Sounds awsome, THX,

No on screen display

Great sound for the price.It would cost twice as much to get a comparable HK

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Harmon Kardon Marantz

THX Select Processing, PL II, RF Remote

Remote a little tricky for the "first timers"

OK. It was an OPEN BOX with a lot o f scratches and the top was caved in a bit, oh and it wa a store closing sale, but it works. Thank God for extended warranties. This reciever is diamond if you are on a strict budget. THX Select Certification, Component Video Switching, DD, DTS, PL II, 110 Watts X 5, Pre-Outs, and not to metion the RF remote. This reciever is a "poor" man's dream. Yeah the remote is a little tricky, but you only set it up once and that's the end of that. It has a really clean sound for a "budget" reciever. Digital input assignment is a little goofy.... ie CD/DVD DVD 6 Channel... keep it simple. Any how, after the intial setup and everything is dialed in, it is a really good reciever for the money.

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JVC, Yamaha, Denon, Sony

THX, CS 5.1, Prologic 11, power, all the s video and optical cables inputs.

remote, runs a little warm after 6 or 7 hours

The Kenwood VR-510 THX receiver is on of the great bargins in the audio world. I read reviews from these people that like to nitpick apart products and in this case I would tell them to get a life. The sound on Dolby Digital movies is spectacular. The CS 5.1 on non Dolby Digital movies is fantastic and for DTS movies with THX mastering, I can hardly describe the experience. I have a Dishnetwork PVR system and even the things I''''ve recorded onto the hard drive sound like I''''ve got a dvd playing. Jurassic Park III is so amazing through the 510, people are talking about it 3 weeks later. My system includes the VR-510, a Panasonic RA 60 dvd audio/dvd video with twice the sample rate on both audio and video than other units, a JVC 3900U double s-video VCR and a absolutely fantastic set of 6 Paradign speakers. Do not waste your time or money buying other speakers, these speakers ( 4 Titans, PDR 12 sub, and cc170 center) sound as good as speakers that cost two or three times as much. The remote I have not been able to figure out yet and it is complicated. The time I should be spending figuring out how the remote works, I spend watching THX movies on dvd and getting blown away. This is a fabulous receiver. Don''''t listen to any other of those nit pick reviewers who don''''t have a life. By the way, I think Kenwood cutoff Etronics and MJ show for discounting them too much. Neither website has had any available since I took delivery 4 weeks ago.

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nothing is similar but I have Kenwood and Pioneer receivers.

THX, CS 5.1, power, many optical and s video inputs,sound.

runs a little hot, remote difficult.

I love my 510. All you people that are picky, please get a life. Jurassic Park 3 is so spectacular, my friends walk away stunned. The cs 5.1 is fantastic. The prologic 2 is great and the power is wonderful. All the THX dvd''s I''ve listened to are breathtaking. It even takes movies I''ve recorded from Dishnetwork onto their PVR into DVD quality sound. I really cannot tell a difference.I have not been able to figure out the remote yet, but that will come. My home theater speaker components are all from Paradign.4 Titans,CC170 center, PDR12 sub, a Panasonic RA60 dvd audeo/dvd video and a JVC 3900 double S-video VCR.Do not waste your time looking at other speakers.I shopped for a year and these are the best value in the world and their sound is unbelievable. The whole deal was around $2000 and it could not sound better for $5000. By the way you may not find the 510 available at $399 any longer. It appears Kenwood cut off Etronics and MJ show for excessive discounts. Neither has had any available for 3 or 4 weeks.

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Kenwood 305

thx,pointless remote,dts,etc

only two inputs for optical and one for coax.

i dont know why people had so much trouble with the remote.what i like to do is a little at a time instead of all at once.great sound once the speakers are in the right spot.somethings could have been done better like the coax and optical inputs.they should have put one coax and one optical for each video in then one optical and coax for cd recorder and or mini disc/mp3player. but for the price you cant beat it.oh and dont forget the component in.i was looking for something like a selector to hook two component video sources to one thing and then be able to switch.well this has it so that saved me a trip to find one.also get good speakers they dont have to be top of the line and very high priced but you will waste youre money on real cheap ones also.i don have alot of money so i went with infinity and they sound great.the two subs im running one for low bass and the other for high and mid bass makes the dts and dd sound outstanding..

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kenwood,sony

THX Select-certified receiver at only $599?!!! I thought I was dreaming
but this Kenwood sounds really great. Dolby ProLogic II gives sound
from all 5 speakers in my home theater system when I'm playing a CD.
Remote control has a small LCD screen to remind me which input I'm on
and helped me set it up to control my VCR and Sony DVD. Kudos to Kenwood!

Owners manual was a bit difficult to understand, but called Kenwood's
customer service and they were very helpful.

Kenwood's got some cool features packed into this product. THX-Select certfied, amplifier provides great performance whether I'm partyin' it up or just listening at low levels. Subtle nuances are more apparent on my Bela Fleck CD that I never noticed when I was using my Harman Kardon receiver (earlier model). The remote is way cool looking and is both IR and RF (make sure you hook up the RF antenna to the back of the receiver...doh!). It also has a small LCD screen which makes it easy to find codes to control my Sony DVD. Overall a great product.

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Harman Kardon A/V Receiver (formerly)

High End, Low Cost THX Select Certified. Programable remote.

Complex remote. Complex set up.

Awesome! THX guaranteed quality at a cheapo price.

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Sony Str-D790

Exellent Sound, THX Select,DD,DTS,Prologic 2 and CS 5.I sound for an incredible price.

No banana plugs for the surroud channels and the instruction manual needs to explain at which volume level you should calibrate the system with a sound level meter and how to use peak control.

This is one of the best AV receivers with THX-Select,DD,DTS and PL2 at this price. I was really amazed by the sound quality and power even at high volume. So if you want to be thrill you can't go wrong with the VR-510. There are some minor flaws like the instruction manual, also the LCD is to small for a big remote control. The connections on the rear of the system are grate exept for those surround channels clips that are bad to connect, they should be banana plugs in the first place but aside from that the VR-510 is a great start to jump into the THX realm.

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vr-2080.harman kardon av-110

LOTS!! THX, Dolby D5.1, ProLogic2, DTS, SRS, DSP & more decoders. Great Remote (IR, radio & learning).
Sound= above decoders, 110W/ch surround, 5.1ch input, 4 digital in (2 optical, 2 Coaxial RCA), digital out.
Video has Component(but not HDTV), S-Vid & RCA Inputs.
Lots of features all in one reasonably priced package.

Very few. Not HDTV component video (seems OK with DTV @ 480p. Good to 10Mhz bandwidth). Not assignable digital input. Banana on main & center only. No gold on RCA inputs. Manual on remote set-up could be clearer.

Current set-up: 2 custom main speakers, 2 basic surrounds, Sony subwoofer (SA-WM40 12"), no center (yet), Mitsubishi VHS, CD player, Sony tape deck. Plus borrowed Konica DVD player.

I was recently amazed at how good old VHS HiFi video can sound when I watched Independence Day using Dolby ProLogic2. With the Sony subwoofer it had a very loud, full rich sound and great surround sound. Earlier I had borrowed a DVD player, which naturally sounded amazing (Matrix in Dolby Digital). Easy to adjust sound while playing to adjust surround or subwoofer.

Initial in/out set-up was reasonably easy. All inputs were clearly marked, just a little confusing when setting up the sound input & remote for DVD/Video sources. Next the sound set-up was easy using the pink noise tone & distance to speakers and compensated for no center speaker. Very full and balanced sound without need to make adjustments. One small drawback is the need to rotate through inputs in order (eg. DVD, Video1, Video2...)

Very happy with the unit. Nothing else has all these features in this price range.

If you want to save $100 or so the VR-509 doesn't have the THX but has almost all of the features (including DTS, DD, ProLogic2, the IR/RF learning remote & component video in).

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Technics. Spent a month testing lots of models in stores.

THX Select DTS Doly Pro Logic II, multiple optical inputs, multiple s-video inputs, All functions worked. High quality decoder, and various modes, good for listening to both VHS movies and vaious audio sources. The internal tuner works great for pulling in weak stations. I have no DVD yet to test with , nor was I able to test Digital inputs. It remembers which sound mode you are using by input selection. Excellent Remote Control, takes a few minutes to figure out, but it has on the little lcd display a list of hundreds of remote controls to program it to work with any brand. RF remote works from an other room out of line of sight with the Receiver.

To change listening mode, you must cycle forward thru all modes to get back where you were at. It is difficult to tell what mode you are in. Remote sucks batteries quickly. Can't get sufficient gain from my CD player to produce full volume from my subwoofer Amp (Phase Linear 400). And I don't beleive I was getting it up to full power, perhaps if I upgrade my system to contain digital inputs to drive the unit with, it will crank out full power. Lacks banana jacks for surround channels.

Nice unit that puts out clean sound, good for listening to audio in surround mode, Dobly Pro logic II Music mode sounds good with almost all of the vaious CD's that I have tried, from Pink Floyd The Wall, to various Classical CD's, It gives a natural 5 speaker sound to the music without echos usually associated with Dolby Surround from a stereo source.

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Teac AG-v3050