Customer Reviews

JVC EX-A1 Compact DVD Audio/Video System with Wood Cone Speakers

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

So far, my opinion of this stereo is a mixed bag.

Aesthetically, it couldn't be more perfect. It is exactly what I wanted.
-very compact
-minimalist controls and buttons
-packs lots of features and functionality into a tiny box

Its performance so far hasn't been as good as I hoped.
-The power/volume hasn't been an issue. The speakers are rated to 30W each. In my small apartment, this has been enough. It probably wouldn't rock the walls, but my musical tastes and habits are pretty tame.
-The sound from the wood speakers is great, a rich, warm sound. Somehow even in the low ranges it manages to sound balanced and even without undo emphasis on certain frequencies over others. This is good because there is not much you can do to tweek the sound. Controls on the remote allow adjustment of the bass or treble up or down, that's it.
-You must not lose the remote to this stereo. Having such a minimalist interface on the box means that all the control is placed in the remote. Very little can be done on the box itself except turning music on and adjusting volume. If you don't like using a remote, this ain't for you.
-I can't comment on any of the video features, because I have not yet hooked this up to a television.
-A major complaint has been the radio reception. I purchased this stereo as a replacement to a standard receiver, cd, tape deck component system, wanting something to be the all around audio hub for my house. I live in a city so signal strength shouldn't be an issue, but I have not been able to get clear reception of many channels. I have tried the supplied wire antenna, television rabbit ears, and a cheap dipole wire antenna; all to no avail. The reception is decent if the antenna is adjusted with one particular station in tune, but has mysterious overlap from distant channels.

This compact stereo is really small, fitting on a bookshelf. The style of the unit is great - rich heavy wood speakers and brushed metal main unit, minimal display, cool volume knob. The remote is a little crowded, but I guess out of necessity. As noted by the other reviewers, the sound is deep and full; sufficent for a room or possibly small apartment, but not house-shaking. All in all a great little package. I have not tried the video functions yet, as I got it primarily for music. The price may be high in comparison to similar mini-stereos, but you are getting a very well designed and solidly built unit which lives up to the executive title. Recommended.

CR (Dec. 04) loved this micro system. Rich sound and deep bass. I thought no way would it sound good when I took it out of its box because of how tiny it is. But to my surprise this thing rocks and easily beats the bose executive radio in both sound and features! Easy to hook up my Ipod. Great price with free shipping at amazon!

SOUND
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Thus far, I have been disappointed with this product. The sound quality is slightly better than a good boombox. I find that high frequency sound is lacking. This surprised me because small speakers often have more trouble with low frequencies.

TUNER
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The FM tuner is very poor. In live near Philadelphia and I have never had reception trouble with even the cheapest radio. This JVC receiver has pervasive static and often drops from stereo to mono on high power, local stations. If you like radio, you will not like this receiver.

CONTROL
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The remote is poorly designed. It is overloaded with dozens of very small buttons of questionable value / use. It is also unintuitive. I consider myself to be very technically inclined. I had a difficult time getting oriented with this remote. The poor design guarantees that my wife will never use this system. That could be a good thing depending on your point of view. :-)

MISSING CLOCK
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I purchased this JVC for bedroom use. The display may be dimmed or shutdown, which is very nice. Unfortunately, there is no clock. This surprised me as I assumed that this product was targeted for executive offices and consumer bedrooms / offices. A clock with an alarm / wake to music should not have cost much.

BUILD QUALITY
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The receiver and the speakers appear to be very well built. These have clean lines, a decor friendly look / color, and a solid feel. Unfortunately, the remote, which is what you touch all of the time, is poorly designed and made of a cheap, hard plastic. Also the buttons are too small and numerous.

This is a really great stereo for it's size - those small speakers sound almost as good as their larger predecessors. Living in the hills and having to endure poor radio reception, the radio reception on this unit is very good. We had originally wanted this to replace the bedroom stereo, but as there is no alarm clock to wake to music this will be used in the dining/kitchen area instead. If it had a clock, we'd buy another one.

I've had the JVC for about two weeks now and I'm still loving it! As my title states, "Great sound, design, and ease of use" are the hallmarks of this compact audio/video player.

First let me approach the design. You surely won't have any complaints about the aesthetics of this product(remote control being the only possibility). Beautiful speakers that appear to be very well built, along with a stunning central unit that is also solidly built. The brushed metal on the main unit is really attractive and rather than hiding it away in my A/V cabinet, I've chosen to display it right on top in plain view. And, because it's so small, it really doesn't take up much space at all. The main unit is encased in metal and I'm not certain how it operates without getting overheated, as there are no vents on the unit. This means that dust/hair cannot find its way inside, and with three animals, I've got plenty of that to go around. The removable grills on the speakers are nice and while you surely will want to show off the wood cones, I'm not comfortable leaving them unprotected.

The ease of operation with this unit is simply refreshing. I previously had a Sony 5.1 system with a separate DVD player. That translates into wires, wires, and more wires. I paid about $750 for the whole Sony system about 5 years ago and it all came apart at the seams (started to suffer from numerous operational problems). Not to mention the fact that CD audio quality was rather lifeless on the 5.1 system. The JVC is a dream as far as set-up and operation. Could not be any easier. A couple of wires and you're up and running. Functions are easily figured out, although they are not very intuitive on the remote control. Peruse the manual though and you'll be up to speed in no time. The remote is rather crowded. I won't say it's poorly designed, because it does save the central unit from being riddled with barely used buttons. I have my satellite receiver running through the single Auxilary input, which is probably the one major flaw in design. Just one additional Aux input would allow you to directly connect, say, an ipod to the unit. As is, I would need an A/V switch box (splitter) in order to connect an ipod....or I could unplug the satellite every time I wanted to plug in my ipod...not very convenient. The only other thing that bothers me is that you cannot get Virtual Surround from the Auxillary input. For some reason, the VS is disabled when accessing the Auxillary mode. Strange, but I can live with it.

Finally, the audio quality of this unit is fantastic. The power/volume will not overwhelm you so much as the clarity and detail that it brings forth. The speakers are very capable of producing full sound in a small to medium sized room. My family room is about 12x15 and it does an excellent job of filling the room with rich, warm sound. The volume is adjustable up to a level of 50, but I've only turned it that loud on a James Taylor CD to see how it sounded. I figured that I wouldn't blow any fuses on a JT album, and I was correct. It was remarkebly clear and lacked any distortion at this level. I'm certain that a track with considerable bass would not sound as good at this level though and I won't even try it. For casual listening, I've found the volume in a room my size never exceeds 35 on the volume level. That goes for DVD's as well. The JVC really excels at reproducing vocals and higher tones. Quite amazingly in fact. The speakers have pleasing bass response as well, although I've opted to salvage my old subwoofer from my 5.1 system. It seems to add a little to the fullness of both CD's and DVD's. The midrange is lacking a little bit, although by playing with the bass/treble controls, you can successfully mask this shortcoming. I do find myself adjusting the bass/treble based on what type of music I am listening to, as opposed to just setting and forgeting about it. The Virtual Surround is a nice feature and, while it won't give you the 5.1 effects, it does create a nice soundfield in front of you. Lord of the Rings and even Saving Private Ryan sounded pretty darn good. The DVD player seems to read discs faster than my older players ever did. It seems to get up and playing much quicker.

Overall, I am really quite pleased with this system. Looking forward to creating a jazz and classical library to really take advantage of this units strengths.

I found this unit well worth the money for a traditional guy turned off by the look of many other ultra modern similar systems. The sound is excellent. It was easy to assemble. I have no problem with radio reception. The remote is fairly strait forward to use for most common functions. Simple and elegant system.

I bought this system in february 05. In july the cd player stoped working so I had to send it back for repair. It came back and in October the cd player broke again, so this time I send it back directly to JVC and I have to said it was a whole new experience within the universe of bad customer service. After a month or so of waiting (beginning of December 05) they told us that there were no solution at all to the problem (obviously it was a manufacturing problem) and that they were going to give us a refund. Two months later (end of January 06) we were still waiting for them to give us a solution. The person who told us about the refund said that the file was with another person. We tried to talk witht this other person and after 14 o 18 voicemail messages (she never return our phone calls back) we manage to reach her and she told us that we have to take the rest of the equipment back to them (they could have told us at the beginning) so we are still waiting for a solution. I am sorry but this system is very nice but it doesnt work and this together with the worst customer service possible makes JVC for me an NO. There is plenty of other things to choose from out there.

Not perfect -- nothing is when it comes to sound reproduction. But this compact system is wonderful as a bedroom or travel system. It's especially good with vocal/choral and classical music.

This little system does it all. Radio, cd's and DVD's. It's perfect for us as a secondary sound system in our bedroom. A seperate sub woofer is available for purchase if you want to pump up the base. We experienced a very smooth transaction with Amazon's vendor so are well pleased. With the sub woofer the JVC EX-A1 would actually be better than our main system.