Home > Consumer Reviews > JVC FS-B70 Executive Microsystem (Dark Wood)

This is a fabulous system, and would be an incredible value at even twice the price.

The first thing I noticed when unpacking this baby was the unusually high quality of construction for a stereo in this price range: the case of the main unit is actually made of METAL, and not plastic. The CD trays are plastic and feel a bit flimsy, but they are motorized, work smoothly, and seem like they'll hold up fine if not abused while CD's are being loaded/unloaded. The appearance of this system is classy, classic, and understated, and would easily fit into even the most formal decor.

But what's most important in a stereo system, of course, is the sound. And the sound of this system is amazing. I've tried classical music, jazz, and classic rock, and they all sound great. With the Active Hyper-Bass Pro feature at the higher of its 2 settings, the bass is rich and full, and can be "felt" at the appropriate times without making everything in the house rattle. The mid-range and highs are sweet and clear, and don't distort at all even at the highest volume (and with 74 watts per channel, that volume can be turned pretty high). This system's imaging is also great, as judged with orchestral music--the instruments are properly arrayed across the entire field of sound, and don't seemingly emanate from just the left or the right. While there are digital treble and bass controls with eleven discrete settings, there is no balance control and no equalizer, gimmicky or otherwise. Personally, I don't miss them, and neither should anyone else who simply wants great, straightforward, high-fidelity stereo sound.

Having a FIVE-CD changer in a system this compact is phenomenal, and it works quickly and fairly quietly. You can even load and unload up to 4 CD's while a 5th is playing. You can program the system to play specified tracks from up to 5 CD's, and programming is easy and straightforward.

This system is user-friendly, with many of the more complicated functions available only on the remote control and simpler functions also available on the unit itself. The remote control is a little busy, but works very well once you learn the layout. The display is well-lit, straightforward, attractive, and even friendly--it says "Hello" when you turn the system on and "See You" when you turn it off!

One note about radio reception with this system: I tried the single-wire FM antenna that came with the system, a Terk FM-4000 amplified FM antenna, and a Terk FM+ passive FM antenna, and I was unable to get static-free stereo FM reception with any of them (in mono mode, however, the static disappeared). Finally, I tried not using ANY antenna at all and--much to my surprise--stereo FM reception was just about perfect. I live relatively near the highest point in the city where all of the transmission towers are located, and I assume that is why I get the best FM stereo reception without an antenna. If you have similar stereo FM reception problems, you also might want to try omitting the antenna. For AM reception, I find that a Terk AM Advantage antenna does a bit better than the AM antenna included with the system.

In general, this is a great sounding, great looking, feature-rich, and user-friendly system that provides incredible value at a great price.

I was surprised at the heft of the units. Even the speakers are surprisingly heavy. I expected - and got - great sound, too, and I'm able to boost the treble and bass through quite a range. I like being able to load up to five CDs and play tracks randomly across all five.

But I give it only 4 stars for a number of reasons. Many basic functions (like setting the clock, tuning the radio, controlling the brightness of the front panel display, programming tracks on the CDs, and others) can only be done using the remote control. And none of these functions are intuitively laid out on the remote control unit. You'll need to keep the owner's manual handy for just about any function, so if you lose or break the remote control, you're out of luck, big time.

It doesn't use the electrical cord for FM reception like most radios but rather uses a separate, 3-foot length of wire for indoor use. I get NO reception without this indoor FM antenna, but if I connect it, I get an objectionable static-like hiss as if I hadn't properly tuned in the radio station. For some curious reason, this indoor FM antenna gives ideal reception (for me, anyway) when it is nearly touching - but not physically connected to - the FM antenna jack on the back. So I have to hang the connector end of the wire down from the shelf above and position it so that it is VERY close to, but not actually touching, the FM jack. Can anyone explain to me how capacitive coupling improves reception?

The main unit is twice as deep as the speakers, so if you want to put it on a shelf, it had better be at least a foot deep. There's no battery backup for the clock (VERY poor design!) so if you lose power, you have to go through the whole clock / alarm setup via the remote control all over again.

I bought this system for my bedroom about a year ago with a couple of requirements. I was looking for a compact system for under $200 with good sound, CD changer, tape deck, remote, and sleep timer so I could listen to music before I went to sleep.

I compared a number of different models within the same price range and feature range. I looked at a Sony that sounded great and looked good, but it had a slot CD system that didn't let you change CDs while it was playing. I looked at a Panasonic, but it didn't sound as good as the Sony. I looked at a Sharp, but it looked cheep and didn't sound as good as the Sony. I ended up going with the JVC FS-B70 from Crutchfield.

The FS-B70 looks good (especially the speakers), has great sound, and all of the features I wanted including being able to swap CDs while it's playing. I do have a few minor gripes about it though.

1) Since I use this in my bedroom I wanted something I could use at night to help fall asleep. The display has three different levels of brightness. Unfortunately when you turn it on it always comes on at the highest brightness and even at the lowest setting it lights up my entire room. I end up putting a CD case in front of it to block out the light.

2) The remote is fairly straight forward to use when you can see the remote. Unfortunately all of the buttons are about the same size and shape so in the dark it's difficult to figure out which button to press. On several occasions I've accidentally turned on the alarm when I wanted to turn on the sleep timer.

3) The included wire antenna gets decent reception, but if you want to attached a better antenna the unit doesn't use a standard F plug. After a lot of hunting around I finally discovered that the connector is a PAL Coax. The adapter you need is available at Radio Shack as part number 278-265B. It would have been nice if this was mentioned in the manual, JVC's web site, or Crutchfield's web site. When I asked Crutchfield they pointed me to a $60 antenna when all I really wanted was something cheep that would work better than the included wire.

4) The CD changing mechanism is noisy. It's loud enough that it's woken me up if the CD changes before the sleep timer turns it off.

Overall I'm happy with it, but it isn't exactly what I wanted for my bedroom.

We owned this for two years and it worked okay until one day the CD changer refused to open with five brand new (!) discs inside. The JVC authorized repair shop wanted $158 to fix the laser which was damaged when the unit jammed. They took $36 just to get the CDs out.

Other problems:
- The clock mysteriously kept losing time (how does that even happen with digital electronics?)

- The reciever is too deep to fit on a small shelf like a bookcase.

- It does NOT play mp3s of any sort.

In short buy something else.

I bought this unit for my "smokers lounge" about 14 months ago. I have a heated garage where I puff on the occaisional cigar, sip some eau-de-vie and listen to my music. For quite some time I was extremely pleased with this little unit. It held its own.

About 9 months ago the 5 disc CD changer started skipping...not much at first and only on discs 4 and 5. Slowly things got worse until it became unuseable. I plugged an old Teac single disc player into the Auxilary input and it works fine. I did not want to hassle with a return or the dreaded warranty work.

I agree with some of the other reviewers: the remote is anything but intuitive (but it works...in most cases, well) and the tape player will eat your tapes if you are not gentle and let the autoload feature take it from you.

Bottom line: It sounds great, it has many nice features, it has very good speakers but the CD player (at least in mine) is junk.