Hello,
The short question:
Can the DAC performance in the AX-Z911 (non K2 DAC) be improved? At what expense of time and effort? My understanding of K2 is that it also does some jitter cleanup. If my CD transport delivered a low-jitter signal, how does this DAC then otherwise compare to K2?
The longer story:
My first "neat" amp is this AX-Z911BK I purchased around 1995. I just picked up a service manual for it, and have considered replacing the caps etc. I have not used the amp in a while but it worked perfectly last time. I just assume that the caps will go eventually.
When I was first doing research on it in the 1990's, I spoke to a rep at JVC who stated "what you really want is the AX-Z1010 with the K2."
I was happy to use my AX-Z911 for quite some time because it sounded great to me. Since then I have different gear that I am using, but the AX-Z911 still has a special place in the collection as being my first unique amp.
However when I consider keeping and restoring it, the seeds of discontent sewn by that JVC rep make me wonder if I should choose another path. I have seen many other JVC devices with the K2 DAC.
I have heard that the AX-Z911 is pretty good, but that it has an "outdated" DAC on board. As you may know, the amp uses the DAC info to predict current need for their "class A" type operation. I bothered me that if the DAC is not ideal, the benefit of the design is reduced. Also, that main feature only applies to the digital inputs, it is a regular A/B integrated amp for the other inputs.
Options:
-Keep the amp, use it for display, no work involved
-Restore the amp as is, just for fun
-Restore the amp and upgrade DAC
-Acquire a AX-Z1010 and sell this one
-Keep the amp and get the 1010 CD player so I can say "I have K2" (I understand the 1010 with Burr Brown is better than 1050 with bitstream?)
-Ignore K2 completely and just use my other DACs
Any information/opinions are appreciated! Thanks!
The short question:
Can the DAC performance in the AX-Z911 (non K2 DAC) be improved? At what expense of time and effort? My understanding of K2 is that it also does some jitter cleanup. If my CD transport delivered a low-jitter signal, how does this DAC then otherwise compare to K2?
The longer story:
My first "neat" amp is this AX-Z911BK I purchased around 1995. I just picked up a service manual for it, and have considered replacing the caps etc. I have not used the amp in a while but it worked perfectly last time. I just assume that the caps will go eventually.
When I was first doing research on it in the 1990's, I spoke to a rep at JVC who stated "what you really want is the AX-Z1010 with the K2."
I was happy to use my AX-Z911 for quite some time because it sounded great to me. Since then I have different gear that I am using, but the AX-Z911 still has a special place in the collection as being my first unique amp.
However when I consider keeping and restoring it, the seeds of discontent sewn by that JVC rep make me wonder if I should choose another path. I have seen many other JVC devices with the K2 DAC.
I have heard that the AX-Z911 is pretty good, but that it has an "outdated" DAC on board. As you may know, the amp uses the DAC info to predict current need for their "class A" type operation. I bothered me that if the DAC is not ideal, the benefit of the design is reduced. Also, that main feature only applies to the digital inputs, it is a regular A/B integrated amp for the other inputs.
Options:
-Keep the amp, use it for display, no work involved
-Restore the amp as is, just for fun
-Restore the amp and upgrade DAC
-Acquire a AX-Z1010 and sell this one
-Keep the amp and get the 1010 CD player so I can say "I have K2" (I understand the 1010 with Burr Brown is better than 1050 with bitstream?)
-Ignore K2 completely and just use my other DACs
Any information/opinions are appreciated! Thanks!
I have the service manual for the AX-Z1010, but copying it would be very hard. I would need to do it at work, as I do not have an A3 scanner at home and it would take more time than I have available. Not sure if it has pages even bigger than A3...
Can I help you with anything specific? Scanning a few pages should be doable.
(In time I may try to scan it completely, but this won't be any time soon).
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