Just bought 7.1 off ebay?

Question

Just bought a kenwood htb 30-rs off ebay. Didnt come with a few things and I was wondering if the good folks on here could help a fellow out. First, it didnt come with a user manual. Second, it didnt come with a subwoofer cable. Let me start with the second. Can I use a monster 300 subwoofer cable for this? It is a powered sub. And Im trying to figure out the connections on the back of the receiver. I assume the sub audio cable goes into the subwoofer (pre out) on the recv correct? Pre out is what it says underneath "subwoofer". There is also a pre out for surr back L/ surr back surr back R. These also have your basic rca type jacks. Do I have to use those. Because there are also the speaker wire outputs where you pull the flap down to lock. Also, there is something called "monitor out". What is that used for? Any help will be appreciated and should help me quite a bit. Im also trying to get a user manual because I know I need that.

Answer 1

Yes use the Sub preout RCA plug.  Yes you can use your Monster sub cable just plug from receiver preout to any of the subs RCA inputs.

The other preouts on the reciever are if you want to add outboard amplifiers to run other speakers.  Some people (like me) use the receiver as a preamp only and use multichannel amps to drive the speakers.  Doing this takes strain off of the receivers internal amplifier and with more powerful outboard amps, you can get more headroom and less distortion using outboard amps.  You don't need to add outboard amps, but if wanting more power you have that option.

the moniter out is your reciever can be used as a switching device, which means you can plug your DVD player, Cable/sat box, VCR, game system whatever into the reciever and then one cable out to the TV (monitor out).  This way you don't need to constantly hit Video 1, Video 2, TV and so on on the TV to switch between the devices you have hooked up.

Say you want to play a DVD, well just turn the TV on, hit DVD on Kenwood reciever and the reciever will do all the work.  Then say you want to switch the watching cable.  Just hit cable button on the reciever and you don't have to touch the TV, the receiver is doing all the work and transmitting the video to the TV (just note what input you plug the one cable into the TV and leave the TV on that at all times.  Say you run an S-video cable from the kenwood monitor out to the TV's S-video input, keep the TV at the video input that the s-video is plugged into (say Video 1) and the reciever will do all your switching.

For the owners manual go to Kenwoods website, they have manuals for current and past recievers that can be downloaded.