Kenwood KR-7050

This is a Kenwood offering from 1979-1980. It’s the Kenwood KR-7050 and supplies 80 watts per channel in to 8 ohms. It has a very good tuner and features Wide/Narrow IF selection and incorporates 5 ceramic filters. The styling is fairly typical of the late 70’s but not quite as sharp or sleek as the Pioneer SX series of the same era. Still, it was built in Japan and is a high quality receiver. The KR-7050 retailed for $660.

Front Panel

The Kenwood KR-7050 receiver has a pair of logarithmically calibrated power output meters that can accurately measure power output from 0.01 to 160 watts into 8 ohm speakers. This allows you to monitor the power being delivered to the speakers. The receiver also has FM and AM tuning dials with indicators to display the frequency tuned. For adjusting the sound, the KR-7050 has bass, midrange and treble tone controls, with switches to set the turnover points for the bass and treble controls to customize the tonal adjustments. A balance control is provided to adjust the relative volume between the left and right speakers.

To connect audio sources, the receiver has a set of pushbuttons to select between different inputs like Phono, Tuner, Tape, etc., with indicator lights that denote which source is selected. There are input jacks for both headphones and a microphone.

Features

The Kenwood KR-7050 also featured:

• two tape monitors
• phono input
• aux input
• bass and treble turnover controls
• separate mid control
• DC Coupled
• high filter
• tone on/defeat
• FM muting on/off
• If Band narrow/wide
• Font panel mic input
• tuning and signal meters
• right and left channel output power meters

Tuner

For FM reception, it uses a 4-gang tuning capacitor and specialized components like a dual-gate MOSFET radio frequency amplifier and separate local oscillator and mixer stages. This results in good FM performance. The intermediate frequency (IF) stages use multiple ceramic filters that are electronically switched to provide either wide or narrow IF bandwidth. An integrated circuit serves as an additional IF amplifier, limiter and detector.

For FM stereo decoding, it uses a standard phase-lock-loop decoder with a pilot canceller circuit. This eliminates the need for steep filtering at high frequencies, improving stereo separation and treble response.

Amplifier

The amplifier uses a direct-coupled design without capacitors in the signal path. This avoids distortion and provides better bass response. The phono preamp uses FET inputs and push-pull outputs for accurate RIAA equalization.

Sensing circuits monitor for DC at the outputs and disconnect the speakers if detected, protecting the speakers and providing safe operation even with the direct-coupled design. When DC coupling is disabled, frequencies below 18Hz are attenuated to prevent infrasonic noise.

While specs are good, the real benefit is musical – the amp delivers power with vanishingly low distortion across the entire audio band. Transients are fast and accurate. The phono stage is equally admirable. This allows the KR-7050 to provide superb sonic performance. Kenwood’s design results in an amplifier that’s technically excellent yet also an exceptional listening experience.

Rear Panel

The rear panel of the Kenwood KR-7050 has a comprehensive set of input/output connections and antennas to hook up speakers, audio sources like turntables and CD players, tape decks, radio antennas, and other audio components along with power outlets for convenience. Here are its features:

• It has screw terminals to connect up to two pairs of speakers. The terminals are color coded for easy wiring.
• It has connections for FM and AM antennas – 300 ohm screw terminals for FM, 75 ohm coaxial jack for FM, and screw terminals for AM. This allows you to connect the various types of radio antennas.
• It has RCA jacks to connect phonograph turntables and other high level audio sources like CD players.
• It has input and output RCA jacks to connect up to two tape decks for recording and playback.
• It has three AC power outlets on the back – two that are always on and one that turns on with the receiver, to plug in other audio gear.
• It has a built-in AM ferrite bar antenna that can pivot out for better AM reception if needed.

The Kenwood KR-7050 was the little brother of the Kenwood KR-8050 and is, overall, an excellent receiver.  The FM tuner and the amplifier perform well above average and it sounds and looks great. You really can’t go wrong with the KR-7050.