HTB-503 Wow!!!
Written: Jan 07 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesome sound, deep bass, great
Cons: Small buttons on remote
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| BadMonkey's Full Review: Kenwood HTB-502 |
Having received a new DVD player for Christmas, I was in search of a home theater system to bring my DVDs alive. I scoured the Internet for home theater reviews and spent hours in electronics shops listening to various systems. After a couple weeks of research I was hauling the Kenwood HTB-503 into my downstairs living room. It took a considerable amount of time to move the furniture and run cables to take advantage of optimum speaker placement, but let me tell you it was worth it.
After setting up the system and tuning it for my living room I loaded The Patriot into my DVD player. In the war scenes I could hear the cannons firing behind me, whooshing over my head and exploding on my screen. The dialog was clear and strong. The bass was incredible. In a further attempt to test the bass of my new home theater system I loaded Jurassic Park, the ultimate test of bass, into my DVD player. Effortless I tell you. As the dinosaurs walked I could feel the earth shaking around me. The water in my glass actually shimmered in unison with the rippling puddles on my screen. My wife even asked where I put the subwoofer because the deep earth shaking bass seemed to envelop us from every direction. I don’t know if I will ever go to a movie theater and deal with crowds and sticky floors again.
I have to say that I am very impressed with the performance of this system. It features a DTS, Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic encoder coupled with a 5-channel amplifier pushing 100 watts to each of the matched surrounding speakers. It also includes a 100-Watt amplified subwoofer for 600 watts total system power. The digital inputs automatically recognize whether your DVD is encoded in DTS or Dolby Digital surround sound and makes the appropriate changes within the receiver. The remote control buttons are smaller that I would like and are not backlit. The LCD screen is easy to read even at a distance and includes a dimmer for watching DVDs at night. There is also a midnight mode that curbs the highs and the bass to allow your wife her beauty sleep. I love the video switching capabilities of the receiver. It allows me to switch between the VCR, Playstation and Satellite with the touch of a button on my receiver remote control without having to mess with my TV settings. However when I use my DVD player I have to select the DVD input on my TV because I insist on using component inputs for the best picture possible from my DVD player.
Given the inexpensive price and the huge sound produced by this system I am going to give the HTB-503 a 5-star rating. Sure there are other systems out there that might have more options and exceptional sound, but you won’t find them for anywhere near $500.
In case you are interested, when evaluating home theater systems in this price range my two runner-ups were the Sony HTW-DW820 and the Panasonic SC-HT280. Both were similar in price to the Kenwood HTB-503. The Sony system had a lot of bells and whistles but only sported a 50-watt subwoofer. This could be remedied with the purchase of a more powerful after market subwoofer. The Panasonic included a 100-watt passive subwoofer. This means that the amplifier was built into the receiver and not into the subwoofer itself. Consequently you will never be able to upgrade to a more powerful subwoofer without buying a new system. Both the Panasonic and the Sony sported tiny speakers that provided crystal clear highs. The subwoofers in both systems provided a nice bass effect but the midranges were lacking. Without a good midrange response the dialog in your movies can be a little hard to hear at times.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
BadMonkey
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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