Kenwood HTB-504 Home Theater Surround-Sound System -- Paradise in a Box for $450
Written: Jan 30 '02 (Updated Jan 30 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great receiver, potent sub, surround sound, DPL II.
Cons: Lightweight front speakers, no mounting points.
The Bottom Line: If you want a great deal on surround-sound for home theater and aren't picky about speakers, this could be the value for you.
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| radioguy's Full Review: Kenwood HTB-504 Theater System |
The HTB-504 home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) system includes a Kenwood VR-507 A/V receiver, five surround speakers, and a self-powered subwoofer. If you already own a TV and a DVD player, this system is a nice value. You can get it at Circuit City (Web site or store) for $500, $450 after mail-in rebate.
The speakers included with the system are pretty good, but not great. The best feature of the speakers is probably the subwoofer, a 100-watt unit with an 8.0-inch driver which will provide decent low-frequency effects (LFE) for playing back movie soundtracks. Since this model receiver usually goes for about $300, you're basically getting the whole speaker system for $150. Viewed in those terms, the speakers are a great deal.
The HTB-504 is the successor to last year's HTB-503. The main differences are that last year's model used a VR-407 receiver and the center-channel speaker only had a single low-frequency driver. On the 504, all three front speakers, front-right, center, and front-left, are identical units, with each having two 4.0-inch woofers and a single 1.0-inch tweeter in a D'Appolito configuration (from top to bottom for right/left speakers, or horizontally from side to side for center, the configuration has the tweeter in the center with one woofer on each side). The front speakers are all video shielded, meaning they probably won't cause distortion in your TV picture.
Since there are no stand attachments on the front speakers, such as bolt threads, you'll only be able to use these speakers with the type of stands where it's just the speaker's weight holding it to the platform. The two rear (right/left) surround speakers, each with a single 4.0-inch driver, have wall hanging brackets.
Kenwood also sells an HTIB system called the HTB-504DV. This includes a Kenwood DVD player as well as everything else that comes with the regular HTB-504. I'd suggest you stick with the regular 504, as Kenwood is not known for DVD players and the 504 will either work with your existing DVD player or let you choose the model you want to buy with the 504 system.
Say Hello to the Kenwood HTB-504
The Kenwood HTB-504 represents a product category which has grown in tandem with the ascendance of DVD players and surround-sound receivers, the Home Theater in a Box, or HTIB.
Generally, the HTIB adds a set of six speakers to an A/V surround-sound receiver with digital audio input. These receivers will usually handle the Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby Digital (DD -- a.k.a. "5.1") surround-sound formats, and those above entry-level will also do Digital Theater Sound (DTS), from your DVD player.
Generally speaking, the HTIB gives you everything, except the TV set and (possibly) the DVD player, that you'll need to have a complete home-theater setup with high-quality video from your DVD player and/or VCR, and surround-sound audio from the A/V receiver and speakers. Some of these HTIB systems, such as the Panasonic SC-HT70 and Sony DAV-S300, both of which I recently reviewed, have a single unit which combines a DVD player and a surround-sound receiver with an AM/FM tuner. These combo units also come with a set of six surround-sound speakers.
The 504 package is a better value than the Panny HT70 or the Sony S300. Since the 504 doesn't include a DVD player, it lets you choose just where on the DVD price-performance curve you want to invest your money. Since high picture quality is pretty much universal on DVD players, there's no reason you can't go for a $90 Apex unit when putting together your system. Or, if you'd like to spend a bit more, there are excellent values in the area of $150 to $180 from Panasonic, Toshiba, Philips, and Sony.
The only drawback of the 504 compared to the HT70 and the S300 is that it's not as compact as they are (though this will partly depend, of course, on the size of the DVD player you use with the 504). The HT70 and S300 are both compact and very simple to use. However, with the 504 you get a full-scale A/V receiver with quite a bit more amplifier power than you'll find in the all-in-one systems. Also, these two integrated systems come with a passive sub, a design which will usually give you much less powerful bass response than you get with the self-powered sub in the 504.
As mentioned above, the speakers only represent about $150 of the cost of the system. You can always upgrade to higher performance speakers. Since it's not crucial for a sub to be an exact brand match with a set of surround speakers, you could also keep this subwoofer to use with a new set of speakers.
The Speakers in the HTB-504
As I said above, when you subtract the value of the receiver you are, in effect, getting the whole set of speakers for $150. Since just about all surround-sound receivers, including the VR-507, tend to have uniformly good performance and features, the main question you need to take into consideration with this package is the quality of the speakers.
Of course, the easy answer would be that you're lucky to even get a full set of surround sound speakers for $150. On the other hand, if they were garbage, they'd be a waste of money, no matter how low the price.
However, these speakers are not garbage. They're surprisingly good for the price. As mentioned above, all three fronts now have two 4.0-inch woofers and a single 1.0-inch tweeter. They probably won't satisfy the kind of audiophile who would much rather have a set of Paradigms or PSB's, but they'll be satisfactory for those who want decent sound in a small to medium-sized room.
The construction of the speakers is functional, but not impressive. The speaker cases, for example, are made from medium-density fiberboard -- MDF. But, even though it's a cheap material, you will find MDF on speaker sets that cost more than the entire HTB-504 HTIB which is fine because, structurally, MDF doesn't differ much from solid wood .
All the cones in the HTB-504's speakers, of course, are paper. Paper is not the ideal material for speaker cones, but speakers got by with paper cones for years before speaker makers and, in turn, audiophiles, realized that polyester was a superior material.
The star of this speaker system is the SW32HT self-powered sub, with an eight-inch downward-firing driver fed by a 100-watt amplifier. The SW32HT is a serious subwoofer. This bass-reflex unit includes a volume control, crossover level control, and line-level inputs. The bass-reflex configuration means the SW32HT has great performance, but limited efficiency. It takes more power to drive this sub than would be needed with a ported design, though the fairly substantial integral bass-frequency amp will keep the SW32HT cooking with plenty of heat. Unfortunately, there are no speaker-level inputs, but the line-level input will let you run the sub in DD and DTS modes with no problems. Also, there's no phase-reversal switch, though you can probably live without that. According to tests by Home Theater Magazine, the SW32HT's integral amp runs from 34 to 120 hz between 0 and -3.0 dB.
Each of the two woofers in the three front speakers is a 4.0-inch driver while the single tweeter is a 1.0-inch dome unit. Home Theater rates the front speakers as running on-axis from 200 Hz to 10 kHz between +9.1 and -3.1 dB. The surrounds, each with a single 4.0-inch driver, run on-axis from 200 Hz to 10 kHz between +7.2 and -2.5 dB.
One thing to keep in mind is that you need to be careful if you use certain DVD-Audio players or SACD players with these speakers. If you have one of these new high-rez (DVD-A or SACD) players and the player lacks bass management, it will send a full-range signal to all the 504's satellite (all except the sub) speakers. Since they're just not designed to handle a full-range signal, you could burn them out quite easily in this type of situation.
The Kenwood VR-507 Receiver, the Pulsing Heart of the HTB-504
The coolest upgrade of the VR-507, as compared to the VR-407 receiver included in last year's HTB-503 system, is that the VR-507 has the new Dolby Pro Logic II (DPL II) surround format. This new format, which is just starting to show up on A/V receivers, will create a surround-sound response ("5.1-like") from any analog two-channel source. In other words, you can get a surround-sound type experience from sources that traditionally only provided stereo output, including regular stereo TV audio, CD's, cassette tapes, and the analog output from your sound card for use with MP3 playback.
According to Kenwood, the VR-507 receiver puts out 100 watts per channel, in both stereo and surround modes, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (20 kHz), with 0.7% Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). Besides DPL II, the VR-507 handles Dolby Digital (DD) and Digital Theater Sound (DTS).
The DPL II mode will provide standard, four channel output (with one channel split to feed both rear surrounds) when you input Dolby Pro Logic signals, which are found on VHS movie tapes, some laserdiscs, and some television broadcasts (comes into the receiver via the analog inputs).
Dolby Digital, which is found on DVD's, some CD's, certain laserdiscs, and some satellite broadcasts, comes into your receiver via a digital input (either a coaxial or optical jack). The DD specification calls for feeding five limited-range signals (above the crossover point) to the center, mains, and surround speakers while a single low-frequency-effects (LFE, below the crossover point) channel is sent to your system's subwoofer amp where it causes the sub to put out all the bumps, thumps, low organ notes, and other low-frequency audio energy. DTS is identical to DD, except that it's a less compressed digital format and, thus, has the potential to have greater sonic range than DD.
Speaker Connections
The VR-507 uses banana-plug connectors for the mains and the center-channel speaker. For the surrounds, it uses spring-clips, which don't provide as much connection area as banana plugs. However, the increased resistance which you'll have with the spring-clip connectors, at the power levels involved with the audio amp output of this receiver, doesn't make a bit of difference. That being said, spring clips are a bit cheap and cheesy looking. It's hard to imagine why Kenwood didn't just go ahead and make those last two speaker connections banana plugs after they'd done so with the first three.
Digital Audio Connections
The VR-507 has a built-in DD/DTS decoder. So, you just connect the digital output of your DVD player (either with the coaxial or optical output) to either one of the two coaxial digital-audio or one of the two optical digital-audio inputs of the VR-507, and you're all set to decode, and enjoy, surround-sound, 5.1-channel soundtracks (DD and DTS). It's nice that the receiver includes two of both the coaxial and optical inputs because some DVD players only have a single optical output and most satellite receivers only have a single optical output, meaning that on receivers with only a single optical input you can come up short when you have to connect both a DVD player and a satellite receiver.
Analog Audio Connections
The VR-507 also has a set of six analog 5.1-channel surround-sound inputs. If you have a DVD player with its own integral surround-sound DD or DTS decoder, you can use these six inputs to connect the six analog outputs of the DVD player (front-right, center, front-left, rear-right, rear-left, and sub) to the VR-507. This type of connection, however, would require using six cables where you could just use the single digital cable.
The real advantage of the six surround-sound 5.1-channel inputs is that if, in the future, some kind of new high-performance CD player comes out, a CD player that puts out its signal in six-channel surround-sound form, these jacks will let you connect the new player to the VR-507. Thus, the 5.1-channel analog input jacks are a form of insurance against obsolescence, as much as it's possible to insure against that these days.
In fact, there are a couple of recently-released formats which you might use with the 5.1-channel analog inputs: DVD-Audio and SACD. Both of these provide a higher-resolution response than is the case with standard CD or DTS-Audio (a record stored on the DTS soundtrack of a DVD disc). Keep in mind that there is no bass management when you use the 5.1-channel inputs. Thus, if you use one of the DVD-Audio or SACD players that also lacks bass management, you could damage the 504's limited-range satellite surround speakers. One option in this case is to buy an outboard bass management unit, but the cheapest of these costs about as much as the entire VR-507 receiver.
The other analog audio inputs on the VR-507 (all on the rear panel) include a phono input, a CD/DVD input (for analog two-channel output, such as the signal from a CD, two-channel DVD-Audio, or two-channel SACD player), and a MiniDisc/tape-deck input.
Controls and Features
The VR-507 lets you tailor its sound with bass, treble, and balance controls. Via the remote, you can control the levels of all 5.1 (five plus subwoofer) surround-sound channels. The receiver will automatically detect, and adjust itself for, either DD/DTS or PCM (digital audio from a CD) input. A Midnight Mode reduces overall volume while maintaining a solid, dynamic audio level, allowing you to fully enjoy soundtracks without waking up your roomies too many times during the Matrix. A pink-noise generator assists in accurately setting speaker levels.
AM/FM Tuner with Presets
The quartz-synthesized tuner has manual operation, or you can set it to go up or down the dial, stopping momentarily each time it encounters a signal of moderate-or-higher strength. The tuner has a total of 40 AM and FM presets.
Remote
The remote is a fairly straightforward unit. It's compact, albeit a little crowded. You can program up to three macro routines into the remote and it's also capable of controlling certain other pieces of audio and video gear.
Display, Video Inputs and Outputs
A flourescent display in the center of the front face of the receiver keeps you updated on all the current functions. You can adjust the brightness level of the display. The front panel also has a set of A/V inputs, including one S-Video jack, one RCA composite-video jack, and a set of L/R analog RCA audio input jacks. This will allow you, for example, to quickly connect a camcorder or video game to the receiver. For private listening, there's a front-panel headphone jack which, when you insert the headphone plug, automatically cuts power to the speakers.
On the receiver's rear panel, for video switching, there are five S-Video inputs and five composite-video inputs. There is also a set of A/V inputs on the front of the receiver, including S-Video, composite-video, and L/R analog audio. To connect back to your TV, there is an S-Video output and a composite-video output, both on the rear panel.
While it is convenient to do video switching in the receiver, meaning you run all your video source gear into the receiver's video inputs, connect the video output to your TV, and use the VR-507's remote to select various video inputs (DVD, VCR, satellite, etc.). However, according to the review in Home Theater, the VR-507 adds quite a bit of distortion and noise to video signals which are fed through it. Your mileage may vary, but you might want to just directly connect your video components to your TV, assuming that the TV has a sufficient number of inputs to handle everything you want to feed into it (this is not always the case, especially with less-expensive TV's). You will never get a better connection than you get by connecting your video sources directly to your TV. If your TV has more than one video input, you can use your TV's remote for video switching.
Ease of Use
The HTB-504 comes with a Quick Connect guide to aid you in getting everything unpacked and connected. The guide includes a color-coded wiring diagram and it explains basic installation chores such as locating the speakers and setting the volume levels for the speakers.
Caveat Emptor
See my recent reviews on the Toshiba 42H81, the Panasonic SC-HT70, and the Sony KV-32HS20 for advice on getting the best value when buying connecting cables. Also, you'll find information explaining the drawbacks of extended warranties. There is also information on choosing a retailer. To cut to the chase, out of the merchants that show up with buying links for the HTB-504, I would suggest caution with Abes of Maine, Compdirect, and the Camera Club.
You can check out the Epinions reviews of these stores and find further information on them at other sites which rate merchants. If you end up dealing with a sleazy merchant, you're probably going to end up not coming out too far ahead of the Circuit City deal. You might also check out the crazyeddie Web site. They have the 504 for $400. Some people have had problem-free dealings with crazyeddie, though it's a real rock-bottom price outfit and the merchandise may not have a U.S.A. warranty (it might be gray market, meaning it's warranted for a non-U.S.A. country). Always confirm that you are getting a manufacturer's U.S.A. warranty.
Conclusion
If you're on a really tight budget, the HTB-504 is a pretty attractive option. For a street price of about $450, it lets you get a home-theater system with a very nice receiver, a real powered sub, and a fairly good set of surround speakers. As I said before, since this receiver sells for about $300, you can basically figure that you're getting the whole speaker system for $150. It's pretty tough to find any set of surround-sound speakers, including a subwoofer (a real one, not a passive sub), at this price.
On the other hand, if you buy the HTB-504, you'll still have an excellent receiver and you won't be out a huge amount of money if you later decide to upgrade to better speakers. You could sell the HTB-504 speakers or use them as a second set of speakers in a bedroom or kids' room.
Recommended:
Yes
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