JVC RX-9010V 5.1 Channels Receiver

The JVC RX-9010VBK

JVC as a Brand is well known and my past experiences with JVC have always been good . I saw this AMP in the store 1 Year ago and what really caught my eye was how sharp it looked and how many buttons there were to push , I like Buttons !! A very visually appealing AMP . I like an AMP that provides a wealth of controls on the actual AMP as well as all the control functions on the Remote .

You will have to be pretty good at reading between the lines on the instruction manual though to figure the controls out as it was poorly translated from the country of origin . So have some patience as there are many settings you can modify on this AMP but you will have to figure out some of it by common sense and trial & error . I think the people that write the instruction manuals for most electronics toys have a sadistic streak in making people scratch their heads trying to figure out just exactly what they mean for us to do .

Everything looked very well placed and very Symmetric on the layout of the front panel . The Front Panel is a heavy black plastic but the casing otherwise is very well vented with black metal all around , also a really solid honeycomb under chassis with big round isolating feet . This AMP will not move or shift easily once it's placed . There is a significant weight to this AMP that in my books means big solid Amps within the unit . Lighting on the display is nicely done with most function buttons having a red LED to indicate the function being used . Otherwise the main display area is a nice icy blue text . Nice little extra is the USB plug on the front to hook up a computer or MP player , but this is lacking on the rear of the AMP - pity . Also there is a Coaxial cable plug on the back for hooking up TV cable which always helps bring in the radio stations clearer from my experience , this is if you don't have satellite dish radio or actual FM cable from the cable company . It's always worked well enough for me not to bother with the extra $$ for FM from your cable service provider .

The Back Panel connections , Oh my !!! My old Pioneer AVR 9300 AMP from 1986 which was top end in it's time would not even compare to the flexibility this AMP offers , it's got at least 3 times the connectors from the old style AMP. Besides having 2 different Sub Woofer RCA's to run I assume 2 Different Sub Woofers , I again assume this . This AMP can run 2 sets of Front Speakers along with the 2 Rear & 1 Center Speaker . A Total of 7 speakers not including the Sub Woofer(S) , All with the Banana plug wire connectors . This AMP is fully capable of Video switching also , a very nice feature for total control of all the goodies by the AMP . There are 4 Optical hookups along with 5 Super VHS connectors and the usual wealth of RCA connectors . I currently have hooked to this AMP a JVC CD Burner unit ( Optical connected ) , JVC Super VHS ( Super VHS connected ) , JVC Progressive Scan DVD player ( Optical connected ) and a Play Station 2 ( Super VHS connected ) . Plus my TV being wired into it as well . I could still hook more up yet but I only have so much money ( heavy sigh ) . Needless to say - you'd be hard pressed to max out this AMP now or in the near future . Another nice feature is you can set up the 2nd set of front speakers in a 2nd room that can play it's own source material at it's own volume level , however you can only get 2 channel sound in your 1st room & 2nd room when you use this 2nd Room function .

How does it work ? Beautifully ! This is a High Current AMP and can run a little hot if the space allowed for venting on the top & both sides is restricted too much which in my stereo stand , it is . But I haven't had it shut down to overheating yet and have easily gone 3-4 Hrs at 4/10's volume which by my standards is quite loud with Music . DVD's have to be played at a little higher volume to get the sound just right .

It sounds wonderful , full , clear , concise and very loud !! It does have 7 DSP modes ( 2 different settings per DSP Mode too ) which to be honest I do not use due to the unique 5 channel DSP setting that I LOVE . This AMP features a 5 Channel sound mode that basically puts equal volume to all speakers and I tend to prefer that as I listen to far more music than DVD's . The AMP allows you to control per speaker volume output for the rear & center speakers as well as the Sub Woofer to assist balancing the sound in your room . You can also select whether you have small or large speakers and cross over frequencies ( a little beyond my knowledge ) . Also there are programmable room size settings and speaker distance settings to optimize your sound fields based on speaker placement . There's also a feature setting called "Midnight Mode 1 & 2" which makes the AMP put out less deep end but limits the loss of sound quality for when you want to listen to the AMP during the wee hours of the night . I've used it once in awhile and it does allow you to keep the volume up higher than what you normally would get away with a night when people are sleeping . The sound is incredible over all - I could find no fault in how it reproduces the music and all it's nuances .

There is also a Sleep Timer , a nice big , many , many button remote which allows you to control your other Stereo components up to 5 total I believe . The remote doesn't have a great deal of range distance wise , but what it lacks in distance ability it makes up for in function & sound control . You can do almost everything on the remote that you can do on the AMP . However at night you need a light on to see what the buttons say as the remote buttons don't light up at all and the printing is very small considering the sheer number of buttons on it . The AMP also has On Screen menu's that display on your TV but I haven't bothered to get into that at all , I'm a little simple that way , I like control but not don't always use all the little bells & whistles , too much for me to handle .

The end result is a Wonderful sounding AMP that has a great price , great versatility & future expandability and is well built by all standards . Very Sharp looking AMP . I have been nothing but happy with this AMP since I bought it and with the wealth of plugs on the back , I can add components well into the future without running out of places to connect them to .