Kenwood VR-2080

looks good,sounds good,priced good. many features

I purchased the VR-2080 because of its supposed overall value. I am here to report to you that the problems that I have had with this reciever are amazing. I purchased the unit five months ago and was very pleased until I had a problem with it. I had to take it to an authorized service center (two hours away) drop it off for 3 weeks to have them tell me they could not fix it. Kenwoods customer service was not willing to help me in any way. I then had to go pick it up (two hours away again,) and send it to another dealer for replacemnt. ($51.00 for shipping). They are going to replace the unit, but I am afraid I might have the same problems again. I feel that Kenwood did NOTHING to help me and would never purchase another Kenwood product again.

I purchased the VR-2080 approximately a month and a half ago from the local Circuit City. I must admit that in the store the receiver sounded all right, and for $699, I found it a great value since it included Dolby Digital as well as DTS. Upon taking the receiver home I hooked it up and found installation to be a breeze, as well as setup, save for the lack of OSD and the cumbersome nature of the remote control. Initially, the lack of spatial imaging from the receiver(which I had on previous receiver, a 15 year old Yamaha RV-9) seemed obtrusive, but I decided a break in period may be necessary although most will tell you that solid state electronics do not require the aforementioned break in period. After a week of listening to the unit, the imaging had not improved and thus, being an optimist, I decided to wait for another week before making a decision as to return the receiver. The receiver did not make it to the end of the second week; the subwoofer output on the unit quit on me(i had it hooked to the Velodyne 1210). This fact, alond with the fact that the receiver completely lacked any type of imaging, forced me to return it. After doing so, I considered the Yamaha RX-V995, but eventually purchased the RX-V2095, for reasons mentioned in my review on the 2095. For anyone considering purchasing the RV-2080, please be adivised of the problems I and many others have had. I have nothing against Kenwood products as I have a Kenwood X-Celon CD player in my car, but when it comes to home theater and music reproduction, the VR-2080 does not sastify.

nice reciever, remote is a little slow

Recently purchased the VR-2080 to replace a Sony STR-GX909ES (hated to see it go) because I felt it was time to jump on the DD & DTS bandwagon. All that I can say is that I'm glad I made the switch. I've read a lot of complaints about the cumbersome remote, and to some extent it is, but I'm not going to hold anything against the VR-2080 because of this. Call me crazy but I've never considered buying a receiver based on the remote, in fact I can honestly say that I had used my Sony's remote a total of ten times in five years. I also love the simplistic look and feel of the receiver. With ample power, good looks (to me)and built in DD & DTS decoding this is truly a nice receiver.

Who designed this piece of junk? If you want to get a migraine headache and lose sleep then please buy this receiver! I spent three nights trying to get the LCD remote to work!!!AC-3 does not work well
NO S video
NO DTS decoding

Kenwood engineers need to go back to the drawing board on this receiver!
SAVE YOUR MONEY, go buy a YAMAHA receiver
I wish I could give a 'negative 10 stars' on this one!

Don't even think about buying this receiver. Stupid me, who after reading the bad reviews and problems with the receiver, still went out and bought one because the damn thing looks cool and so does the remote. One month later I start to hear an occasional clipping noise. One week after that and now all I hear is the clipping noise. I am going to attempt to return it and find another brand. I had a buzzing problem with the Kenwood 1080 :(

Bad product. The remote looks cool, and performs badly, if at all. Within a week the DSP for the DTS and digital dolby fried. I took it back and bought a Sony Elite.

I purchased this receiver just after christmas as a present to myself. I must admit, I was initially swayed by the the receiver's looks and the uniqueness of the remote. While this receiver accomplishes its mission dutifully as a medium priced Dolby Digital/DTS Home Theater Receiver, Kenwood could have addressed a few issues to make this a truly outstanding receiver for the price. First to the praises. The cosmetic apeal is a breath of fresh air. I have the matching CD player (CD-2260M) and I am hoping to purchase the matching DVD player (KR-2070) soon. Put together they look outstanding. I love music more than I do movies, so the matching CD player was a must. The VR-2080's remote can actually display the CD and track titles from any of the 200 CDs in the 2260M. If you like 200 disc changers, the combination of the two is an outstanding feature of the 2080. Kenwood also makes a 5 disc changer with CD Text that has similar compatibility to the 2080. While this receiver is decent in the music department, where the 2080 really shines is in its Dolby Digital and DTS modes. This is an incredibly quiet unit, producing both highs and low with punch and clairity. Using a Panasonic A120 DVD player, movies can literaly envelope you with sound played through this receiver. With 100Wx5, it has more than enough power to handle soundtracks and special effects. DTS playback is equally remarkable. While I have not watched a DTS encoded DVD, I have played a DTS CD. The fidelity was outstanding as was the dynamic range. I am looking forward to more DTS CDs. Dolby Pro Logic recording was also good with clean separation between the front and rear channels. The 5 DSP modes depend on your tastes. I generally do not use them with two exceptions. I found the "Cathedral" mode enjoyable for listening to Bach's organ music and I enjoyed the "Arena" settings for listening to live rock concert recordings. I personally like these environmental enhancements for listen to some music. But like many things, this is a matter of personal taste
Whether or not you would want an active subwoofer with this 2080 depends on your tastes and existing speakers. I initally used two Technics CR-77 floor standing speakers(200W Max, 3 way, 12" woofer) and found that the sound was good, but lacked some bass. I recently purchased two more expensive Yahmaha (do they make anything bad?) floor standing tower speakers. The model number escapes me. They are four way with 12" side firing subwoofers rated at 200W max. The bass level was remarkably improved as was overall clairity and range. I can never turn the bass up all the way lest I disturb my neighbors. These speakers have a dynamic range that goes down to 34Hz. Most subwoofers go down to 20Hz. As with all receivers, this unit is remarkably enhanced by using good speakers.
To sum up this receiver's good points, it just plain sounds good. I have listened extensively to Kenwood's VR-209 and VR-309 receivers which are both 500W Dolby Digital Receivers (the 309 also has S-video and DTS), and the 2080 sounds significanly better in all areas of the sound spectrum. One can definately tell the Kenwood did indeed use better amps and signal processors in the 2080 and did not just "dress up" its lower level line with fancy cosmetics and a complex remote. Cost is another plus for the 2080. Lately one can find the unit for anywhere from $400-$600. I have not found another receiver that sounds as good in this price range. Indeed, I would take the 2080's sound over many higher priced receivers. I give this unit 4 stars for sound quality.
While the VR-2080 performs its base job, that of reproducing sounds, very very well, there are several serious issues which prevent the 2080 from being a truly top flight receiver. Much has been made of the 2080's Power Pad remote for better or for worse. It too has its good points and bad. I like not having to rely on an onscreen interface to set up the receiver and set up speakers levels. Its discracting if while watching a movie if I have to go through an onscreen menu if I want to turn the center channel up or down, or adjust the bass level. The Power Pad give you the ease of a graphic interfase without having to use the TV every time you want to make a change. Also, as I stated before, the remote works great with a compatible Kenwood CD player. What is bad about the remote is that its terrible for performing simple functions. One must often navigate several menus to exectute a simple command. Its just plain cumbersome to use this remote to control your VCR, TV, cable or satilite. Functions that on normal remotes where you have to press one or two buttons over and over, like channel surfing or FF or RW are cumbersome to do with this remote. Its very anoying and you will find yourself using the origional source remotes frequently (except for a Kenwood CD player). Most importantly, controlling the volume is moderately problematic as well. Most times the user must hit the volume buttons on the remote repeatedly for the receiver to detect the signal. If you have the remote pointed at the reciever and the remote has gone into sleep mode (the LCD is dark), one cannot simply hit the volume button for the volume to adjust. One must wake up the remote by either pressing the volume buttons several times or hit the joystick to wake up the remote. Kenwood should have alowed for the remote to control volume whether or not the LCD screen was lit or not. I do not find the cumbersome remote debilitating, only moderately anoying at times. I recomend purchasing kenwood's other more tradional remote used on the 309 and lower models. You can't use it to set up the receiver's speaker leves or inputs, but with it you can easily switch between sources, control volume, and control other sources quite easily. I strongly recomend purchasing this remote and only using the power pad for setup and complex functions.
My other big problem with the 2080 has been reliability. After about 4 months of use, the right rear channel started spitting and emitted an audible hiss whenever the unit was in any surround mode. Whenever this happened, the cooling fan ran on high and often. I suspected this amplifier was receiving too much power and therefor it was over heating. This would explain the hiss and the cooling fan. Sure enough when I took it to get repaired (under warenty) there was a defective resistor conected to the amplifier causing it to get too much power. While it wasn't really a big deal to get repaired, like other VR-2080 owners, I have experienced reliablity problems with it. My last quip has to do with the lack of S-Video conections. While currently I only have one source that uses S-Video (my DVD player), which can be run directly to my TV, I may run into trouble later if I want a dish or S-VHS VCR if my TV doesn't have enough inputs.
In conclusion, this receiver is definately worth $400 if you can find it at that price (which I did), but in hindsight I wish I would have spend a little more and gone with the Yahmaha RX-V995. The VR-2080 is an outstanding sounding receiver, but the reliability problems alone warrent prospective buyers shopping around. If you are looking to spend $400-$500 on a reciever, this is a great buy. It looks like it should cost more and it sounds like it should cost more, but its usability is below average and its not upgradable. (It also lacks a 6 channel analog input for future formats.) If you are looking at the $800.00 range, which is what this unit origionaly retailed for, look at Sony ES and Yahmaha. However, you will have a hard time beating the value and sound of the VR-2080 for $400-$500.
4 Stars for value
4 Stars for sound
5 Stars for cosmetic appeal
2 Stars for ease of use (remote)
2 Stars for reliability

TOTAL= 3.5 stars