Bought my Kenwood for $400. I had an opportunity to replace it with a Yamaha R-V1105 and I got rid of the Kenwood within a day. The remote is awkward and useless. The overall sound of the receiver was good but it was cumbersome to configure. You could spend 30min just setting up a DVD. It takes 30sec to a min. just to turn up the treble. I like the Yamaha MUCH better. Don't buy it unless you can put up with the remote.P.S. What would you do if something happened to the remote? Throw away the receiver?

I am going to start off saying that I read all the reviews and I dont know what people are talking about!!-----
I bought this receiver when it came out and have had it for about a year now!
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MY OPINION

Awesome styling with a clean look and minimal buttons on the unit itself. Remote works very good with codes for everything possible. The remote just about uses all the same buttons as the original remote with another product. The volume control can be a little slow, but I think that is good. You dont want to turn the volume up quickly to produce distortion now do we?? Volume Output is clean when turned up to the max!! How many receivers can do this!!
DTS-Dolby Digital Decoding is Flawless with Awesome duplication of soundtracks. Standard Music (eg CD, MD, Tape) is Incredible and Spatious. Fan works great, with unit never running hot!! Binding posts for all speakers.
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Down side-No Digital Output for MD, CD-R, DAT which is important to me.
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I paid $700.00 for this unit and now I understand there all some sites selling it for $400.00. BUY IT!!! I am buying another receiver because I want SVideo, Bi-Wiring, and an optical out, but I will never get rid of my Kenwood.
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For the price theres no receiver that compares. What are you going to by Aiwa?? Pioneer?? JVC?? Dont bother!! They might have more jacks but the sound quality does not compare and isnt that what a receiver is about.SOUND??
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I hoped this Helped!!

After owning a Harmon/Kardon Avr25II for 3 yrs I thought it was time to upgrade to a Dolby Digital Receiver. I heard Dts at a friends home and it sounded wonderfull,so it had to have Dts also.The VR-2080 fit the bill nicely,I was a bit reluctant to purchase this unit,I thought there was no way for a Kenwood to sound as well as a Harmon.Boy was i wrong,the Kenwood excelled at every music input i threw at it,I listen longer than i ever had before,ive heard detail in music completly lost on the Harmon. In my humble opinion this Receiver is a true contender in any hifi quest,,,,,oh almost forgot,,it has a really kewl remote to boot,,,

This reciever has a ton of features and the fact that for <$800 you get both DD (AC-3) and DTS is great but the reciever can be decieving. It's features are at a cost. The inputs can't handle any kind of impedance mismatch. I had one for about 4 days before I took it back. when I plugged my Sony diskchanger into it it worked fine. When I plugged my Zenith AVI series TV into it I could barely get any output at all. I had to set the TV to full volume (to a level that the reciever was clipping the input) and then set the reciever's volume to 90% of it's power and only then could I even hear the sound at all. Turning the TV's speakers on resulted in the TV overpowering the reciever completely. (I don't normally have them on.. I was just testing and comparing.) This happened when the reciever was in Stereo mode. If I put it into Pro Logic mode, I could hear absolutely nothing. I got the same results from plugging my Goldstar HI-FI VCR into it too. I double checked the cables and the signal. (In either mode even a monotone signal should produce a reasonable volume although I had a stereo signal going itno it). Thinking I might have set something incorrectly in the unit I followed the instructions in the book to reset the reciever to factory default settings. Then (when that failed) I called Kenwood, waited 45 minutes to talk to someone only to get Kenwood's only techsupport rep that knew less about the reciever than I did! She started checking the obvious things and then had no idea. She said she research it and call me back. No call. I took it back not because of their lack of support but because it simply can't handle any slight variation in the input impedance. Also this nifty knew remote that it has is a "cool" gadget but is very counter productive. it takes 30 click functions to perform the same tasks that any normal remote can do in 3. The LCD display is neat but other recievers in this class all have on screen displays sent to your TV monitor and are much more useful. This unit doesn't have any onscreen displays. The two way communications with the remote are also counter productive. The remote takes the first key you hit on it as a poower up command and you have to have a good line of sight and have it pointed at the reciever right then to get the download info to it. Otherwise it won't work right. and the volume control buttons take 3 or 4 presses before it adjusts the volume at all and your remote control's screen doesn't update the volume till you stop adjusting it so you have to look at the reciever's console anyway if you want to see what you're setting it to while you adjust. This kinda defeats the purpose of the 2 way communications if you ask me. Over all I give this reciever a poor rating. It is very techno cool but should be avoided by those looking for real functionality and sound quality. Move up to a Harmon Cardon or sacrifice the DTS and step down to the Sony or JVC with DD inputs. Skip this one uhnless you just want a neat toy.

I had liste to many diffent dts/dd receiver/amps or processors and i deceided on the ke. 2080 for the following reasons i found that when i test out the sherwood 945R i tended to heat up alittle bit to much @ higher loads for some reason ??? however when i tested the 2080 it stayed cool even turned up past half way....i also like the remote especially since i do not need a cable box for cable..... and 100 @ 6ohms is plenty of power for me.. and the price very nice for having dts/dd and a few dsp's which is the only down side if u like a lot of dsp's....the only thing i do not like about this receiver is that the manual could have be written i little more clearly and the reception of fm station could have been alittle better in my opitionJJLo

Considering I upgraded to this from a crappy JVC receiver, I'm in heaven. Power is stellar, and even though I didn't get the 2090 (with S-video ins/outs), I think this is a receiver that's going to be a keeper for the long haul. Power's good. Distortion is minimal (but detectable). Plenty of room for components, which I seem to be adding daily (DVD arrives tomorrow...). You should see the look on the cable guys' faces when they see no coax running to the TV... but I digress. One sore spot is the ridiculous remote. It's a little joystick-and-LCD screen thing that, on first look, was kinda cool, but now has been relegated to uselessness because it takes 60 seconds just to hit "PLAY" on the VCR. In fact, all I use it for is to turn the system on and off, and to change the input if need be. A big waste. Still, an overall great receiver.

WOW. It's as simple as that. The sound quality of this reciever is absolutely stunning. The only time I have ever heard sound quality this fantastic before, was with a preamp/amp configuration that costs thousands more. With this baby, $800 buys you a fantastic sounding reciever, as well as many (I say many sparingly, it is more like tons) features that are very useful in different home theater set-ups. The installation was a breeze, and the tech support was great when I asked questions about why I was hardly getting any sound out of it, at first. (The problem turned out to be something that I accidently activated) Overall, this is a fantastic reciever, and I would easily recommend it to anyone who'd ask me. However, I give it four stars for 2 reasons...1) for $800 it should have come with S-Video capabilities....and 2)The remote, although cool looking, and nifty to play around with at first, is bulky, and time consuming to use; I avoid it whenever possible.......If you get this reciever, GOOD JOB! You have made a VERY good decision....Now, make sure to get a new universal remote...Overall, an awesome reciever with stunning sound.

I needed to upgrade my receiver because I bought a DVD player. I have owned a Kenwood receiver before and was very happy with it. I asked my friend that also owns a Kenwood receiver and asked him if he was pleased with it. He quickly answered, "Yes!". I auditioned other receivers at Circuit City and choose the Kenwood VR-2080. I choose it for price, features, and reliability. The sound this receiver produces is astonishing! There was very little harmonic distortion and the sound was crisp and clean compared to other receivers at the same price range. This receiver has great features such as: 100 Watts per channel, Dolby Pro Logic(full digital), Dolby Digital, DTS Digital Surround, 5 DSP Listening modes, Bass Management, Digital Audio Input(2 coaxial, 2 TOS-Link Optical,8 audio inputs,and a variable speed cooling fan, just to mention a few. The only disapointment was the lack of s-video inputs. What attracted me to this receiver was the remote control. It is great! It took a little getting used to. Once I got used the remote control, it became easy to operate. I recommend this receiver to anyone who wants a great sounding receiver with a lot of useful features at a great price.

In response to howard Hiers from Austin Tx. He apparently did not know what he was doing when he hooked up his Kenwood 2080 reciever. I have owned everything from HK to Yamaha to Onkyo. This kenwood will excell at anything I throw at it. I have a stereo vcr, a dvd player, tv, and cd player hooked up and it works without a flaw. I give it 5 stars.

I auditioned this receiver when buying my system. Kenwood has been known for providing great value in their products. This receiver doesn't fail to dissapoint. It excels on movies, especially with DTS already built in. Music is another story though. It's not nearly as good for music as for movies. If you only watch movies, this receiver rocks. If you listen to music ofter, this is NOT for you. It almost performs...ahem...terrible. Another note: the remote sucks. I'd like to give this receiver a 3.5, but it's not possible.