Performance-Inputs-Looks-Legible LCD readout on rcvr.

RF section of remote sometimes location sensitive

Another great rcvr from Kenwood. I have had a 1080/2080/3080 and now this 4090.Performance on all of the units have been great with subtle improvements along the way.I liked the older LCD remote excepting the delay period for volumne so i used other $5-10 remotes with a rcvr function to do many basic functions.I do like the new ir/rf remote as its instantneous but occasionally it may lose function unless you move it a little. Repositioning the antenna may correct this.I have always liked the large LCD readout on the high end Kenwoods. You can read across the room.Who can read anything except 1 foot away on most other receivers? The sound in DD and HDCD is crystal clear and just plain is outstanding, I use BIC 62 speakers all around as well as bettercables for speaker cable and interconnects and i think this combination is excellent for a medium to large size room for exceptional sound at an affordable price.I would also suggest a monster HTS 1000 line conditioner/surge protection .This receiver does not have a hundred tweeks but who needs the confusion when you really don't need them.Its everything most people need and more.I had a Sony 555es (a very good rcvr) but i liked the Kenwood better, with less tweeks, a legible readout plus Kenwood has added front panel controls behind a door if you don't use the remote.Great receiver!

Similar Products Used:

Sony 555es

None

Bright sound, weak bass

In short, this receiver is aweful. I mean it was over priced, by about 800 dollars US. I can not believe that I bought it. I wish I could take it back but I have had it longer than the 30 day grace period. totaly a waste of money. I tried 4 sets of speakers with this receiver. Paradigm Monitor 7's, Polk Rt800i's NHT super 2's and even a set of JBL's. Nothing sounds good with this receiver. Bright sound and muddy bass. I wish I could find some dummy to buy it from me......

Similar Products Used:

garbage can rolling down a hill

Many

Very few

Follow Up. Problem with guide on satellite receiver was cured by setting it up as a DSS instead of Satellite (user error). Remote works great now. Macros are very usefull. I recommend taking the time to study the users manual as it contains lots of usefull info.

Similar Products Used:

Sony,Pioneer

Amazing sound quality, tons of power, all the latest features to carry you through several years of new technology to attach to it

The two-way RF remote can be frustrating at times

I wanted an A/V receiver that would last at least a decade in terms of both operational reliability and technological relevance. But the one thing that I knew would provide me the most primal satisfaction would be audiophile-quality sound. I chose the VR-4090 for several reasons:

1. My previous positive experience with Kenwood and lack of familiarity with many of the other brands.
2. Kenwood's specs, customer reviews, and professional reviews led me to believe that the sound quality would be exceptional. And other new Kenwoods I had listened to sounded great.
3. I didn't want to spend too, too much and I discovered that I could get this one on eBay for a great price.
4. And this model, save for the remote and casing, has the same features as Kenwood's flagship VR-4900 so far as I could tell, so I again expected great sound.

I was somewhat anxious about my eBay purchase, since most reviewers complained (sometimes quite bitterly) about the remote and I wouldn't have the option of returning it if I didn't like it. And I had already bought new speakers and a CD changer, so I was apprehensive about spending the money. But once I got the VR-4090 up and running I couldn't believe my ears! I heard sounds on my CDs that I had never heard before. Subtleties in the music appeared with crystal clarity. I melted.

When I turned up the volume on Bach's unaccompanied cello suites, it sounded like the cellist was playing the piece from the seat next to me. I could not believe the sound quality. I have now spoiled my ears - any lesser sound will leaving me wanting.

Now, I wouldn't call myself an experienced audiophile. My interpretation and judgment of sound quality is based on my own limited experience. But I have rarely been completely satisfied with the sound I've heard from various sound systems outside of professional installations. Until now.

My new Polk Audio RT-1000i speakers had me worried when I attached them to my old amp. They sounded good, but not great. Attached to the VR-4090, they are wonderful. I am absolutely pleased with this receiver.

It has far more features than I will ever use. Currently mine is mostly going to waste. But I am content to know that it will readily handle any A/V device I may want to plug into it in the future.

With my gushing out of the way, I should mention the receiver's downside. As most reviewers have mentioned, the remote can be frustrating due to its RF operation. That's a neat feature, that you can operate the system through walls. But it seems to be an underpowered tranceiver. Some commands simply fail to reach the receiver. For me this is not a big issue, except when, late at night with the baby and my wife sleeping, a CD recorded at low levels ended and a particularly raucous one recorded at high levels began. I couldn't turn down the volume! But setting the remote to operate at a different frequency helped quite a bit.

In the end, the quality-to-price ratio is outstanding on this unit. I can put up with the remote's idiosynchracies to get incredible sound, features to fend off obsolescence for many years to come, and power to fill an arena with clean, clear, full sound.

Similar Products Used:

This replaces my 15-year-old Kenwood KA-54

This receiver is INCREDIBLY clean sounding. It also has tons of inputs to suite any need.

Remote is a little difficult to figure out.

I love this thing. It is my new pride and joy of my A/V system. I am not going to bore you with facts you can find from any retailer about the item but I have read reviews comparing this receiver to Marantz and did not believe it at first until I actually did compare the two. Granted they are both very good, but money talks and for the price I got the Kenwood for ($405) I am not complaining. A great receiver that WILL last (it sure has enough inputs for it)

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, Kenwood, Harmon Kardon,

Effortless in music.movie reproduction; build quality; flexibility for future additions; decent power.

Remote control can be frustrating; no bi-wire/bi-amp ability.

I've had this receiver since July, and even though I know they've been discontinued I thought I'd write this review in the case you come across one. I was actually very happy with my Yamaha 575a receiver, but one day was goofing around on Ubid and ending up being one of the winning bids for the Kenwood. But what I thought was blowing four bills on just another receiver turned out to be one of the best buys in home audio I've made in quite a long time!

This receiver doeas it all and well too. There's more than enough power to give realistic sound for any piece of music or movie in my living room. The Kenwood is built a notch above most everything else in the purchase price range too, primarily because it retailed at around $1000. It plays particularly well using HDCD disc because of it's built-in decoder.

I play all kinds of music and the Kenwood delivers clean, full sound at any volume level. I particularly enjoy its decent sounsdstage and wide dynamic range abilities. You really couldn't find a better deal on an up-to-date receiver than this beauty! Unless an even better bargain comes strolling my way (not with my luck) I see this Kenwood as the centerpiece to my humble home theater system for years to come. Grab one if you still can.

My system: Kenwood VR-4090B Receiver
Pioneer PD-F1009 301-disc CD changer
Sony DVP-S360 DVD player
Panasonic CT27D11 27" TV
Infinity IL30 speakers (front)
Acoustic Research AR-S112PS speaker (center)
Technics SB-T100 speakers (surround)
Acoustic Research S112PS subwoofer
Audioquest/Monster speaker cables
Acoustic Research/Monster A/V interconnect cables
Monster Cable Power Center HT700 Line Conditioner

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Sony ES, Technics, Pioneer AV receivers.

Looks,power

complicated

First off you must read the manual when setting this unit up. A first for me. There is no on screen display to speak of to help you. When you get it up and running it is fairly easy to operate. The remote works ok and controls most of my equipment. Not as well as the sony vision touch technology though. The sound from this amp is very musical. Almost larger than life with a deep but not punchy low end. It is a little boomy. Sounds like the adcom seperates I have. Amp noise is absent but it amplifies everything. On my NAD T751 if the sound level drops below a certain threshold(abstract sounds in recordings) it mutes(omits) them from the total amplifeied signal. When amps do this it makes the music seem to come from a darker backround. It also makes passages more dynamic, punchy, better theater sound, but you are not getting all the info on the recorded media. This kenwood amplifies everything. You hear very low voices between tracks on live recordings and even the singers catching their breath. This is a very true to the recording type amp. It does loose alot in dynamics when watching dvd's because of this. While Armageddon sounds weak it does Sound of Music perfect. Yanni sounds great while Cher(believe) sounds boomy. Best I can put,(If you have been to small clubs) The kenwood sounds like the drummer loaded up the base drum with blankets while the Nad presents the same drum with no blankets in it. I is surely a preferance thing here. The kemwood also makes your speakers think they are in a 30ft hall with a wood floor and a hard ceiling. I prefer the sound from the NAD even though I know it is hiding some things. With my eyes closed it presents a more live in the room feel than the keenwood on my live recordings (metallica s&m, kix, queensryche ect). The Nad also has a more dynamic movie experience. My wife on the other hand prefers the Kenwood. She listens to Yanni ect and watches Drama's where audio dynamics are not needed. On classical music the Kenwood puts you in the radio city music hall for the concert while the Nad puts the orchestra in your livingroom. The Kenwood has more inputs than you will ever need. I think I am going to keep the kenwood as a preamp and use the 5.1 out to some Nad amps. The sound does not get colored untill the amp section in the kenwood. Overall it is a good receiver but listen to it before you buy it. I did not have a local dealer and took a chance on crazy ubid price. Great buy, but the sound is more mainstream than what I like. Actually most people don't like the sound of the Nad but I am one of those who do. Ratings are given for the price I paid, $349 + Shipping.

Similar Products Used:

Nad t751, Sony ES, Adcom

solid body, good looking. Easy to use, remote learning functions. A lot of input/output.

1) Amplifier background noise is high
2) slow reponse of the remote control

One week after I bought VR4090B, Kenwood remove all its VR4*** products from its web site. I even can't register on the Web since it is not listed on their product list. They fixed this problem after several days. But this gave me a bad feeling of what I got, and experience soon proves me of that.

After used it for 2 months, feel disappointed:
I use an optical fiber(toslink) to connect from my DVD player to this receiver. When I play music CDs, I can hear the background noise coming from the tweeter (when my ears are very close to the tweeter, and during the quiet preiod of the music). I tested with several high quality CDs, got the same result. However, when there is no input, such as between two songs, there is no such noise. Therefore, I guess the problem is the DA Converter, it may not tune up well and has zero offset...

I don't know why so many reviews here said it has very clear highs. The high is clear, if you didn't put your ears close to the tweeter...or am I doing something worng?

The learning function of the remote is easier to use and more powerful than what it said on the manual, I think they improve the software without notice. However the receiver reponses the remote control signal very slowly, you can't push the button quickly.

Overall, it is a reciever with enough power, good dynamic and very precise sound image.

My system:
VR4090B
front: JBL S310

Tons of inputs and outputs that will last for a very long time! Great sounding! Universal Video is a bonus for all those that understands how it works!

Honestly, none at the moment!

When i was deciding to buy my PS2 i was thinking of upgrading my system that i had for over 8 yrs. I was reading all the specs for PS2 and discovered all the digital sources it supported and found out that my old Kenwood receiver was pretty much ancient and couldn't support all the new standard sound formats. So i did more research for certain models to get more info because i was prepared to put down quite a bit of money for my new receiver. Well first, i went to Future Shop and bought the first Kenwood i saw which was the VR-410. I was really impressed even with this middle range model from Kenwood. I was planning on keeping it until my friend showed me a Kenwood brochure with all the top of the line Kenwood models. DAMMMMMMMMMM HIM! Well to make a long story short, i fell in love with this model the moment i laid my eyes on it and knew i had to have this model. My first impressions of this model was that it was huge and kind of heavy. The design of this model is not your usual square size shape, but that's not a problem because it looks great nonetheless. When it comes to setting up a home theatre, most people have trouble and are confused about all the inputs and outputs on the back of the receiver. Well good news folks, this receiver is pretty easy to hook up because it comes with a well diagramed manual that takes you step by step on what to hook up and where to hook it up. It doesn't get any better than this. If you have trouble connecting this receiver with your equipment, may God have mercy on your soul. Well once i hooked up everything i put in my test DVD - GONE IN 60 SECONDS.........sounds freaking amazing on this receiver. And i don't even have amazing speakers. This receiver makes my speakers sound great! All the sounds and dialogue in the movie was crystal clear and then some. It's a shame that PS2 hasn't incorporated any Dolby Digital into their games because i sure would like to know what that would sound like on my receiver. Another big bonus for this receiver is the Universal Video option. Im sure a lot of people haven't heard of this or even know how it works, but to my understanding, it works great if you connect your equipment using S-Video and RCA cables because you can just connect one S-Video cord directly from your receiver to your TV and not have to worry about the RCA cables. I also popped in The Matrix and watched the Lobby scene and it was freaking loud and clear. There are also enough inputs and outputs to last you for quite some time along with the digital inputs and outputs. The only thing this doesn't have are inputs for 6.1 sounds which i dont really care about right now since there aren't enough movies that utilize these new sound schemes. As for the remote, yes it is a little trouble to use sometimes but it sure does look cool! Its a shame Kenwood didn't spend more time writing a better manual on how to use the remote. But after a while you'll get a hang of it and find that the remote isn't really that awful. It has learn functions so you can basically program all your other remotes into this one. Besides, if you spend this much money just for a good remote then that's too bad because you are overlooking the receiver itself and the benefits of it. So don't complain about the remote, it's really not that bad. So overall, this is a kickass receiver that gives you a bang for your buck. I've got to say that i've always been a fan of Kenwood and im glad im sticking to it.

Macro Capability, A/B Speaker Output, 5 Audio DSP Listening ModesQuartz PLL Synthesized Digital Tuning Stereo Power: 130 Watts per Channel

It's got tons of features. PS2 kicks ass through this baby! The Dolby Digital surround is awesome. I have to agree with earlier reviews, this is a killer receiver. I highly reccommend it. Click Here to
get yours!