Sony Dream Systems (1 Viewer)

[Nick_NMK]

I have been actively listening to home theatre systems the past few weeks. Have ruled out the equipment from Bose, just seems like a lot of $$$.

I have also looked at the Kenwood 504 systems and Yamaha 34s.

Any experience from the "group"?

Nick, in Madison

 

[Keith_R]

I have no experience with it but I've heard the 504 is anice system with some great features. Hope this helps.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I know a lot of people here love the Kenwood HTBs (Home Theaters in a Box). I don't really know about the others.

 

[Chris Smith]

I started out with the HTB 503, a slightly older model of the 504 (I think the major difference is the 504 has DPLII, but don't quote me on that), and I'll let you know what I thought of it, and then someone else can chime in on the other system.
The main speakers were pretty decent. In fact, I am still using them, although they are my surrounds (didn't have enough money to upgrade ALL 5 channels). The center channel and the surround channels are pretty bad, though. They are all a single small midrange driver to drive the entire spectrum. The center channel is the same speaker as the surrounds but packaged in a different box to make it look more center channel like.
The Sub is decent for the size and price. Gets loud, if that is what you are after, but is also a little boomy, but very decent for price.
The Receiver, at least the one in the 503, was also pretty good. It had a lot of video and audio inputs (6 s-video inputs, which I severly miss). Kenwood is known to "cook" their numbers, so don't take those 100 wpc to heart, which distortion and power loss, it is much less than that. But it sounds pretty good, again, for the price.
Overall, it depends on your goals. I bought it because I knew I was only going to have it for a year, but I wanted some sort of surround system for my college dorm last year. For the size and price, I couldn't beat it, it fit great. (Got me in trouble a couple of times with the RA too, damn thing did sound pretty good). The receiver and the sub alone pretty much make up the asking price, and they are throwing in 5(?) additional speakers on top of that, so it is a pretty good value.
Don't get burned by the same thing I did, however. The Kenwood is an 8 ohm receiver and is NOT capable of driving 4 ohm speakers, which limits your upgrade path in the future. When I built my current speakers (Adire Audio KIT281), I HAD To get a new receiver because the kenwood ran WAY to hot to use.
If you want surround sound that is easy to set up, cheap and you want it RIGHT NOW , the kenwood 504 is a great buy. Many will tell you to save up (most will tell you to save up to twice what the 504 costs, but they usually don't have any sense of budget), and you WILL get better equipment if you go that route. But the 504 is a good value for surround sound right now. Plus, it isn't like 8 ohm speakers don't exist so you could always upgrade the front soundstage in a few months or a year (or whatever your monetary contraints allow you), then the rears, then new receiver, ooops time for a new tv, then I need a new dvd player, oh, wait, talking about myself again