I was looking on Ebay when I came across a silver Sony FH-7 system.  I need it about as much as I need a hole in my head (I already have one, a hole that is) and I noticed that it had Dolby C in the tape section.  I swear all of the FH-7's that I have seen had just the plain old Dolby B NR.

What is the better of the 2 units as far as features and fidelity?  I love my PC-55 and it has enough bells and whistles to keep me satisfied and not lusting after another box, but I love the Sony APM speakers.  I always thought they looked so futuristic.  But the JVC has tons of hookups in the back and is really a home system in a mini package.  Anybody had the chance to use both and might comment on which one is better?

yes doity --the 55 is a very ample box with plenty of jacks --a great fm tuner

and a very satisfying sound -

if fidelity is the goal --the sony will blow it away for clean quality power -

the sony is so solid -

very few boxes are in its league-

and the sony ebay prices are usually less than the jvc

agree with the above....for raw power the fh7 blows the 55 away...the trick is to find the battery pack for the fh7

I have the FH-7 (MKI) and FH-5.  I've had two PC-55's.  The JVC gets wasted by both sound wise.  The main problem is the under engineered speakers of the JVC.  Power wise, the FH-7 and 55 are a wash.  However, the FH-5 isn't far off the JVC but is better engineered to take advantage of the APM speakers.

I have both, but much prefer the PC-55. Yes, the FH-7 goes a lot louder, but in the Mk.1 model it just has ordinary round cone speakers - not APM - the cone speakers are hidden behind square foam grills. The up sides of the JVC are as follows; full connect-ability to just about any piece of audio equipment you can imagine, better quality full auto reverse cassette deck, you can record on both sides unlike the Sony, better sound quality, easy to operate analogue tuner with shortwave - on the other hand the FH-7 has a digital tuner but no presets; somewhat illogical. The JVC has had more time invested in designing it as a portable, where the Sony is a really just a chopped down mini hi-fi. The power supply on the JVC has been designed for mains and battery operation, you can even run it off a 12V car battery if you want! The JVC has a clock and timer so can make timed recordings or use it as an over the top clock radio.