I recently purchased a Kenwood KR 9600 to upgrade from a 7600 I had
previously purchased from the same shop,as I like vintage equipment. I was
impressed with it bit noticed that the loudness switch, even though it has 2
settings, does not boost the bass nearly as much,even on the highest
setting, as my 7600 or most other receivers I've listened to.Granted I have
small speakers(Infinity RS9's, 6 1/2 inch woofer and small tweeter), but a
have to use the loudness #2 setting and turn the bass up to about 4 to get
adequate bass whereas with the 7600 loudness plus about 0 to 2 on the bass
knob was adequate.I tried a comparison with Grado headphones and the same FM
station, and the 7600's loudness definitely has more pronounced boost. I
would like to find out if this is likely to be a defect or was it designed
that way for some reason. The shop offers 6 months warranty so I'm not too
worried, but it's just a hassle to lug it in to them if there's nothing
wrong.(weighs about 60 pounds !!)
Also, I havent' turned in the 7600 for my trade-up refund yet, but if I do,
I will not be able to do the same with the 9600, should I desire to. So I'm
kind of on the fence right now as to whether I should take the trade-in
refund or treat this as a seperate purchase so I would have the option to
trade the 9600 up within 6 months. I hear good things about the Pioneer
"Super-receivers" and might consider one of them later.
Thanks, Dave Arrabito