#Inputs/Outputs, DTS, AC3, Circle Surround,Preouts,RF Remote

Rears are basic clips, Hard to read from far away.

After reading alot of magazine and net reviews that rated the VR-410 so highly I decided to purchase it. It has many more options than any of the other receivers I was looking at in the low $300-$400 price range (Sony, Yamaha). In fact I've read in several places that its functionality is unheard of at the sub-$1000 level. I have it hooked up to the JBL NSP1 HT package (4 N24 satellites and the N-Center @ $287) & the AR-PS108S subwoofer @ $153 at Bizrate.com - AOKNet, INC. The Receiver delivers smooth clear sound on this system with plenty of power to spare. Both HT and Music sound incredible. The Circle Surround option is amazing, I rarely turn it off. I find it superior to the DSP modes. The AC3 and DTS decoding sounds flawless. I would highly recommend this unit to anyone concerned with cost but doesn't want to give up functionality.

Price, DTS, DD, Circle Surround (For Music), Remote Control

Rear clips (But for this price, you can expect a little corner cutting), Bass when not setup correctly

I recently upgraded from a Pioneer Pro-Logic receiver. After having heard the DD & DTS hype for over a year, I felt it was time to make the move to upgrade. Fortunately, my Direct TV receiver has an optical output and is DD compliant.

Since this is my first experience, I felt I wanted to get the best my money could get with a $300 limit. After reading many reviews from here, etown, and a couple of other sites, this receiver made the most sense.

This receiver handles all signals fed to it wonderfully. The sound you get as a result is basically the same quality that you feed it. Using a DVD and Direct TV system with this, the sound is truely incredible. DTS movies are even better.

Though there is a slight problem with the "bass management" system, I have found a way to get around it. Most complain about the "lack of bass". In order to correct this you will need a powered sub. Then when you do the speaker setup make sure you use the following selections to maximize "bass" output. Sub set to "YES", Front speakers set to "Large", and Center speaker set to "Normal". If you set the Center speaker to "LARGE", then the receiver WILL ONLY use the sub for DD, DTS, and Circle Surround modes (I.E. Receiver WILL NOT use sub in PROLOGIC).

Also, if you have a DVD player, I would suggest getting AVIA or VE to calibrate your system (Dont forget to get the RadioShack sound meter for $25). This will greatly improve the sound.

In addition, my playstation games sound incredibly realistic and have a lot more depth.

The remote on this thing is incredible. I have been able to elimate the other four remotes I used to use.

This is probably one of the best valued A/V receivers on the market. If you have a small budget and are getting into "home theater", this is a perfect receiver to start out with. Or, if you are looking for a receiver to have in a second room such as your bedroom or family room, the price here is just right.

I currently am using the following speakers:
Fronts- JBL HLS 610s
Center- Cerwin Vega 76C
Rears- JBL N24 satellites

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-305

I have just purchased this unit. I need help. I can't figure out how to get the Circle Surround to work, when listening in digital, which I read here is quite impressive. I haven't yet bought a DVD player, so rigt now I get very feeble sound from my speakers when I play vidoe and the cable tv. Is this ok? Have rechecked my settings and seems ok. And besides button 1 and 2 on the remote no other functionality seem to work?

I would appreciate help if someone would be so kind to email me. thanking you in earnest.

Remote, ease of use/set-up, number of inputs

music sound quality, bass control flexibility, no PL II

After looking around for a receiver that had the options and inputs that I wanted I decided on the 410. It was straight forward to set up although the manual was very poorly written, severely lacking in any explainations of functions or capabilities.

The first thing I noticed upon playing a CD was a noticable lack of bass. I was able to get an output to the sub eventually by selecting "normal" for main speakers. This helped a bit but the sound still sounded weak. The circle surround feature is nice and gives music a realistic depth. I also like the "monitor" function which allows you to send an analog source to a graphic equalizer if desired.

Movies did not sound too bad, but then this was my first surround receiver and did not have much to compare it to. Control of individual channel sound levels was easy to do. Changing decoding modes required stepping through all of the modes to get to the one you wanted (including DSP modes).

Now the remote. This is a work of art. The backlite LCD display made programming a snap. And if some of your favorite functions were not included in the program, then the remote learned them easily. The remote had a fairly intuitive functionality which made it easy to select a music or video source on the receiver while at the same time changing the functionality of the remote to control the associated device. I loved it!

After giving the 410 a good trial for a couple of weeks I decided that I couldn't live with the sound quality and decided to return it. As soon as I hooked my old HK PM645 back up and put in a CD it was night and day. It is true when they say that you get what you pay for and the 410 with its integrated amps is typical of average receivers in that price range. Although Kenwood packs a lot of functionality into this unit the quality of the amp really detracts from the overall experience with it. I am now considering Onkyo, Denon and NAD - strictly discrete amps.

Overall I would say that for general movie or television watching this is a pretty good receiver that will give you a fair amount of flexibility and functionality for your money. But if you are looking for fidelity in your music and good power handling for DTS soundtracks, then you may want to consider a higher end receiver. I had a really hard time returning the remote however (did I mention that I loved the remote:)).

Similar Products Used:

First A/V receiver

Amendment to my review below:

I think everyone should know that the review cannot be used to switch to Video3 (what my DirecTV system is on). For some odd reason, there is no Digi port for Video1 or Video2, but there is for Video3. Go Figure.

I'm rating at 3 for each to even out my score since I already submitted a review. But this is an excellent receiver, and I give it 5 stars.

Awesome 5.1 and dts audio, Effective large Rf remote with learning capabilities.Excellent match with my paradigm speakers.Strong rear power,which is lacking in many other amps (ie pioneer. Large easy to read lcd front panel. Midnight mode is a bonus. Full preouts for all channels rather than just sub out, is also good.

No full binding posts for rears, so banana plugs can't be used. Remote lacks lit lcd for nighttime use. red led indicators for 5.1, dts, stereo, and dsp modes are difficult to see.

Unbeatable value for the features, at just around 50 bucks more than the vr-409, you get alot more features, found in amps twice the price, Excellent receiver for the dvd or home theatre enthusiast. Audiophiles may look elsewhere though as music is ,although good, but not as impressive as whats generated from a marantz-5000 or similar amp. 5.1 and dts is top of the heap though. dvd or laserdisc owners look no further than this new offering from kenwood.

Similar Products Used:

vr-409

lots of options and inputs that other recievers in this price range do not have.

bass and not user friendly

First of all let me just demote Sony audio visual products. I HATE THEM!!!!!!!!! I have 2 sony vcrs and a sony reciever a sony cd player and a sony minisystem. Why i bought so many sony products i dont know. But most of them suck. First off the vcrs dont record very well and they dont play old tapes worth crap. secon, the minisystem and the reciever both had the same problem where the audio channels after a while starting shutting off by themselves. the cd player i have no beef with.....yet.

anyways back to the review. I just bought this kenwood reciever a month ago at futureshop and it was a demo. It did not come with an instruction manual . All it came with was the remote and the reciever. now the setup was simple but i still dont know what the heck the inputs for the dvd 6 ch. input in the back is for? can u still use it if you already have the optical dvd input? i finally after half a month discovered how to change into prologic, 3 sound, and circ mode (YOU have to have only channel A speakers on or these modes wont turn on!!!!!) Now i still have not been able to figure out how to switch to dts and dolby surround mode......if anyone knows please email me. secondly, the remote.......god the remote. it took me half an hour to figure out how to turn on the tv and other systems on with the remote. its not that hard....but i still have not found out how to control the reciever with it.!! is there supposed to be a peripheral attachment that enables the control to work on the reciever? if anyone knows email me please!!!!!!!
i dont have a subwoofer so as the other people mentioned the bass isnt that great.
However, i do give credit to the amount of inputs and the bannana clips for this system. I looked at the pioneer and sony reciever in this price range and none of them had these many options. on the other hand kenwood is not as good a brand as pioneer and sony (supposedly) is. similarly i bet the JVC unit has as many options as the kenwood. Anwyays......another problem i had was while i was watching highlander endgame on dvd.....all of a sudden the receiver shutt off and started blinking. luckily it wasnt blown. i just turned it off and on again. but when it got to the same part of the movie it shut off again. apparently the volume was too high and everytime it got to that part, which was a little louder then the rest of the movie, it shut off (it definitely wasnt really loud, my mother was studying upstairs and she was not complaining of the noise). so this reciever isnt that amazing.

Similar Products Used:

sony

C.S5.1 EASY TO USE

BASS BUT BACK UP BY SUBWOOFER

I HAVE USE MORE ON THE LD VCD & CD THA CS 5.1 GAVE A GREAT SOUND I NEVER HAVE IN OTHER SET, ALSO THE DOLBY & DTS PRODUSE FINE SOUND. I VERY HAPPY HAVING THIS COMPONET.

Similar Products Used:

AVR300

excellent sound, remote, cs5.1

lack of bass in stereo mode

the amount of ambience this thing produces is just crazy for a midrange receiver, excellent highs, good enough mids and solid bass except for stereo mode but this can be fixed provided you have a sub (just choose normal speaker size for the mains), circle surround is just amazing as it sounds very natural, dd and dts give excellent channel separation and a lot of ambience, dts sounds more dynamic then dd and the center channel doesn't die out during dialog like it does on a lot of dd soundtracks, the remote is the best universal remote i've ever used except when you use hitachi components (hitachi is not pre-programmed for some reason), surround power is not really 100w x5 because it's one channel driven as are all the other midrange receivers but it still gives plenty of power without any distortion, overall an excellent product

Similar Products Used:

kenwood, sony

Remote, ease of use, Never missed digital detection IE: DTS/Dolby

Terrible bass management between DTS and Dolby, Bass is fine IF you have a sub and ONLY with a sub.

After upgrading my RCA DVD player to a SONY DVP-670D I felt it necessary to submit my review. The player upgrade was to take advantage of DTS. Dolby has been great but after hearing my friends STRDB-840 Sony receiver with DTS and NO subwoofer I had to upgrade.

To put my system into perspective these components are used:

Display: Sony 27" Trinitron
Receiver: Kenwood VR-410 100w per channel DTS/Dolby Decoding
CD Changer: Kenwood CD-425M 200 disc changer
DVD: Sony DVP-670D 5 disc changer
VCR: RCA home theatre series stereo 4head

Speakers: (all Paradigm)
Centre: CC-70
Mains: Titan IV's
Surrounds: ADP-170 Dipoles
Sub: PDR-12" 100w

Up until now I haven't had any real gripes with this amp. Of course as others have noted the bass is rather lacking without a sub. If you have only mains you can get decent stereo bass (NO DSP's used) by setting the mains to LARGE. This setting does nothing however while using Dolby since all bass is sent to the sub while in digital mode. There is an exception to this concerning DTS which why I felt the need to clear this up.

On these low end receivers what seems to be the main way for companies to cut costs is to sharply cut the current output to the speakers. Though Dolby/DTS are considered equal power to all channels except the sub (the sub being a powered one), companies short change on this in order to provide all the goodies for us joe averages who don't make enough for seperates and individual amps per speaker. I MUST make this clear to any perspective buyer: 100 watts per channel for Dolby/DTS ONLY means PEAK output and not SUSTAINED output.
This boils down to the amps ability to have enough overhead for any peak currents IE: explosions, helicopters etc. On this and other low end models this means we have SOME overhead above any given setting below 1/2 on the volume to handle these peak transients. On HIGH end models we could run the amp around half volume to 3/4 volume and still have no discernable distortion or clipping due the amp losing it's ability to output the given signal.

The best way I can say it is that "Dolby/DTS are not equal among any matching wattage outputs per manufacturer" It all comes down to the quality and CURRENT output of the amps NOT the WATTAGE. I've heard a friends 35 watt seperates system bloody near tear the house apart and not break a sweat with overheating or clipping due to the amps CURRENT output.

Anyways back to this receiver; all the features are great and only having 3 DSP's with Circle surround is no loss due to all but circle surround sounding very artificial. Basically all of them mess with the reverb delays and not much else such as spatial accuity or placement. The remote is a dream for this unit, very powerful and feature packed. Being a universal AND learning remote makes it the best one I've had EVER for a receiver. All basic digital formats are supported (not EX/ES for Dolby/DTS) Has alot of connections for components and is generally easy to use.

Now for my main gripe: Bass management and steering are terrible on this thing. My old DVD player was Dolby only and I had my system set up with the fronts/centre/surrounds set to LARGE. The sub was set to on and all speakers/sub were set to a DB level of (8). When switching between Dolby and stereo IE: movies and music, I had no problem getting bass redirected to where it was needed. Dolby would use the sub for movies and extreme effects and the CD would get just the mains and the bass would be steered to them. Nice sounding SO FAR. Now using DTS it is very apparent that DTS uses a much different bass management routine. The bass is not directed to only the sub but to ALL the speakers set to LARGE. Also the subs crossover frequency seems to have been lowered to compensate for the mains and other speakers having more bass. Only problem is that the receiver due to its price point and KAM-1 amplfier circuit is NOT CAPABLE of outputing the high current needed to drive 5 channels with bass. So what your left with is very thin sound from ALL channels including the sub. Now you can turn the volume up approx 10-15 DB's on the display and still not have the punch and clarity that Dolby has due to its simpler bass management.
Now this can be somewhat compensated for by manually changing all of your speaker sizes back to small/normal. But you shouldn't have to since the amp APPARENTLY outputs 100watts per channel. Now this is where my little quote comes in: "equal wattages among different companies are NOT equal in current output"
My friend has a SONY STRDB-840 "HIGH CURRENT" amp outputting the same 100 watts that this does. Only difference is that the current level is MUCH GREATER. He can drive all the mains and other speakers with DOLBY/DTS and not have to change any settings. The real sonic difference between the formats becomes apparent. DTS has greater spatial imaging and better dynamics with transients than Dolby ever had. But if you use these budget recievers you don't get the real gist of the quality.

Don't expect an improvement in dynamics or bass if DTS is used with this amp. It just cannot output the current needed to all driven channels to take advantage of DTS. It's Dolby and stereo output are just fine for the most part though.

To sum up my impressions from the last 4 months of using this unit: Excellent remote (a real deal for this price point) Decent output for Dolby/Stereo IF settings are correct. Terrible DTS management due to lack of CURRENT output from KAM-1 amplfier circuit. Consider this a real good budget Dolby amp and nothing more!

Hope this helps some of you out there!

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood VR-208 Dolby only 50w per channel.