Remote, DPLII, value

at this price, none

I agree with everything Henry says below; just a couple of additional points.

The RF function on the remote won't go through walls as if from another room (like my DTV receiver RF remote), so I was a little dissapointed that I could not control the unit while listening to my "B" speakers in another room.

Setting up the remote was slightly challenging - but we're only talking about 15 minutes of trial and error and reading the instructions (which could be better).

As previously mentioned - the DSP modes are fantastic - kicks butt over what I had with my previous Sony units. Hearing the opening battle on Gladiator in DTS was amazing - flaming arrows whizzing by all around the room, etc. And DPLII w/ music CD's sounds great - fed my Sony subwoofer nicely as well. I have several Sony components and thought I should stick to a Sony receiver for GP's, but boy was I wrong. For the price you can't beat the 509. Pay a hundred bux more for the 510 if you want THX specs; that's the only difference.

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Sony STRDE 1015, 975

easy to set up. I like the remote
Worked great until . . .

Wish the input mode (analog,digital) could be changed via the remote. AND NOW, Off to the repair shop!

I purchased this unit along with Polk speakers, DVD player etc. in November. Putting things together wasn't too bad, and enjoyed the unit for about 8 weeks.

Then, the center channel output became a problem. Volume adjustment is not working properly. I now have a choice: No sound or very loud. Did the speaker and wire checks, but it is the output from the receiver.

Called Kenwood customer service and they walked me though a reset, but didn't fix the problem. I can take it to one of their authorized fixers (2 hours away) or I can ship it.

Crutchfield will let me ship it to them for free, but looking at a 3-6 week turnaround. My guess it is something that is not easily fixable.

Needless to say I am very dissapointed with this product, and now a little wary of the brand.

Now I get to go back to TV sound and no music for awhile.
Bummer.

Dolby Pro Logic II
Excellant learning remote
1-800 telephone support
Great price for what you get

Taping from tape recorder is a hassle
Adjusting sound level on front speakers is a hassle
Poor owner's manual

For the money you won't find a better reciever, period! Dolby Pro Logic II is the best kept secret in the audio industry. It really does convert 2 channel stereo into 5.1 digital audio! It takes some study, but once you figure out how to operate the learning remote you will say it is the best remote you have ever used, period! This is a fantasic reciever at price that is obscene!

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Aiwa

The RF remote is a joke. I tryed all of their sugestions and Im lucky if I can get 15ft away

Dont waste your money

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Not much difference in sound compared to a very old and inexpensive JVC unit

Everything

The appearance is quite plain.

Agree with Metthew and Brent almost 100%. Great product. Reading the previous reviews, I thought that the remote would be impossible to figure out. Not so, the instructions are difficult to grasp, but the setting up is simple and this controls everything, including old gear I have. After setting up, it is easy to use and to a great extend intuitive.
Sound is great, feels better than DX1050, which I am returning. Some of this is becouse VR509 has a better bass output to subwoofer, only low frequency (less 60-80 Hz?, I could not find a specific number in the documentation, and it is not adjustable) gets through. Technics' cutoff is 100Hz (and probably more than that) which is not optimal for my subwoofer.
This receiver is packed with features. Too bad this brand has a bad image among audiophils, who keep warning about poor quality of sound, low reliability etc. Unwarrented in my opinion.
Do your own research and you will discover great value in this.

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Technics DX1050

Lots of inputs

That remote..Oh that damn remote.

Nice smooth sound, I was quite happy with all of the inputs available. Learning how to program the remote is not the easiest and I am sure I am missing lots of features.

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Technics

Number of inputs.
Learning remote with macros.
Price.

Everything else.

I have a JVC 36" TV, JVC DVD, Pioneer CD jukebox, RCA VCR and Paradigm Monitor 7 front speakers. I got this receiver because (a) I didn't want to use the TV a pre-amp, as I was doing, for obvious reasons, and (b) I wanted to go to 5.1 surround sound because we watch a lot of DVD's.

I have little complaints about the Kenwood (like the remote has macros and can learn, but you can't use a learned key in a macro, and you can't just push a button to select a source - you have to cycle through various sources, even ones you don't have connected), but the receiver itself IMO is just a piece of garbage. When you play a DVD, for example, the receiver supposedly automatically selects the input type. You can hear this very annoying and worrying loud switching going on inside the receiver (the kind that indicates it may not be able to do it for a real long time) and the receiver selects some type of input (DD, DTS, PLII, whatever). The problem is that sometimes it takes a while to select the right type of input, so you actually miss some dialogue, sometimes it does not select the right type of input, so you get no sound at all, and you cannot turn off the bloody auto detect feature. Funnily enough, there is a manual setting for type of input, but the manual says that in some cases the receiver will override this setting and still automatically select the type of input.

So literally, I would put a DVD in, it would play in DD or whatever, and the sound would be fine. I would advance it to the next track, the audio would cut out as the Kenwood tried to figure out the type of incoming signal, sooner or later I'd hear a loud "click", and maybe I'd get sound or maybe I wouldn't, or maybe it'd be DD or maybe it'd be PLII. All this on the same DVD without even taking it out of the player! Unbelievably frustrating.

Because the remote isn't able to control the input selection on my JVC TV without learning that function, and then I can't use that learned function in a macro, the result is a very confusing conglomeration of two remotes, whereas before I had only one. Now, in order to just turn on the TV and have the audio play, I have to go through a whole bunch of confusing key presses. If you have all Kenwood components, I would think the remote would be very nice, because it is actually a nice remote. But a universal remote that does not function well universally is just another remote.

The manual is brutal. Really bad.

The sound of the Kenwood is fine, but not inspiring. At 0.7% THD, and considering all of its shortcomings, there are better choices.

I have returned the 509 for a refund. I think you get what you pay for. The Kenwood is all dressed up like a fancy receiver with component video switching, lots of inputs, learning remote with LCD screen, etc. etc. But it just doesn't deliver on what an amplifier is actually supposed to deliver - good clear amplification and the ability to set up and then forget about it.

Many inputs, DTS, DPL2, DD, great learning remote, great price

The owners manual lacks detail.
No binding posts for surround speakers.

This is my first home theater receiver so I don't have past experience to compare it to ... but I think it is a great receiver.

The setup was pretty straight forward. I've actually spent a fair amount of time reconnecting things to get it the way I want it. The manual could provide a little more detail but once you start working with it a bit, things make sense.

I hooked up the receiver to a set of Home Theater Direct level two's and it sounds great! I do agree with other reviewers that it is a pain to have to cycle through the inputs to get to what you want ... it is a little better when using the remote since there are two different "type" buttons (Music and Movie) when cycling through. The receiver does remember the sound mode for each input setting, so once that's setup you don't have to mess with it again.

The remote is awesome. You can go through and choose the type of component you want it to control, choose the manufacturer, and then choose a code that works for your component ... very easy compared to some of the other universal remotes I've owned, where you have to aim it at the device and cycle through button pushes until the device turns off. The remote can also "learn" commands from other remotes so if there is a function that doesn't work with the pre-configured setup you can program that function into a button. There are some commands that can be sent using the back-lit LCD display. One drawback I found is that if the manufacturer for your device isn't listed then there aren't any commands available in the LCD display ... at least you can still program the regular buttons using the "learn" method.

One word of caution when buying ... Kenwood will not provide warranty coverage when the product is not purchased from an authorized dealer. Etronics said they would provide warranty coverage for a year (Kenwood offers two years for this receiver). I guess this only matters if something goes wrong.

Simply awesome sound! DPL II, Component/S-Video switching, 4 digital inputs.

No pre-outs (except sub).

In short, unless you are a VERY HARDCORE audiophile, this receiver should impress the hell out of you!

I just upgraded from an old Pioneer "Pro Logic" receiver and the DD/DTS on this Kenwood 509 just blew me away! It was such a HUGE upgrade in sound quality that I was stunned and amazed. My main complaint about the old Pro Logic receiver was that I never got much sound out of my rear speakers. Well, with this Kenwood in DD/DTS mode I have that problem no longer! WOW!

I have only had it for a couple of days but so far I have tested The Matrix, X-Men and Driven. All three sounded great in DD and even impressed my wife. And she is not easily impressed ;-) It brings movies to life like my old receiver could never do.

I don't have any major complaints really. Unlike some other posters, I loved the remote. And as for having to "cycle" through all the different inputs... that it not a problem. You can program the remote to only cycle through the inputs you want. For example, I have the MUSIC button set to cycle through only TUNER/CD. And my MOVIE button cycles through TV-VCR/DVD/AV-AUX. For some reason I cannot remove AV-AUX from the list. If someone else figures out how to do this, please email me!

As for Pro Logic II decoding, I am so spoiled now with DD/DTS that I haven't played with DPLII very much. However, I will say that for every TV station tested with DPLII I had to adjust the speakers almost every time. Some stations send to much power to the rears, other don't send enough, and others don't send enough to the mains. This can all be adjusted in DPLII mode (unlike some other DPLII receivers!) but I am afraid I won't make much use of it if I have to adjust speakers every time I turn the station. I guess DPLII is mostly meant for helping out older VHS tapes with Dolby Pro Logic so maybe I'll throw in my old Top Gun VHS tonight and see how that sounds.

I bought this receiver over the others because of the Component/S-Video switching, 4 digital inputs, DPLII and CHEAPER PRICE! You just can't go wrong with that combination.

I know a $500 receiver is considered "low end" but for me (and many others) that is actually TOP END. If you fall into this category you should be VERY impressed with this receiver. I could not believe what an amazing difference it made. Suddenly I have race cars, helicopters and motorcycles flying all around my living room! I love it!

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Yamaha RXV420, Teac 9320, Onkyo 494, Denon 1602

Doesn't cost much, great remote, sounds decent

No direct access to inputs, vague manual, no binding posts for surrounds.

So far I'm pretty happy with this reciever because it does the job well for home theater which is what I mostly use it for (I have seperates in the living room for music). So my only complaint is the "lack" of power that seems to take place when listening to music as opposed to home theater. I didn't expect it to sound great for music at this price, but strange non the less. Don't get me wrong, it's not unbearable to listen to music on this, but don't expect audiophile performance.
Although you have to cycle through the input selections (kinda of bothersome) I still find the remote a great luxury because it controls 99% of my system, which is all mix matched. I just haven't gotten around to making it "learn" the direct tv satellite remote except for power and changing channels. The macro features are pretty cool too.
This is really the first reciever I've owned that allowed me to put all the other remotes away, becuase it will control everything and all their functions (on my system anyways).
Also, I don't beleive there is a cooling fan on this unit, but don't qoute me on that, which is a plus in my books. It still plays cool and you don't have to listen to an annoying fan.
The yamaha would always shut down after 3 or 4 hours of continous use, but no problems with the Kenwood. This is impressive considering I use this reciever for the sound when I watch satellite which can be for 8 or 9 hour stretches on the weekends with friends over.
This reciever also has Dolby pro-logic II which is awesome for satellite (because I don't have a dolby digital satellite reciever) because it seperates the sound into 5 channels and does a good job. Not the same as watching a dvd in dts or dd but pretty close. Dvd playback on this unit is flawless especially in dts. I've never had a problem with the reciever losing or switching signals - I use a toshiba 3109 dvd player.
For the money you can't really go wrong especially if you want to lose all the remotes. I highly doubt the sound of this unit will dissapoint anyone especially for the money.
Ps. Try placing the rf antenna out of obstuction if you have trouble controlling it from another room, this will cure the problem. Happy shopping.

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technics, onkyo, older yamaha