Great value in an AV Receiver
Written: Feb 12 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
|
Pros: Solid performer, great bang for the buck!
Cons: Interface could use some improvement, subwoofer blocked in stereo mode.
The Bottom Line: Very musical sounding, great features and a reasonable price.
|
|
|
| jeffty's Full Review: Kenwood VR-510 5.1 Channels Receiver |
I chose the VR-510 after an extensive search and several listening sessions in several consumer and high-end emporiums. I went out looking for an NAD or Harmon Kardon to replace my Technics 720. I liked what I heard in the high end palaces but I simply couldn't equate the cost with the performance, not for apartment living anyway. Best bang for the buck has always carried a lot of weight with me so I lowered my sights to see what the current state of consumer electronics had to offer.
I'm a lifelong musician and a F/T sound designer and engineer so my ties to all things audio run as deep as they come. However my budgets have always been limited so I'm usually looking for that "happy medium" between low and high end. I found it in this receiver.
It definitely has a stronger overall foundation or bass presence than my previous receiver. I tend to leave all the tone controls flat unless I'm trying to listen to something older that wasn't recorded very well. If you have good speakers and a decent room you should be able to do the same. This Kenwood responds with authority without over-hyping any part of the tonal spectrum. In other words it sounds very good, really musical.
Many AV receivers share similar feature sets so I'll comment on the more unique ones. The automatic detection and decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS signals works just fine albeit with a short silence up front so you can miss the first second or so of the signal. The power is distributed equally to all the speakers which enhances the total ensemble sound.
The THX Select option is an enhancement for Dolby Digital DVD's that gives you more control over the total soundstage and mimics more accurately the real theatre experience. This is a subtle improvement but a good one. It's switchable out for music-based DVD's - this is a good thing. The adjustments to make a movie sound better aren't necessarily the same for music.
The Dolby Pro II option is a big step up from the former technology. In DPII you get true separation between the rear speakers and you also get low bass sent to the subwoofer, neither of which was in Dolby Pro Logic. You also get a high frequency extension in the surround speakers beyond the old 7khz limit which makes a real difference. There is also a music mode that sounds great with many stereo CD's, especially classical and concert recordings.
They offer a Circle 5.1 sound option that is another way to get surround sound from stereo sources. This option is less subtle than the DPII and terrific for Rock and Pop music but can be somewhat overbearing sometimes. There are the usual DSP-based EFX that I find pretty useless because they distort the original signal with reverbs and delays too much for my taste. I have more than enough options with DPII and Circle Sound for surround stereo.
Unlike many AV receivers, this one still sounds quite good in stereo mode. However the subwoofer is not active in this mode and I would prefer that it was, or at least switchable. Since it has such a rich low end already I don't miss it as much as I thought I would though.
The tuner is quite adequate and sounds fine in FM stereo. there are plenty of inputs including a separate DVD 5.1 input for the next generation of DVD-audio players. There are optical and SPD/IF RCA digital connections for your hardware and it has a phono input! I still play the old phonograph occasionally and I had to dismiss so many other receivers because they lacked this input. Bad move guys.
The remote is large and complex but it's capable of being your only one for all your stuff if you can figure out how to program it correctly. The manual is OK, but just OK. It could be much better at explaining some features like setting up your remote and what the heck is subwoofer re-mixing? You can turn it on and off but it doesn't really say what it does. I hate that.
Although I've seen better distortion specs in other units this one sounds really good. I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not getting the NAD or the other higher end pieces I auditioned, at least not in an apartment environment.
All in all I am quite happy with my choice. You would have to pay much more to get any real improvement IMHO. As a music man I recommend this receiver highly as the centerpiece for a reasonably priced home theatre/stereo system.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jeffty
|
|
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.