Great sound and easy setup for a newbie audiophile

Supplied wire......

** This is for the HTB504DV - thus the higher price! ** I was gutting my family room and figured that as long as I had the walls open I''d go the home theater route since I could easily run wires all over the room. Read the reviews here and ended up getting the HTB504DV since it had a DVD player and I didn''t have one yet. Stayed up late one night and couldn''t get the surround sound - only analog stereo. Next morning picked up an optical cable to run between the DVD player and the receiver and next thing I know I have fantastic sound filling my 16''x16''x8'' family room. Star Wars I The Phantom Menace shook the house. Took a few days for the family to get used to the sound but now it''s "normal". Play radio, CD''s and DVD''s. Like others here - I didn''t bother with the wire it came with. I used 12 ga. Carol wire from partsexpress.com. Still have alot to learn about all the settings and the remote but compltely satified with the sound!

Sounds perfect.

Nothing to specify for the price paid.

Amazing system for less than 500 bucks. It tool a while to set up everything. Once done, it is number one.

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Listened to Bose,Sony home theater packages.

Price

Remote, No sound fields, the manual might as well have been in braile.

A lot of bang for the buck. Great entree level system. Comes with all the necessary inputs (2 digital and tons of S). Speakers are mediocre, but you can replace them in a couple of years and the receiver will still be top notch.
And of course you'll have to replace the generic speaker wire with Monster Cable.

Their technical support is great. I didn't want to spend time deciphering the manual, so I called tech support and I was up and running in less than 20 minutes.

Price, Sound, Sub

Wires, Remote, Looses Digital input setting if you loose power. Common manual for the whole family of receivers.

Was on budget but did not want to compromise on quality...didn't have to :-).

Initially had some difficulty in hooking all up...but when I figured it all was just swept off my feet. Surround speakers will not fire if your Digital input is not set properly. Worst the receiver looses this setting if un-plugged (something my little daughter did couple of times).

I guess some of the complaints by the other reviewers are related to system configuration/setting....all of which could have been avoided with a better manual.

I have currently hooked the system with

I have hooked it up with Toshiba 27 inch TV and Apex 600 DVD player using Coaxial Digital output for Audio and S-Video for Video...overall the setup is fantastic!!!...can be more enjoyable with a big screen.

Only one item on wish list: Single S-Video output for all kinds of video inputs...currently it is available in higher end models from Kenwood.

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None

This system is the best for the money. I thought it kicked but. Did I say BASS!! It will rumble the ear wax out of your ears :)

Remote..Remote..Remote..Remote..Remote..Instuctions were not to pretty either.

Getit while the gett'n is good.

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None

Receiver. Sub.

As everyone seemed to say. The remote, speaker wire, center channel speaker.

This is my first home theater system. I did quite a bit of research before buying this system and every avenue took me down the same path to the HTB-503. For the price you can't beat it. The receiver is easy to figure out (even with the horrible manual). Plenty of options on the back for just about every configuration you can think of. Make sure you purchase new speaker wire when you buy this. The wire that was in there wouldn't cut it for a Radio Shack home project. The sub supplies sufficient base for your average Joe. It's not going to vibrate your teeth or anything but you will feel it. The rest of the speakers are tolerable for awhile. Not bad for the price you paid. I've owned the system for close to a year now and just upgraded all the speakers but the sub. I added Acoustic Research 226PS for the main and rear and an Acoustic Research SC2 for the center channel. Boy did that ever make a difference. But if your strapped for cash or just don't want to spend the money, what comes in the box is just fine. The remote is tolerable but a bit small and busy but it is just a remote and how often do you really need it other than to adjust the volume. Over all I highly reccomend this product for anyone like myself who wants to find out what home theater is about but doesn't want to take out a loan to have one.

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None.

Excellent sound quality, makes DVD's come alive, hook up made so simple even *I* could do it with a minimum of fuss

Remote, navigating the sound field choices tediously slow (in sequential order)

*N.B.* this review is for the HTB-504

I picked this up about three weeks ago after my mini RCA system finally blew its CD player and I refused to put any money into it. I had purchased a much weaker system, had rung it thru the cash register there and only afterwards did the saleman find out that the other system I had bought was pre-sold. I ended up with this system after he was willing to knock $100CAD off the list price to keep the sale ;)

After getting the box home in my car it took *three* people to get the gigantic box the system came in out of my car and into my apartment. Set up was a breeze, heck fishing the wires out from behind the hutch was the biggest problem I had (Tip, tie the wires to something like a pen, much easier to grasp) Now I'm busy fiddling and tweaking the system to the vagarities of my apartment.

This brings me to my gripes about the system. The remote control buttons are tiny and poorly marked and the remote feels too skinny in my hands. Luckily I have a Sony RM-2100AV and I just programmed everything into that ;) However that doesn't solve what I think is another issue, the selection of the desired sound field, having to cycle thru them using one button is simply ridiculous where they could have at least made it possible to scrool fowards and backwards using the remote.

However, the sound quality of this system *more* than makes up for any perceived shortcomings with the Dolby Pro-Logic 2 doing *amazing* things with two channel and Pro-Logic encoded source material. A definate Best Buy in my books

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Great for the price. Awesome sub-woofer !!
Both DTS and Dolby in the reciever for such a low price.

REMOTE.

I agree with the majority of the reviewers here and think that this is a kick-ass system. As everyone else will agree, the remote is neither convenient to use nor 'Universal'.
I live in a tiny apartment and my only problem is that I havent been able to test the system to even half its potential fearing that the neighbors will complain to the landlord. .. and the sub-woofer, ... oh my god, the sub-woofer !!! I watched The Matrix on DVD last night. I had set the sub-woofer at the same volume as the rest of the speakers, and I kid you not, when the helicopter-crashing-in-the-building scene happens, I heard the window panes in MY apartment starting to vibrate. I had to turn the volume on the sub-woofer down. So, bottomline, this is a great system for a first time buyer and it will be a while before it is out-dated.
The great thing about it is that you can build around it. The reciever and sub-woofer should satisfy all but the most discerning audiophiles (snobs !). For the hoi-polloi (the rest of us), these two components are good enough to last a long time. Things that should be changed if and when your budget permits,

1. Front speakers (Try Paradigm Atom, Cambridge, or any of the cheaper high-end manufacturers, if there is such a thing)
2. Remote ( I have heard great things about the $60 Sony VR-9000 remote)
3. Cables (get Monster cables)

Remember, without changing a thing, this is still a great system.

I found a great bargain on ubid.com. I got the system for $229 (refurbished) plus $70 shipping. The first system that i got didnt work well, but the ubid people were very helpful. They usually dont replace items, just give you a store credit, but since they had another system in store, they sent that one to me. In the mean time, thinking that I wouldnt get a replacement from them, I ordered and recieved the ensemble IV speaker set from Cambridge Soundworks ($149). Later, I wanted to test those speakers against the ones that came with the replacement HTB-503, since I had heard that the ensemble speakers were among the cheaper high-end speakers at par with any mass produced ones, while being as small as your computer speakers.
After that comparison I reached the conclusion that while the Cambridge speakers are awesome and would make a great home theater system, they came a close second to my Kenwood speakers. I did this very scientifically. In a blind study, I subjected my wife and a few friends to 5 CDs and a movie while switching between both sets of speakers. They didnt know what speakers were playing, and yet they all chose the Kenwood speakers.
Needless, to say, I am sending back the Cambridge speakers. Of course, these are the cheapest speakers that Cambridge makes, and they were in no way inferior in quality. Just that the Kenwood ones were a teensy bit better.
I have had this system for less than a week, but I whole-heartedly recommend it. Go to ubid.com and you may even find a bargain like I did. I liked the convenience of optical cable inputs. The manual showed a confusing connection chart for 6 channel DVD that required 5-6 cables. Getting an optical cable meant that I needed just one more cable (video input) to hook the DVD up. The remote is too tiny for anyone over the age of 10. It does basic things like turn the TV, VCR and DVD player on, but is very choosy when it comes to performing other functions with them. I am going to get rid of it as soon as I have some more money to splurge. (We are students and my wife will kill me if I spend anymore money on toys).
Anyway, if you are on a budget and still want great sound, both in home-theater and audio, get the Kenwood HTB-503.

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Pioneer and Sanyo systems.

Design, sound quality

Time it takes to put it together.
Remote control has very small buttons.

Excellent system. Clear, crisp sound. Plenty of power. I can shake the floors im my brick home.

Often, I will just listen to the music channels from the satellite dish.

I would recommend this system to anyone.

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none

Receiver, Subwoofer, Remote

Centre Channel, Speaker Wire

I've been into Home Theater & DVD for a couple of years, and up until a couple of months ago only had a mid-range Pro-Logic system.

I finally decided to upgrade to a Digital Receiver, and after doing some homework I decided to settle with the Kenwood HTB-504. FutureShop (a Canadian retailer) had the system on sale for $750 Can., and I managed to bargain them down to $700 - and I'm happy with what I got.

The system is pretty sweet. I've had the opportunity to listen to some high-quality setup's, and while this is not what I would have expected to be the best setup imaginable it's pretty good for the price.

The Receiver that comes in the package is pretty diverse with a lot of options. Plenty of DSP's to keep the average Joe busy. The remove is also designed with comfort & usability in mind. The subwoofer included in the package is built well and provides nice LFE.

My only gripes (if you could call them that) would be with the Centre Channel and the speaker wire included with the unit. The wire is pretty crappy, and you would do well to replace it as soon as possible. You ***can*** tell the difference in the sound quality once you do this. As for the Centre channel, I've already heard a couple of instances with the Die Hard SE:DVD in which the speaker has clearly emitted some buzzing. It may need to be replaced with something a little higher-quality in the future.

All in all, if you're new to Home Theater, want something economical or live in an apartment (like me), this system will serve you well.

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Kenwood P.O.S Pro-Logic system