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Review 3 of 10
Price Paid:
$300.00
from etronics Summary:
Junk. I have had bad experiences with JVC products. They often have all of the bells and whistles but lack build quality and power. This was no exception. The features are great- DTS-ES, OSD, USB. It was the cheapest unit I could find with Pre-outs. I have always run a preamp and separates. I tried it without the parasound amp and it was pathetic. This is OK since I have no intention of using it independent of external amps. The build quality is poor. I opened the thing up because one channel keeps fading in and out and I wanted to see if a solder had broken (thingk that it is mechanical problem because knocking on the bottom makes the channel come in and out). As a took off the cover, the whole chassis twisted. Not a big deal if you never take off the cover, but a limp chassis does have a significant effect on mechanical connections- solder can break pretty easily. Moreover, the RCA connectors are all a bit loose from the chassis from periodic reconnection. Looking inside the first thing that I noticed was the lack of guts- not much there to produce power for 5 channels. The multiple PCBs are connected with weak junction blocks and they all creak and twist with the chassis. Lastly, in setting up the sound levels of each channel with a meter, All of the channels had to be set to different gain settings in order to match the output. I have not had a receiver (using an optical source) where pairs of outputs (L/R or SL/SR) needed different levels of gain. They have always been at least matched from left to right. Not a big deal, but indicative of the overall attention to detail.
I was not expecting anything other than what I got. I would not have bought this if I could have afforded a more expensive processor. I would not recommend this to anyone who intends to use the integrated amps. In spite of the fact that I knew I was buying a BUDGET component, I would have liked it to last more than a year+ for the $300 I spent. I still have a fisher quadrophonic set from the seventies that works.
I would rather just buy a different receiver than send this one out to be repaired. Strengths:
All the bells and whistles- Good sound control, base management, USB, ES/EX, PRE-OUTS, connections, OSD etc. . . Weaknesses:
Poor remote, BAD build quality, I think contributing to failed channel. Similar Products Used:
More than I care to get into.
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