This is the only one you should buy at this price
Written: Jul 10 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quality appearance, materials, and finishes, great sound and features, vertical or horizontal operation
Cons: Unusual CD loading system, hard to turn knob, slightly complicated set-up
The Bottom Line: If you are in the market at this price point, look no further.
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| californiajake's Full Review: Kenwood VH-600 CD Shelf System |
I was in the market for a micro-system in the $250 range. I read up and shopped around for a few weeks, looking at units by Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Aiwa, Denon, Nakimichi, Pioneer, and others. Since this was to go in my office, I wanted something that looked classy and refined. In my price range, the Sony CMT-EX1 and EX22 and the JVC KSS9 were top contenders. I then saw the Kenwood VX-600 advertised at the Good Guys for $299. With a list price of $600, this seemed too good to pass up. So I bought it and I have not been disappointed. I will not repeat the features listed in the prior excellent review but will just say that this is everything a micro-system should be. Its sound is clean, precise, and undistorted, plenty loud for a bedroom or office. The bass is surprisingly good and percussions are crisp. The great sound may be due to the high quality materials used, such as maple-veneered MDF speaker fronts (compare with the plastic mounts on most of the competition) and a Class A-A/B amplifier. I also noted that the sound seemed to improve after a 48 hr "burn-in" with load rock music and the addition of Monster Cable XP speaker cables. What also blows away the competition are features that other systems simply don't have such as HDCD decoding (this sounds great if you have not experienced this) and horizontal or vertical operation. Small but telling items are the high-quality metal screw-down binding posts on the speakers and banana-plug compatible connectors on the amp that also smack of high quality. The slot-loading CD (like a Mac or car stereo) works well but may have some potential for trouble. To Kenwood's credit, however, is their long experience with car stereos, which adds confidence about its potential longevity. In fact the whole amp unit seems to have been derived from their mobile audio product line.
A MD recorder and cassette deck can be added to the system, and are designed to be integrated with the CD/amp. They are fairly pricey, however. There is also a pre-out for a sub, which I think is also available from Kenwood.
This system was thought to be a reasonable value for $600. At $299, there is simply no competition.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
californiajake
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Reviews written: 2
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