A few months ago I purchased a Kenwood VR-6070, and I already owned a Yamaha RX-V995.
The Kenwood I only paid 330$ for, the Yamaha I paid 1500$, and the Kenwood BLOWS AWAY the Yamaha. It shouldnt, but it does, as well as its way easier to use, has a better remote, looks better, and has more headroom. I have since then brought in my Kenwood to A&B Sound where it emberrased a Yamaha RX-V1500, put a Denon AVR-1705 back into its hole, and the sales person asked me if I had "modified" my receiver, I then told him where I bought it and what I paid. He said I had one of the new versions with the upgraded heat sink, still no excuse. I then went over to a local audio hi-fi store and set it up against a Harman Kardon AVR-325 (a 1500$ receiver)The Kenwood had better seperation, sounded fuller, and had more of a punch to the low end, is high current that great? I sure wondered after that demo. The sales man then asked me if they could purchase my receiver off me, I turned him down, NO Way Dude!!
Has anyone else had an experience with the Kenwood VR-6070 like this?
Interesting. My experience with Kenwood audio stuff has been uniformly dismal, they are on par with Sony---mediocre to lousy quality hiding behind a big, massively advertised/hyped name.
Maybe I'll check out your model sometime, where did you buy it from?
Wow.......you got ripped off unless you're talking $1500 Rubles. http://reviews.iwon.com/pscAudioReview/Yamaha/PRD_118884_2718crx.aspx From what I can see, nobody has ever paid anywhere where near that amount. Heck, Crutchfield was selling it new for $650, and they're by no means cheap.
The Kenwood has a .7% THD which is also a major red flag and a very high number. Most good receivers are closer to .04% which is a huge difference. Plus, it only weighs 21 pounds which doesnt say much for it's power supply. No pun intended, this is a light-weight.
Kenwood hasnt produced a 'leading-edge' product in 30 years. It's also interesting how in many of the advertisements, they fail to mention it's .7% THD, and it's extremely light construction.
Higher priced receivers are heavier for a reason, and it's called 'power supply'. If you're shopping and looking at two equally priced receivers and one weighs 21lbs, and the other weighs 38lbs......uh oh. A big difference in what's under the hood. Ones running a 4-banger, and the other has a big-block.
I have a yamaha HTR5730 and has the .7 THD but for someone who uses the stereo here and there and listens to movies through dvd's, does it really matter about the .7 THD.
For those who are not true audiofiles, does it pay to get those high end receivers?
THD---the difference between .7 and .2 THD is like a sports car that can do 0-60 in 6 seconds and one that do it in 5.8 seconds.
By "high end receiver" I am assuming that you mean a receiver over $800 or so...in which case I'd say no it doesn't.
Maybe 5% of the population truly have audiophile-sensitive eardrums, the rest who are paying audiophile prices are either suckers or posers---something like that was said to me by a friend of mine who worked in a high end audio store.
The difference that the average person can hear between a $150 receiver and a $600 receiver are huge---between the $600 receiver and the $1200 receiver far less so. (Otherwise known as the law of diminishing returns.)
I guess the average user just listening to cd's and or DVD movies and such will be just fine.
I chose the yamaha based on alot of recommendations that their products are alot better for the same money than lets say sony or kenwood. I did hear ONKYO makes a great product but I could not find the entry level model near me.
The yamaha HTR7530 sounds good enough for basic enjoyment so it will suffice for now.
Maybe one day I can upgrade to a midlevel around $300 or so.
For now, the .7 will have to do, hahahaha.
Is it safe to assume that any receive with .7 regardless of the brand will sound similar taking into account general use speakers?
I had a Kenwood and then bought a HK to replace it. I did this because every time I moderately turned the Kenwood up it went into protection mode due to the use of 4Ohm speakers. The HK that replaced it drove the same speakers with authority. The Kenwood is JUNK!,overly bright,incapable of handling more difficult speaker loads with little headroom on it's way to clipping. To the kenwood fan where the hell are you buying your equipment? The HK AVR325 was $799 the year of it's debut! and it's price steadily decreased from that until the new models came into play. Also the difference between .7 distortion and .07 or whatever is a futile argument since to a good ear 3 percent is barely audible. E. Ramsey AAS industrial electronics
Yeah, I'd say that Yamaha is better than Sony and Kenwood at the low-end. I'd also say that low-end Onkyo is better than low-end Yamaha, but that low-end Pioneer is better than low-end Onkyo. Very broad generalizations, bring lots of salt of course.
> Is it safe to assume that any receive with .7 regardless of the brand will sound similar taking into account general use speakers?
No. THD is only one part of the equation of how a receiver "sounds." Relying on specs alone is a dangerous thing, particularly because audio makers are famous for fudging on their numbers, ESPECIALLY the "watts per channel" which so many uninformed consumers fixate on.
Best thing to do IMO is lots of reading through newsgroups like this, review sites (keeping in mind that there are many paid shill reviewers around) and also going out and listening to as much gear as possible (bring your favorite CDs), including gear that may be way out of your price range just so you become familiar with what you can reasonably expect at what price level.
THD is also directly related to the amount watts that it is being measured at. For example, A receiver might be .1% at 100 watts of power, but 1.0% at 125 watts. In other words, once you reach a certain point on the volume knob, THD begins going way up. I believe that this is especially true on lower end receivers(which is what I own and have no problem with).
No THD isnt the make or break for a receiver. My only point being that all well built receivers have a very low THD and that % can be a useful benchmark to judge the overall quality of the amp.
If you looked at several receivers in several price ranges, you'll see a correlation between THD and overall quality.
Based on a THD alone, do I think you can hear a difference between .7 or .04???........notta chance. My point being though that the .04THD amps also have other things working for them that when you take all factors into consideration .....they'll produce cleaner power and better sound. The most important of all factors though being your speakers. The better your speakers......the better amp you need to take full advantage of their capabilities. Everyone has specific needs for their receiver, and what's right for one person isnt necessarily right for the next.