The bone-scouring monstrosity of the JVC HXD77J mini-system
Maxell's famous "Blown Away" Le Corbusier LC2 ad implicitly promised an era when music could blow you away, leaving only a shrieking skeleton clinging to a chain-link fence, like the nuclear attack in Terminator 2.
That future never arrived, though: consumer speakers were not up to the task. Worse, as audio devices got increasingly more svelte and compact, there wasn't even the visual illusion of a system of bone-scouring aural output.
This JVC HXD77J ($269) is a gorgeous monstrosity. It's your standard mini-system: radio, CD, USB port to listen to music directly from a PC or Mac. It curiously says it has the ability to "play" JPEG files. But where it really satisfies is in the early 90's oomph of its design. Now this is the kind of boom box that could blast your eyeballs into the back of your cerebellum.
JVC HXD77J Mini System [Buy.com via Red Ferret Journal]
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I went looking for a mini system recently. I didn't want anything big or monstrous and I left several stores (Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, and I even stepped foot in WalMart). I ended up leaving all of them a little depressed. I had hoped the 90's monstrous looking mini stereos had come to an end. I was sadly mistaken. I ended up with a nice LG system that has good sound and looks nice (nice lines, very simple and sleek looking), but it lacks one of the features I had wanted... a 3 CD changer. I'm one of about 3 people who still prefers CD's to mp3/aac/insert audio file here. I will continue to prefer that until the people selling music in those formats start using a nice open lossless compression, like flac.
I'm sure that stereo sounds great, but it just doesn't go with the look I want... unless I have an industrial looking room (which is not my style).
Why does this monstrosity remind me of the ABC war robot from the Judge Dredd movie? Strange, but I love its "carbuncle-ness".
OK, apparently this is a "DVD Compact Component System" so it plays dvds (apparently it has a video output on the back) which explains how it would play jpegs.
Still incredibly ugly though...
What, no synthesizer?
Ok, perhaps a foldout rocket launcher would be more appropriate.
PC or Mac... the only two types of computers in the world. *Le Sigh*
So who would win in a fight?
JVC HXD77J or ED 209?
Looks like a Mecha. And it has a lot of buttons. Seems like JVC designers never attended the Usability classes while in college.
Loving the industrial holdover look.
At first I thought "wanty" but then after seeing that LaCory had praise for it, I looked again and thought "gundamy and kinda ghey". I'd rather go for the 80s stylings of the Lasonic 903i for about the same fistfull of Yen.
Looks like the back of Ben's motorcycle.
Reminds me of one of those Airsoft guns with every device such as lasers, lights, sights, magazine clips and "silencers" imaginable tacked on to them.
I really want to strap one of these to the passenger seat of my motorcycle; then wire it to the bike's battery. Just for one sonic ride. But what to play; perhaps Radiohead...
PLEASE INSERT A DVD AND PRESS PLAY!!
YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY!!
YOU NOW HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO COMPLY, RRAAWWLL!!
This is actually what Ace from DoctorWho would have today. She ruled!