Kenwood Feedback

[Tailfin Joe]

I have never owned a Kenwood receiver? how are the 70's early 80's vintage receivers? ,like to get some feedback the good ones ,and maybe not so good , how about all you guys out there tell me what you think , good listening to all!

[stereorob]

oh boy! well joe, there are a zillion models of vintage kenwoods out there and honestly you couldnt have picked a eaiser brand to play with!, there are still plenty of them out there and for whatever reason they dont seem to be real hot with collectors -yet, so you can still find a really good deal on one.

best advice is to stick with pre 1980 stuff, as there early digital stuff from the 80s wasnt very well bulit and they are prone to have issues, also stay away from ones that use the integrated power/speaker selector cause they like to break.

old kenwood stuff is very well made. ive owned hundreds of diffrent old kenwoods over the years and since you are a newbie with kenwood, you should play it safe and stick with a all around good model that wont cost you too much money to obtain, kenwood receivers from the mid to late 1970s are all pretty decent, for example, if you can get one, go after a kr-5400 or kr-5600, both of these were time proven and well made, and they have a clean robust sound. one thing about older kenwood stuff is that they tend to have ALOT of bass, maybe even too much. -if thats possible,

ones to avoid,

anything with the "TK" suffix, there are earlier 1960s receivers when solid state first came out. although they are pretty to look at and sound very good, they like to burn! ive had serious component failures with every tk series kenwood ive ever had, infact, i had a power xformer burn on one when i wasnt even home, and it was off, but plugged in, that almost burned my house down!

also, stay away from the really big monster ones, although they are incredible receivers, more than likely they have had a hard life and have been played to death., like the kr-9600 for example or the super eleven,

stick with the kr-3,4,5, or 6,(00) models, i think you will like what you get!

also, one thing kenwoods are notorious with is dial lamps, but they are easy to replace, they also have noisy controls but that can be corrected with some de-oxit.

any other questions?
good luck on your hunt! hope you score one soon! and tell us what you think of it!!

[jammoNAD]

"stick with the kr-3,4,5, or 6,(00) models, i think you will like what you get!".................................................
Hey, Stereorob................very good advice..............I've owned a few of these in the past and had NO issues and was happy with the sound reproduction as well!!!
This is a great site to get good advice whether you're a novice or pro!!! I only prefer my 1975 NAD because I got it cheap andit sounds and looks new......given a choice to add to my collection (means if my wife will look the other way at swap meets) I would like to return to Kenwood or Sherwood!!!
Thanks for the reminder and keep up the great recommendations..............Ammon

[Tailfin Joe]

Thaks guys , good advice, I picked a KR 4070 not a bad buy at 25.00 , good sound for the $$$, hey jammoNAD , I think NAD has one of the best CD players out there sound wise I have a NAD 5325 this is my second CD player (NAD) I am not familar with their vintage receivers , and never owned one if I could score one at the right price I would scoop one up , what do you suggest ?