To set up speakers on the Denon AVR-S570BT, place and wire your front, center, surround, and subwoofer speakers, then run Auto Setup with the Sound calibration microphone that comes in the box. You’ll find it under SETUP > Speakers > Auto Setup, or you can let the Setup Assistant walk you through it. Auto Setup plays test tones, measures your speakers and room, and makes the speaker settings for you.
The S570BT is a 5.2-channel receiver: five speakers plus up to two powered subwoofers. It doesn’t support height or Atmos speakers. If you have fewer speakers, that’s fine. You can turn off the center, the surrounds, or the subwoofer in the menu.
What you need
- Speakers rated at 6 to 16 ohms. Denon specifies this range for the S570BT.
- Speaker wire for each passive speaker.
- A subwoofer cable (RCA) for each powered subwoofer.
- The supplied Sound calibration microphone.
- A camera tripod or similar stand. Denon’s instructions call for mounting the microphone on a tripod.
- Your TV connected to the receiver, so you can see the menus. See connecting the S570BT to your TV if you haven’t done that yet.
Step 1: Place the speakers
Start with where you normally sit. Denon calls this the main listening position, and every speaker is placed relative to it.
| Speaker | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Front left and right | The same distance from your seat, about 22° to 30° off center |
| Center | Between the fronts, just above or below the TV |
| Surround left and right | To the sides and slightly behind your seat (Denon’s drawing shows about 120° from center), the same distance on each side |
| Subwoofer | Anywhere convenient near the front speakers |
| Second subwoofer | Across the front of the room, not in a mirror-image spot to the first |
Denon’s diagram shows the speakers at roughly ear height, but notes the heights don’t have to match exactly.
Step 2: Wire the speakers
Warning: unplug the receiver’s power cord before you connect speakers. Denon also says never to touch the speaker terminals while the power cord is plugged in.
- Strip about 3/8 inch (10 mm) of insulation off the end of each speaker wire, and twist the strands tightly.
- Turn a speaker terminal on the receiver counterclockwise to loosen it.
- Push the bare wire all the way into the terminal.
- Turn the terminal clockwise to tighten it. Tug gently to check it’s secure.
- Match polarity: + (red) on the receiver to + on the speaker, and – (black) to –.
- Repeat for the FRONT, CENTER, and SURROUND terminals.
- Connect each subwoofer to a SUBWOOFER jack in the PRE OUT section with a subwoofer cable. There are two, so you can use one or both.
- Plug the receiver back in.
Check for stray strands before powering on. If a strand touches the next terminal or the back panel, the receiver can shut itself off to protect the amplifier. The box also includes cable labels to help you keep track of which wire goes where.
Step 3: Run Auto Setup
If you already ran the speaker portion of the Setup Assistant, Denon says you don’t need to run Auto Setup again. Run it whenever you move speakers, change the room, or reset the receiver.
Get the room ready
- Make the room as quiet as you can. Close windows and turn off fans, air conditioning, and radios.
- Take cell phones out of the room. Denon says their signals can disrupt the measurement.
- Clear anything standing between the speakers and the microphone.
- Unplug any headphones. Auto Setup won’t run with headphones connected.
- Expect loud test tones. They get louder if there’s background noise.
Set up the microphone and subwoofer
- Mount the microphone on a tripod at your main seat.
- Point the tip of the microphone straight up at the ceiling.
- Adjust the height to match your ears when seated.
- Keep the microphone at least 20 inches (50 cm) from any wall.
- Prepare your subwoofer. If it has a direct mode, turn direct mode On. If not, set its volume knob to the 12 o’clock position, set its crossover to the highest frequency, and turn its low-pass filter and standby (auto on/off) mode off.
Run the measurement
- Plug the microphone into the SETUP MIC jack on the front of the receiver.
- Press SETUP on the remote, then go to Speakers > Auto Setup.
- Select Start, then press ENTER.
- Select Next, then press ENTER.
- Select Begin Test, then press ENTER. Stay quiet. Measurement takes several minutes.
- When it finishes, unplug the microphone from the SETUP MIC jack.
To stop partway, press BACK, choose Yes in the pop-up, and press ENTER.
Important: after Auto Setup, don’t change the subwoofer’s volume knob or rewire the speakers. If you do, run Auto Setup again so the receiver’s equalizer settings still match.
Turn on Room EQ
Go to SETUP > Audio > Room EQ and make sure it’s set to On. It’s off by default, and you can only choose it after Auto Setup has run. Room EQ doesn’t apply in the Direct or Pure Direct sound modes.
Step 4: Check the results in Manual Setup
Denon says the receiver works fine without touching Manual Setup. Still, it’s worth a quick look under SETUP > Speakers > Manual Setup to confirm Auto Setup found everything, or to set things by hand if you skip Auto Setup.
| Setting | Options and defaults | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker Layout | Center, Surround, Subwoofer: Yes (default) or No. Front is always Yes. | Set No for any speaker you don’t have. |
| Distances | 0.0 to 60.0 ft. Defaults: 12.0 ft (fronts, center, sub), 10.0 ft (surrounds). | Measure from each speaker to your seat. Keep the difference between speakers under 20 ft. |
| Levels | –12.0 to +12.0 dB (default 0.0 dB), with Test Tone Start | Play the test tone and adjust until each speaker sounds equally loud from your seat. |
| Crossovers | Full Band, 40 to 250 Hz (default 80 Hz) | 80 Hz suits most speakers. For small speakers, pick a higher number that matches their lowest rated frequency. |
| Advanced Setup: Subwoofer Output | LFE (default) or LFE+Main | Try both with music and a movie. Keep the one with the fuller bass. |
| Advanced Setup: LPF for LFE | 80 to 250 Hz (default 100 Hz) | Sets the upper limit of the movie bass (LFE) channel sent to the sub. |
For crossovers, Denon gives an example. If your speakers are rated down to 250 Hz, set the crossover to 250 Hz. Bass below the crossover goes to the subwoofer. If you set Subwoofer to No, the front speakers are locked to Full Band so they get all the bass.
You can also adjust speaker levels on the fly with the CH LEVEL button on the remote. That’s handy when dialogue sounds too quiet in one movie.
Using fewer than five speakers
- 2.1 (two speakers and a sub): set Center and Surround to No.
- 3.1: set Surround to No.
- No subwoofer: set Subwoofer to No. The fronts then play full range.
Keep in mind that the Stereo and Virtual sound modes only use the front speakers and subwoofer, even in a full 5.1 system. If your center or surrounds seem dead, check the sound mode before rewiring anything.
If Auto Setup shows an error
If CAUTION appears on your TV, Auto Setup couldn’t finish. The message names the problem. For example, Front L: None means the receiver couldn’t detect the front left speaker.
- Turn off the receiver before checking any speaker wires.
- Check the wire for the speaker named in the message at both ends.
- Make sure the bare wire, not the insulation, is clamped in the terminal.
- Turn the receiver back on and run Auto Setup again.
If a speaker still stays silent after setup, our guide to fixing no sound on the S570BT covers the Speaker Layout, sound mode, and subwoofer checks. And if earlier settings are a mess and you’d rather start clean, a factory reset returns every speaker setting to its default before you calibrate again.
Denon’s full instructions are in the Auto Setup procedure page of the AVR-S570BT manual.