Talented digital audio engineers at JVC?


Is JVC making the best use of the apparently very talented and passionate digital audio engineers in their company? By best use I mean creating reasonably priced audiophile quality products for people like us.

I have an old DVD player from JVC with the original K2 circuitry (as well as separate clock circuits, anti-jitter, and separate digital and analog sections). It is not great for DVD's (doesn't play some and asks for parental code on PG movies sometimes even when set properly), but is an awesome CD player! It still makes makes better sound than many lower priced units available today.

Many have heard the pleasing sounds from JVC's line of XRCD's. I think these were created by the same people or teams within the company. The mastering process also uses JVC's "K2" circuitry along with MANY other well thought out procedures and electronics.

More recently, Combak Corporation's Reimyo CDP-777 has been considered one of the best digital players ever, but at a great price. The Reimyo is built on a foundation of the latest generation JVC K2 circuitry. Apparently Combak had a lot of engineering help from JVC.

Could JVC be making a stellar, lower priced CD player? Is one already available as a Japanese market only item? Could an american hifi company license the K2 circuitry in a player at a lower price point than the Reimyo?
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I love JVC's K2 proccess, I am on a personal quest to collect each and every K2 cd release. They sound great and they're sold at regular cd prices unlike xrcd's which are hideously overpriced. I've alread got tons of Fantasy jazz K2's and I just recently picked up a live CCR concert cd that was a K2. I say keep 'em coming!
I still use my trusty (albeit rather modified) JVC XLZ-1050 CD player that's getting pretty old now. While my priority is vinyl (and always shall be), the JVC is sufficient for the discs I do own. I've thrown a few modern designs at it (Rega, Music Hall, Sonys), in an attempt to replace it, but nothing has struck my fancy the way the 1050 does. It isn't the ultimate in frequency extremes, and its processing power simply isn't on par with what's available today, but it plays music better than most. That said, I think it's past time that JVC develops a new line of state-of-the-art CDPs (or multi format players) that incorporates the latest advances on the K2 technology, which, in some ways, seems to be near the pinnacle of standard Redbook encoding/playback. Just a thought. Good listening,
-Richard