Panasonic's mid-budget car stereo receiver that will drop your jaw!
Written: May 13 '03
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Pros: Great sound, amazing display, reasonable price, aux. input, pre-amp outs, Sirius-ready
Cons: Takes a little learning compared to a basic stock radio; no MP3 decoding?
The Bottom Line: Go down to your local car audio dealer and check this thing out - I doubt you will be disappointed!
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| jpstein's Full Review: Panasonic CQ-DF903U Car CD/ MP3 Player |
I recently installed a Panasonic CQDF903U "head unit" that I picked up for around $200 because of a discount (but it can be found for around $220-240 on various internet retail sites). One's first impression of the sleek blue-and-white display (20,480 pixels) is: "WOW!" The unit certainly looks like something you might expect for a lot more money, but its mid-level pricing puts it in contention as one of the best buys for the buck that you can find.
First, let's talk about the all-important numbers. This receiver puts out 25W x 4 channels RMS, 50W x 4 peak power (from an internal MOSFET50 amplifier), enough to get great sound out of all but the most demanding speakers. I have it installed with a pair of Infinity 6002I (6.5 inch) and a pair of 9603I (6 x 9 inch) speakers, my factory tweeters (also Infinity's), and two JL-Audio 12W3 subwoofers (independently powered, of course). Even without using a separate amplifier for the woofers and tweeters, the system produces AMAZING sound for a nominal price.
The receiver has 3 pre-outs, useful for after-marked amplifiers (such as the one powering my subwoofers), as well as an incredibly useful auxiliary input (who needs a separate CD changer when you have an mp3 player or laptop with DAYS of music available?) As for FM/AM tuning, this puppy sports an "Alphatuner V"; I'm not sure what that is, but the radio sounds fabulous. The CD player is fine - frequency response from 20Hz through 20,000 Hz - with a signal-to-noise ratio of 95 dB (the higher the better!) However, I have yet to discover if it supports mp3 or WMA CD's - none of the literature says that it does - but lower models do so this reviewer will have to get back to you on that. With that aux. input, though, I'm not overly concerned (bless you, iPod!)
As with comparable systems, Panasonic includes a wireless remote (no groping for controls while battling your way through traffic); the unit is also Sirius satellite radio ready, and worked wonderfully well in the shop, though I don't plan on signing up for the service.
Visually, however, this receiver will impress any passenger (and you can say it was much more expensive with a straight face if you so choose). There are about 9 screensavers, which you can select individually or cycle through at your leisure. One of them is a spectrum analyzer, the others are mostly clips of various extreme sports (I am rather partial to the car racing animations, of course). When you park the car, of course, you can remove the face plate and take it with you, reducing the risk of identification or theft.
On the slightly negative side, at first it takes a few minutes to get used to navigating the menus and so on, but this learning curve is fairly gentle and will be quickly conquered by even the most intimidated technophobe (I wish I could say the same about BMW's newest stereo/GPS controllers - IMPOSSIBLE!). An external amplifier wouldn't hurt, of course, but unless you're powering some VERY high-end speakers, I wouldn't stress about it too much, at least at first!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200.00
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Epinions.com ID:
jpstein
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Member: James Steinmann
Location: Newport Beach, CA
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 15 members
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