JVC JA-S44, a restore, and some respect for good design.

This is a story about an unassuming amp and tuner that I picked up some time ago at a local thrift store. Its what got me to give JVC a second look and buy their mightly a-x9

I really liked the looks of the integrated amp with its meters. Looked serious enough, was heavy, and had a DC badge on it. I was going to use it in my garage as it looked kinda filthy.


And then I opened her up.

:yuck:
I vacuumed it up as best as I could and powered it up. No static in the controls, and everything was working perfectly. I decided it was worth cleaning up some more and got the faceplate very presentable. Thats when I admired the quality of materials. Thick aluminum faceplate, steel chassis, metal knobs, and quality feeling switches. Cleaned up nice


Then I started listening to it on some KLH 23s in my basement, and it sent the sansui out to garage duty. VERY controlled bass and big sound. This surprised me since KLHs are power hogs, but this JVC controlled them nicely and sounded pretty darn natural. The graphics equalizer made big changes in the sound, but leaving everything flat sounded best.

So after a few months of use, the left channel started cutting in and out. I knew it was a dirty pot, so I put it off till I could replace the unit and do a full cleanup and re-cap.

And a full clean up I did.


Thats the whole thing sans chassis. I decided to really get in there and get rid of all that nasty dust. The unit was amazingly easy to get all apart, and well thought out. Alps switches and pots were used throughout, as well as good quality Elna boards and caps. Then I looked at the amp section and was shocked to find "darlington power packs".


There is nothing wrong with them as long as the circuitry is properly implemented. I think this integrated is one of the better units using the darlington packs. They're rated at 50wpc. JVC rated this unit at 45 wpc, so it was a good match.

I then proceeded to work on the unit. I washed all the boards with proper cleaners, re-capped everything, and completely cleaned the chassis. How does it look? I'll post pics as soon as my camera charges up again. I got this shot in however.


How does it sound?
Its not giving up much to its bigger brother the a-x9, build quality is similar too. This is NOT meant to bad mouth the 9 as its an amazing unit, its just that this integrated is definitely from the same family.

In conclusion...give JVC a look, you'll be glad you did.:thmbsp:

Cleaned up nicely, ehh?

Well done. :yes:

Wow! What proper cleaner did you use to get those results?

Very nice job :thmbsp:


Philip.

Very nice job!
Indeed JVC has some very nice & well built audio equip. A lot of their stuff slips under the radar & does not get the respect they deserve. I give the R-S33 receiver & QL-A5 TT props whenever I can.

The A-X series integrated amps are very nice.

Rome

that's a great resto job :thmbsp: i've become a fan of jvc ever since trying a couple of their eq's from roughly the same era..and i was impressed with the later AX-2 amp from a few years later..very decent sound quality and that eq is much more useful than just bass and treble controls

You did some fine work on that amp. :thmbsp: And I think that's the biggest heatsink I've ever seen on any 45WPC component, good stuff. I've got an R-S11 receiver (yard sale find) that I might recap, it's well laid out like your amp. Be a good easy project before I rebuild 3 Marantz receivers!

Thanks for the props!

I had to rip apart my digital camera to get it working again, sorry for the delay in pics.


Sitting next to its big brother.

Its amazing to see how many parts were shared, a compliment to the s44 as the a-x9 has HIGH quality parts


I think it turned out clean


and its still playing sweet sweet music.

A real nice match to the 17s I have...amazing since I never expected it.


I used a flux/board cleaner made my GC electronics

http://www.gcelectronics.com/order/catdisplay.asp?CatID=3

Nice!

Looks really good, Giuseppe! You do some very nice work, I was very pleased with how my Toshiba gear turned out that you refurbished.

Holy cow G! I hardly recognize it from the first pic's.

Nice job :thmbsp:

RC

mhardy6647 said:

Click to expand...

Musical model...i like how they put it.


Thanks for the pic!!!

Love it, but then I'm a sucker for anything with big analog power meters.

oh garsh, that's nice lookin....good job!

Wow, looks brand new! Great job.

Secondslc....

First off....beautiful job on the clean-up ... absolutely stunning result!

I have the JA-S44 and the matching JT-V22 Tuner .... I agree with you, that era JVC is under-the-radar gear. I think JVC gets dissed because of some of the garbage they have in later years put into the mass market.

I had a little run into JVC a while back and,in addition to the above, picked up a set of separates: the JA-S55 amp, a second JT-V22 Tuner, an SEA-50) equalizer, the QL-A5 TT and the SK-1000 speakers. I built some stands and cherry veneered both the stands and the speakers and gifted the whole set to my partners son (shipped the whole set from Vancouver to Halifax) retaining only the TT, which I have yet to try.

If anyone spots any of these pieces, don't hesitiate to grab them.

Tucker99 said:

Secondslc....

First off....beautiful job on the clean-up ... absolutely stunning result!

I have the JA-S44 and the matching JT-V22 Tuner .... I agree with you, that era JVC is under-the-radar gear. I think JVC gets dissed because of some of the garbage they have in later years put into the mass market.

Click to expand...

You mean this tuner?

I also have the T-X3 which if im not mistaken, is the matching tuner for the A-X9. Is there a better tuner? I am willing to get one and leave the T-X3 with my brother's A-X5



And I present to you JVC's statement piece. Rated at 100wpc, it has a constantly adjusting bias circuit that keeps the transistors "always on" when needed (rated for .0005% THD).While it doesnt get as hot as my PM-94 (30 watts pure class-a), it gets darn warm. Matched it with all marantz gear, she sings. Really detailed, crisp and tight sounding amp. Design Series 920 speakers, CD-73 cd player, ST-500 Tuner, and 6300 Turntable.

In all honesty, this is the most impressive piece of (un-restored) gear I have next to my pm-94. If it had main-in pre-out jumpers....it would probably be clawing to the top.

Secondslc....

Just FYI, I have a mint condition original copy of the owner's "Instruction Book" .... if you would like a photocopy I would be pleased to make one for you. Just let me know.

Nice job on redo ... I have the same unit

My first post on this forum. I am an ex technician, have been driving 18 years, and would like to try to get back some of my trouble-shooting and repair prowess by redoing some of my older audio equipment hopefully with a result such as yours. I have a JVC separates system I bought in Japan in 1978 I still really like and am not sure what ailment it has if any. I know the system has always liked to blow speaker crossovers, but then I like the English bass idea for tighter crisp bass using smaller speakers over the Japanese big woofer idea which I believe is harder on them... especially when I crank it Before I tear it apart I would like to practice on one I dont care about as much and that would be the JA-S44 I bought on E-bay that is apparently DOA. I have rounded up a nice scope and still have my trusty Simpson 260. No fuses are blown and the transformer inputs and outputs are ok. I dont have the schematic and am not acquainted with the parts availability or typical component ailments on these older units. Was interested in your terminology "recapping" , does that refer to changing out all the caps ... or particular ones that are usually problematic? Is there a place to obtain schematics and troubleshooting info/service manuals that is good? Parts as well? Thanks Keith