02 5 Minute Guide; Introduction To Home Theater; Listening To Surround Sound - Pioneer VSX-517-S/-K Operating Instructions Manual

02 5 minute guide
Chapter 2:
5 minute guide

Introduction to home theater

Home theater refers to the use of multiple
audio tracks to create a surround sound effect,
making you feel like you're in the middle of the
action or concert. The surround sound you get
from a home theater system depends not only
on your speaker setup, but also on the source
and the sound settings of the receiver.
This receiver will automatically decode
multichannel Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby
Surround sources according to your speaker
setup. In most cases, you won't have to make
changes for realistic surround sound, but
other possibilities (like listening to a CD with
multichannel surround sound) are explained in
Listening to your system on page 31.

Listening to Surround Sound

This receiver was designed with the easiest
possible setup in mind, so with the following
quick setup guide, you should have your
system hooked up for surround sound in no
time at all. In most cases, you can simply leave
the receiver in the default settings.
• Be sure to complete all connections before
connecting to an AC power source.
1 Connect your TV and DVD player.
See Connecting a TV and DVD player on page 13
to do this. For surround sound, you'll want to
hook up using a digital connection from the
DVD player to the receiver.
2 Connect your speakers and place them for
optimal surround sound.
See Connecting the speakers on page 19.
8
En
Where you place the speakers will have a big
effect on the sound. Place your speakers as
shown below for the best surround sound
effect. Also see Hints on speaker placement on
page 20 for more on this.
Center
speaker
(C)
Front
speaker
Subwoofer (SW)
(L)
Listening
position
Surround
speaker (LS)
* VSX-817 model only
3 Plug in and switch on the receiver, followed
by your DVD player, subwoofer and TV.
Make sure you've set the video input on your TV
to this receiver. Check the manual that came
with the TV if you don't know how to do this.
4 VSX-517 model – Press QUICK SETUP on the
front panel to specify your speaker setup,
room size and listening position.
Use the MULTI JOG dial to select and ENTER
to confirm your selection. See Using the Quick
Setup below for more on this.
VSX-817 model – Use the display automatic
MCACC setup to set up your system.
See Automatically setting up for surround
sound (MCACC) below for more on this.
5 Play a DVD, and adjust the volume.
Make sure that DVD is showing in the
receiver's display, indicating that the DVD
input is selected. If it isn't, press DVD (VSX-517
model)/DVD/LD (VSX-817 model) on the remote
to set the receiver to the DVD input.
Front
speaker
(R)
Surround
speaker (RS)
Surround
back
speaker (SBR)*
Surround back
speaker (SBL)*