left speaker. Hook up your front right
speaker in the same way.
Front left
speaker
Since both front and surround back speaker terminals
output the same audio, it doesn't matter which set (front
or surround back) is powering which part (High or Low)
of the speaker.
56
En
ADVANCED STEREO/
SURROUND A.L.C.
VIDEO INPUT
VIDEO L AUDIO R DIGITAL IN
– +
ST ST
SPEAKERS FRONT CENTER SURROUND SURROUND BACK /
R L R L R
A
SELECTABLE SEE INSTRUCTION MANUAL
SELECTABLE VOIR LE MODE D'EMPLOI
High
Low
• Make sure that the + / – connections are properly
inserted.
2 Select the 'Front Bi-Amp' setting from the
Surround Back System menu.
See Surround back speaker setting on page 41 to specify
how you're using the surround back speaker terminals.
iPod DIRECT MCACC
USB SETUP MIC
Caution
• Most speakers with both High and Low terminals
have two metal plates that connect the High to the
Low terminals. These must be removed when you are
bi-amping the speakers or you could severely
damage the amplifier. See your speaker manual for
more information.
• If your speakers have a removable crossover network,
make sure you do not remove it for bi-amping. Doing
so may damage your speakers.

Bi-wiring your speakers

The reasons for bi-wiring are basically the same as bi-
amping, but additionally, interference effects within the
wire could be reduced, producing better sound. Again, to
do this your speakers must be bi-wireable (that is they
must have separate terminals for the high and low
frequencies). When bi-wiring, make sure you've selected
Normal or Speaker B in Surround back speaker setting on
page 41.
• To bi-wire a speaker, connect two speaker cords to
the speaker terminal on the receiver.
Caution
• Make sure you use a parallel (not series, which are
fairly uncommon) connection when bi-wiring your
speakers.
• Don't connect different speakers from the same
B
L
(Single) terminal in this way.