It's been a week since I received the Kenwood, and I've had plenty of time now to get acquainted with the new acquisition.
Upon closer inspection, I think the seller having described it as "mint" was a bit of an exaggeration. "Near-mint" would have been my honest assessment. There wasn't just the one top panel screw missing from the case, but an additional four were gone from the bottom panel as well. I was able to find a source for the screws and it's all buttoned up nicely now, but if it were truly mint I wouldn't have had to do that. All of the plastic escutcheons around the three toggle switches on the front panel are in various degrees of brokenness. Not a deal breaker by any means (it's barely noticeable), but finding replacements for those is far more problematic and from what I've read, these things being broken is a pretty common occurrence. So even locating a front panel for sale with these parts attached is no guarantee they'd still be be intact after 45 years. Again, not mint.
And despite my own application of contact cleaner and Deoxit, both of the two "Acoustic" toggle switches produce a loud pop the first time they're flipped after powering on, but are silent upon with each subsequent activation (as long as you don't turn the receiver off). Not an issue, because the feature isn't something I anticipate ever using. But again, not mint.
I'm not completely thrilled with the seller's choice of color for the dial and indicator LEDs he used as replacements for the incandescent bulbs on the Kenny. He went with a very warm white—possibly even orange-yellow—color which looks good for the source indicators and tuning meters, but really dulls the aqua of the main tuner dial. (It looks much brighter in photos—and actually what you'd expect it to look like—than in person.)
On the positive side, the build quality of this receiver is what you'd expect for a unit like this from the time period. In other words, exemplary. The controls are silky-smooth and absolutely reek quality. You're unlikely to find anything like this in todays equipment unless you reach up into the atmospheric price range of "audiophile" gear.
The sound of the Kenny is the one thing that is absolutely preventing me from boxing it up and re-listing it. Listening both through my JBLs and through my headphones, the sound is amazing—and that's what all this is about, after all. Whether it's vinyl, FM, or Spotify via Apple TV, it is so much better than what the Technics components produced. Is it my dream vintage system? No, not by a long shot, but it's one I am happy enough with that I'm in no hurry to get rid of it.