When this unit was on sale for $400, I quickly got one simply for its good look. Later, I quickly sold it because it only looks cool. Don't be cheated by its look like so many others, unless you don't care the sound quality. I got an $180 AIWA that sounds much better than this. I have done two thing that I regret all the time in my life. First is my virgin act happened too late. Second is this terrible purchase of this fancy, showy but cheap product.

I've had this receiver for a year now and within that its been reliable. It sounds clean at "moderate" volume levels. It always identifies the bitstream from my dvd player and automatically decodes the format accurately. These are its high points. The only problem I have is with the remote, its a little slow. That aside its a very good entry level receiver.

I purchased this piece of crap at Circuit City and a pair of B&W CDM7 SE's at a high end store. It sounded awful. I went back returned it and got a Harman Kardon AVR 65. The difference blew me away. My girlfriend even noticed the difference. Do yourself a favor and save a little while longer and purchase a Harman Kardon, Denon, or Marantz. The AVR 65 gets 5 stars!

Excellent stereo sound, separation & extension.The frequenty range this receiver can produce is amazing.It extended the sound of my 6 matched Infinity speakers to a range I had never experienced before & that includes the listening room where I first heard them. For the price & time I think it was the best digital receiver available. Styling was very good.

Lame remote difficult to use. Poorly written & layed out Manual took quite awhile to get it setup & running the first time.

The VR-2080 is my first leap into digital. I bought my first stereo system with Marantz, Bose, Sony,& Pioneer components in the early 1960's & a Prologic system in 1993. I purchased VR-2080 on a recommendation I read in Home Theather Magazine over 3 years ago. During that time I've had one problem, a fuse burned out & was replaced under warranty, other than that, it just blazes along producing great sound. It's my 9th receiver, or amp & tuner combo in the past 30 yr's & I give HIGH mark's. Today there are better digital receivers out there with alot more features at a price that is less than what the VR-2080 cost. Even though I'm ready top upgrade to the new 6.1 and beyond formats, I won't for now because of this receiver's sound & overall guality. If it's still working when I do purchase a replacement the VR-2080 will ago into the master bedroom to upgrade a small digital system & I'll bet cold hard cash it will ROCK there to!

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Sony, Denon, Marantz,Pioneer,Panasonic, BK + other brands

Overall a good Dolby Digital/DTS receiver. Not the best for music and the remote is a bit difficult AT FIRST. Overall I am happy with this product.

It has verry good sound when it is working and not in the shop.

Been in the shop 4 times for a total of 3 months. No support from Kenwood

This is a great sounding unit but it is very unreliable and Kenwood is not willing to stand behind it. I had the unit 4 months and the digital sources quit totaly and the analog was not amplified. Took it to a place in town they kept it for 3 weeks could not fix it after it took two weeks for Kenwood to send them the service mannual. I then called kenwood they said that it was with out warenty because I did not have a printed sales recipt I only had a hand written one but they agreed to fix it. I shiped it to then they kept it for two weeks and when I got it back it worked fine but they would not tell me what they fixed. Four months later same thing happened again. I got it fixed again and still have it the remote is slow but it sounds great. Next time I will not buy a Kenwood

When I purchased Kenwood's VR2080 last July (1998), I chose this reciever over other brands because of its value. For $799, VR2080 offers 100 watts per channel, Dolby Digital, and DTS as well as DSPs. The remote looked "state of the art" and being a gadget individual, I was sold.
After the first week, I noticed that the receiver produced "very limited" amount of bass from the center, left/right, and rear channels. The subwoofers handled the bass which had an average performance. The receiver was connected to Cambridge's Center Channel Plus, Model Sixes, and Ensemble IIIs. I also had Marantz's MA 500 THX Amplifier connected for the Subwoofer's preout. I was disappointed when DVD movies played with Dolby Digital signals became "distorted" at -15DB.

It took me a while to figure out the remote. Besides its sleek styling, the remote felt sluggish when activated. Sometimes I needed to press the joystick twice for it to respond. Furthermore, I needed to point the remote towards the receiver in order to execute a command.

On Thanksgiving, the receiver died. While watching a DVD movie at -20DB in Dolby Digital 5.1, the panel started to blink during an explosion scene in the movie. All of the sudden, the receiver stopped blinking and I was unable to turn it back on.

When I brought it back to the store where I bought the receiver, the rep told me that it was a four week turn around time for serviced. To make a long story short, I waited for 3 months and the receiver remained unrepaired. The service center could not repair the unit because they claimed that the parts ordered for the last three months were back-ordered from Kenwood. Also, Kenwood mentioned that I would wait another month for the parts to arrive at the service center. Luckily, the store which I bought the receiver felt sympathetic with my situation and gave me credit towards a next purchase. I chose Yamaha's RX-V550. Even though I had to pay $100 more, it was well spent. With the same setup as the VR2080, the V550 pushes plenty of bass and as well as clarity on all channels. In comparision with the front panels, the Yamaha is much user friendly.

If you're in the market to purchase a digital receiver, stay away from Kenwood. Or you may share the same faith of frustration and disappointments.

I have yet to have any problems with and the sound is wonderful. DVD, Sony XBR Trinitron 36 television and this receiver is a great experience.

Clunky remote and I will keep in mind to keep it out of the stereo cabinet so not to overheat

I bought this receiver new at ubid for 160.00 so I ready for anything on it.

Excellent DTS and DD.

Remote not practical

I too purchased this receiver from UBid. First and foremost, I have never (knock on wod) had any problems, and I love this unit. If you do overheat and loose sound, which can happen with the 2080 when not ventilated, 99% of the time it will be the F3 fuse located under the unit casing, toward the front. I've repaired this twice on a friend's unit tht was sandwiched between components. As for the remote, following the initial setup of the unit, I have used a universal remote called the "A/V Producer", availabe at Best Buy, Circuit City, and elsewhere. It runs around $70 bucks, but it's wonderful. It also has a cheaper little brother that works eqully well for about $30. It has programmable keys (zoom for DVD for example) and a backlight. A true universal remote, in my mind in a must have for this receiver.

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Kenwood 2090

Good sound in DTS modes.

Easily overheats and has Poor sound in Dolby Surround.

I've had this particular receiver for about 8 or 9 months now. Like most people, I was quite impressed with the DTS sound. However, I was far from impressed with the Dolby Surround. I still have VHS tapes that I occasionally watch and am forced to listen to them in stereo rather than surround. I too, am disappointed with the difficulty in changing volume. I'm considering buying a replacemnt remote. As far as problems go, I've only had one. I purchased the matching DVD palyer, DVF-9010. I originally placed the DVD player directly on top of the reciever, just like in all the pictures. That was a mistake. I couldn't make it through a movie without overheat problems. After rearrangeing my sytem, the overheating problem was gone. Too much heat was created between the two components. All in all, I recommend this Receiver for the average user. I would also recommend purchasing a different remote.

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Sony, JVC, Technics.