I am Not Stupid, So what is wrong....
Written: Jul 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: very good sound quality.
Cons: takes a genius to figure out the remote
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| fatima98g's Full Review: Kenwood VR-3080 |
Several months ago, my husband and I purchased this receiver to replace one that was broken in our move from Georgia to California. It had been years since we had purchased our old one. As we walked through the stores looking at what we could afford, it became painfully obvious that we could not keep up with technology. After leaving all the stores in our area depressed, we set off on a trip to visit my husband’s hometown, San Diego. We decided to check out the military exchanges in that area. At the Camp Pendelton exchange, we found this receiver for only $249.00. In the stores around Monterey, it was priced at around $549.00. At the exchange, there was no tax. We promptly purchased the receiver. My husband could not wait to get home to play with his new toy.
The set up was fairly easy. We had already set up the old receiver when we discovered it was broken so all the wires were already in place. The wire connections were the easy part. However, understanding the remote was another story.
The Remote
The remote looks very high tech. It has a small screen with a green back light and a small joystick controller. There is an automatic setup, but my husband found it even more confusing than it already was.
He decided to manually set this bad boy up. That meant he actually had to venture into that land no man actually wants to go. He had to read the instruction book. He read the entire booklet that night. It was worth the money just for the entertainment it offered. I want to say, my husband is very electronically inclined. However, this remote had it out for him. After battling the remote for hours, he finally found one little input error. This one input error caused the entire system to on generate any sound at all.
Honey, maybe it is haunted.
After he got the settings correct on the remote, next came the task of calibrating the distance to the speakers. In the middle of this, he noticed that the subwoofer just stopped working. After once again going over all the settings, he became exhausted and very frustrated. It was very late at night. I finally convinced him to give up the battle until morning. The next morning the subwoofer worked. It stumped us both. We went to bed with it not working, but woke up with it working perfectly. It took about a week for my husband to learn this remote inside and out. For me, I still do not know it. I can make it do the basic functions. However, I usually just walk to the entertainment center and use the manual controls. After all, I am sure I will be the one to screw up the system.
Why Go through that?
The answer to that question is simple. This receiver is full of features that made my husband salivate at the time.
1. This receiver has the ability to connect all the components you could ever dream of connecting. It offers the ability to connect: 2 CD Players (in case you are wondering we use the second connection for a Playstation), Television, VCR, Tape Deck, DVD and a DSS.
2. The receiver boasts several DSP functions like stadium, jazz club, concert hall, and arena. However, we use just the basics. The stadium sounds really funny in our house.
3. It offers support for Dolby Digital and DTS. This was a must for my husband.
4. The remote for this baby can control every component that uses a remote. Which is why it was such a pain to set up.
5. The power this thing offers is 100wx5 channels in surround and multiple sets of speakers for custom designs.
6. The sound quality is amazing, as is the DVD playback. The sound is clear, crisp, and earth shattering at times. This is particularly true during the movie Matrix.
We have discussed the bad, but let’s recap.
1. The remote was very difficult to get working. It is not something a person lacking experience would want to attempt to do alone. My husband has set up many of these systems for our family and friends. However, this monster had him ready to quit. It took him a week just to feel confident in the use of this remote.
2. The setup features are pretty confusing since they are not clearly stated in the book..
3. If you are not actively using the remote for more than a couple of seconds it will cut off. Since the thing is like a computer, you have to wait for the menu to come back up even if you only want to change the channel or something simple like that.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
fatima98g
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Member: christy johnson
Location: Monterey,Ca
Reviews written: 78
Trusted by: 48 members
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