Digital Trends

JVC TH-L1

October 25th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Features and Design

The TH-L1 boasts 360 watts total RMS power. That's a lot for a compact home theater sound system. The subwoofer puts out 100 watts for heavy duty boom-shaka-boom. The front speakers put out 40 watts each, and so do the surround speakers. The center channel is also 40 watts, making a nice round 360 watt figure. The major weakness hidden beneath all that wattage is the 10% THD, or Total Harmonic Distortion. In comparison, higher end speakers have less than 0.05% THD. When cranking the volume up on the TH-L1, you can clearly hear the THD come into play.

The TH-L1, with its five speakers and subwoofer, obviously supplies 5.1 surround sound (each channel being "1" and the subwoofer being the".1"). If your sound source (an iPod with mp3 audio) does not have 5.1 channel audio to play, the TH-L1 will either play in stereo or can be set up (quickly and easily) to mock a 5.1 surround signal. There are several 5.1 modes to select from (Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro Logic II), each of which delivers a different sound stage. The TH-L1 has a "game mode" sound setting for XBOX, PS3, etc.

The front of the JVC TH-L1

The USB port allows you to connect USB media, whether audio (MP3, WAV and WMA) and video/still (JPEG and MPEG-1, -2 and -4). DRM protected WMA files are not supported. Browsing for files from the USB-connected device is easy, but the selection process is unintuitive and time consuming.

The TH-L1 also supports video for use with a DVD player, cable TV box, etc. This is a major feature of the system (and your home theater setup). The HDMI ports can provide up to 1080p resolution and uses Progressive Scan. The HDMI will not up-convert analog sources, however.

As for connections, the TH-L1 is very generous. There are two HDMI inputs and one HDMI out (pass-through, like an HDMI switch), two component inputs and one out (also pass-through), three analog (RCA) in/out, a digital audio in/out, S-Video in/out, USB connection, iPod connection (with proprietary cable input), and a standard 1/8" headphone jack.

The back of the JVC TH-L1

The included remote is handy, controls all TH-L1 functions and works from a fair distance, however it feels small in the hand and has a great number of very tiny buttons and very small text descriptions for each. On the bright side, the remote can be programmed to control other common components. This turns the TH-L1 remote into a universal remote of sorts, but certainly not a high class or high-tech universal remote.