Muddy Bass Vintage JVC JA-S31 Before and After complete recap


Hey this is for any techs or hobbyists out there. I have a flly functioning JA-S31 that finished a total recap on. I used all Nichicon, audio series for as much as I could and general purpose for the ones that they didn’t have in Audio series. The exception was the power caps which I went with Chemicon 12000uF 80V (up from 10000uF 50V). Overall the sound is improved. Highs are superb. However, the biggest issue that I was having before the recap, as well as after is thick muddy bass. I can trim it down almost all the way on the bass pot or maybe one click from the bottom, which will take the muddiness out, but then I lose a lot of midrange and vocals become tinny. I had heard really good things about the amp and I don’t think that was an issue from the factory.

What avenues should I explore to help narrow down the cause of the muddy bass? Are there any known weaknesses with the electrical design and/ or are there particular components that could fail leading to this issue? Also, are there any mods one can do in general to help attenuate the bass without sacrificing mids? I’m fairly new to this, I’ve recapped 3 amps and thats the extent of my knowledge. BTW the other 2 came out wonderfully.

Any help or advice is sincerely appreciated.
Manual Download available here
https://www.hifiengine.com/hfe_downloads/index.php?jvc/jvc_ja-s31_service.pdf

charnich

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

This could be from having too low a damping factor/too little feedback.

Low damping factor can be caused by poor speaker cable connections. Try using a jumper from inside to the speaker cable directly.

Of course, this assumes the problem is really between the amp and the speakers.

Otherwise, it's the room.