Digital Trends

Gateway KAS-303 Home Theater

July 16th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Installation and Setup

Installing the KAS-303 is fairly straightforward but will take some time. First timers need to make sure they read the quick setup poster and the separate receiver and subwoofer manuals before starting the project. But even home-theater “experts” should familiarize themselves with the documentation beforehand. While it is not a terribly difficult task, there are a lot of connections and a lot of cables. Proper planning will reduce the possibility of having to do troubleshooting afterwards. Since the Ventriloquist center speaker requires that the front channel speakers be wired through it, there are two extra speaker wires in play here.

We noted in our review of HSU Research's Ventriloquist VT-12 speakers that the company does a great job of helping customers with speaker placement. Location is a very important part of the overall sound quality of a home theater system — especially with micro speakers - and the experts at HSU Research can really fine-tune a system. Unfortunately that is not offered through Gateway, but the included manual and on-screen setup does a good job of walking the user through placement, as well as other options.

Gateway's on-screen display allows the user to send test tones to each channel to make sure they are wired up properly. It also allows for level adjustments to each speaker, input selections, surround mode selections and specifying the distance each speaker is from the main listening position. All of these functions can also be adjusted with the remote control by itself and don't require the OSD. The manual does a good job of explaining both setup options.

The on-screen display allows for a quick setup.

The remote control allows up to 10 macro functions, which allow you to program a series of button operations that can be executed with the push of one button. For instance, a macro can be recorded to turn on the power of the receiver, select an input source, turn the input source on (such as a DVD player), and start playing a disc. Macros are easy to setup with the KAS-303 and work well.