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Overview
Kenwood is one of the leaders in quality, well designed
and built audio/video processors. Kenwood makes a wide variety of superior
products from entry level to state-of-the-art. We had an opportunity to
review the brand new Kenwood HTB-506, which is the successor to the HTB-505.
We found the HTB-506 to be an excellent integrated entry-level
base system. The unit contains an audio processor which can handle a wide
range of signals such as Dolby Digital, Dolby EX, Dolby Pro Logic, and
DTS Digital. As a “Home Theater System”, it comes with an
impressive set of seven (7) speakers. This unit delivers excellent value.
For appropriate applications, this is an Editor’s
Choice for quality, value, and performance.
Introduction
One of the easiest ways to increase your existing viewing
pleasures is to improve the system sound by adding a surround sound system,
providing a true theater-sensation.
Importantly, quality doesn’t mean just more sound
– louder is often demonstrated, but it is actually the pureness
of the sound reproduction when there are no competing noises present.
Often the most difficult thing a buyer faces is to judge competing units
in a noisy crowded appliance/electronics store. Frankly, it is almost
impossible to judge the quality of a unit under such circumstances.
So how do you decide what unit to buy? Let’s take
the HTB-506 and use it as our test case.
First, what is your existing system? There are a few critical
initial questions that will provide us direction…
1. Is your TV/Monitor a regular analog (traditional set)
or a High Definition (HDTV) unit? If HDTV, it will use Composite Video
inputs. Component video is the best for video quality. It carries the
color and brightness portions of the video signal as separate signals,
and it further segregates the color signal into two signals (blue and
red). This allows component video connections to provide superb color
clarity and reduced color bleeding. Component video is common on new DVD
players, but they are not widespread on televisions. To use component
video, both your peripheral and television must be compatible with the
format, and you must use a special component video cable. If the TV/monitor
is regular analog, S-Video or Composite signals are used.
2. Do you have a DVD player? DVD players come in a wide
range of technology as well. Some DVD players have progressive component
output, 6channel output, analog composite and S-Video outputs.
3. How big is the room and where will you put the speakers?
There should be some separation between speakers and you will need to
consider how you run the wires from the unit to the speakers (under baseboards/carpet).
Kenwood has an excellent speaker set-up discussion, which is reproduced
below (click to enlarge):
OK – What Now?
Let’s say you don’t have an HDTV (you will probably
get one in the future, but when you do you’ll move this TV into
another room as the second set).
Let’s say you have a DVD with composite and S-Video
out.
Let’s say your room is 18x15 and you can run a setup
with a rear center surround speaker.
Then the Kenwood HTB-506 is definitely for you!
But What if I said No to Something?
If you have HDTV the Kenwood HTB-506 will not handle the
component video signal and you will not be able to run your HDTV through
the system. While that is not the end of the world, it defeats much of
what you are trying to accomplish – therefore, you will want to
buy a special audio/video receiver with at least 3 component video inputs.
We’ll be reviewing some of the HDTV units later, including at least
one of Kenwood’s impressive A/V processor line.
If you don’t have a DVD player, the Kenwood HTB-506
will be compatible for your new DVD, but you have a better option of buying
a Home Theater System that comes with a DVD player! You will likely get
a better price break, and getting a matched system is always advantageous
when you try to coordinate the dreaded “remote control unit”
programming problems. Again, Kenwood offers systems that include the DVD,
so you have some nice options there.
But If You’re Like Most People – You Got a TV
and You Got a DVD
So now you are ready to continue with our report –
and get ready to marvel at this excellent value system.
System Performance
The heart of the Kenwood HTB-506 system is a 100 watts per
channel for each of the 6 speakers (Right, Center, Left, Right Rear, Center
Rear, Left Rear), and a self-powered subwoofer with a 150 Watt built-in
amplifier.
This is plenty of power and is a prudent system for the
size room. Many systems are available at 70 Watts per channel, but the
100 watt size provides sufficient quality all the way through “very
loud”. 200 watts might be available somewhere, but it would be wasted
power for a home theater application (unless you have an auditorium for
a living room).
The subwoofer is rated at 150 watts and this unit is really a very pleasant
surprise. The unit comes with adjustable cross-over frequency (when the
subwoofer takes over) and is rated all the way down to earthquake frequencies.
This is one thermo-nuclear subwoofer !!!
Set-up
We took the unit out of the box and had the system hooked
unto the DVD and TV in under 45 minutes. Frankly, unpacking the unit was
the hardest part. Kenwood has done an excellent job in color coding the
wires to each speaker from the receiver, so that anyone “over the
age of 12” can hook this system up – kudos to helping the
“electronically challenged” finally connect something correctly.
[note: perhaps someone won’t be able to hook it up, but it really,
really is simple].
Setting up the unit also involves about 5 minutes of “fine-tuning”
the system – allowing you to “balance the tone” from
each speaker one at a time, and to set the distance to each speaker. With
the touch of a button you can adjust the surround delay to one of five
presets to re-create the sound effect of an “Arena, Theater, Jazz
Club, Stadium, or Disco”. Again, Kenwood did a great job of making
this setup routine easy.
I plugged the subwoofer into the rear “switched power”
of the receiver, and that enabled the subwoofer to be “always on”
when the receiver was powered.
There was one negative, however, but it will hit everyone
who buys anyone’s system (i.e., this isn’t limited to Kenwood).
The wiring provided is likely to be too short to successfully run to at
least 2 or 3 speakers. While it doesn’t take much to run over to
Radio Shack and buy some more wire, it is a pain the butt and one wonders
who decided that 19 feet of wire is all you need. For example, let’s
take a standard room which is 18x15 with the TV against the far wall,
and the rear center channel speaker behind the couch – you need
7.5 feet to make it to the side wall from the TV/receiver, 18 feet to
the back wall, and another 7.5 feet to make it back to the center of the
rear wall = 33 feet of wire! At 19 feet of wire, your room can’t
be bigger than 9x10 for the wiring provided to be sufficient. My walk-in
closet is bigger than that!
So – get ready to buy some wiring. That will add about
another 2 hours to the installation (45 minutes to install, 5 minutes
to calm down after you realize the wires are too short, and about an hour
to go get more wire). Hey – most reviewers don’t pick up on
that, do they! [It’s not really a big deal if you know about it
in advance… ]
Programming the Remote
OK – this was the toughest part of the whole thing.
Unfortunately, there are few things that drive wives crazy than a husband
who has a remote for the TV, a remote for the cable/satellite, a remote
for the DVD, and a remote for the receiver. Frankly, I admit it sounds
like a communist conspiracy, but I can’t prove it.
Kenwood does provide a “universal remote” which
has several ways of programming. But this can be very frustrating, and
is best done early in the day when you have a while to spend. For example,
it took over 35 minutes of fiddling to get the Zenith 36-inch TV to operate
using the Kenwood remote. However, I have spent a lot longer getting other
vendor’s remotes to work (and some were “top of the line”).
Once you do get the DVD and TV programmed (it also has inputs to run your
VCR and other input sources), life is pretty good! Just don’t expect
this section to go without a hitch – if it does, write me and I’d
like to interview you Mr. Einstein.
Sound Quality
The unit operated well, and we were instantly off and running.
We took two different DVDs, one with ProLogic and the other with DTS,
and the unit was about to AUTO detect and process the proper signals.
Getting a THX decoder as well would have been nice, but typically you
have to go to the higher end systems and pay a lot more $ to get that
capability. For your basic DVD enjoyment, this unit delivers just fine.
We also played a surround sound demo DVD of orchestra music as well as
rock. The receiver also has a tuner with AM/FM and 40 pre-sets.
The sound was of excellent quality, and the speakers behaved
beautifully. Realize that these are not 3-foot tower speakers, but reasonable
- All six of the system's speakers are 2-way configuration, and the left,
right and center speakers feature dual 4" woofers and a Super Dome
tweeter with 50kHz response that brings the most out of DVD-Audio discs.
The subwoofer was excellent, with a 8" driver in a ported enclosure,
pumping-out a thunderous bass, and I could independently control the volume
and crossover. This enabled me to set my own preferences – an important
consideration if you intend to listen to certain types of music through
the system (and why not – it is an excellent music amplifier/speaker
system).
We checked the performance specifications (i.e., 40Hz –
20,000 Hz, etc) against the competition and the Kenwood compared very
well. Frankly, the subwoofer was a cut above the competition, and it appears
you have to go to higher end competitor systems to get a comparable superior
subwoofer.
Overall Assessment
The Kenwood HTB-506 is a excellent entry system for most,
typical systems. Certainly it has excellent value and a great price point.
The subwoofer is excellent, as was the receiver’s ability to handle
DTS and Dolby EX, and provide a smooth 100 watts to each of the 6.1 channels.
As an entry system, with a solid receiver and 7 speakers
(including the thermo-nuclear subwoofer) – the Kenwood HTB-506 receives
the NextGenElectronics “Editor’s Choice” award.
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8 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
94%
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10 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9.4 /
10 |
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