The Best Choice!
Written: Jul 30 '03
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Pros: Smooth. Good bass w/out sub. Includes DTS. Good # of inputs/outputs. Automatically optimizes sound.
Cons: The remote and manual are average.
The Bottom Line: For the price I'm confident it's tops on the market. You wouldn't notice a difference in sound quality unless you spent an additional $300. Highly recommended!
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| lojack_ii's Full Review: Kenwood VR-506 5.1 Channels Receiver |
USED WITH:
I have a 5 speaker surround system hooked up to this receiver. Two big floor standing side speakers along with a sony 3-peice surround package & center channel. Also connected to it are; Panasonic DVD RV-31, RCA 5-Disc Changer CD, JVC top of the line VCR, and high quality tape and record player units.
Here is how the receiver performs in each specific area:
MUSIC (A+)
The sound is great for all kinds of music. I tested it out with some heavy bass rap (Wu-Tang) and also some treble based songs (Beatles and Jimi Hendrix). All of the styles sounded great after adjusting the bass and treble to match them.
The bass is very crisp and clear. It produces a deep sound even without a separate sub-woofer.
DVD AUDIO (A+)
I didn't run the video through the receiver (but you can), instead I just ran the audio into it using an optical digital connection from my DVD player. The Dolby 5.1 and the DTS are amazing. The sound is better than a movie theatre and the volume can be increased to extraodinary levels witout even a hint of muffling.
The voices were clear and understandable, unlike some systems which muffle the speech under loud secondary noises. This also has a "midnight" option to further increase the speech volume so you don't have to shake your house to hear the dialogue.
Sound effects were also very lifelike and clearly descriptive of the scene. The sound (such as a car driving by) moves from speaker to speaker with exact precision during the movie.
INSTALLATION (A+)
It's easy to hook up. The manual has a good diagram if you get stuck.
POWER (A+)
It can really boom. With the bass boost all the way up and NO sub hooked up it can easily do -20dBs and probably even more. One reviewer mentioned that his "Pioneer VSX D510", which is in this price range, couldn't get past -40db without cutting out on him. He may have exaggerated but many others have said similar things about receivers in this range. That kind of thing won't be a problem with this one. Get a sub-woofer and this will shake your house down at high volumes.
INPUTS/OUTPUTS (A-)
AUDIO: There are 6 audio inputs through regular "RCA" connectors. These include those inputs marked "tape", "CD/DVD", "phono"(record player), and three that are assignable to anything you want; "video 1", "video 2", and "AUX". The phono input was a definite plus for me because I have a record player and not many receivers that I've seen have a phono input.
One thing that some may dislike is that if you plan to run a CD player and DVD player separately into your receiver and you also plan to use one of the 3 digital inputs to connect the DVD, the CD player cannot occupy the leftover CD/DVD input. You will have to set that to one of the "video" inputs or the one marked "aux". To me this isn't a big deal, I can get used to my CD player being in "video 1". I guess it is strange to have an audio only source labelled "video" but it doesn't bother me.
The digital inputs include two coaxial and one optical sockets.
VIDEO: There is a good number of S-Video and other inputs and outputs for running your video through the unit.
CONTROLLER (B-)
It is a small controller with many buttons. It is useful for many operations so that is necessary but the button placement isn't the most comfortable to use (but it's not really bad). I usually like to do most of the major operations from the console itself so that isn't a problem with me. It will be fine for the basic operations such as switching inputs, volume control, radio operation, etc. Although it is possible to program the controller to operate many additional products, I would never use this as a universal remote. It also has no backlight so it's very difficult to see in the dark.
MANUAL (B)
Not very explicit as to manipulating the functions, however, I must admit that I haven't gotten through it all yet. It was helpful for the installation.
FEATURES & QUIRKS (A/A+ at this price)
I like the way it automatically detects which decoder it is going to use, the Dolby Digital, DTS, or Pro Logic. Also, once you have selected which speakers you have hooked up it will automatically optimize the sound for you so that you hear the best possible output for your system. Good if you don't have all six surround units.
It has the capability of using a 6-channel direct audio connection from a DVD player and is capable of running 5 surround speakers and a sub-woofer each at 100Watts. It makes it easy for speaker installation as well.
No noise or "hiss". It's clear as can be!
**If you are picky and don't want to spend too much but want great quality, this can be the one for you. Trust me, it works great. Just make sure to confirm that the inputs will be sufficient and all your specification needs are met. The unit 507 is just 50$ more (at the regular price)and has two more audio inputs and Pro Logic II. I would have gotten that one but this was on sale already and I got the last floor model for 10% off. They are both excellent items. Regardless of the price, I would be hesitant in trading this model for any other--it's spectacular.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 275
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Epinions.com ID:
lojack_ii
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Location: Windsor/Detroit
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 1 member
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