flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
JVC AX-Z1010TN Digital Reference Integrated Amplifier SuperDIGIFINE – A Review
Let me state that for those who think long reviews are just self-gratification, you better stop now.
Also it may make uncomfortable reading for those wedded to their NAIM amplifiers!
A bit of history:-
I have been a lover of NAIM amplification for as long as I can remember and I always aspired to own some. My amplifier path took me from a NAD3020 to an Onix OA21 (preferred a NAIT1 in a demo but could not afford it) and then to a NAC92/FlatCAP/NAP90.3; my first rung on the NAIM ladder.
I will be honest that I had not really ever considered other amps even though ironically my friend back in the day had a new JVC AX-1 which I always liked although he replaced it with a NAC45.5/NAP110. I never though other amps were bad it’s just that NAIM seemed to tick all the boxes for me every time I heard their equipment, I do like PRaT and let’s face it NAIM do that in spades.
Later on I got a NAIM NAC72 and changed the internal cards ending up with the RSL transform kit which moved the sound into a different place than standard NAIM boards. The NAP90.3 was replaced by a ZAP250, the original and ‘naimed’ (sic) by me! This was replaced by some mint NAP135s and that’s how my system has been for a few years. The rest of the system is an LP12 with ARO and Linn ASAKA and a short lived but wonderful RubiKon sub chassis, moving the air is a pair of mint Linn SARAs.
Almost a year ago I saw a JVC AX-3 on eBay and ever since seeing my mates AX-1 and liking what it did sound wise I have had a soft spot for them, I bid and won it for £16 and forgot I had won it!
I was looking through my eBay account a few weeks back and noticed I had not been to pick up the amp so about 4 weeks ago I went to pick it up…………and so it began!
JVC AX-3 tatty version:-
So I got it back home and plugged it in, it was a bit tired but worked, although some of the pots could do with cleaning.
I was genuinely shocked by the SQ though! It had the same kind of dynamics as the NAIM but with a sweetness to the treble and a lack of upper mid hardness that allowed more detail to be heard. Digital, CD (ARCAM Delta 70.3) and streaming from my PC was very much better with the aforementioned improvements writ large; I stared to listen to CDs again after 10+ years ignoring them in deference to vinyl. I was really enjoying what it did and it even drove the SARAs without tripping out. There was only one problem, it looked like crap and there was no way I could live with it so I did a HiFi Shark search and found a minter on Gumtree for sale in London, which luck would have it I was visiting in a couple of days. I contacted the seller and arranged to pick it up for £70.
After a very painful journey from Kingston to Crystal Palace, almost 2 hours, I arrived at the sellers’ house and pick up the amp.
JVC AX-3 ‘mint’ version:-
So the seller turned out to be a charming chap who collects vintage hi-fi. It’s obvious he loves it as his living room and a collection of big old school amps and cassette decks, lovely!
He showed me the amp and I packed it up and arrived home a couple of days later and plugged it in:-
One can’t have to many AX-3s……….
Great condition with just a few marks on the top:-
Even clean inside:-
I checked the bias and all was good, I settled down to some serious listening. I was yet again struck by the lack of upper mid hardness and the level of detail revealed. Vinyl needed one notch of treble to add a bit of sparkle (tone controls, yes really!) and the ASAKA sounded great. I put on my reference* records and they both sounded superb, as good if not slightly better than the NAIM.
I could not quite believe it myself but there was no denying what I heard in my system, the AX-3 had bettered a pretty serious contemporary NAIM setup for £70.
There was one flaw though, my SARAs pushed it too hard at high volumes. As I turned it loud the sound started to compress a bit and gained some hardness to it, a sure sign it was struggling although it never once tripped out. Hmm, what has more power than an AX-3 from the range? A search on the net suggested an AX-7 or 9 but these seemed to be rarer than hen’s teeth! I turned to Hi-Fi Shark again and bingo…………………………………!!!!!!!!!
JVC AX-Z1010TN (TN is for ‘titanium’):-
For sale on Gumtree, again, was an AX-Z1010 located in Manchester and in ‘as new’ condition. This was Saturday night so I spent some time researching it and it ticked every box! 100W of Super-A power specifically designed to drive loads a slow as 2ohms! A few emails later and I agreed to come over with cash on the Sunday. I drove over a very cold and snowy M62 and arrived at the house to pick up the amp from a Chinese guy who hardly spoke any English but his son translated for us and his mum came down to see what was going on and smiled at my daughter Abigail. That’s two sets of lovely people I have met in recent hi-fi journey times.
The amp was a near new as it’s possible to be for something that’s been out of the box, I was very, very excited. I drove home and plugged it in………………OMG!
It was awesome, better in every way then the AX-3!
I have run it for a week and given it a good clean (subject of another thread) but for now just look at the pics showing the quality of the build:-
Doing some research suggested this was JVC top of the line Amp at the time of its release in 1989 at the sum of £820, about £2k today. It contains a number of clever design touches including the Super-A circuit that tries to make it operate in Class-A for much of the time and the K2 digital interface.
Some info about the technology is here:-
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/mbrs/r...nuals/JVC Super Digifine Hi-Fi Components.pdf
It is also built with a proper power supply employing a large transformer and two high spec 18000uf reservoir caps. The whole thing seems designed with SQ in mind not price as you can see from the pictures.
So how does it sound? Well I will say it here now, it is better than the NAIM in every single way, so much so I will be selling the NAIM gear soon. Its ability to drive the SARAs loud, in fact beyond what is comfortable, is in itself a great asset but that fact it does so with such detail and sweetness is just so convincing. IT has analogue and digital inputs and I will describe them individually.
Digital
The AX-Z1010TN has optical and coax digital inputs. I connected the output of my SoundBlaster Xi-Fi HD to input 1 using and optical cable (£10 from Maplin). This is to get sound from my PC into the amp. I connected my CD player into input 2 using a coax cable.
There is the ability to select ‘DA CONVERTOR DIRECT’ when listening to a digital input this bypasses much processing and sends the input to the power amp by the shortest path. I uses this al the time because it does genuinely improve the sound, most noticeably in soundstage, the instruments sound more defined with this selected.
Listening to CDs is a whole revelation to me know. The lack of hardness to the sound is amazing in comparison to what I was used to. Cymbals have a dainty shimmer to them and a note structure whereas before they were just steely crash! Mid-range allows fine detail through on DCD ‘Oman’ the handclaps are easy to hear and well defined. The tympani drums at the beginning have more impact and are more of a note than a low rumble as they were before. As things get busy it’s still easy to hear the hand shaker and the inflection in the bongos……..wonderful!
Moving onto a SBM version of Pink Floyds ‘Wish You Were Here’ was a revelation, I have never hear some much detail ever on it! When Dave Gilmour is getting ready for the acoustic guitar section I could always hear him breathing and clearing his throat but now you could hear him moving on his chair and other small details – better than listening to it on vinyl I have to say!
Using my PC to reply some downloads I have (Suzanne Vega and Fiona McKenzie) showed the same thing. A wonderful timbre to all notes where before there was attack and no noise but not much in the way of tonal quality. I tried at 44 KHz and 48 KHz and I could here zero difference. I have left it on 48 KHz as it’s nice to see it in the display!
Vinyl
The amp has in inbuilt MM/MC phono amplifier and looking at the circuit it’s quite posh using some components that were designed for a high and phono stage! It is very much quieter than the NAIM. In fact you have to turn the volume high before you can actually hear any hiss through the speakers.
Playing my default Tom Robinson ‘The Wedding’ I was struck by the different presentation the JVC gives. His voice is less projected but actually has more detail in it. The breathing at the beginning was easier to hear and the bass guitar had note shape all the way through the track!
Half way through there is a slid and a slap on the bass guitar and this was portrayed as two individual items.
The presentation is very different to the NAIM on vinyl though as it appears to have less attack but I think it’s actually the lack of upper mid boost that makes it appear so. There is no lack of PRaT and it really slams out drums with no compression even at really, really loud levels.
Convenience
Until you have remote control you don’t know you need it, that’s all I’ll say. It’s also nice to have an inbuilt headphone amp, it sounds pretty good too; better than my Project HeadBoxII.
Conclusion
For me now in m y system and room the AX-Z1010TN does a better job at digital and vinyl replay than my NAIM gear. It may not have the cache of my NAIM gear but in all honesty there is nothing the NAIM gear does as well as the the JVC.
For £230 it was an absolute steal!
Let me state that for those who think long reviews are just self-gratification, you better stop now.
Also it may make uncomfortable reading for those wedded to their NAIM amplifiers!
A bit of history:-
I have been a lover of NAIM amplification for as long as I can remember and I always aspired to own some. My amplifier path took me from a NAD3020 to an Onix OA21 (preferred a NAIT1 in a demo but could not afford it) and then to a NAC92/FlatCAP/NAP90.3; my first rung on the NAIM ladder.
I will be honest that I had not really ever considered other amps even though ironically my friend back in the day had a new JVC AX-1 which I always liked although he replaced it with a NAC45.5/NAP110. I never though other amps were bad it’s just that NAIM seemed to tick all the boxes for me every time I heard their equipment, I do like PRaT and let’s face it NAIM do that in spades.
Later on I got a NAIM NAC72 and changed the internal cards ending up with the RSL transform kit which moved the sound into a different place than standard NAIM boards. The NAP90.3 was replaced by a ZAP250, the original and ‘naimed’ (sic) by me! This was replaced by some mint NAP135s and that’s how my system has been for a few years. The rest of the system is an LP12 with ARO and Linn ASAKA and a short lived but wonderful RubiKon sub chassis, moving the air is a pair of mint Linn SARAs.
Almost a year ago I saw a JVC AX-3 on eBay and ever since seeing my mates AX-1 and liking what it did sound wise I have had a soft spot for them, I bid and won it for £16 and forgot I had won it!
I was looking through my eBay account a few weeks back and noticed I had not been to pick up the amp so about 4 weeks ago I went to pick it up…………and so it began!
JVC AX-3 tatty version:-
So I got it back home and plugged it in, it was a bit tired but worked, although some of the pots could do with cleaning.
I was genuinely shocked by the SQ though! It had the same kind of dynamics as the NAIM but with a sweetness to the treble and a lack of upper mid hardness that allowed more detail to be heard. Digital, CD (ARCAM Delta 70.3) and streaming from my PC was very much better with the aforementioned improvements writ large; I stared to listen to CDs again after 10+ years ignoring them in deference to vinyl. I was really enjoying what it did and it even drove the SARAs without tripping out. There was only one problem, it looked like crap and there was no way I could live with it so I did a HiFi Shark search and found a minter on Gumtree for sale in London, which luck would have it I was visiting in a couple of days. I contacted the seller and arranged to pick it up for £70.
After a very painful journey from Kingston to Crystal Palace, almost 2 hours, I arrived at the sellers’ house and pick up the amp.
JVC AX-3 ‘mint’ version:-
So the seller turned out to be a charming chap who collects vintage hi-fi. It’s obvious he loves it as his living room and a collection of big old school amps and cassette decks, lovely!
He showed me the amp and I packed it up and arrived home a couple of days later and plugged it in:-
One can’t have to many AX-3s……….
Great condition with just a few marks on the top:-
Even clean inside:-
I checked the bias and all was good, I settled down to some serious listening. I was yet again struck by the lack of upper mid hardness and the level of detail revealed. Vinyl needed one notch of treble to add a bit of sparkle (tone controls, yes really!) and the ASAKA sounded great. I put on my reference* records and they both sounded superb, as good if not slightly better than the NAIM.
I could not quite believe it myself but there was no denying what I heard in my system, the AX-3 had bettered a pretty serious contemporary NAIM setup for £70.
There was one flaw though, my SARAs pushed it too hard at high volumes. As I turned it loud the sound started to compress a bit and gained some hardness to it, a sure sign it was struggling although it never once tripped out. Hmm, what has more power than an AX-3 from the range? A search on the net suggested an AX-7 or 9 but these seemed to be rarer than hen’s teeth! I turned to Hi-Fi Shark again and bingo…………………………………!!!!!!!!!
JVC AX-Z1010TN (TN is for ‘titanium’):-
For sale on Gumtree, again, was an AX-Z1010 located in Manchester and in ‘as new’ condition. This was Saturday night so I spent some time researching it and it ticked every box! 100W of Super-A power specifically designed to drive loads a slow as 2ohms! A few emails later and I agreed to come over with cash on the Sunday. I drove over a very cold and snowy M62 and arrived at the house to pick up the amp from a Chinese guy who hardly spoke any English but his son translated for us and his mum came down to see what was going on and smiled at my daughter Abigail. That’s two sets of lovely people I have met in recent hi-fi journey times.
The amp was a near new as it’s possible to be for something that’s been out of the box, I was very, very excited. I drove home and plugged it in………………OMG!
It was awesome, better in every way then the AX-3!
I have run it for a week and given it a good clean (subject of another thread) but for now just look at the pics showing the quality of the build:-
Doing some research suggested this was JVC top of the line Amp at the time of its release in 1989 at the sum of £820, about £2k today. It contains a number of clever design touches including the Super-A circuit that tries to make it operate in Class-A for much of the time and the K2 digital interface.
Some info about the technology is here:-
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/mbrs/r...nuals/JVC Super Digifine Hi-Fi Components.pdf
It is also built with a proper power supply employing a large transformer and two high spec 18000uf reservoir caps. The whole thing seems designed with SQ in mind not price as you can see from the pictures.
So how does it sound? Well I will say it here now, it is better than the NAIM in every single way, so much so I will be selling the NAIM gear soon. Its ability to drive the SARAs loud, in fact beyond what is comfortable, is in itself a great asset but that fact it does so with such detail and sweetness is just so convincing. IT has analogue and digital inputs and I will describe them individually.
Digital
The AX-Z1010TN has optical and coax digital inputs. I connected the output of my SoundBlaster Xi-Fi HD to input 1 using and optical cable (£10 from Maplin). This is to get sound from my PC into the amp. I connected my CD player into input 2 using a coax cable.
There is the ability to select ‘DA CONVERTOR DIRECT’ when listening to a digital input this bypasses much processing and sends the input to the power amp by the shortest path. I uses this al the time because it does genuinely improve the sound, most noticeably in soundstage, the instruments sound more defined with this selected.
Listening to CDs is a whole revelation to me know. The lack of hardness to the sound is amazing in comparison to what I was used to. Cymbals have a dainty shimmer to them and a note structure whereas before they were just steely crash! Mid-range allows fine detail through on DCD ‘Oman’ the handclaps are easy to hear and well defined. The tympani drums at the beginning have more impact and are more of a note than a low rumble as they were before. As things get busy it’s still easy to hear the hand shaker and the inflection in the bongos……..wonderful!
Moving onto a SBM version of Pink Floyds ‘Wish You Were Here’ was a revelation, I have never hear some much detail ever on it! When Dave Gilmour is getting ready for the acoustic guitar section I could always hear him breathing and clearing his throat but now you could hear him moving on his chair and other small details – better than listening to it on vinyl I have to say!
Using my PC to reply some downloads I have (Suzanne Vega and Fiona McKenzie) showed the same thing. A wonderful timbre to all notes where before there was attack and no noise but not much in the way of tonal quality. I tried at 44 KHz and 48 KHz and I could here zero difference. I have left it on 48 KHz as it’s nice to see it in the display!
Vinyl
The amp has in inbuilt MM/MC phono amplifier and looking at the circuit it’s quite posh using some components that were designed for a high and phono stage! It is very much quieter than the NAIM. In fact you have to turn the volume high before you can actually hear any hiss through the speakers.
Playing my default Tom Robinson ‘The Wedding’ I was struck by the different presentation the JVC gives. His voice is less projected but actually has more detail in it. The breathing at the beginning was easier to hear and the bass guitar had note shape all the way through the track!
Half way through there is a slid and a slap on the bass guitar and this was portrayed as two individual items.
The presentation is very different to the NAIM on vinyl though as it appears to have less attack but I think it’s actually the lack of upper mid boost that makes it appear so. There is no lack of PRaT and it really slams out drums with no compression even at really, really loud levels.
Convenience
Until you have remote control you don’t know you need it, that’s all I’ll say. It’s also nice to have an inbuilt headphone amp, it sounds pretty good too; better than my Project HeadBoxII.
Conclusion
For me now in m y system and room the AX-Z1010TN does a better job at digital and vinyl replay than my NAIM gear. It may not have the cache of my NAIM gear but in all honesty there is nothing the NAIM gear does as well as the the JVC.
For £230 it was an absolute steal!
