Features, price.

Background noise/hiss

The unit I have also gives off an annoying hiss as you turn the volume up that other reviewers have mentioned. If not for this background noise, I would highly recommend this product.

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JVC, Sony

Decent integration, fair sound. Price is a bonus

Oh man, amp blew on me 3 times in first 6 months! Call me Mr. Warranty!

I bought this receiver just as a basic one for my bedroom. I knew I didn't want a huge and expensive system so I purchased this with a Boston Acoustics CR55 speakers. It really sounded great because I used it exactly the way I intended and my expectations were up to that.
If I were purchasing the receiver for a den system or a much bigger system, I'd look elsewhere. If I wanted a cheaper amp to buy a teenager for their room, I'd probably go with a lower-end Onkyo just because of the reliability reasons.
I purchased my Kenwood via online just because I got a great price. When I received it, whoops, I had a huge dent in the side where some gorilla shipping magnate decided to drop my reciver. Back to the store. It was not a replacement because it was deemed cosmetic so they took another $25 bucks off (total price ended up being 90 bucks!). Well, one day I reached down to turn it down to answer the phone, got shocked and kept blowing fuses.
Needless to say, I am upset at the Kenwood stuff, but i've had many other kenwood things and I have been happy with their products. Would I buy it again? For this price yes. For list price? No, Denon and Onkyo make much better components for the money.

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Technics, Denon, Onkyo

Inputs

Noise, controls

I wasn't able to give this unit a good listen before I bought it but I think I would have looked further if I had. It works OK and the large number of inputs is nice. Interesting that others have noticed noise at high volume, i notice it only at low volume. Sound seems pretty clean and no distortion. I really hate the rotory input selector and the remote isn't that great.

If you are looking for a regular, plain old Stereo receiver, and have an very low budget, than this is the perfect choice. I don't here any audible distortion. The SRS-3D feature is really cool. It expands the stereo separation to give music a more 3-D, immersed feal. I find that it works best on very natural music or music with fewer instruments. It works wonders for classical too. I needed to fit this one in as a christmas present, and I'm definately satisfied with what I got. And on top of that, it can hit wall bashing volume levels. Yes!!!
There's only one minor complaint I have for this receiver. At extremely low volume levels, background hiss is filtered out to near zero, but at low to low-mediun volume levels, there is a somewhat low signal-to-noise ratio.

All I can say is "Wow!". If you're on a tight budget, and don't need surround sound, pick this baby up right now. It produces sound very well. I have noticed no distortion or background noise/hiss. The tuner in the receiever performs very well. Unfortunatly, if you live in an area where signals are fairly weak, there are drawbacks. You can tune the signal manually (disable the autotune function), but you lose stereo sound. Other than that, this is one solid 100watt receiver. The subwoofer out is a plus, and the receiver has a bunch of cool little features that are fun to mess with. It looks very appealing as well. One quirk that takes some getting used to is the knob source selector. (You spin a knob to select your source instead of pressing buttons) You can always use the remote to select your source, but its not too bad. Great product, great quality, outstanding price. 5 stars.

This receiver has lots of power and inputs.
It has a tape loop monitor for adding an equalizer.

Background hiss; Bass and loudness are centered at 150hz

If you own this receiver, or are planning on buying it, I highly recommend an equalizer. Without one, you won't get any deep bass, unless you have a powered subwoofer. When you turn the bass up on the receiver, it makes your midrange sound really muddy.

The 3D surround is pretty much useless, especially if you listen to rock music. It kind of give your sound the "pro-logic" effect. I never use it.

The sound quality is very good for the price. But, as most people say about it, it does have a lot of background hiss. You don't really notice it, though, unless you listen at low volume.

My music system:

Kenwood 104AR Receiver
Kenwood CD-203 5 disk CD Changer
Kenwood KE-205 Equilizer
Technics SB-CR77 A Speakers
Technics SB-CR33 B Speakers
Original Monster Speaker Wire for A's ; XP for B's
Monster Interlink 400 for CD Player and EQ

One more note: Don't waste your money on the extended warranty. It's not gonna break.

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Pioneer VSX-453

low price, cute features

very noticeable hiss

this unit does provide solid base and will work well on a budget, but i have noticed a LOUD background hiss once i turn the volume past 12. it suddenly appears out of nowhere at unlucky 13.
i would like to give this reciever a better rating but my hiss is so terrible, i couldn't enjoy my music. now i just use the reciever as a tuner, and a powerstrip. luckily the tape 1 record rca are a constant out, allowing me to use a different amp.
also, kenwood makes a unilink cable to allow control of cd players with the receiver remote. i have the cable, and this option does not work (for me, anyway).

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technics,sony,et cetera