Kenwood KR-1000 Galaxy Commander, Review

In 1982, Star Wars fever was at its peak. Five years before, the surprise success of Star Wars had redefined the mass public’s perception of the science-fiction genre. Less than two years before, the sequel The Empire Strikes Back had been a box office setter. Now, manufacturers of all goods from toys to cereal to games to underwear were capitalizing on this success making Star Wars everything and other products influenced by the style of the movies. Carried by the currents of this pop phenomenon, the consumers readily handed over their hard earned money. Eventually, the prospects of increased sales reached the major electronics manufacturers over in Japan and drove them to attempt to cash in as well.

Thus, in spring of 1982, Kenwood put out the KR-1000 receiver. The styling was a hybrid of previous designs with the silver or black face-plates and dark rosewood vinyl veneer, but with a flow chart display straight from the control room of an Empirial cruiser. The marketing department published advertisements hailing the arrival of this new receiver attempted to associate it with Star Wars as much as possible including the very name chosen, the Galaxy Commander. Ultimately, the aesthetics appealed largely to the younger crowd who composed the greater part of the Star Wars followers, but who were largely without the funds to afford this $1250 MSRP receiver. So, sales failed to meet expectations making the KR-1000 a one year production unit (though some units were evidently still sold as new until 1984) and fairly rare.

The first introduction of the KR-1000:


The KR-1000 Galaxy Commander is a 120wpc (with 2dB of headroom) receiver with a feature set that was cutting edge for consumer audio. The basic features include four memory presets that recall saved settings from the Program Mode Commander (the flow chart display), six memory stations for the tuner, and a 7-band graphic equalizer. Others include a tuner capable of tuning FM at 50 kHz increments with a variable IF band and a “high speed amplifier”, which is supposed to provide above-average sonics. Perhaps, the most unusual feature of the KR-1000 is the clock and timer function that allow one to program a turn on/off time for the receiver for every day of the week at a preset volume making this unit perhaps the most expensive consumer-grade clock radio ever marketed.

The particular unit up for review is an early example, serial #16, that is stock and in need of some repairs and new bulbs for the display. It’s not the finest example of this monster receiver model, but it mostly works and that’s the important part.

The Galaxy Commander


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A view of the right-hand controls and volume level graph:

The blue color does progress as the volume is turned up and is created by a colored plastic film situated in front of a regular bulb moved on motorized reels. The “Mixing Level” knob to the right of Balance appears to serve as a karaoke function by controlling how much the microphone input overlaps the source signal.

When the Mute is engaged, the plastic film is moved slightly so the red color shows:


Rear panel view

While those speaker connectors look as though they could accept banana plugs and that the plugs do in fact fit, there is no continuity via this approach. Nor is there room for spades. So, only bare wire or flexible pin connectors will work.

A glimpse under the hood:

The transformer, while large, is fairly ordinary and not toroidal like other units of the time available at nearly the same cost. Discrete components are used for the finals, but the heatsink is markedly undersized making for a hot running unit even at idle. The overall assembly of the chassis is overlapping making for rather difficult repairs. To simply replace the display lights requires near total disassembly of the front half of the receiver and then further prying and careful manipulation of the various boards, wire bundles and the display.

Before I briefly discuss the sound, I’d just like to lay out the caveat that I’m not fond of attempting to describe the sound of a receiver or amplifier due to the relatively minor colorations such can demonstrate when compared to the gross variations and effect on the sound the typical loudspeaker has or that the room can induce. In addition, the type of load presented by the speaker to the amplifier can greatly affect the sound and thus such synergy can make my observations invalid or opposite depending. With a competently designed pre-amplifier and amplifier section, even the otherwise negligible effects of the sound of a decent source can easily mask and positives or negative attributes.

Regarding the sound, the KR-1000 is a decent unit. It has no glaring defects in the sonics and is better behaved overall than many of the average consumer grade units before and since its production. The power provides plenty of dynamics with the 88dB/w/m speakers I was using in the test setup such that it is obvious that this amp does have some heft to it. The frequency response sounds fairly flat overall aside from a very slight rise around the 50-100Hz region and some roll-off above 15 kHz. I did get the sense that deep bass below ~30Hz might be abit rolled off as well, but as my speakers do not cover this region effectively I cannot verify this sense.

The channel separation is much better than many ‘70s receivers I had the opportunity to listen to making for superior imaging and a higher resolution, better defined soundstage compared to a Kenwood KA-5500, Pioneer SX-X3X series, and the like. The sound overall is smoother than these vintage units with less grain and is a bit more revealing of fainter details in the music. Using some recordings that I’m intimately familiar with, the lower midrange was a bit richer than say, the more clinical sounding Yamahas and the upper midrange is a touch less harsh than the Carver Receiver (the Kenwood sounded better than the Carver in every way on these test speakers, but having heard the synergy of the Carver with the Dahlquists I can say that this is evidence of a possible amp/speaker mismatch as mentioned earlier). With particular tracks that I know are capable of projecting sounds to the rear through subtle phase effects, the Kenwood handled these with aplomb indicating an above average capability regarding channel separation, distortion, and phase.

Overall, the KR-1000 is better sounding than the majority of vintage units and does sound as though it alters the sound less than normal. However, this is not an exceptional receiver as while it is well above average to very good, at no point is it excellent. There also is evident a subtle fuzziness to the sound where fine details are smoothed over just a touch removing a crispness to the sound that I’ve become accustomed to. The effect is minor and I suspect is largely composed in part by the tired components in the DAC of my less than great CD player, but there is a little more there than I’ve heard before. This may be due to the average transformer and average components throughout the unit that hold the sound back from that last couple of steps needed to exceed the very good classification.

The greatest fault in the Kenwood in most people’s perceptions is the aesthetics. Not everyone today is a Star Wars fans and even those who are would rather forget the styling of the ‘80s of which the Galaxy Commander is a prime example. The build quality is also rather lacking with a plastic face plate held on with few, easily broken tabs. The thin wood sides with vinyl veneer, relatively thin gauge chassis (compared to vintage units), and average components inside do not give the ‘built for decades’ of consumer grade equipment or previous decades and is an example of the increasing trend towards disposable products that came to dominate by the late 1980s. Units may be found typically for $50-100, though many of these will require some work, such as the need to replace burnt out display lamps.

For the rest of the system, I chose my most revealing speakers, my Flatline Design Model 175s, but decided to leave the helper subwoofers in my Infinities out of the mix to ensure better perception of the low frequency response. The source was an old Sony CDP-X111ES, which while far above average in sonics is showing its age with regards to the DAC and likely contributed to much of the fuzziness to the sound and possibly some of the high frequency roll-off.

- JP

JP,

I´ve been teasing you for almost a year, or just over 1 year in fact, about your Galaxy Commander.

Damn, I apologize.

What a great piece of writing. I´d love to see you as a regular contributor to some British Hi-Fi mags, like your fellow countryman Ken Kessler.

Yours is a refreshing aproach to audio gear reviewing, that would embarass many an established name.

I look forward to your reviews of all your gear.

Jorge

No problem, in fact, I insist that you continue. Even I have a hard time resisting a laugh at the looks of this receiver while using it.

As to my writing, I still don't think it all that great. As I said, speakers are relatively easy to review due to how much of an impact on the sound they have. Electronics and sources have a much more subtle effect, which is rather difficult for me to hear past the speakers despite how familiar with their sound that I am. Plus, the receiver could easily sound very different on a set of speakers with different load characteristics, which makes it a bit frustrating to describe. Still, I tried.

What I should've done was just quote what was printed right on the display:



- JP

Yeah, there seemed to be no limit for the kind of rubbish the marketing depts. of those companies were allowed to put out.

Jorge

Excellent review.

Too bad the Galaxy Commander still looks like a painful, chrome-plated turd...

Them's fightin' words. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for one local to you. It's hard to find 120 true watts per channel for $40 in anything that isn't a KR-1000.

- JP

Great review JP. Thanks.

cubdog

Nice review, JP.

"GALAXY COMMANDER"

I wonder it they PAID someone to come up with that!

Yeah, "Galaxy Commander" sounds like a dollar store toy.

Now, all of you, get busy reviewing your own gear and posting about it.

- JP

I have recently taken the time to really "listen" to my Sansui stuff (AU719, TU717, SE7, SC1330) which I have never really done in the 26+ years I have owned it. I want to have it "freshened up", and I will do just that.

C'mon, dude!

I really don't know why people find this to be so ugly. I think it is one of the coolest pieces of 80's gear out there. Unfortunately, from everything I have read it is a funkin' bitch to repair, which is gonna make it increasingly rare...and expensive.

People hate black plastic...and this is exactly the opposite! Perhaps it is a generational thing? I am 32 and find the Galaxy Commander to be ass-kickingly sweet in a Star Trek/Space 1999/Star Wars/TARDIS sorta way!!

Stunning Beautiful !

Hi,thanks for posting this thread. Actually im not really into star wars and i do'nt know any story bout it. But bec of this review i now have an idea what this is really about. Thanks!



Regards,
mimic143

looks like we need some new pics of this bad boy. as an admirer of this cool stereo receiver, i'm all too happy to oblige;



KENWOOD KR-1000 "GALAXY COMMANDER"





















Granted, there is simply no way that this toy could compare to the likes of the mighty PIONEER VSX-D1S, one of the greatest under-appreciated bargains of the Hi-Fi world to this very day, IMHO, but that doesn't exactly stop the KR-1000 from being a uniquely fascinating stereo component in it's own right...

This post has been edited by MacGyver on September 15, 2009 07:03 am

Mac, those photos belonged to the great Vintagestereo, who is no longer active on the boards but still a receiver enthusiast. I'm glad to see them again.