Sophisticated JVC lacks in sound
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Author's Rating:
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Pros: Stylish; good pictures; convenience.
Cons: Price; Sound is congested.
The Bottom Line:
The TH-A9R is inadequate for home cinema– its sound is bright and thin – lacking in midrange.
Author's Review
This JVC was a one out of two choices for me. I recently sold my Sony DAV-S300 a similar machine to the TH-A9. I want a machine to do it all: play DVDs and anything else in a pleasing way. I dont want poor sound or have to upgrade in a few years. The DAV-S300 was a good machine, however it had limits with its own format compatibility. I have seen this JVC and am quite attracted to it, I set a demo room up with this machine I also want to try the new Sony DAV-S500 or S800 machine which play SACDs too! This JVC is a UK model; (basically region two not one like on epinions) model: TH-A9R (£590)
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Build/Facilities ***
This JVC unfortunately only plays DVDs, CDs, and VCDs. It can also play CD-RWs too. Out of the box it impresses immediately, it looks stylish and is built well. The unit has its array of buttons the majority being on the top. The buttons on top do the basic functions from Play to track select to search etc, the front simply has the power button (selecting the standby mode or on mode). The top of the unit houses a top loading transport mechanism, where the whole glass panel rises with the touch of a front mounted button revealing the transport and disc holder. From here you can see a twin laser assembly (for CD-RW/R playback). The unit is clad in silver with instances of shapes and a curved body. The buttons are small but feel strong enough.
It includes Dolby Digital and DTS inbuilt (5.1) decoders, which have a special socket which connect to the subwoofer (the amplifier part).
The remote is a little too confused with a small Directional pad in the middle and small buttons surrounding hardly easy to use. The display is mounted on the front fascia, with dot-matrixed LCD illuminated text showing the chapter what its doing and such other things. At the very back of the unit on the top behind the transport is a blue illuminated light shining over the CD/DVD, and looks quite attractive or sometimes distracting in dark rooms.
With this unit you also get five small satellites and a large subwoofer, each satellite is identical and feature the same drive unit for tonal matching. The subwoofer features a 8 drive unit (forward facing I guess), and is active. The main unit has no channels of amplification and is connected to the subwoofer where it outputs: 20watts x 5 for satellites, and 1 x 100watt for itself. Each satellite has an oval drive unit, and are fairly sleek, but is quite deep at 120mm high 60mm wide and 130mm deep. All the speakers here have a grey cloth grill and a JVC badge, in case you forgot. Overall build quality is good, the speakers feel solid, but the disc and opening mechanism can be inconvenient if you own a lot of other equipment requiring a stack up. However the satellites tend to be too plasticy, and the main units glass top is open to breakage it's quite thin.
The unit also has an inbuilt radio tuner featuring the RDS (radio data system for use with NF [News flash] and clock or even text radio station names etc). The tuner is compatible with FM and MW wavelengths only.
Connection:
The whole assembly of this system takes next to no time. The wires are clearly labelled, and the connection from unit to sub is easy as is the cables from sub to sat. You get a fair length for the speakers, and a healthy array of in and outputs.
On the rear panel are the following connections:
Coaxial aerial (75ohm FM) input & aerial loop (MW) for connections to an external aerial (included in package).
Video Inputs: S, composite, and components video inputs components is rare but it there for projector or plasma monitors.
Stereo outputs for connection to external stereo amplifiers/receiver
1 Video/Audio input stereo only and composite
Extra features:
RGB Scart
Subwoofer is shielded (ditto satellites).
96kHz/24-bit audio D/A converter
Multibrand remote (TV/VCR)
JVC AV CompuLink
Quoted: 25-20,000Hz frequency response.
Included wall-mount brackets.
SCORE- Build/Facilities: 4/5
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Performance: ***
Using the RGB scart output to a specialist rear projected TV (Toshiba owned by store) I found the JVC to be a surprise in picture performance. It certainly can close maybe even bettering the DAV-S300. And the sound seemed less so. With the speakers setup with the front three in line, the rears slightly out toes to the listening postion the sound was terribly confused. I had no real doubt that the quoted 25Hz was false the sub was very deep, and was good at mixing with the sats. However in stereo the mix was not quite as cohesive, the sub being loose and flabby. Basslines were soft and exuberant. However in movies the sub was adept at producing rib cage shaking lows not really punching in an attack though.
At high volumes the satellites scream out theyre too bright making movies painful explosions were a little too light but at the same time too blurred the midrange was missing. With music its very poor and from the radio its only ok, but with movies its better but not good enough. Pictures on the other hand were good, the colour performance was respectable and contrast quite ok, motions werent exactly bleeding but seemed smudged sometimes. It wont beat a stand-alone £200 DVD player.
At the end of the demo I felt the DAV-S300 was better the sound was more refined and the sub wasnt soft edged either. Picture to - picture theres little in it.
SCORE- Performance:: 3.5/5
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Conclusion: ***
After a whole year after the release of the Sony DAV-S300 I would have expected more advances over the standard plus a £50 increase! I was quite disappointed with this JVC I liked the styling and the originality, but performance wise Id have the Sony any day it might not have the CD-RW replay or CD-R, but it does sound better. I decided not to buy this. I hope the upcoming DAV-S500 or DAV-S800 are good enough!
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Technical Summary:
Scarts: No
S-Video/Composite: Yes/Yes
Component output: Yes: G(Y) B(Pe/Ce) R(Pr/Cr)
NTSC/Pal output switch: N/A
Progressive Scan: No
DVD-A: No
SACD: No
DTS/Dolby Digital (DD) decoders: Yes/Yes
Optical/Coaxial Digital Audio Outputs: No/No
CD-R/CD-RW: Yes/Yes
HDCD: No
Headphone Socket: No
