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JVC AX-Z1010TN - Review (part II)

I still have my R337, the model below your R437, & it's probably the best value piece of audio equipment I have ever purchased.

It doesn't quite have the weight of the Z1010TN, especially lower down the register, but it's a super amp with a great headphone output.
 
AX-3 and above are superb!

If I didn't have SARAs I would not have reached beyond the AX-3..........

AX-Z1010 is better but the AX-3 and above are superb.
 
About 15 years ago when I really got stuck into hifi I knew a dealer in Harrogate and used to buy his second hand gear from him. One week I bought an AX-9 from him. For £25. I had it for around a month then sold it to an American guy from one of the local bases. Looking back I realise now what I had. I've not seen one for sale since. Photos soon as promised above.

Cheers
Mat
 
I have a spare AX=Z1010 which I imported from Japan and is supplied with high quality transformer. See classified for details.
 
I have been meaning to make this comment for some time, as I have used more amps than usual during the last couple of years and have owned 3 x AX-Z1010TN in an odd on/off love affair that basically went "I love the way you amplify my inputs, but not the way you look" !

In particular, I have spent quite some time with 3 lovely amps : a Carver pre/power combo (amazingly valve like sound), a recapped Yamaha CA-800 II & my current Sony TA-N55ES power amp (which I use without a preamp as it has an attenuator on the front panel).

These all sound lovely, but very different, and this is my point : if I compare to the JVC AX-R337, which performs almost identically to the AX-Z1010TN, the JVC does not appear to have a sound of its own.

In my view this makes it the closest thing I have yet experienced to Peter Walker's "straight wire with gain" & may possibly explain why some have not been impressed by the AX-Z1010TN, as their accustomed amplifier sound becomes absent from their system.

As I've recently given my R337 to my daughter (see my Sonab thread just posted), I may buy a fourth AX-Z1010TN for this reason. If I do, it will be a keeper alongside the Sony & hopefully I will never have to buy another amp... ;)
 
What a good post!

I had not really considered the wire with gain thing BUT actually it's a good analogy.

It has a superb hear through sound that allows micro detail to be heard.
Small changes in VTF/VTA are easily heard.
The K2 DAC allows one to hear when things are being resampled, on my NAIM amps I couldn't bear to listen to digital.


It's bloody impressive.
 
Just listening to 'The lark ascending' on vinyl (argo ZRG 696 bought from pfm record shop), the phono stage in the 1010 is totally beguiling.
As my mate Mark said, it's very considered.......I like that!
 
jtrade said:
Well, Julf, maybe it is, but does that make it worse than those that are modern & subjectivist?
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Not at all. But any comment about "transparency" or "wire with gain" tend to be followed by a rush of heated comments.

(Double aaaarrrrggggghhh from the OP :D)
Click to expand...

Just another typical thread...
 
So thanks to Photobucket all the original pics have gone.
I'll work through them and put them on onedrive.
 
flatpopely said:
Just listening to 'The lark ascending' on vinyl (argo ZRG 696 bought from pfm record shop), the phono stage in the 1010 is totally beguiling.
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Using the amp with Auralic and Yam NS1000s is totally beguiling as well. That word really sums it up. Everytime I listen to this system I am just beguiled - esp on female vocals. It's like the vocals come out from the speakers in a 3D bubble of purity.

(No officer, I had a few beers last night, but I assure you not a drop in the last 12 hours).
 
flatpopely said:
Personally I wouldn't - why would adding a valve in the output stage improve the SQ of the amp?
It seems neutral to me and as such is very revealing.
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That's quite funny, Lampizator said he didn't need a tube stage when working on the 1050 with the K2 in it, he said it was one of the best unit's he'd heard un-modded ;)

I still like my X-10D, but it's not really an output stage.
 
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