This is a review and detailed measurements of the JVC XL-Z335.
JVC XL-Z335 - Presentation
Released in 1990, this is quite an old CD Player. It was medium class player at reasonable price. At this time, JVC (Japan Victor Company) was still owned by Panasonic.
I’m not sure it shows on the above picture, but front face is full plastic and chassis is made of basic bent sheet metal, so nothing luxurious.
The back of the player is equally basic with non-gold-plated RCA output, but we find a digital output (coax only). There are additional sync outputs which allowed automatic recording level adjustment with a JVC cassette deck (connectors are present but internal circuitry absent for this lower level CD player):
This JVC Player is interesting because the drive and DAC are from JVC (Optima 5 and JCE4302 respectively). The DAC is a one bit type which was new at the time. This one bit conversion requires heavy processing to prevent quantizing noise due to the reduction from 16bits to 1bit. For that, JVC used its own Noise Shaping called VANS (Victor Advanced Noise Shaping). Even if the DAC chip is not so well documented, it still shows some additional advanced conversion principles. Indeed, it contains no less than 8 internal converters (4 by channel) to reduce noise. That was a nice architecture.
The drive is extremely fast and a real pleasure to use, good memories from old times.
Let’s see how all of this performs.
JVC XL-Z335 – Measurements (Analog out)
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them on the Onkyo C-733 review. So over time, this will help comparing the items I reviewed.
The JVC outputs 1.88Vrms, a little below the standard 2Vrms. This would potentially make it sound dull when directly compared to another CD Player if the levels would not be matched.
First, the standard dashboard through 1kHz sine played at 0dBFS (left and right channels):
Both channels are represented but only one gets evaluated in that window. Right channel is a little less performing, but both are very similar.
This is anyway impressive performance for a 34 years old CD player! We have THD below -100dB and THD+N basically only limited by the dither noise present on the test CD. This is very good.
Note sideband distortion around the fundamental 1kHz sine, but at -120dBr they'll remain impossible to notice.
The ENOB, is shown at 15.7bits which is very close to the limit of what's recorded on my test CD, which contains dither, this is best in class (for a CD player).
You also noticed very low level power supply noise, again a good surprise for such an old player (completely stock):
Right channel has little more 50Hz (I live in Switzerland) and harmonics spuriae, but this is too low level to be heard. And by the way, this view shows that sideband spikes are power supply related (850Hz and 950Hz).
The bandwidth is flat and shows a small 0.8dB roll-off at 20kHz due to the oversampling filter. The two channels match at less than 0.1dB which is very good too:
When measuring the true SNR (from -60dBFS 1kHz sine without dither) I almost got the theoretical limit of CD Audio (97.2dB). Impressive for the time.
Coming back to oversampling filter, it shows a good and consistent attenuation, better than most of the time and even some of today:
This is an overlay with a triple tones to show the good attenuation of DA conversion images (80 to 90dB).
We also see the shape of the noise slowly increasing from 22kHz, this is the effect of the JVC noise shaping technique (VANS).
Let’s have a look at the multitones test to confirm the good performances:
Nailed, more than 16bits of free distortion is guaranteed. This player will really be at ease when it comes to deliver nice music to your ears.
Let's check the jitter:
This is an overlay of the JVC analog outputs (blue) and what's recorded on the Test CD (red) coming out from my now reference player/transport (the Onkyo C-733). The JVC shows a very neat trace.
Note to self: add -90.31dBFS view here.
Last but not least, one of my favorite measurement, THD vs Frequency at -12dBFS:
This is again best in class. I did not overlay my "reference" Onkyo C-733 because it's simply the same trace (plot at 1kHz showing -98dBr THD on 5 harmonics).
JVC XL-Z335 – Measurements (Digital out)
I will publish them in couple of days, as I lost my measurements after a crash and before saving. They showed no issue. It's a perfect transport.
Conclusion
This is a rather unknown player using a not so well documented proprietary DAC, and all for the best. I was really impressed when I first tested it, because it was the first player from 1990 that I tested to show near best in class performances.
For those who were unsure (and that was including me) of when CD players started to perform a "perfect" D/A job, here you go: 34 years.
So, very well done the engineers at JVC. The JVC XL-Z335 will respect your CDs and allow the music to flow without any unwanted noise or distortion.
I hope you enjoyed the review, and again let me know how to improve and if you have questions. I have recorded all the 44 measurements and if you want me to publish others or run one of your choice, feel free to ask.
--------
Flo
JVC XL-Z335 - Presentation
Released in 1990, this is quite an old CD Player. It was medium class player at reasonable price. At this time, JVC (Japan Victor Company) was still owned by Panasonic.
I’m not sure it shows on the above picture, but front face is full plastic and chassis is made of basic bent sheet metal, so nothing luxurious.
The back of the player is equally basic with non-gold-plated RCA output, but we find a digital output (coax only). There are additional sync outputs which allowed automatic recording level adjustment with a JVC cassette deck (connectors are present but internal circuitry absent for this lower level CD player):
This JVC Player is interesting because the drive and DAC are from JVC (Optima 5 and JCE4302 respectively). The DAC is a one bit type which was new at the time. This one bit conversion requires heavy processing to prevent quantizing noise due to the reduction from 16bits to 1bit. For that, JVC used its own Noise Shaping called VANS (Victor Advanced Noise Shaping). Even if the DAC chip is not so well documented, it still shows some additional advanced conversion principles. Indeed, it contains no less than 8 internal converters (4 by channel) to reduce noise. That was a nice architecture.
The drive is extremely fast and a real pleasure to use, good memories from old times.
Let’s see how all of this performs.
JVC XL-Z335 – Measurements (Analog out)
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them on the Onkyo C-733 review. So over time, this will help comparing the items I reviewed.
The JVC outputs 1.88Vrms, a little below the standard 2Vrms. This would potentially make it sound dull when directly compared to another CD Player if the levels would not be matched.
First, the standard dashboard through 1kHz sine played at 0dBFS (left and right channels):
Both channels are represented but only one gets evaluated in that window. Right channel is a little less performing, but both are very similar.
This is anyway impressive performance for a 34 years old CD player! We have THD below -100dB and THD+N basically only limited by the dither noise present on the test CD. This is very good.
Note sideband distortion around the fundamental 1kHz sine, but at -120dBr they'll remain impossible to notice.
The ENOB, is shown at 15.7bits which is very close to the limit of what's recorded on my test CD, which contains dither, this is best in class (for a CD player).
You also noticed very low level power supply noise, again a good surprise for such an old player (completely stock):
Right channel has little more 50Hz (I live in Switzerland) and harmonics spuriae, but this is too low level to be heard. And by the way, this view shows that sideband spikes are power supply related (850Hz and 950Hz).
The bandwidth is flat and shows a small 0.8dB roll-off at 20kHz due to the oversampling filter. The two channels match at less than 0.1dB which is very good too:
When measuring the true SNR (from -60dBFS 1kHz sine without dither) I almost got the theoretical limit of CD Audio (97.2dB). Impressive for the time.
Coming back to oversampling filter, it shows a good and consistent attenuation, better than most of the time and even some of today:
This is an overlay with a triple tones to show the good attenuation of DA conversion images (80 to 90dB).
We also see the shape of the noise slowly increasing from 22kHz, this is the effect of the JVC noise shaping technique (VANS).
Let’s have a look at the multitones test to confirm the good performances:
Nailed, more than 16bits of free distortion is guaranteed. This player will really be at ease when it comes to deliver nice music to your ears.
Let's check the jitter:
This is an overlay of the JVC analog outputs (blue) and what's recorded on the Test CD (red) coming out from my now reference player/transport (the Onkyo C-733). The JVC shows a very neat trace.
Note to self: add -90.31dBFS view here.
Last but not least, one of my favorite measurement, THD vs Frequency at -12dBFS:
This is again best in class. I did not overlay my "reference" Onkyo C-733 because it's simply the same trace (plot at 1kHz showing -98dBr THD on 5 harmonics).
JVC XL-Z335 – Measurements (Digital out)
I will publish them in couple of days, as I lost my measurements after a crash and before saving. They showed no issue. It's a perfect transport.
Conclusion
This is a rather unknown player using a not so well documented proprietary DAC, and all for the best. I was really impressed when I first tested it, because it was the first player from 1990 that I tested to show near best in class performances.
For those who were unsure (and that was including me) of when CD players started to perform a "perfect" D/A job, here you go: 34 years.
So, very well done the engineers at JVC. The JVC XL-Z335 will respect your CDs and allow the music to flow without any unwanted noise or distortion.
I hope you enjoyed the review, and again let me know how to improve and if you have questions. I have recorded all the 44 measurements and if you want me to publish others or run one of your choice, feel free to ask.
--------
Flo
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