Panasonic SC-EN7 Slim Design CD Desk Top Audio System

Rating:
Summary: Close to Perfect
Review: This unit is great for what it attempts to be. It only has a few tiny issues:

1) It isn't really an alarm clock, but you can use it like one via the timer function. If it was really an alarm clock, it would have a snooze function.

2) The display's backlight is only active when the system is on. It would be nice if it was on all of the time so you could see what time it is at night.

3) It is so nice that it plays MP3 CDs, but it takes a while to read the file system when it starts playing and... the worst problem in the whole unit... it doesn't do random mode for MP3 CDs!

But, the sound is good, the overall functionality is very good, the CD mechanism is quiet, the remote is handy... so the previous 3 small problems are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. I highly recommend this unit for bedrooms/dens or as an alternative to an alarm clock.


Rating:
Summary: Nice Looking
Review: What I mean is that this unit was just about perfect for us because of we wanted in terms of features. I can see where someone desiring really high quality music reproduction would be disappointed, but this is not for that purpose (IMO).

Big Pluses for us:
Sleep timer
Fast forwarding within individual mp3 files (not just jumping from beginning to end)
Great for a disk with 10 folders and 200 mp3 files spread through them.


Minus - Having most of the controls on the remote is risky. Lose it and you pretty much lose the best parts of this unit.

FYI - We wanted a unit for listening to CD audio books in MP3 format. Thus the sleep timer and ease of manuvering around large numbers of files in multiple folders are SUPER features. I could not find them anywhere else. Since it is not [primarily] for music, hi fidelity is not as important to us.

This is a great unit for home MP3 use. If you just want to play [regular audio] music CDs, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough Bass
Review: With only preset selections for sound i.e. bass, soft, clear, or vocal I did not like the sound. I found it lacking in any depth. I returned mine.