[hottyson]

Just a heads-up on a good deal at Amazon for the Kenwood VRS-7100 receiver. I don’t think that this deal will last long! This receiver has Dolby Headphone processing on the headphone output. I was going to buy this a long time ago when it was a good deal at $315+ but now that it has aged it has dropped to $208 w/free super-saver shipping. I just ordered it and it will be here next week. I will finally have Dolby headphone without having to be attached to my computer! YES!!!

Another notable feature of this receiver is that it uses Texas Instruments PurePath digital amplification. That means very good sounding digital amplification and processing for all six-speaker outputs (albeit not that powerful). Bonus!

 

[Carl]

It's cheap because they're being replaced by the 7200.

Good amp though. Well able to foot it with Panasonic's digital amps on an equal footing. Not sure how good they headphone stage is, mind you.

 

[hottyson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Well able to foot it with Panasonic's digital amps on an equal footing.

The feature that really attracts me to the Panasonic to me is the real binding posts for the speaker output connectors. The Kenwood's tiny little clips are not capable of taking a decent gauge wire without first adding pins to the ends of the speaker cables.
The Kenwood VRS-7100 receiver does have Dolby Headphone so that won me over in my decision.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Not sure how good they headphone stage is, mind you.

For Dolby Headphone movie watching, headphone stage is not so important compared to music listening. Also the higher-end headphones usually don't sound as good with Dolby Headphone movie watching as some of the less-expensive models such as the Sennheiser HD-280. With the artificial sound imaging cues that are created with Dolby Headphone you don't need all of the fancy sound stage and imaging (if I dare call it that) that you find with the higher-end headphones.