JVC FS-2000 (1997)

Three pieces, fifteen inches wide, cherry cabinets, and a clock radio that fades you awake. A desktop system that won a reviewer over for $380.

Overview

The FS-2000 Executive Desktop System is a three-piece ultra-micro setup. A tuner/amp/CD center sits between two small speakers, and the whole stack measures just 15 inches across when pushed together. Owners spread the speakers wider for stereo. JVC finished the speaker cabinets in cherry wood and the center electronics in gold.

The speakers are vented enclosures, each carrying a 3⅛-inch shielded driver. The shielding matters if the system lives next to a computer monitor or CRT. Flat response is quoted at 30 Hz to 16 kHz, which flatters the little drivers on paper, but one period reviewer insisted the numbers undersold the actual sound. He called it "far better than those numbers suggest."

The center unit is where the action is. There's an AM/FM tuner with 15 presets per band, a programmable CD player with 20-track programming and a top-loading transport, and an amplifier delivering roughly 10 watts per channel at listenable distortion levels. Around the back and along the edges you get an AUX/Tape input, a line output, a subwoofer output for anyone who wants to add low end, and a Toslink digital output from the CD player. That's an unusual extra on a system this small, and it lets you feed a better DAC.

The clock-radio side is where the FS-2000 gets charming. When the alarm trips, the unit fades gradually up to whatever volume level was preset rather than jolting the sleeper awake. The display can be dimmed. Both details suit a stereo meant to sit on a nightstand.

The price of that compactness is control layout. Many functions live only on the remote: bass and treble adjustments, station-preset assignment, and direct access to specific presets. Lose the remote and the FS-2000 becomes a much more limited machine, which matters for anyone buying one used decades later. The reviewer had two complaints. AM reception drowned in static whenever a nearby lamp was switched on, and "off is off" - no illumination at all when powered down, an annoyance for anyone using it as a bedside clock.

JVC also offered an FS-1000 at $330, which swapped the cherry cabinets for medium-density fiberboard with a grey finish and used unshielded speakers. The FS-2000's $380 asking price bought the shielded drivers, the cherry finish, and the gold-toned center unit. A 1998 buyer's guide listing confirms the cherrywood speakers, remote, and CD/AM/FM configuration as the headline package, as noted in Audio (September 1997, p.8).

Collectors chasing one today should expect the remote to be the make-or-break accessory, since so much of the operating surface lives there. The top-loading CD transport and the clock-radio functions are the parts most likely to need attention on a 1997-vintage unit. The cherry cabinets, being real wood finish on small boxes, are the cosmetic weak point.