Home Theater Systems Reviews

This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the HTB-503's left/right speakers (green), center channel (red), surrounds (yellow), and woofer (purple). All passive loudspeakers were measured at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input and scaled for display purposes.

On-axis response of the left/right speakers measures +9.1/-3.1 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The -3dB point is at 115 Hz, and the -6dB point is at 100 Hz. On-axis response of the center measures +2.1/-6.8 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz. The -3dB point is at 360 Hz, and the -6dB point is at 127 Hz. On-axis response of the surrounds measures +7.2/-2.5 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz. The -3dB point is at 393 Hz, and the -6dB point is at 127 Hz. Close-miked response of the woofer indicates that the lower -3dB point is at 34 Hz and the -6dB point is at 31 Hz. The upper -3dB point is at 120 Hz.

The left amplifier channel, driving an 8-ohm load, began clipping at 0.03% distortion and 112.6 watts. The amp reaches 0.1% distortion at 121.2 watts and 1% distortion at 137.1 watts. The amplifier's frequency response was +0/-1.2 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. THD+N from the amplifier was less than 0.048% at 1 kHz when driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load.—AJ

For the second time, we were able to measure the video performance of a receiver. The Kenwood had a significant 12-IRE gain in luminance and chrominance level. This pushes the video to the point of clipping, thus losing fine details in bright white images. Chroma and luminance frequency response was flat within 1 IRE out to 6.5 megahertz. Most video inputs have an 82-ohm impedance and vary from clean to noisy. The front-panel input measures 175 ohms, exhibits a fair amount of noise, and cuts the output level in half (this may be particular to our sample). The main monitor's output measures 60 ohms, with the Video 1 output at 40 ohms. I wouldn't use this receiver, particularly the front input, for switching video in a high-end system. For a comparison, see our measurements of the Denon AVR-4800, also in this issue.—RW/MW

HTB-503 Home-Theater-in-a-Box $499
Kenwood
(800) KENWOOD
www.kenwoodusa.com
Dealer Locator Code KWD