Sorry, this is actually not a review...I have a quick question about how to put the speakers...Our family room has prewired for surrender sound system. And I think it will look good if we put satellite speakers there...what if I put the speakers from HTB-503/504 there? I notice the speakers are quick big... can anyone pls share your experience? Thx a lot!! I am thinking to get this unit from sears...

Sound.
Price.

Unlit remote.

I would say that I'm fairly picky about how my music and movies sound. After months of research and polling, I decided that the best bang for my buck would be to buy the Kenwood HTB-504. This system sounds wonderful. My neighbors, I'm sure, are complaining about the sound being to loud. I love it. I also bought the Panasonic DVD CV51 DVD changer to go with it. It pretty much rocks! The receiver has DPLII and DTS, optical inputs, etc..

I've yet to change the speaker wires as many stated before, but if it sounds this good now, I can only imagine how even better it will sound after new wires. The subwoofer is sufficient.

The receiver can do alot and it will take some time before I get used to how everything works.

I would fully recommend this to anybody who is looking to start a home theater.

Sounds great. Easy to setup.

cheap speaker wire. Remote not backlit.

I bought this based on reviews from this site and usegroups, and listened to it at Sears. It is great! I watched the movie Gettysburg the other night and almost jumped off the couch during a cannon barrage. It has plenty of power for my living room. 14 X 20. The subwoofer is very good for its size, it shakes the floor quite well.

I replaced the rear speaker wire that came with the system with some better wire and the rear speakers sound much better. I plan on replacing all the wire this weekend just to see what a difference it makes. Even with the supplied wire it sounds good, but better with quality wire.

Very happy with this system. (but, I wish I could use the remote in the dark.)

subwoofer,crisp sound,powerful system

I had to buy a back-lit remote, speaker wire not long enough and kind of wimpy.

I have been looking all over the web for a great system with out having to spend a lot of $$. I love jazz, acid jazz and R&B, I heard the kenwood htb-553 and was stunned by the power of the subwoofer and the over all sound quality. But Bernie's wanted $600 and that turned me off, so I went else where and found kenwood's htb-504 at sears for $500 then the sales person said that they will match any price on the web. I said that's a bet, found a site selling it for $380 and sears matched the price! I LOVE THE SUBWOOFER, and with 600 watts of power, only systems in $1000 range can match. I think the speakers are great and I have not even hooked them up with my acoustic research 16' guage speaker wire yet. I also got a dvd player(also at sears) for $111. I was going the buy the sony dw-830(no dvd) but the 504 had more power and cost less. The sound fills our living room and I haven't even hooked up the rear speakers yet! This is my first ht and setting up took some time but hearing my jazz cd come out of the speakers put a big smile on my face. I am looking forward to playing my first dvd at home. To get this quality at this price I really can't see any other choice.

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this system is a go between- sony dav and dw-830, jvc, aiwa, yamaha

Price, 100wX5 power, SUBWOOFER!

Speaker construction, lack of DSP, remote but it's not as terrible as everyone says

This system sounds good and is a good deal at the price but I found the speakers (excluding the subwoofer) to be of EXTREMELY cheap construction. I took the speaker grills off to examine the cones on the front speakers and found them to be some of the cheapest paper cone speakers I've ever seen (on par with the stock speakers in my neon, maybe worse). I was very disapointed to find paper cones as some of the competition that's cheaper or at the same price has atleast slightly better speakers. I found the system to sound better when using some old (and quite cheap as well) technics speakers as the front even though they weren't matched with the rest. The system sounds very good and the subwoofer is excellent but the construction of the speakers is just terrible (they arent' even good paper cones if there is such a thing, they're CHEAP paper cones). I'm sure someone will complain that I'm being too harsh and what do you expect for such a cheap price - I expect cones other than paper and other companies offer it for around the same price.

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Technics

Features,overall value

Poor instructions, suplied speaker wire

This is for the new HTB 504...
First let me say that I am not an audiophile so no doubt this product would dissapoint true audiophiles. Instead I write to the person such as myself who wants great sound but at an affordable price. I looked around and read a lot of reviews, and decided to try this product. Setup took the better part of a day, as fine tuning the sound and hookup's took some time, but once it was all done, WOW!
Oddly enough, as good as the Dolby Digital and DTS are, what most impressed me is the Prologic II. It simulates 5:1 on regular Dolby surround souces. I watched The Spy Who Shagged Me and it was like it was in 5:1...music cd's sound great again! I played Playstation with my little guy, and the sound was great! The connections and features are very impressive and I am still working my way through them all.
The sub is awesome and will ROCK your house if you want it too! Wife wants it low as to not to disturb the neighbours.
I think the biggest positive comment on this system is that while watching movies, I catch my wife smiling from time to time..And guys will know exactly what I mean when I say that!
So for an entry level system that will more than rock your sound world, consider the HTB 504.

power, sub woofer, hook ups, center speaker. dolby digital.

surround speakers(rear l and r)

the 504 is a great choice for a start up ht system, and has all you will ever need to get into the "ht craze". I bought mine 2 months ago and love it. Great sound and great price.
I hooked up better speaker wire and bought a "real" sub woofer wire and it did make a difference in the sound. My only true gripe is the small rear speakers, granted you get what you pay for and kenwood reads these reviews on here because they corrected the center speaker problem that was on the 503, 553, and 502. You can clearly HEAR voices, music from the center speaker now. But I have had to place my ear very close to the rear(surround) speakers to even tell if they were working, I really do not see how these little surround speakers can handle 100 watts each??!! But never the less well worth the $$. A lot of great listening options. "stadium" sound is the best to fill your house with music if you have a cd. Kenwood, ya done good.

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heard em all. This systems is simply the best value.

sub, reciever

relatives that make me turn it down

this is a great system, i havent even taken the suggestion to change the cables and it still sounds perfect, although i am using optical inputs. in a week im going up to school so at that point i'll reassemble it with better cables, at that point i can truly test how far it will go. jinstallation went fine, it was all ready in about 10 minutes or so after getting everything unpacked. the center and surround's are actually 60 watts using the same standard that the fronts are 100 watts. but its still ample, from how far i've gotten to test it, i got to the point where it hurt to turn it up louder, and it didnt show any noticeable signs of clipping or distortion. sometimes its a little fuzzy, but i havent changed the cables yet, and im sure that go away. once i get to that point, i'll probably upgrade the speakers, theyre the only thing that will need upgrading in probably the next 10-15 years. they should be fine for my dorm room for now though. lastly, i just wanna thank the other reviewers for hinting me on that sears will do website price matching, it saved me a lot of money, ($130+).

Everything

Remote, set up

This rocks, for the money it is great. The sub woofer will shake the roof. The center speaker could be better but again for the price you can not beat it. The front and surround sound speakers are clear and have good range. The receiver will stand the test of time if you want to upgrade to better speakers.
The manual was written in Hindu, be sure not to use speakers on A/B together or no surround sound.
The remote is cheessy, but so are most
If you get this you might try this web site

http://www.dashboardstereo.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.pl

As Kenwood has shutdown there online support, this is a site for Kenwood users and can answer some of the questions that might pop up

Upgrade your speaker wire, a great value with clear crisp sound

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Dannon Sony

ALL!!! SO PWERFUL!

NONE!

ITS THE BEST HOME THEATER THAT I NEVER SEEN!

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