JVC does not get much respect

One of the reasons I subscribed was to learn. So to Bi-amp correctly I would need two separate amps with the same output? That's good to know. I only have one set of speakers (Electro Voice FR210b) that could be Bi-amped at the moment. I am sorry to crap on this great thread while exposing my ignorance, please forgive that indiscretion. I am more interested in the JVC AX 900b reliability and build quality. I hear its a tank, but that its rare. Is it rare to see one because they weren't very good and no-one bought them OR are they rare to find because they are indestructible and amazing and no one wants to get rid of them.
That is a very nice amp. More were sold in Japan than here under the "Victor" name. It should be just as reliable as any other amp from the time period. Good power and great specs overall. I wouldn't hesitate getting it. My A-X5 has been great, the A-X9 needed some work but is playing terrifific now!
 
Thanks! It does have the door which stays "all the way up" 95% of the time. The other 5% it will open a few degrees. I plan to (non permanently) shape a small block of wood, affix it in middle region of amp (double sided tape or rubber cement)where door is and use a small piece of velcro so that it stays 100% up, 100% of the time(only need bass and treble under door and once they are set I wont adjust that often). Also... ALL volume knobs should be like this, large and in charge!
My door is the same way. You could also put a small piece of bicycle tube rubber on the sides so when you close the door it's sort of a gentle force fit. One of the things I need to do.
 
Listening to 'The Unforgettable Nat King Cole' on a JVC KD-85 (thanks rajoo) Cassette Deck now... Damn good deck!
 
I haven't used it in a long time but it's funny you mention it because just yesterday I was thinking about rotating it back in. I remember it being a super fast loader as DVD players go, and sounding good. Let me know your impressions when you test yours.
it sounds great and looks really cool, I dig the blue. You are right about the fast loading, that's really great for a DVD as CD. I went to a thrift store and tested a bunch and bought a few different ones after doing some research, figuring some may skip or break quickly since they're all older and pretty used, but they're all dirt cheap. I like this one best, speed and cosmetics so hoping it lasts.
 
View attachment 982034 Would love a set of SX-911's or ZERO..series
I have the Super Digifine set, Which is AWESOME BTW!!
AX-Z-1010
FX-1010
XL-Z1010
TD-V1010View attachment 982033

I'd love to try those SX-911's and the AX-Z1010. I've been looking out for an AX-Z1010 for a while now, but for whatever reason, the prices have gone absolutely insane on them in the last year or two it seems. You could used to find them in the $150-$300 range, but now people are asking ridiculous prices like $600-$1000! I even saw an ad for one where the guy was asking $1,650! Just utter insanity. They're good, but not $1,650 good. I'd buy separates at that price. Kudos on a nice rig though.
 
I'd love to try those SX-911's and the AX-Z1010. I've been looking out for an AX-Z1010 for a while now, but for whatever reason, the prices have gone absolutely insane on them in the last year or two it seems. You could used to find them in the $150-$300 range, but now people are asking ridiculous prices like $600-$1000! I even saw an ad for one where the guy was asking $1,650! Just utter insanity. They're good, but not $1,650 good. I'd buy separates at that price. Kudos on a nice rig though.

There was a ax-z1010 in my own back yard 2 years back for 275 and I passed. I'm regretting it but there is a guy on the bay that has nos ones for 800-1200 on the bay depending on his mood. He also has a lot of NOS jvc items listed. Love the jvc stuff I have now.
 
There was a ax-z1010 in my own back yard 2 years back for 275 and I passed. I'm regretting it but there is a guy on the bay that has nos ones for 800-1200 on the bay depending on his mood. He also has a lot of NOS jvc items listed. Love the jvc stuff I have now.

Yeah, I think what has happened with them is that people are looking online for values on gear, and for whatever reason, people started randomly posting them at ridiculous prices without any reason for it, and it's just taken off from there. It's like a snowball effect: "Oh! This guys's got his posted for $600, so I'll post mine for $800 to see what I can get for it." >>> "Oh! This guy's got his posted for $800, so I'll post mine for $1,000!" >>> "Wow! This guy's got his posted for $1,000. I'm going to post mine for $1,200!" >>> "Holy cow! There's one posted for $1,200, so surely mine's worth $1,650!!!" And so forth. The current pricing on them, to me, just seems to be based on absolutely nothing, and was so sudden and out of the blue. It seems as though they literally went from $150-$300 to $600-$1,200 overnight. They're good units, but I wouldn't pay any more than $300-$400 for one, and even that's a bit high. Five hundred might be "fair" for an NOS one, but it damn well better have original unsliced factory tape on the box. But even $500 is pushing it. Silly interwebs. :/
 
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I have a few JVC pieces,

a JVC JL-F30 Automatic Turntable Belt Drive,

a JVC XL-M405 Mult 6 disc CD Auto Changer and

a JVC TD-W209 Dual Cassette Deck (1 Reversing).

All seem well built and perform very well. I hardly ever see any comments on JVC components.

Anybody else had good experiences with JVC?

Charlie

JVC has been talked about often on the site. Folks have asked for a JVC thread in the past. They build some good gear, some not so good.

Cool thread!
 
JVC CD PLAYER SUGGESTIONS

Since I've never tried any, I am interested in trying out some JVC CD or DVD players for playing CD's. Any suggestions? Cheers.
 
JVC CD PLAYER SUGGESTIONS

Since I've never tried any, I am interested in trying out some JVC CD or DVD players for playing CD's. Any suggestions? Cheers.

Well I rather enjoy the sound of my recently acquired JVC XL-V333 through my JVC AX-Z911 amp, it's not a range topper from its era ('87 I think) more mid-range but it does utilise a Burr Brown PM56 DAC which always has a pleasing sonic signature. Plus the JVC Optima mechanisms are pretty bulletproof apart from belts perishing with age.

I'd really love to find an XL-Z555 or an XL-Z611 to better match the amp but they don't pop up very often any more :( nor do TD-Z711 tape decks or SEA-M770 graphic equalisers, at least not at acceptable prices.

Seems that JVC is not as under the radar as they used to be.

Regards

Tom
 
JVC CD PLAYER SUGGESTIONS

Since I've never tried any, I am interested in trying out some JVC CD or DVD players for playing CD's. Any suggestions? Cheers.
I have an XL-Z331 I use in my main system as a transport. It has a digital output and the built-in DAC is quite nice as well. Excellent build quality. I love the thick tray and the laser will read even the worst of my discs (with minimal skips).

I also have a XL-Z212 and XL-Z311 that have the same build quality.
 
I have a few JVC pieces,

a JVC JL-F30 Automatic Turntable Belt Drive,

a JVC XL-M405 Mult 6 disc CD Auto Changer and

a JVC TD-W209 Dual Cassette Deck (1 Reversing).

All seem well built and perform very well. I hardly ever see any comments on JVC components.

Anybody else had good experiences with JVC?

Charlie
I have a JVC JR-S600 receiver that I love. Paid five bucks for it at a garage sale. Only flaw is a broken off AM antenna. :)
 
Well I rather enjoy the sound of my recently acquired JVC XL-V333 through my JVC AX-Z911 amp, it's not a range topper from its era ('87 I think) more mid-range but it does utilise a Burr Brown PM56 DAC which always has a pleasing sonic signature. Plus the JVC Optima mechanisms are pretty bulletproof apart from belts perishing with age.

I'd really love to find an XL-Z555 or an XL-Z611 to better match the amp but they don't pop up very often any more :( nor do TD-Z711 tape decks or SEA-M770 graphic equalisers, at least not at acceptable prices.

Seems that JVC is not as under the radar as they used to be.

Regards

Tom


The XL-Z### series is nice. I have the Z441.

The XV-N50BK DVD player is a super fast loader and sounds nice. Another guy and I were talking about it in this thread a few weeks ago. It's not something I'd pay shipping for on eBay, but definitely worth a whirl if you find one locally.
 
I just bought a JVC R-X300 <(not my picture) for $5 from the original owner today. It's what most people would call typical mid-80's "BPC", but like a lot of JVC stuff, it sounds much better than it has any right to. I actually really enjoyed listening to Electric Ladyland through it just a little while ago, and right now I'm enjoying Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper's Super Session. Anyway, while I was giving it a quick cleaning I saw that there were batteries in the back of it. Like many receivers from this era, it wasn't uncommon for them to have a AA battery compartment on the back for the tuner memory bank, so I took the batteries out and saw this!...

IMG_0592.JPG

Original equipment 33 year old JVC batteries! :confused: Luckily they were still in good condition, and they hadn't blown and made a mess. TBH, other than a few minor scuffs on the top edge of the faceplate and on the side, I don't think this unit was used very much at all. Before hooking it up, I took the lid off to see if there was any dust inside that needed to be blown out, and there was hardly any. After giving it a very quick shot of compressed air, the interior looks like it just came off the assembly line. The fluorescent display is also still bright and vibrant, every light works with its corresponding switch, all the RCA connectors and screw down knobs in the back for the phono ground wire and AM/FM antenna hookups were very clean and without any residue or corrosion. More importantly, all the sliders and switches operate without any noise at all, so the owner must have taken good care of it and stored it in a cabinet or a box in a dry spot all its life.

Again, it sounds better than it has any right to though. I think a lot of people would overlook this little 15 pound tin can unit, but I say it offers a nice sound that would certainly please plenty of new audiophiles as a part of their first system for many years to come. What I like about it is that it has decent midrange clarity and presence. Better than it should considering its sparse internal componentry. Presence is a hard thing to find in the lower end of audio, and this unit has plenty of it. Also, while it might not have an absolute powerhouse sound, it has good bass quality. The bass has plenty of output, but most importantly, it's not sterile and/or sloppy like so many units from this era. It actually has decent definition and texture. It's the kind of bass that allows you to hear the textured kick of a kick drum, the different tonalities of bass guitars being played, and whether they are being played with a pick or not, etc. It's not just some homogenized bass sound purely for the sake of output instead of quality.

Overall, it's just a nice, listenable unit. I don't find it grating or fatiguing to listen to, and I don't find it's overall sound to be sterile and lacking in tonality like a lot of other gear from this era. The funny thing is that you look on the inside of this thing and the layout is pretty sparse with a few printed PCB boards and flat ribbon cables, but it never ceases to amaze me how JVC was able to get a good sound out of nothing. Pretty much everyone de-contented in this era, but suffered in sound quality, yet JVC did the same, but was still able to make compelling sounding gear. Go figure. That's a testament to the engineers at JVC at the time to be able to achieve decent sound with minimal componentry, as well as a cost-cutting budget criteria.

With all that said, is this receiver good enough to make me sell off my other gear? Nope. But it's good enough that I think it just might knock off the other receiver I use for demoing speakers and other associated gear for sale. This unit has an EQ, which I find handy for selling different gear because you can fine tune it quickly for a nice sound that instantly grabs people. BTW, that other receiver was a JVC too. ;) Really though, I mostly bought this thing out of minor curiosity and because it was so cheap, but after it's all said and done, it just might replace my other JVC for demo duty. Go figure. :dunno:
 
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