Price Paid:  $370.00 from A&B Sound (those are

Summary:
It's a shame that as time has gone by, people have come to think of Kenwood as a "bargain brand." It's true that they offer some very attractive prices and have made an effort to market themselves to that sales group, but lets not forget that once upon a time, Kenwood made the top audiophile amps on the market. Anyone remember the Model 600? - there still hasn't been an amp made that sounds as good as that. Kenwood is now reported to be bowing out of the home audio market in favour of their much more successful car audio lines. That's too bad.

Having had a lot of previously good Kenwood experience, I bought this amp for my new home theatre. For what I paid, this unit is outstanding. The sound is clean and the power is generous. It handles all the modern DAC-work with the digital inputs brilliantly and still maintains excellent amp support for my turntable. The radio receiver is sparkling (as Kenwood receivers always have been). Bass is perfect and the rest of the dynamic range is very well-balanced. The DSP modes are cool, though I don't really use them much. The remote is a nightmare; I may never figure it out, but my cable-box's remote controls the unit so that's okay.

No other company's amps in this price-class can compare to Kenwood's features and sound. I look forward to using it for many, many years to come.

Strengths:
Sound for sure is the #1 feature. Kenwood knows how to make good sound and the 8050 is a marvellous example. It's loaded with a ton of features and support for all the home theatre goodies (DTS96/24, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, DD, etc.) and allows individual level adjustments for all the speakers in the HT setup. Has plenty of power to dish out and doesn't complain (or shut down) when you use it.

Weaknesses:
The remote baffles me. I see from all the buttons that it'll do everything, but that doesn't matter since I can't figure out a single thing. The documentation support for doing this is not great. I've screwed more things up trying to use the remote than I've ever got right. It can stay in the box.

Similar Products Used:
NAD, Onkyo, Denon, Rotel, a world of older Kenwoods.

Price Paid:  $269.00 from crutchfield.com

Summary:
This receiver has great sound. The bass levels are perfect, unlike my old VR-410 which had no bass. The sound modes are really cool, like "Pro Logic II Game"; it makes video games sound great. I'm actually surprised that my speakers sound so good; my VR-410 did not do them justice.

The 6.1 feature is nice if you have the speakers, but I have a 5.1 setup. It's nice to be able to control the levels on a per speaker basis and the speaker EQ does a good job making my small size JBL speakers sound more "dynamic".

I can't comment on the remote because I'm using the AWESOME remote that came with my VR-410 still; yes, the old Kenwood remote still works. I already had it programmed for all my other "toys", and the included remote isn't a "learning" remote.

There are a few problems that I had to email Kenwood about:

1. Although the listening modes are cool, when ever you switch out of standby, or go to a different input (Video 3 to Video 1), it ALWAYS reverts back to stereo mode. Having to switch back and forth contantly is really annoying.

2. While the auto detect feature is great for digital, sometimes it fails to output the sound until I switch something on the receiver; something being anything, a setting, input method, mute then unmute, or if I change the channel on the TV or pauses and unpause the DVD player. This is really driving me crazy. I'm hoping it's an issue with my receiver and not inherant to the VR-8050 itself.

Strengths:
Multiple listening modes, great sound, active EQ, speaker EQ

Weaknesses:
Having to always switch listening modes when going to different input, setup can be a little confusing you have a 5.1 speaker system rather than a 6.1- they use in the display to refer to your Surround (rear) speakers

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood VR-410