JVC receivers, were they really that good.

thesurfer

I was looking at some older Stereo Reviews, the other day, they had a review of a JVC r-x40, receiver it was a 40 watt per channel unit, they said it had the best thd, they had ever seen, said it was so low they could not even detect it with there ecuipment, i think it was listed at 0.003, thd. anyhow they went on to say it was unmatched, by any receiver at any price,,, it cost $350 in 84, who knew.

Tony M

I LOVE JVC equipment.

I've owned a few units for MANY years now with NO problems what so ever. I have JVC RX-DV31receivers in my living room AND dinning room. Been there for YEARS and years. The ability to control sooo much of the sound AND picture is AMAZING! The bottom of the remote drops down to expose tons of functions.



Here's a pic of the remote's hidden functions exposed.


I've had this older JVC out in my cottage for years and years too. it's a 35 watter but it powers anything to as loud as I would ever want to hear it. One pair or two together...( it has 3 pr. hookups) A, A/B, A/C,B, B/C or just C speaker selector points.


I still have an older "QUITE BIG" JVC surround receiver that worked great when I used it for a while to test speakers. It's been on a shelf for years now but I'd bet it will still work great when I power it back up.


I believe they're built to last.

I believe they're ergonomically designed and VERY easy to learn their operation capabilities.

Did I say I love them?

tratliff

Only thing I ever owned JVC was video equipment. Back in '88 I purchased a HRS-8000u. It was a S-VHS and was a great piece of equipment. Still have it in the box. I think it cost north of $1000 in 88.

Picture off the net. Not of mine.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESZb4nUWAAE_S2j.jpg&imgrefurl=https://twitter.com/hashtag/hrs8000u&tbnid=yqjW_WXfmSHhqM&vet=12ahUKEwiS_rrk5ZzxAhUMB6wKHctbDMAQMygMegQIARBq..i&docid=nPk1sqozUNpSoM&w=1200&h=462&itg=1&q=jvc hrs-8000u picture&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwiS_rrk5ZzxAhUMB6wKHctbDMAQMygMegQIARBq

VR3

My dad bought ajvc receiver way back in the 60s... He gave it to me 10 years ago and I have it to a friend... My friend still uses it to this day...

Never been serviced and still works perfect

Mind boggling really

jdjohn

I've run across all kinds of JVC components in my dad's collection, and basically...even after all these years...they just plain work.

Receivers, cassette decks, turntables, VCRs...they fire right up and work, even after sitting dormant for 20 years.

The most recent piece I've put into action is a JVC digital receiver with fun, dancing, frequency response LED bars...can't remember the model at the moment, but it seems to have a great tuner, and a decent amount of power.

Edit: I think it's an RX-307.

F1nut

they said it had the best thd, they had ever seen, said it was so low they could not even detect it with there ecuipment, i think it was listed at 0.003, thd.

Below 1% is inaudible.

thesurfer

Well, i suppose they knew that at the time,,when they were testing it, so that leaves me to believe its nothing more than marketing hype, like they also add that its got Super A, in the amp,??? who knows.

Nightfall

My dad had one of these after lightning struck his DBX amp. It was too long ago for me to say if it was good or not. He ran a pair of 2.3s off of it though.

Tony M

Nightfall wrote: »

My dad had one of these after lightning struck his DBX amp. It was too long ago for me to say if it was good or not. He ran a pair of 2.3s off of it though.

Small world...

I was SERIOUSLY thinking of buying this model about a month or so ago. I was in "protect" mode, trying to stay on the wagon and not buy anything else UNLESS it was a ridiculously cheap price OR free. So I passed...

But the desire sure was there! This is a very cool looking receiver!

Jstas

It's been my experience with JVC products that it depends on what years you are looking at and what products. JVC was rock solid for many years into the late 80's on everything they were making but during the format wars in the 90's JVC started focusing on video formats and production equipment. So audio products kinda suffered. Quality control problems, rising failure rates, etc. Unless it was stuff from the Japanese market. Some of the higher end JVC stuff that was super expensive was Victor branded stuff in Japan but because of conflict with RCA, it was just JVC stuff here. But, for the same reason we have Kia, Hyundai and Genesis because lotsa people were adverse to paying $80K for a Hyundai sedan, lots of people scoffed at a JVC unit costing 4 figures. So you don't see that much high end stuff from them on the consumer end. When you do, though, it probably still works A-OK.

But, by the early 2000's JVC was back on it and things started improving again across their catalog. But they got hit hard by the "global recession" in 2007 and they merged with Kenwood in 2008. Now they are JVCKenwood.

Both companies have long been making solid stuff for consumer markets across all price points. Kenwood especially in automotive systems. Kenwood is a top name in electronics, especially head units, in the auto sound world.

JVC is a lot like Panasonic or Onkyo. Surprising build quality and performance for the price point. Can't say that much for Onkyo now and Panasonic has been out of the consumer/home retail environment for a while now preferring instead to hit that market with their Technics brand instead. Onkyo isn't quite as good as it once was, though. I see many complaints on Oinker products since about 2007-2008. Prior to that, every Oinker piece of gear I have is still truckin' strong.

So, to answer you question, yes, JVC stuff is that good.

Those who don't like JVC often describe them as sterile and lacking "life" which is often true of most Japanese manufacturers because they build to exacting specs. That leads to very long-lived items at low prices and those low prices coupled with the "life less" sound seems to make folks unfairly dismiss them quickly.

TroyD

I spit on receivers - F1Nut

First, specs in many cases are worthless.....if specs were ne plus ultra, we wouldn’t listen to tubes or LP. But, of all the audio fetishes there are, I never trucked much with the Japanese receiver fascination. Probably one reason I didn’t gel at AK. Again, whatever blows your hair back is fine with me....but as a wise man once said, generally speaking the more knobs, switches and buttons it has, the worse it will sound.


YMMV

F1nut

TroyD wrote: »

I spit on receivers - F1Nut

Hehe.....yep, I said it.

pitdogg2

I had a Technics once......for about an hour after I got home. It went right back to Circuit City for a refund.

😁😂😁

I did have more than one JVC VHS player. They worked ok. They never lasted more than 4-5 yrs before the ghost left.

tratliff

pitdogg2 wrote: »

I did have more than one JVC VHS player. They worked ok. They never lasted more than 4-5 yrs before the ghost left.

That’s crazy. I had really good luck with the VHS. That one I listed above still worked the last time I had it out of the box. Which I think was about 2 years ago.

mhardy6647

VHS was JVC's baby.

JVC = Japan(ese) Victor Corporation -- as in Victor Talking Machines -- as in RCA Victor.
Earlier JVC stuff was sometimes found in the US (and elsewhere) under the Nivico and also (I think) Delmonico brand names.

Some of their integrated amplifiers, tuners, and cassette decks were quite nice for midline, mass market stuff.
They also made some fine DD tts in the mid to late 1970s.
My friend Ron B. from Glen Burnie, way back when, had a gorgeous JVC QL-5 (IIRC) with a SME 3009 arm & Grado G1, with a Yamaha CA-810 and a pair of Polk Monitor 10A loudspeakers, that he purchased from Soundscape when he got religion and gave his Pioneer SX-650 and Technics SL-D2 or whatever it was (plus four store-brand loudspeakers with white-coned woofers) to his brother.

https://audio-heritage.jp/VICTOR/player/index3.html

invalid

Some specs are worthless, because they don't give you enough information. Like .003 THD this is a better spec Less than 0.01% THD, 20 Hz to 20 kHz, 0 dBu, 300R load

audioluvr

Japanese Video (vul va?) Corporation.