Incredibly good microsystem..with minor flaws...
Written: Jun 15 '01 (Updated Nov 09 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lush, organic sound; surprising amount of bass; swank looks; price
Cons: first one's cd player died within 12 hours; remote can't be used alone
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a microsystem for under $200, and sound is your main concern (and it should be) this is the best place to put your money.
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| uber_futant's Full Review: Panasonic SC-PM03 CD Shelf System |
Note: since I don't have much time, and I have already posted a review elsewhere...
I went around a few local stores and found that the most diverse selections were between Best Buy and Circuit City. Best Buy had Sony's, Aiwa's, and the Panasonic...Circuit City had a larger variety..Sony, Aiwa, Onkyo, Sharp, and the Panasonic...
I listened through all of them..even the ones I knew I wouldn't buy [because i was limiting myself to a $200 price including the tax on these micro-systems] to use the more expensive ones as a reference...but I actually didn't check their prices until I had listened a liked the sound. I just listened to the radio stations on them at first, but was disturbed by the amount of distortion coming through just about every station on just about every unit...I assumed that it was due to their location within the store and such. Based on those "results"...Like the Sony CMT-EX, the Onkyo, a JVC, and the Panasonic....It would seem like an obvious choice because the Panasonic was the only one within the price range I was forcing myself into. But I wanted to be sure. I came back with a few cd's...TooL's Lateralus, TooL's Undertow, and A Perfect Circle's Mer de Noms...for various reasons...being that TooL are my fave and that Undertow was mixed quieter than most cd's...A Perfect Circle's cd sounded somewhat "stale" at times through my own cd player, a walkman, and my pc which has pretty sweet Klipsch 4.1 speakers. The main thing i was lookin for was the sound had to be "organic" i guess and be able to be loud without having to turn it up all the way...if i could pass this in a wide open store, filled with linoleum and metals and plastics, i could easily work well at home. From trying out the cd's in the store they all sounded somewhat similiar...the JVC easily had more bass because of its subwoofer, the onkyo as well had more bass because the woofers within each cabinet were larger than any others [i think they with 5in]....but the onkyo was well over $400, and the JVC was up there as well...It was down to the Sony CMT-EX and the Panasonic SC-PM03...Since the sony wasn't noticably different in the store in sound and since the eject button [for the vertical loading cd player] was obnoxiously sensitive and since i would come out about $150 "richer" I went for the Panasonic.
Since Circuit City's sale was over...i went to Best Buy to get it at the same price and not have to wait for them to get it out of the back and such like at Circuit City...
I got home a couldn't wait to set it up....It was up and on with 5min...I was so anxious i overlooked the manual and did it myself...Luckily nothing went wrong...yet...I was happy to see my assumption was correct about the radio...The radio sounds full and pristine on fm stations...i put other cd's in a was totally pleased...i felt like i truly had spent my money well...I messed around with the bass and treble controls and found perfect settings for different settings...ranging from soft classical, to pounding japanese drums, to incredibly brutal and heavy metal like Slipknot and Mudvayne. I tried everythingi could at the moment...classical, funk, rap, rock, metal, and some ethnic stuff...I also hooked up a 20 year old tape deck my dad has had over the years and it worked just fine...so my parents were especially happy when it played their old Arabic music tapes...
fast foward...about twelve hours...and i press play assuming my tool cd is in there and it says "no disc"...i put my cd a cd in and then pressed play..."no disc"...i tried i my cd's and left it off a couple of hours, unplugged a little while, checked the lens...nothing...it just wouldn't attempt to spin my cds...i called in customer support the next morning and talked to a guy who said that it was obviously a defective unit and offered to hook me up with a local technician...i decided to return and exchange it for a new one...to see if it was the unit itself or the whole line...i got it hooked it up...[this is the 2nd one] and played stuff on it like the first one....twelve hours later..it still works...and now 3 weeks later it still works...hopefully it will stay that way....
now on to the remote...at first it was annoying because i couldn't go through the radio stations manually and make presets from the remote...but once i had a few station presets it wasn't a problem or annoyance anymore really...
I am basing my rating on the 2nd one i got....
and I've had it for a few weeks now...
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6-17-01....
this is a notice about what Eopinions put on the main page for this unit.....
it does have a headphone jack, and it does read cd-r's and cd-rw's.....don't let the farce they have put up there fool you....
;)
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update:
11-9-01
the display on the unit is a backlit blue.... and its somewhat annoying if you want to read it under certain cirmustances....when there is not enough light, when there is too much light, when trying to view it from a position in which you would be lower OR higher than the display by a small amount.
i have noticed that the sound has began to distort in very specific instances....so its pretty nuch the same....but in very certain parts of certain songs by certain artists (can't remember details right now) it crackles some....
still overall good, even though it has its share of problems (from "age")
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
uber_futant
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Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 1 member
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