Panasonic’s New CD Decks

At the time of writing, we are privileged to have three new Panasonic CD tuner decks that haven’t even made it onto Panasonic’s own website yet! We have the CQ-RX200N at £99.99, the CQ-RX300N at £119.99 and the top CQ-RX400N at £139.99. These are all real 21st Century toys and are all about which digital files they can handle, how they’ll play all sorts of things you recorded or downloaded yourself on CD-RW discs and ‘Pods and also about all manner of things that you can plug in. Up to and including albums you buy already inside those dinky USB wristband products.
They all proved to be really keen VFM and there’s a little secret deep in the depths of the review of the most ‘humble’ unit in the group, CQ-RX200N, which proves that when you are made by the mighty Matsushita people, it’s hard to be humble.
Enjoy. I did
Panasonic CQ-RX200N. CD Tuner with FM radio and high specification versus price. Equipped with a removable faceplate (no hard case supplied) and bearing the new Panasonic 2008 Arc Evolution design, the device is the latest in a long line of very design-conscious product. Panasonic are very good at being able to be dated by vintage when you see machines from different years. The single RCA output is chassis mounted, rather than being made with trailing cords, which helps maintain sound quality. The unit can read Windows Media Audio and MP3 compressed digital audio files, although you will need the next unit up if you wish to use AAC files. Home recorded CD discs may be used. There is a 3.5mm microjack audio auxiliary input socket on the front. It may be used with Bluetooth connectivity by adding an extra CY-BT200N unit. There is no remote control supplied although it can be bossed by the same one as the 300 and 400 models – it is an option for £9.99. With a single extra source attached to the ‘System-Up’ connector to the rear of the unit you can select from radio, CD output (be it PCM audio or MP3/WMA), your aux input and say, a changer. With addition of the CY-EM100N Expansion Module unit you can then append up to four things such as the Bluetooth unit, an iPod and more, such as a second iPod.

Panasonic CQ-RX300N .The Panasonic CQ-RX300N is the middle pip of the triumvirate of Panasonic CD tuners we are examining. It has the same base features as the £100 model, the CQ-RX200N, which are the same quality CD mechanism and the same SQ3 EQ system of improved sonic control instead of simple bass and treble controls. It has the same level of voltage of signal output (2V) but now has two sets of RCA sockets on the back – again, chassis mounted rather than hanging on the end of a cord. The fascia is a shiny black and looks a lot classier for it, although the FL display is the same element as before and does the same braggy display of telling you that it is Bluetooth Audio and hands free use ready. A hard case is provided for this removable faceplate. The same single ‘System Up’ socket exists on the rear and it is here that you either connect a single extra – like an iPod (it’ll still accept disc changers, too) or else the expansion module that then allows up to four extra things to be plugged in, be it a collection of iPods or sounds from a camera’s output, whatever.
The front now has an extra orifice in the shape of a front mounted USB port with a rubbery cover that hides it when not in use, another feature the 200 lacks. As well as having this ability to connect more digital devices, the CQ-RX300N is also able to decode the AAC digital compressed file format as well as the range-wide MP3 and WMA abilities it shares with its brethren. This unit comes with an Infra-Red remote control with real buttons (not membrane switches) with 14 single-hit buttons and two rocker buttons to cover all remote functions.

Panasonic CQ-RX400N .Another £20 on the price of the unit below this one and again, you get an increase in function. However you do not get any significant increase in appearance of the display. It is still an FL unit but looks a little prettier with an amber backlighting and buttons that now glow in the more sexy and desirable blue LED. Direct connection and control of iPod is the real story and though you can see the ‘Made for iPod’ logo on all the units’ cartons and they work via the System Up connection, the CQ-RX400N can accept an iPod directly into its faceplate-mounted port. It has this USB port hidden under a rubbery covering on the front drop, just above a feature that used to be seen as cool for those with Cassette deck Walkmans, a 3.5mm stereo audio tip-ring-sleeve microjack socket. These days it is used for the audio output of all the ‘other’ digital music players that can send a simple stereo audio signal to be played as an auxiliary item. An Infra Red remote control is included, as is a hard case for the removable faceplate. However, despite saying so in their press release (which we published in the news section) the USB wire is not included – correctly stated in the manual – bijou error, there, then.
It has front and rear RCA output sockets on the back but does lack a third set that I would have expected to see as a natural progression to front/rear and Subwoofer or non-fading output – even if they couldn’t include a subwoofer crossover or control system for one within the unit. Although the CQ-RX400N is sold at a lower price than some, as a CD range topper, I would have expected to see some sort of low frequency amplifier feed on there. Perhaps having less space on the chassis would have meant that his would have had to hang out of the back on a cord as before but a subwoofer amplifier will not really be bothered with minor extraneous noise, which tends to be in the higher-than-bass frequencies, so wouldn’t have been much of an issue. In any case an awful lot of amplifiers have pass-though RCA systems these days, so even the lowly CQ-RX200N can feed a shedload of modern amplifiers.