Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The JVC JR-S200 Receiver

Ah, here we have yet another under appreciated Japanese receiver manufacturer. JVC's styling is, er, distinctive, and I confess not to my taste until recently. But I have a new found appreciation of this line after working on this unit and also getting a gander of the very impressive JR-S600. The S200 is 2nd in the line that extends from the S100 through the S600, and is listed at 35 watts per side. Orion says it was sold from '76 to '80 and retailed for $300.


While a bit glitzy and slider-dominated it is a handsome unit to my newly acclimated eye. The thumb wheel tuner is a bit angled and much smaller than that of the Marantz tuners and receivers of the era. The end caps are interesting, sort of plasticky, faux heat sinkish. Definitely, the JVC designers were not running with the Pioneer/Marantz/Yamaha crowd with wood cases.

Wow, my photo skilz were not exactly shining the day I took these snapshots. The chassis was not too bad to work on although there were a few difficult to change caps on the amp board at the right. The tuners are in the center; the phono section in the center, back right, just to the left of the heat sink. I replaced 57 caps with Panasonic FCs. Then Mike pointed out that there were 4 more buried in the tone control board mounted vertically in the front, behind the sliders. That board was a bit of a challenge.

The JVC is a perky sounding little receiver. It is not exactly a powerhouse, but has enough slam to sound better than 30 watts should. Pick one of these up if you find one. If you ever stumble across the big brother S600, buy it in a heartbeat. It is one seriously flashy, large receiver and at 120 watts per channel can run with any of the big dogs.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just picked up a JR-S600 MKII for relatively cheap ($75). It has one major need -- the bracket that holds the flywheel and tuning assembly to the faceplate assembly. Other than that, just needs DeOxit and lamps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Email twintwelve1484 at yahoo.

Anonymous said...

I just picked one up today for $7.50.
Anybody got a line on the light bulbs for it ?

Stanley 12V 0.5Amp Blue

Anonymous said...

It was certainly interesting for me to read that post. Thanks for it. I like such topics and everything connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more on that blog soon.
Alex
Cell jammers

Anonymous said...

just got an s100. the potmetal bracket that holds the tuning flywheel has crumbled. looks like i'm not the only one with this issue. sad as the part is unobtanium. the tuner is extremely sensitive.

Paul said...

I have a JR-S 200 MK II at 45-50 Watts a channel this thing puts out a better sound than a lot of pioneers and marantz receivers I’ve heard. I have mine hooked to some 300 watt Wilson audio speakers and even at high volume for a decent amount of time and it didn’t get hot. If I Hook my marantz recievers or my marantz receivers they get hot enough to cook an egg. They cannot handle my Wilson’s and believe it or not this little JVR 200 MK II handled them I got a crisp analog sound fat bass. Love it !!

Dwgwnr1969 said...

Very cool units..I have the jr-s200 and I luv it

Unknown said...

I have a JR-S200 that I literally pulled out of a dumpster as soon as I saw it go in. It looked awesome, so I brought it home, found the main fuse to be junk. Put a new fuse in it, and finally, 16 years later, my right channel is dead. Any tips? I'm relatively handy, but this thing doesn't have enough tires on it for my expertise. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Can u hook up a CD player to this receiver. I see that it has phono and tape, wonder if the aux can handle a CD.

Anonymous said...

Yes it has aux