Kenwood DVT-6300 Theater System

First off, I am NOT an electronics wiz, so this won't be the review that measures amps and wattage and all that really technical stuff.

We are normal middle-aged American Consumers. We live in a 1200 foot two story town home with vaulted ceilings. Our living room is 12 by 18. Hence, we did not NEED the sound system that can blow your socks off 2 blocks away.

Our previous system was a Kenwood amp, and 2 big speakers from the 80's. It didn't support video at all.

We knew we wanted to spend under $500 for the receiver and the speakers. This one was $502 with a $100 gift card including tax. We didn't get an extended warranty: if it breaks we will replace the component. It was out of stock at the store and was shipped directly from Kenwood in 2 big boxes at no cost to us.

I have had great luck with Kenwood in the past and that affected our decision to purchase.

Please be aware it will probably cost another 100 to 200 in cables. A s-video cable is around $35 and this system can use 3. One out to the tv monitor, 2 in, we have ours from a Sony DVD player and the other from Satellite TV.

The instructions say you can use either a video cord or an optical cord from the DVD. We have both connected,as not all DVD's seem to want to use the video cable.

While the big heavy duty speaker wire is nice, the system comes with color coded wires making it simple to attach the 6 speakers. Maybe at some point we will invest in better speaker wire, but not at this point.

We began assembly about 3pm by disconnecting the old system and moving it aside. We had looked over the instruction manual before we started. He sorted through wires and told me where to plug them into the receiver. I labeled the far ends of all cables so it was much easier to plug into the devices. First we plugged all wires/cables etc into the back of the receiver. Then we began to attach devices, starting with the speakers.

Note that the subwoofer has a separate power cord and 2 swithces, Both must be on for the subwoofer to work. There is a separate process to set up the subwoofer.

We finished stage one of the installation at 6pm including we added 1 optical and s-video cable. This still did
not allow our DVD's to play in Dolby Digital. The next day we added another s-video cord ( between the dvd and receiver) and then we could get dolby. But once again, we only got dolby digital when we seleected AUTO-select not dolby digital. Go figure, It can find it, but we can't select it.

On the third day, it was the 3rd s-video - this time from the satellite. We have this puppy plugged into a 15 year old Mitshibusi 36in picture tube, S-video makes a difference that even I can see .. and even from the satellite!!!

We have the receiver as the heart of the system with everything going through it. Some salesmen will try to get you to go direct from the dvd to the tv as they claim there is degegration going though extra devices. It is wierd to turn of the tv and have it still playing sound though the receiver after all these years of the tv also controlling sound.

If you don't take the time to configure your system, it will sound too soft. After configuring the system, we have plenty of sound and a great picture. When I say plenty - I mean at setting 39 ( 1 is a lound as it gets) you cannot speak to each other, you must shout.

The remote is large and complicated. We are still teaching it how to interact with different devices so we won't need 5 ( yes 5) remotes. ( one each for tv.vcr.dvd.satellite tv and the receiver)

We like and would recommend our system to people with similar expectations. We don't listen to fine classical music to be able to appreciate the subties a $5000 system will buy. And we don't have a huge house or theater room. This is a practical system, good for a family room, small home or apartment. It would be quite loud in a dorm room or bedroom.

When we buy a new tv, it only needs to be a monitor with none or few speakers.