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Did Kenwood have a good reputation...

Kenwood was what you saw in Dillard's in the late 70's. Their "formed stone" turntables were on display there as well as an assortment of receivers, they were impressive and spoke of quality but beyond the budget of a college student.

Mark Gosdin
 
My first decent amp was a Kenny ka8100. Bought it new in the late '70's. Ran it for years. Had to clean the pots and switches once.

I still run a kenwood AVR. 6070 or 7060. Don't remember which. Also a super seven. Great stuff!

And most of my car stereos have been kenwoods. No issues.
 
Kenwood gear in the 70's was very nice,easily compares to Pioneer or Marantz. In the 80's quality fell off on their mid-fi gear but their separates were still very good and Japan only stuff was top notch.
 
I admired KW rcvrs in the 70s.
Never owned KW till about 8 yrs ago I got a KA7100.
I have since been a KW fan. I sold it but got another this yr and also a KA 5700 in my avtar.
2 mighty nice amps IMO and they are excellent cond never worked on look like new.
 
I had posted earlier that I hold my KA-3500 and C2 preamp in high regard. But I had forgotten (because it's not in my main room) that we've got a modest, but excellent KR-6050 hooked up to the TV.
I guess I'm more Kenwoody than I realized. And I'm really tempted by the KA-7100 that is lanquishing on BT...just wish it had a pre-out like the 8100.
 
Back in "the day" of classic two channel, Kenwood was a great brand. They were known for having among the best tuners.

Now, in the nineties things changed. Thy lost the glitter and concentrated more on the lowest prices possible and less on quality. IIRC, they had the first < 400 HT receiver in the late 90's. and tried to break into the automobile market.

The last I recall seeing them is when they opened three "refurb only" stores in three malls in my area. Now, if a company has enough refurbs to stock several stores, there's a problem somewhere.
 
the skipper said:
Back in "the day" of classic two channel, Kenwood was a great brand. They were known for having among the best tuners.

Now, in the nineties things changed. Thy lost the glitter and concentrated more on the lowest prices possible and less on quality. IIRC, they had the first < 400 HT receiver in the late 90's. and tried to break into the automobile market.

The last I recall seeing them is when they opened three "refurb only" stores in three malls in my area. Now, if a company has enough refurbs to stock several stores, there's a problem somewhere.
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Every company that is big enough to be sold in chain retailers will have enough returned product for stores like that. Some companies use different channels for their repaired product, but they all have a ton of product (if they have big volumes) that they take back RTV (Return To Vendor) from the companies that sell it.
 
I still have a KR-V86R I purchased at Magnolia Hi-Fi in the later eighties. It's certainly no lightweight. Was my daily driver pushing a set of Speakerlab Fours for at least 15 years until I started collecting more vintage stuff again. I didn't feel deprived, and my stereo experience dates back to the golden seventies. It's not the best receiver I own anymore but it certainly is not, nor ever was, BPC. Specs tell only so much but this one certainly has good ones. And 30 years later everything still works pretty darn well. Very useful built in EQ, remote control, and lots of inputs were welcome then and now. I have future plans for it. That said, I look forward to enjoying a Kenwood from the seventies in the near future.
 
Ryan Rogen said:
Kenwood is one of the biggest names in car audio industry and all of their products are quality ones.I am using KENWOOD XR900-5 AMPLIFIER.
It is no surprise that XR900-5 is highly rated among the fans and it is a compact and affordable option.
The output is 600W mono + 75W 4 channel amplifier and it has built-in low and hi pass and even a bass boost. It comes with full 24-month manufacturer’s warranty and it is easy to install by yourself. It is a highly recommended product for its price and there are no reported problems by users and sound quality is very good. If you need compact and cheap car amp this can be a perfect solution for you.
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Yeah, you are right. Why I needed to agree with you was its huge sound base. Kenwood has been involved in manufacturing top quality of amplifiers. I am going to install their product for my new car audio system soon.
 
Fun reading this thread, don't know how I missed it as I tend to be a fan of the brand. The 700 separates were strong contenders in their day and I hope to still be listening to mine years from now!
 
Kenwood quality? you tell me.

notice the clean architectural layout of the true dual mono design, keep in mind this was not a statement piece so affordably priced.

kenKA7300.jpg
6debaf45375b391120f0064318b834aa.jpg

Pioneer and Sansui better? hogwash!
 
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All I know is that through the 70's, 80's and 90's are techs loved Kenwood. They got paid on commission and they made a lot of money repairing Kenwood. Onkyo was another brand they loved. Yamaha and ARC made them a lot of money, too. Yes we had Marantz and Sony along with Tandberg, Mcintosh, Hafler, B&K, Altec, JBL, Urei, Bozak and C/M brands, too. But they were very much in the minority when it came to shop repairs. Some of the older Macs from the tube days need extensive work some times. Especially tuners. Tape decks and CD players were high on the list for repairs. People wouldn't keep them clean! Automatic and semi automatic TT kept one of our techs so busy he didn't have time for anything else. I did all the Ampexs, whether consumer or Professional in between commercial installations and large Discos. I also repaired speakers as I had all the test equipment. Crown TEF, Urei and Ivie spectrum analyzers and such. Most of the time we sent microphones to the factory for repairs. It was cheaper for the customer. I calibrated all R2R tape decks if customers wished. But big sound systems and communication systems were my bread and butter.
 
twiiii said:
All I know is that through the 70's, 80's and 90's are techs loved Kenwood. They got paid on commission and they made a lot of money repairing Kenwood. Onkyo was another brand they loved. Yamaha and ARC made them a lot of money, too. Yes we had Marantz and Sony along with Tandberg, Mcintosh, Hafler, B&K, Altec, JBL, Urei, Bozak and C/M brands, too. But they were very much in the minority when it came to shop repairs. Some of the older Macs from the tube days need extensive work some times. Especially tuners. Tape decks and CD players were high on the list for repairs. People wouldn't keep them clean! Automatic and semi automatic TT kept one of our techs so busy he didn't have time for anything else. I did all the Ampexs, whether consumer or Professional in between commercial installations and large Discos. I also repaired speakers as I had all the test equipment. Crown TEF, Urei and Ivie spectrum analyzers and such. Most of the time we sent microphones to the factory for repairs. It was cheaper for the customer. I calibrated all R2R tape decks if customers wished. But big sound systems and communication systems were my bread and butter.
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funny, my Kenwood gear is more than 4 decades old and still running great
 
I am and still are :idea: (need not drink and key :rflmao:).. Kenny Krazy!

I have a 9100 that makes my home system come alive when I switch over to its separated amp section. And I mixed in a host of vintage Kenny cassette decks, tuners-digital, and a rather silly CD player, I don't use. So many varieties out there, its relatively easy to collect and combine :naughty:

The poster "redcoates7" is spot on with the swing from some really well built and performing audio gear to errrrrrrr..... WT :dunno:

Anywayssssssss... it's not many audio manufacturers that stood the test of "audio time" in the moderate buyers market. I would nominate Kenwood as one of those that did :thumbsup:
 
I only own 3 Kenwood products.
KR-9050 receiver
Model Eleven G receiver
Model Nine G receiver
The model nine needs repair but the other two work fine.
Beautiful receivers!
Think I'll swap out my Pioneer sx-3900 in the living room system and give the big KR-9050 some play time. Haven't heard it quite some time.
 
I Fancy getting a Kenny amp to go with mu KD 990 but I don`t know much about them, at the moment I am using a Onkyo 9010 so any Kenwood amp would have to be an improvement on that in sound quality, it would be great to find an amp of the same era as the TT, any ideas?
 
The only Kenwood I ever owned was a late 70's tuner. Around $150 if I remember right. Not one of the better ones for sure. It died a few years later. When I opened it up I found a small transformer, tuning capacitor and a tiny PCB with a chip and a few caps and resistors. I should have bought the Kenwood tuner that was next to it in the store. It had a motor on the tuning cap. On the bottom of the dial was a.l couple plexi bars that lit up. Push the right bar and the indicator moved to the next station on the right of the dial. Left bar, stations to the left.
 
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