"Ta Da! It's Gone!" "No It's Not- It's Right There."
Written: Jul 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Oooh. . . she's a pretty one
Cons: Weak power output, flimsy design, doesn't fool thieves, one preamp output
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| Sneil_IV's Full Review: JVC KD-LX1 Car CD Player |
Ok, ok, let’s try something here, mmkay? I’m going to run around lookin’ all pretty, occasionally yelling at people, struttin’ my stuff like a peacock on heroine. Then, I’m going to dress all in black, and expect no one to see me. Sound like a good plan?
To JVC, it does. That’s why they built an entire line of decks, the interestingly misspelled “El Kameleon” (what does the ‘k’ mean, anyway?) line, around the concept. “We’ll put together an at- best decent CD deck, and then add the novelty of a black- out screen and some motorized stuff. Then we’ll put on knickers and play some croquet.”
Now, I have plenty of troubles with the El Kameleon feature, but I’ll get to them later. For now, let’s concentrate on the audio attributes of the deck.
El Power
First off, the LX1 throws you a ground-tapping 16 watts of RMS power and 40 watts of peak. RMS is essentially your continuous, everyday power, while peak is the amount you get when you’re really laying into the volume and bass. These days, having 16 watts per speaker is like having $17 at a Gucci outlet- it’s just not going to cut it. Comparable Kenwood decks toss you a good 22 or 23 watts, and Alpine decks are towering- over 60 watts at peak!
El Outputs
So, because of the paltry amount of power your deck lets out, you decide to add a few external amplifiers. Wrong again, my friend. You can add one amp, sure, but it better be a doozy, because the LX1 only offers one set of preamp outputs. Once again, a comparable Kenwood offers 3 outputs, one for the sole purpose of driving a subwoofer. For the $330 the LX1 costs, I’d expect more. Lots more.
El Features
Let’s see what else this dog offers. The LX1 has ‘auto cruise’ mode, which varies the volume of your music in accordance with the RPMs of your car. Why? Because they assume that when the RPMs are going higher, you car will be going faster and be louder. Naturally, the volume must be raised to compensate. Personally, I find it to be an annoying feature. The LX1 has BBE processing, which makes the sound output much “fuller”. Of course, many other decks have this as well. CD- text is a nice feature that automatically displays the names of tracks on CD- text encoded CDs. Of course, in my travels, I’ve only encountered one CD- text encoded CD. The CD signal-to-noise ratio (basically, how “clean” your sound is) is 98 dB, which is actually a very high and respectable rating. Most decks are around the high 80s / low 90s. The tuner does its job, and the direct-track- access buttons on the bottom are a nice touch.
El Design
On top of the generally weak audio performance of the LX1, I find much fault with the design of it. Yes, yes, we all get a kick out of the black screen. Too bad it’s all for show. Just as with the Kenwood MASK decks, you’re not fooling anyone. Thieves know what to look for. When you have a shiny, black deck sitting in your car- whether its displaying anything or not- any knowledgeable thief will go right for it. I can recognize a Kenwood MASK or JVC Kameleon deck even through tinted windows. Give me a detachable face and some peace of mind any day. The deck also features motorized parts, which are always something to avoid- just another thing to break, and an important thing at that. The plastic buttons on the front feel cheap and flimsy, and the LCD screen isn’t very large at all.
El Summary
What it really comes down to is this- you’re paying for the novelty. This is not an audiophile- caliber, $330- quality deck. It’s a $180 with an attractive hideaway feature. If all you’re concerned with is decent sound and nice looks, perhaps this is something to look for. However, if you’re looking for a solid deck with useful audio features, ample power, and a good theft – deterrent system, look elsewhere. Any thoughts of the LX1 should make like the deck’s display and disappear.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Sneil_IV
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Member: Neil Janowitz
Location: Rochester, NY
Reviews written: 93
Trusted by: 192 members
About Me:
Holy halibut, weekly humor columns at www.neiljanowitz.com . Join the mailing list, son.
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