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JVC AX-Z1010TN - Review

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I really can't believe that anyone could fall out over something as trivial as sound reproduction equipment
 
Stu.

You should pop over, I think you would love the SARAs driven by the 1010.

Andrew.

P.S I'm thinking of a listening day in summer with BBQ etc. should be fun.
 
Hottuna said:
Yes there are two AKAI AM-95 amps on the bay for sale now one in the UK for RIP OFF Britain pricing and one in Germany for half the price with best offer feature.

So UK seller is fishing for fools.
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There was an AM-95 a few moths ago on Gumtree with Tannoy T40 and a SEKA SL57 going for £150! Maybe another big Japanese sleeper amp? I must admit I didn't think Akai had a great record with amps though?
 
Taff63 said:
Maybe another big Japanese sleeper amp? I must admit I didn't think Akai had a great record with amps though?
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Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole... It has nothing in common with the high quality amps listed throughout this thread including the OP's JVC. Okay, so its Japanese & has a built in DAC but other than that...

It may turn out to be a capable little amp but personally I wouldn't pay more than £75 for one.
 
istari_knight said:
Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole... It has nothing in common with the high quality amps listed throughout this thread including the OP's JVC. Okay, so its Japanese & has a built in DAC but other than that...

It may turn out to be a capable little amp but personally I wouldn't pay more than £75 for one.
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Maybe - reading up a bit more it seems a German user prefers the AM-95 to a Revox B750. If that was comparing the phono amps then that's pretty faint praise.
 
Had an AM-95 until a few weeks ago. I thought it a pretty capable device though outclassed by the two amp combos I run, Yamaha C4 into a Luxkit z501 and the aforementioned JVC M-L10/P-L10. On the plus side, it gave a large and generous soundstage with good dynamics. The dac gave an improvement over the internal dac of a Yam cd player I tried it with. The treble was pretty good too. I thought the shortfall was in clarity and articulation in the bass, and overall a slightly less live and in the room sound, areas where the other amps excell. Nevertheless, bass was engagingly deep end propulsive - someone could be very happy with it, esp in a system where these factors were not priorities.
 
Just replaced two caps on the phono/Eq board,2200uF, and two on the regulator board, again 2200uF.

The original Nichicon Muse caps had leaked badly.

It's now even better, phono is now the equal of digital and everything has improved!

Happy bunny.

Pics of the change later
 
Agree about old Jap Amps.

Used to have a 530ES, then the better 670ES and now the better still Sony TA-5650 VFET.

The VFET really is shockingly good, so natural, even handed and detailed.

A really non-fatiguing, enjoyable listening experience.

It's a keeper.
 
If you meant my TA-5650 zombie, no complaints at all here. Not thunderous but well textured, well timed. Not as forceful as some I've heard (my 100W Jolida Hybrid Integrated for instance, which is explosively dynamic) but in keeping with the character of the amp, nicely integrated and totally believable.
 
Bass is one area where these big (and not so big) Japanese amps can sound a little different to Naim. The circuit Naim uses pushes up the output impedance a little to around 0.25R and this can impact the bass character. The Japanese amps tend to all have very low output impedance of around 0.05R and can often sound just as deep but a tad firmer and drier in character as a result. This is a bit like the difference you get between a valve amp and solid state in the bass, only more subtle of course.

The differences are magnified into difficult and reactive loads - I'm not surprised a Sara for example sounds quite different.
 
Fingers crossed I will have bought an AX-Z1010TN by tomorrow. I'm looking forward to trying it out and it will be interesting to see how it compares with my current Rotel RA-04.

It was flatpopely's review wot dun it! :D
 
Robert said:
Bass is one area where these big (and not so big) Japanese amps can sound a little different to Naim. The circuit Naim uses pushes up the output impedance a little to around 0.25R and this can impact the bass character. The Japanese amps tend to all have very low output impedance of around 0.05R and can often sound just as deep but a tad firmer and drier in character as a result. This is a bit like the difference you get between a valve amp and solid state in the bass, only more subtle of course.

The differences are magnified into difficult and reactive loads - I'm not surprised a Sara for example sounds quite different.
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Which is why I guess the Bass sounds more integrated and natural, especially as VFETS are known to sound more valve like than normal transistors.
 
Nick_G said:
Fingers crossed I will have bought an AX-Z1010TN by tomorrow. I'm looking forward to trying it out and it will be interesting to see how it compares with my current Rotel RA-04.

It was flatpopely's review wot dun it! :D
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Did you buy a new one?

I suspect good as the Rotel is the JVC will sound better......I hope so!
 
flatpopely said:
Did you buy a new one?

I suspect good as the Rotel is the JVC will sound better......I hope so!
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Thanks. It's from a seller in the Netherlands, described as 'mint' and 'as new' so hopefully all good. The pics were pretty rubbish to be honest but he does Paypal which is reassuring.

Regards,
Nick
 
Listening to Mike Oldfield 'Incantations' side 4 on vinyl, the vibraphon is truly beautiful!

Wow, this thing has a proper good phono stage!
 
A thought occurs to me: as this is a Euro version of the AX-Z1010 it is rated at 220V. Should it be fine on the UK mains voltage (230-240V)?

Thanks,
Nick
 
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