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Review 2 of 14
Price Paid:
$120.00
from American TV Summary:
I've had this unit for a couple of years now, its been very reliable, even though the amp is made in china. I actually have the ar-304, the model made before the ar-404. Internally, they are exactly the same, the 404 just has a different face (Personally I think the 304 looks better, more classic looking). This amp also uses the K-Stat tranistors (the amp is totally discrete, 4 transistors for the speaker set a and b), which are used in kenwoods more expensive home theatre line-up. The result is that this amp does not heat up much, and is supposed to have improved sound. And yes this amp is capable of producing 100 watts/channel of power. take a look on the back of the receiver, you'll notice the power consumption is 2.8A. Well, to get theoretical maximum wattage, multiply amps by voltage to get watts, so this amp is capable of produceing 336 watts maximimum. Can it actualy reach this limit? Maybe, if you were running a multi-room set up (as in A and B speaker sets were being driven) driving the amp near max volume. But how would it sound? My best guess is distorted, not sure since I use it in a small room at low to moderate listening levels. This baby is powered by a decent power supply, nothing too fancy here. The two caps used in this amp are only 4800uf, so this is a definite limit as to how much RMS wattage you're going to get. The manual rates the amp at 50x2 at 1khz with .02% distortion, so expect around 40-50 watts of clean power from 40-20khz (clean ebing less than .1% distortion).
Now on to how the unit sounds. Well, I've listened to my fare share of music hardware, although mostly home theatre. I've listened to creek 4330, and one of the sunfires, but this was at a local specialty shop. To be fair, I'm only comparing the kenwood to recievers which I;ve hooked to my own system. I did a side by side comparison, placed two speakers next to each other (Infinity RS5's), ran the left channel to each of them, and one powered by the kenwood, the other powerd by either my brothers yamaha RX-V630, my denon dra-295, and the other unit I bought for consideration, sony str-de185). Compared to sony's de-185 stereo receiver, this unit sounds more musical. This is also a very quite amp (noise level), unlike the hissing I heard from the sony at low levels, or running zero bit sound through it (a recording with no data(music), helps to identify ground/hiss noise, learned this from car audio junkies). In stereo, at moderate listening levels, this amp rates very closely to my brother's Yamaha RX-V630. The major difference between the two at this level was bass. The yamaha was more tight, and could hit lower than the kenwood (although this difference was minute, and while noticable was not large enough to make a drastic difference in sound quality). Once the volume was turned up to loud listening levels (concert level sound) the yamaha proved more clean, less distorted than the kenwood. How noticeable was this distortion, well a trained ear would notice it, kenwoods sound feels off-axis at loud levels, best way to describe this is that the sound is less centerd, its hard to pick out details in the recording that the yamaha could. Compared to my denon dra-295, this amp is not as clean. The denon has a softer sound than the kenwood at moderate listening levels. I listen to jazz (karl denson, Herbie hancock), rock (incubus, metallica, led zeppelin), and jam bands (greatful dead, widespread panic.
Now lets be realistic though, my brother paid around $300 for his amp, and I paid somewhere around $250 for my denon a while ago (actually got it for my birthday do I paid nothing). how much did this little amp cost; a mesely $120. This is a great deal, because for me the sound difference between the denon is not worth twice the cost of the kenwood, it does not sound twice as good, or even close to it. But in the audio world, you pay a lot more for small improvements in sound. it's all dependent on what you're wiling to sacrifice in sound in order to get a better deal. In the kenwoods case, you're sacrificing some bass and clarity, but saving some money while doing it. With the money saved you could spend it on a entry level sub, which would much improve the low bass notes, making it sound much better in that region. I;m in college right now, and did not want to bring my expensive equipment to school. This unit was the perfect choice for me, and a good choice for anyone looking for a great deal. Strengths:
Great value, good sounding mids and highs at moderate listening levels. Around 50 watts of good clean sound.
Source-direct mode bypasses all tone controls for a cleaner sound.
Great remote that isn't marketing as a multi-function remote, its designed for one thing only: this amp.
Capable of producing 100 watts/channel (2 channels) of sound (not rms though). Fully discrete output stage.
Sound comparable to home theatre stereo modes in units priced over $200.
Subwoofer Pre-out
Pretty Good tuner section
Phono Input
Energy Star Compliant, saves this poor college student money when I forget to turn the unit off :) Weaknesses:
yes, 100/channel, but not the cleanest sound.
Somewhat lacking in lower bass region (below 40hz), but this amp is only rated for 40hz. Whats does this mean? Well any amp produces the full sound spectrum of a recording. The difference is at what sound level and with how much control (related to damping factor) it can produce the sound. This amp can produce sub 40 hz sounds, but not very loudly or with much control (most people refer to this as 'muddy' sound). The fix? well the pre-amp on this amp is 20-20khz, so get yourself a powered sub and your low bass problems are fixed.
Overall not as clean as my denon, denon fells more musical. Not as clean as my brothers yamaha at loud listening levels (concert level sound).
Made in China
Source-direct turns off everytime you switch between inputs, gets very annoying.
Useless bass-boost, just turns up bass (at 100hz) control to max. Similar Products Used:
Yamaha, Denon, dads old marantz long ago, and auditioned audiophile level systems a shops. I'm a music minor by the way.
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