JVC LE-5

Part of the E5 system and a little gem in proportion balancing and unobtrusive design.

The L-E5 is a small linear tracker with the same motor technology as the TT-71 drive lodged in a more modern, discrete, package : 180-slot FG yoke and 180-coil FG circuit board.
The coreless DC-FG motor itself and all the rest is of course... smaller.

The tonearm is a simple post + wand with a pair of LED geometry detectors placed at the bottom of the post.

The linear tracking movement itself is actuated by a motor through a reduction gear, plus two more gears at the extremities of two guiding rails.
The actual tonearm driving is done around the back guiding rail with a thin round belt/wire. The LED board is connected to the motor itself for movement sync.

The stock cartridge is a Dual Magnet MM and has a custom shape : only the stylus itself is to be fitted ! There is no tracking force adjustment so this is like a T4P (but isn't, physically).

This drive/arm/cart system was loaned to Sansui for its cheaper yet programmable (and built-by-Victor) 1981 P-M7 turntable.


Mainly, the E5 system is beautiful and its elements sport high-end technologies without bragging about it : Super-A with toroidal transformer and JVC-spec'ed caps for the A-E5 amp, Phase-Tracking Loop Detector for the T-E5 tuner... Educated mid-fi with all one needs to listen to music.

The E5 separates were advertised in the US with a magnificent catalog, the main images of which you can see here.
But for the cover, the equivalent japanese catalog/poster really wasn't, for once, on the level of this and not even Sony advertised for such systems so well and lavishly !

The L-E5 is on my personal list of "I want one".