nice entry home theatre, can have an extra main speakers
Written: Dec 17 '01 (Updated Dec 31 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: price (400$); decent sound for movies; multi-device remote; easy installation; nice subwoofer; feature rich receiver.
Cons: thin wires; one speaker had rattling sound; no component video-in in a receiver.
The Bottom Line: above expectations for home theatre. not perfect for stereo music, but Ok.
|
|
|
| jawabean's Full Review: Kenwood HTB-504 Theater System |
I've been thinking of a home theatre system for long time. The guy in CircuitCity recommended me this model.
I chose it because I like the feature rich VR-507 receiver, which can have two main speaker pairs. After long thoughts, I decided that I don't need sky high quality sound for DVD movie watching, on other hand I would like buy an expensive pair of main speakers to listen music. So, VR-507 with Pro Logic II and numerous inputs fit my requirement. It can have the second pair of main speakers.
I watched Fight Club, The Grinch, Matrix, and Planet of the apes on week-end. Also I listened a lot of music on CD and mp3, classical, pop, rock. I hooked up Philips DVD712AT DVD player with digital optical and RCA audio outputs, and S-Video.
Movies: the system completely meets and exceeds all my requirements for a home theatre. Sub Woofer is nice, it has 60-200 cross over filter. I switched it on, and played around with its gauge. Finally, I chose something like 90Hz, which was optimal for my setup. All surround effects are great for Pro Logic II. The system produces a lot of sound, I didn't need to put high volume to enjoy movies. All sepakers are matched perfectly. Sub woofer is not ideally matching the sound of speakers, but it's not a big problem. Overall the sound quality is good for movies, and for the money.
Music: sound is clear in stereo mode. I didn't like Pro Logic II effects for listening music. Maybe Circle Surround was interesting. but overall, they dob't appeal. Music is best on stereo. Main speakers are bigger than surround speakers. They lack bass, but subwoofer fills the room with sound. I found it doesn't match the sound perfectly. I feel a sort of "gap" in sound, I don't know how to explain it. If you listen to Enya, then it's Ok. Subwoofer fills every millimeter of the room with deep soft bass. But for rock music, I feel that midranges in main speakers could be better. Aerosmith or Guns'n'Roses sound not as good as Pink Floyd. Pop music goes great. Classical music could be better, but I didn't expect from the cheap system great performance here. Overall, the stereo music sound is definitely decent. I'm not excited, but I'm fully satisfied, I got what I expected, even a little extra too. Anyway, I plan to buy Infinity or Polk Audio speakers on Summer.
Quality: one speaker had rattling sound. I noticed it from the first minute. But it was somewhat not-persistent. I thought I'm wrong. But when I put Enya, then Motzart's 40 symphony, it was evident. The main speakers feature twin woofers and a tweater. One woofer was producing a rattling sound. I had to exchange it in Sears. The new one was good. So far, I've no problems. Midrange woofers don't impress comparing to Infinity IL10 speakers, but the sound they produce is Ok, it's kinda "soft" though. Actually, now I think that it doesn't make a sense to buy more expensive speakers for movies.
Wires: they are below regular ones, thin. I bought AR cables for 16$/50ft. Actually, u may survive with the original wires. If you have DVD and other stuff, then you will need more cables, like S-video, RCA etc.
Manual: not bad, could be more descriptive. I'm a not afraid of technic, I figured it out :)
Installation: took me whole day. Hook up was easy, but then to tune everything, deal with DVD etc.
So far, I'm satisfied. I've got a decent sound for cheap.
Remark#1: It seems to me that the main speakers are especially good for human voice. Today I enjoyed some Khvorostovsky and Pavarotti. Sound was impressive. I guess that the physical size of the speakers and their woofers are close to human phisyque. For example, piano or cello are not as great as a voice. Even though cello's timbre is very close to human voice. Piano wasn't impressive at all, I listened Chopin, it was listenable, not more.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jawabean
|
|
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.