D.A.D. #25
december 2005

JVC XL-V1
(1982 - 1984)

Another direct Hitachi clone, sure - but the most interesting among the multitude.

Reviews for these units vary so often that it seems useless to try and assess the sound quality of these players in a general manner but I find my own XL-V1, Continental Edison and Pathé-Marconi not all that harsh and edgy and "CD"-like... in fact they are much "softer" than later 1980s players.

ABOVE: as photographed at the Paris Salon in march 1983, under the Victor badge. Unlike some prototypes and pre-production samples displayed then, the XL-V1 quite luckily landed in the shops "as designed originally". An ephemeral version had two red LEDs insterted withing the round lid but I have no idea what these were to indicate.

The cutout below clearly shows the sliding aluminium block into which the pickup is mounted.