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JVC XL-M417TN CD-changerVery much the maverick of the group, the JVC XL-M417TN differs from the other changers in color, styling, and features. For some, its silver-gray finish will be a welcome relief from the somber black typical of modern audio components. The thin white letters used to label the front-panel controls are not particularly legible against the silver faceplate, however. The front panel is dominated by a large jog wheel surrounded by curved buttons, giving this changer a very distinctive look.
The XL-M417TN also distinguishes itself by providing a choice of loading methods, accepting not only a six-disc cartridge (compatible with JVC's car changers) but also a single disc in a conventional loading drawer. That means you don't have to keep all your CD's in cartridges or load any disc you happen to want to hear into a cartridge before you can play it - a major convenience. I found this feature particularly appealing because the cartridge itself employs my least-favorite design, with individual plastic leaves that must be completely withdrawn from the housing to load discs. Moreover, the cartridge is not labeled as to which leaf corresponds to which disc number (the bottom tray holds Disc 1).
The XL-M417 provides all the standard transport-control features as well as track and disc repeat, track and disc random playback, intro-scan, and thirty-two-track programming; many of these features are available only via the wireless remote, however, and there is no headphone jack. The jog wheel plays a number of useful roles. It can be used to skip quickly from one track to another (in either direction from the current track) - an absolutely great feature. And in conjunction with the title-input button, it can be used to enter alphanumeric titles when the changer is in its magazine-memory mode.
With magazine memory, you can identify individual cartridges as A through H and the discs within each of those cartridges as 1 through 6. The real utility of the feature, however, lies in the ability to give each disc an eight-character title, using the jog wheel to scroll through the alphabet. Whenever you play a titled disc, the name will appear in the changer's amber front-panel display. And you can search for a disc, to locate which cartridge and tray it is in, by entering its title with the jog wheel or simply by scrolling through the memorized disc titles with the jog wheel. As you go, all the information will appear in the display, which was quite legible even though it's not my favorite color.
On the back panel are standard line-level analog outputs and in/out jacks for JVC's CompuLink system. CompuLink enables compatible JVC components to communicate with each other, providing such capabilities as automatic input switching and synchronized recording from CD player to tape deck. Alone in this group, the XL-M417TN did not have a digital audio output jack, which I consider an unfortunate design decision. The wireless remote duplicates front-panel features and adds several buttons needed for track-sequence programming.
On the test bench, the XL-M417TN registered a D/A linearity error of just -0.07 dB at -90 dB. Other electrical measurements were also quite good, and critical listening did not turn up anything inconsistent with those results. In addition, the changer successfully tracked a 4,000-micrometer disc defect, tying for best performance in this category, and exhibited very good impact resistance. |