Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Kenwood Jumbo Jet, the KR-6170 from 1971 with 33WPC. Reverb, Drum Machine, Guitar/Mic Inputs, Hot Dog Cooker.
Here’s a very interesting receiver and let me tell you it’s one of my favorites at this point.
Kenwood had a really interesting engineering design to create a receiver designed for the musician. Definitely a unicorn because no other manufacturer did anything like this and I’m not quite sure how you’d lug this consumer type form factor receiver around.
Recently got this for a couple reasons, first of all the knob backplate lettering is intact. The case is in good shape. And it doesn’t look like it was opened prior to it getting in my hands.
This is a very interesting piece. Let me tell you a little bit more about it:
- AM/FM tuner
- 2 phono inputs
- 2 tape Loop inputs
- 2 aux inputs
- Preamp inputs and output interception jacks
- Left and right microphone inputs
- Left and right guitar inputs
- Reverb functionality for all inputs
- 16 mode drum and cymbal percussion presets - to be used with guitar and/or microphone inputs
- VU power level meters with low and high settings
- Selectable tone presets with bass and treble override circuits
- Power output limiters to protect your speakers, depending on maximum wattage
- Capability to connect four sets of speakers
- Two headphone jacks with adjustable volume
What else more would you want in a receiver back in 1971? I question today what else more would you want in a receiver?
Total wattage consumption is 240 based on the back plate. Something like 100 actual watts peak per channel but 33 watts continuous music - prior to the receiver wars. I think the real output is somewhere around 50 WPC solid. And believe me, it is solid.
This unit didn’t need anything other than a complete relamp, deoxit wash cleaning of each and every control, and a re-biasing.
What’s interesting is that all of these seem to have burned out bulbs, so I don’t know if they all had crappy ones when first manufactured. In my opinion, this is a low hour unit. It has almost no char marks or any indication of usage inside. So after re-lamping and doing some general cleanup, It’s working great.
Most capacitors, if not all, are Elna. Very well built and designed for its time.
This video is an intro of it working and then 24 minutes of the restoration process.
Happy fall everyone!
Kenwood Jumbo Jet, the KR-6170 from 1971 with 33WPC. Reverb, Drum Machine, Guitar/Mic Inputs, Hot Dog Cooker.
Here’s a very interesting receiver and let me tell you it’s one of my favorites at this point.
Kenwood had a really interesting engineering design to create a receiver designed for the musician. Definitely a unicorn because no other manufacturer did anything like this and I’m not quite sure how you’d lug this consumer type form factor receiver around.
Recently got this for a couple reasons, first of all the knob backplate lettering is intact. The case is in good shape. And it doesn’t look like it was opened prior to it getting in my hands.
This is a very interesting piece. Let me tell you a little bit more about it:
- AM/FM tuner
- 2 phono inputs
- 2 tape Loop inputs
- 2 aux inputs
- Preamp inputs and output interception jacks
- Left and right microphone inputs
- Left and right guitar inputs
- Reverb functionality for all inputs
- 16 mode drum and cymbal percussion presets - to be used with guitar and/or microphone inputs
- VU power level meters with low and high settings
- Selectable tone presets with bass and treble override circuits
- Power output limiters to protect your speakers, depending on maximum wattage
- Capability to connect four sets of speakers
- Two headphone jacks with adjustable volume
What else more would you want in a receiver back in 1971? I question today what else more would you want in a receiver?
Total wattage consumption is 240 based on the back plate. Something like 100 actual watts peak per channel but 33 watts continuous music - prior to the receiver wars. I think the real output is somewhere around 50 WPC solid. And believe me, it is solid.
This unit didn’t need anything other than a complete relamp, deoxit wash cleaning of each and every control, and a re-biasing.
What’s interesting is that all of these seem to have burned out bulbs, so I don’t know if they all had crappy ones when first manufactured. In my opinion, this is a low hour unit. It has almost no char marks or any indication of usage inside. So after re-lamping and doing some general cleanup, It’s working great.
Most capacitors, if not all, are Elna. Very well built and designed for its time.
This video is an intro of it working and then 24 minutes of the restoration process.
Happy fall everyone!
