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Review 5 of 12 Summary:
I don't know if I'm just lucky, but I've been using the Kenwood 1080VR for almost 2 years and it has worked like a charm for me. I've never experienced any sort of buzzing. Build quality could be better, but it's decent for what this receiver is priced at now these days.
Set up is easy with a graphical user interface. An informative test tone generator makes it easy to balance all channels. Radio reception was just ok, but good tuners are hard to find these days.
Sound quality was quite decent. In two channel music, dynamics were great and imagining was precise. The bass wasn't as powerful or punchy when running large speakers as say the Yamaha RX-V795a, but this will be remedied if you use a sub. Sound was slightly bright when the receiver was pushed hard, but that's common on many low to mid priced receivers.
In Dolby digital the 1080VR was awesome. The sound was quite clean at moderately loud listening levels. Seperation was excellent, and the overall soundstage was relatively deep. At really loud levels though, it did lose its composure on challenging movie scenes. Though rated at 100+ watts, it doesn't have the headroom or dynamic power as some of the high current amps out there like the Harman Kardon AVR series or even the Yamahas. At any rate, this is insignificant is you aren't planning on running your system at movie theater level in a large room.
An interesting connection at the rear are preouts for the surrounds. This opens doors for the possibility of adding a faux- Dolby Surround EX to your system. Connecting the surround preouts to a prologic receiver, you can effectively mimic a Surround EX set up. Preouts for the rears are rare in this price range.
In my experience, the Kenwood has performed well. I might be in the minority, but I would recommend this receiver to anyone getting into the home theater game. Features that this receiver has over the newer, cheaper VR 309 model are the onscreen display and preouts. This receiver is now being relegated to my small basement media room, but its been a noble soldier during its stay in my living room. Strengths:
inexpensive, decent sound quality (especially in Dolby Digital), preouts on center, sub, and surrounds, binding posts on center and mains, intuitive onscreen display when using monitor output. Weaknesses:
spring clips on surrounds, 2 channel sound is considerably louder than 5 channel, somewhat weak bass when driving large speakers without a sub, only 2 digital inputs Similar Products Used:
Yamaha RX-V795a, and some Technics pro-logic receiver
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