istari_knight
pfm Member
If your supply is around 240v or below I reckon it'll be fine. However, prior to moving house mine was usually nearer 252v which used to stress the smoothing caps & regulation in "less well engineered" amps.
JVC AX-Z1010TN - Review
- Thread starter flatpopely
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istari_knight
pfm Member
Looking at the service manual it appears to have 63v capacitors on 57v rails... Not an awful lot of room for error but better than old Naim 
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
And in your opinion, seen it elswhere, is the 1010 less well engineered than say a Sony 770es; which shits on the 1010 in every respect.
Therefore can it take 240 as a 220 amp?
jimification
pfm Member
What a great review and thread.
Makes me wonder: a) If everything that we needed to know to design and manufacture great amps was known about in previous decades and b) In that era, "Good" hifi was mainstream and the Jap giants like JVC and Sony had far bigger clout, buying power, product longevity and R&D budget than any current hifi manufacturer, then where are we going with equipment design and can current / future manufacturers possibly compete with the quality from that era? - is there anything new they can offer? (class D?)
Makes me wonder: a) If everything that we needed to know to design and manufacture great amps was known about in previous decades and b) In that era, "Good" hifi was mainstream and the Jap giants like JVC and Sony had far bigger clout, buying power, product longevity and R&D budget than any current hifi manufacturer, then where are we going with equipment design and can current / future manufacturers possibly compete with the quality from that era? - is there anything new they can offer? (class D?)
Nick_G
pfm Member
I find it interesting that the 'Olde Worlde' reviews page in Hi Fi World on amps here:
http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/index.php/olde-worlde/308.html
has hardly any Japanese amps in the £800 - £1500+ price range, with the majority being British or European. Bearing in mind those reviews go back to around 1993 there must have been plenty of great Japanese amps out there in that price range, e.g. Sony ES models, Pioneer Elites etc. The Japanese amps are listed mostly in the budget/mid-range sections, implying that that's all they were good for. There seems to be something of an anti-Japanese bias when it comes to the higher end.
No wonder some of them fly under the radar.
http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/index.php/olde-worlde/308.html
has hardly any Japanese amps in the £800 - £1500+ price range, with the majority being British or European. Bearing in mind those reviews go back to around 1993 there must have been plenty of great Japanese amps out there in that price range, e.g. Sony ES models, Pioneer Elites etc. The Japanese amps are listed mostly in the budget/mid-range sections, implying that that's all they were good for. There seems to be something of an anti-Japanese bias when it comes to the higher end.
No wonder some of them fly under the radar.
PaulMB
pfm Member
There certainly was. I remember in the '90s anything not European, and not made by a small tribe of gnomes working in a forest clearing in a remote English or Scottish county, or in the Tuscan hills at a stretch, was considered beyond the HiFi pale. And like stupid sheep we all believed it. Listening to a NAD 3020 today, and comparing it to a cheap Yamaha picked up at a flea market, I realise that the Yamaha sounds like a proper amp should, while the NAD is all soft and gentle and rolled off, "warm" sounding. Who wants "warm" if you have decent speakers? And all that "source-first" dogma?
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
I still believe in source first but I think that 'we' missed a trick by not being offered amps like the AX-Z1010TN back in the day.
It is different to the Brit sound......but not worse!
Better IMHO.
It is different to the Brit sound......but not worse!
Better IMHO.
Robert
Tapehead
Spot on. been saying so for years and also that much 'modern' hi-fi is actually going backwards!
Gains today are in cost v performance, size, and the availability of high power at modest cost.
If you want to see the development capability of these Japanese companies just open a high end late 70s or early 80s cassette deck. Look at the complexity and innovation crammed into the boxes to make hi-fi sound come from 1/8" slow running tape, often with the deck able to adjust its operating conditions to a specific tape, measuring its own performance. Things of engineering beauty
Gromit
Plasticine Dog
Spot on. been saying so for years and also that much 'modern' hi-fi is actually going backwards!
Gains today are in cost v performance, size, and the availability of high power at modest cost.
If you want to see the development capability of these Japanese companies just open a high end late 70s or early 80s cassette deck. Look at the complexity and innovation crammed into the boxes to make hi-fi sound come from 1/8" slow running tape, often with the deck able to adjust its operating conditions to a specific tape, measuring its own performance. Things of engineering beauty
Agreed 100%
istari_knight
pfm Member
The 1010 is an impressive piece of engineering, its loaded to the gunnels with tech but for straight analogue reproduction yes I do believe a 770ES would show it a clean pair of heels.
Personally I would not plug a 220v 1010 into 240v+ mains. At best the power supply capacitors will be operating at maximum which does tend to have a large negative impact on lifespan... At worst the maximum voltage of capacitors, regulators & transistors will be exceeded resulting in an expensive door stop.
joel
Painter of Dragons, Maker of Mirrors
Slightly too much voltage should not be a problem. The amp will run slightly warmer (which will affect component life), but this is far preferable to running on too little voltage. If you're concerned, a step-down transformer will work.
joel
Painter of Dragons, Maker of Mirrors
Good question. I can get 110 --> 100, although only meaningful for Dyson equipment and NTSC video...
Robert
Tapehead
Agree, and powering-up for a few minutes with a DVM across the main supply caps will reveal the rail voltages. For the caps fitted, so long as it doesn't exceed 60v it should be fine.
Test it on/off peak mains demand just to be sure.
PaulMB
pfm Member
Just clutching at straws, but since this was an "important" amplifier in its day, might it not have a way of connecting the transformer wires for 240? After all these machines were made to be sold all over the world.
I recently re-commissioned a friend's entry-level Marantz from the early '70s and this was possible and explained with diagrams in the User Manual. Just one wire to move from one connector to the one next to it.
I recently re-commissioned a friend's entry-level Marantz from the early '70s and this was possible and explained with diagrams in the User Manual. Just one wire to move from one connector to the one next to it.
joel
Painter of Dragons, Maker of Mirrors
100/110 --> 220/240 is a huge jump. 220 --> 240, not so much...
PaulMB
pfm Member
No, I was not clear. I changed it from 220 to 240. There were also options for 100, 110, 120, if I remember right.
The voltage here in Italy has gone up from 220 to 230, sometime in the 1980s I think, so I thought it safer for it to run set for 240.
istari_knight
pfm Member
The service manual does have bit on voltage adjustment:
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