IT'LL STOMP YOUR BRAIN
Written: Apr 04 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great looks and outstanding sound quality
Cons: Extremely complicated setup routine
|
|
|
| Nidal98g's Full Review: Kenwood VR-3080 |
When I was in the market for a new surround receiver, I looked every where. We went to all major chain stores and ended up in the exchange on Camp Pendleton, Ca. They were having a sale in this receiver. I knew nothing about it, but it looked nice and the specs. on the box sounded very impressive.
I promptly paid the low $249.00 for it and immediately drove home to set it up. This was made easy by the fact that our previous receiver had blown and all the wires were already in place. Making all the wire connections was the easy part. Due to the straightforward labeling of the rear of the unit and the abundance of input connections. Understanding the remote control and it’s menus was a nightmare.
The remote it’s self looks impressive. With it’s green backlit LCD screen and joystick like control. At first, I tried the automatic setup routine built into the remote, but that only confused me more. I had to resort to the ever-hated instruction book. After reading the entire manual I felt a little more confident in my abilities. The remote on the other hand, had other ideas. For some reason, it just did not seem to be working. It looked like I had made all the right inputs but no sound was to be heard.
I went back to the manual to see if I had missed something. I eventually found out that in one of the setup menus I had incorrectly chosen the wrong setting. This was causing the receiver to not generate any sound at all. With that fixed, I began to calibrate the receiver for the correct speaker distances. Suddenly the subwoofer stopped and refused to come back on. So back to the manual I went.
After many hours of reading and changing settings, nothing changed. Since it was very late at night, I gave up and went to bed. The next day when I began the process again, I turned on the receiver and everything to include the subwoofer worked.
All in all, after about a week of playing with the remote, I had learned all of its little secrets. Ever since then I have not had a single problem with the entire setup.
THE GOOD
This receiver is packed with great features. There is plenty of room to connect all of your components to include two CD players, TV, VCR, Tape deck, DVD, and DSS. There are two optical inputs for various types of DVD players and separate component inputs for DVD as well. It includes several DSP functions like stadium, jazz club, concert hall, and arena. As well, as support for Dolby Digital and DTS. The remote is capable of controlling every component that uses a remote, as well as some home automation products. The system also boasts 100wx5 channels in surround and multiple sets of speakers for custom designs. The overall sound quality is outstanding, the DVD playback and sound are flawless.
THE BAD
The remote was extremely difficult to figure out. It took me the better part of a week to become confident in its use. The setup menu functions are not clearly explained and can be intimidating to work with. The remote also has an auto shut off feature that turns off the screen after only a few seconds. This requires you to wait for it to “reboot”, even if all you want to do is change the volume.
THE RECOMMENDATION
I recommend that only experienced buyers try to set this beast up by themselves. However once this monster gets going it will blow you over with it’s quality of sound and ease of use.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Nidal98g
|
|
Member: Howell Johnson
Location: Monterey California
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 5 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.