After more than a month of waiting, your patience has finally paid off! If you can remember, we promised last month that we will be having a “honeymoon” with one of the JVC products that was recently launched locally. Fortunately, our friends from JVC Philippines listened to our plea, allowing us to spend some intimate moments with the flagship offering of the JVC Sophisti NXD Series of DVD compact component systems, which is the NX-D7.

 

 

 

Sharing similarities with its relatives, the NX-D3 and NX-D5, the NX-D7 possesses the most prominent feature of the Sophisti NXD Series which is the Slant Style Design. In our opinion, this design decision is relatively innovative in a sense that it makes the NXD Series stand out among the multitude of boxy and old-fashioned component systems out there. According to JVC, the slanted design does not only touch on the aesthetic aspect but also tackles the technical facet for better sound reproduction. In spite of the slanted design, the drivers of the main speakers are vertically aligned to produce sound all at the same time.

 

 

Based on our experience, setting up the NX-D7 was a simple and unproblematic task. If you have a limited living room space that is virtually not adequate to accommodate a towering surround sound home theater system, we recommend this JVC as an alternative.

 

 

 

 Another highlight feature of the NX-D7 is the Motion Sensor touch panel controls. By simply making hand gestures at the front of the component system, it immediately illuminates indicating that it senses you. You can browse and select through its access menu, and adjust its sound volume through the Touch Panel which bestows you “buttonless” control. The NX-D7 comes with a remote control as well.

 

 

While the idea of a component system can be easily associated with analog connectivity, the NX-D7 has the best of both worlds, taking in analog connectors as well as digital interfaces on its entire outline.

 

 

 We found most of the analog connectors at the rear. Included here are:

 

 

 

the speaker connectors,

 

 

 

AM/FM antenna connector,

 

 

 

component output, video output, optical digital output,

 

 

 

and HDMI output. The latter interface features 1080p up-conversion of video signals for enhanced images and lossless content reproduction.

 

 

 

Most importantly, before plugging in the NX-D7 to a power outlet, be sure that the voltage selector is set accordingly to the local power supply. The NX-D7 has a total RMS of 5000W.

 

 

 

  Discreetly hidden on the front, the additional connectors gracefully appear once you slide down the panel that covers them. The set is comprised of the headphone jack, audio input, three USB ports, and microphone jacks.

 

 

 

Each of the USB ports is designated to a certain function. The first port is for audio/video playback, which is capable of supporting MP3, WAV, WMA, and DivX formats. The next port is for audio recording, which allows users to record CD music directly onto a USB device in MP3 format, without having to use a PC. The last USB port is intended for an optional Bluetooth adapter, enabling users to wirelessly stream music from compatible digital audio players, mobile phones, or PCs. With this feature, users can also wirelessly stream NX-D7’s audio source (CD, DVD, USB, etc.) to Bluetooth compatible headphones. The system supports A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles.

 

 

We had hardly noticed any flaw on the ND-X7 in terms of sound quality and this observation was based on some of the pieces that we played with this component. It manifested its full, clear bass on some of the recordings made by The Crystal Method, particularly on the track “Cherry Twist”. We were pleased as well when we listened to the warm strumming of guitar on oldies such as “American Pie” and “Vincent” by Don Mclean.

 

 

 

By and large, the JVC Sophisti NX-D7 DVD compact component system obviously has a lot of positive features to consider. Taking into account that component systems have been around us for a quite long time, some of us might be thinking that these audio appliances are already outdated. The NX-D7, as a breath of fresh air, relatively disproves that.