Kenwood VR-507 Surround Sound Receiver

Rating:
Summary: Okay, But Needs A Better Center Speaker
Review: I purchased this audio-video receiver as part of a home-theater set which included 5 speakers and a subwoofer. After reading many reviews I saw that it was one of the highest rated systems, as well as being readily available at many electronics stores.

I'm a perfectionist, so perhaps my mediocre rating for this item is biased. From the reviews I expected perfect clarity in the sound. For the most part everything sounds fine. The big flaw has to do with the center speaker. That speaker is responsible for speech in movies, so it's pretty important. The problem is I can hear a high-pitched distortion during brief moments in some movies. The distortion occurs when certain characters or creatures talk and roar. Take Jurassic Park, for example. When John Hammond has his little discussion with Alan Grant and Ellie Satler in the trailer, you can hear a faint whine in his voice that becomes more annoying the higher the volume is set. And the scene where a Brachiosaurus appears for the first time and let's out a bellow before sitting down sounds horrible.

To most people it's barely audible. To me, it's irritating. So irritating, in fact, that I bought a whole new center speaker to replace the original. It was a Bose. After that I had no problems.

Well, except one minor difficulty which involves the subwoofer included with the set. The bass cannot be adjusted by remote, one must get up and physically turn the knob in the back. I hate having to do that. Maybe that's because the subwoofer is 'powered', I don't know.

Other than all that I have no complaints. There are plenty of S-video and composite inputs but no component inputs. There's two coaxial and two optical digital audio inputs. At 100 watts per channel the overall sound output is impressive. The bass can shake your room sufficiently when that next monster comes stomping around on the screen. Make sure your video/audio cables have some separate reach at the ends because not all the jacks are very close together. There might be better home theater systems out there for the money, but who knows if they also have that high-pitched distortion problem? It may be a common factor in mid-ranged systems.

I give 4 stars for the receiver, 2 for the speakers.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, But Needs A Better Center Speaker
Review: I purchased this audio-video receiver as part of a home-theater set which included 5 speakers and a subwoofer. After reading many reviews I saw that it was one of the highest rated systems, as well as being readily available at many electronics stores.

I'm a perfectionist, so perhaps my mediocre rating for this item is biased. From the reviews I expected perfect clarity in the sound. For the most part everything sounds fine. The big flaw has to do with the center speaker. That speaker is responsible for speech in movies, so it's pretty important. The problem is I can hear a high-pitched distortion during brief moments in some movies. The distortion occurs when certain characters or creatures talk and roar. Take Jurassic Park, for example. When John Hammond has his little discussion with Alan Grant and Ellie Satler in the trailer, you can hear a faint whine in his voice that becomes more annoying the higher the volume is set. And the scene where a Brachiosaurus appears for the first time and let's out a bellow before sitting down sounds horrible.

To most people it's barely audible. To me, it's irritating. So irritating, in fact, that I bought a whole new center speaker to replace the original. It was a Bose. After that I had no problems.

Well, except one minor difficulty which involves the subwoofer included with the set. The bass cannot be adjusted by remote, one must get up and physically turn the knob in the back. I hate having to do that. Maybe that's because the subwoofer is 'powered', I don't know.

Other than all that I have no complaints. There are plenty of S-video and composite inputs but no component inputs. There's two coaxial and two optical digital audio inputs. At 100 watts per channel the overall sound output is impressive. The bass can shake your room sufficiently when that next monster comes stomping around on the screen. Make sure your video/audio cables have some separate reach at the ends because not all the jacks are very close together. There might be better home theater systems out there for the money, but who knows if they also have that high-pitched distortion problem? It may be a common factor in mid-ranged systems.

I give 4 stars for the receiver, 2 for the speakers.