JVC XL-V1

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.

Even if the designer (who ?) was only allowed to go for redesign within the unchanged Hitachi size and functions layout, the XL-V1 is the most interesting of the Hitachi lot and part of the early 1980s gems : purely scupltured construction of volumes.

Btw, JVC's last fairly high-end CD player in the late 1990s was named... XL-V1 :)


A detailed technical description and many images at http://vintage-audio-laser.com.