Panasonic SC-PM250BEBS Bluetooth Micro Hi-Fi System with Wireless Technology and DAB Tuner - Silver

I have been a fan of Panasonic products since my parents bought their first VCR back in the early 1980's and have had several different Panansonic TV's, stereo's DVD players since then. This is the latest addition to a long line.The sound quality is perfectly acceptable for a product in the sub £100 mark. I have this stereo in my conservatory and it is absolutely fine for this environment. I have read comments that the aerial is inadequate, however I have no issues with reception with what was provided. Set up is relatively straight forward, simply a case of unboxing and plugging in. The speaker cable could be a bit longer - I needed to extend one of the cables to be able to reach a shelf around 10 ft away from the main unit.As for the functions the stereo has DAB+, FM, CD and Bluetooth. All work relatively easily and as you would expect although the remote control is small and this make station programming a little tricky. Therefore although you can use memory functions it is easier simply to skip through channels until you find the desired one. Bluetooth is receive only which is great for playing things off an iphone or ipad but a transmission funtion would be a nice addition to enable headphone receptionOne big drawback is the screen size and quality. The screen has 2 brightness settings but in my bright conservatory it is almost impossible to see what it's displaying. In addition the size is small and the lettering is large whcih means when you are skipping through channels you cannot really see what you're skipping by - especially on BBC Channels when you are presented with BBC Radio ... with the actual channel name being hidden.Overall though this is a good system for the price and its failings do not detract from the functions that the product has, they would simply be better additions.

The exact model reviewed is Panasonic SC-PM250BEBS Bluetooth Micro Hi-Fi System with Wireless Technology and DAB Tuner - Silver, there appears to be other versions with different letters on the end. I think the wireless technology refers to Bluetooth.Now 10 or 20 years and even longer ago little hi-fi units or medium-sized hi-fi units were all the rage complete with CD player FM and digital radio tuner with combined amplifier and a pair of speakers. But these days smart speakers and streaming music is taking over. However we have plenty of CDs to play and the Old micro Hi-Fi unit was on its last legs as the CD player was not working, only one channel working and the radio so it was high time for a new one. We didn't require anything hugely powerful or hugely high quality and it has to sit on top of the fridge, quite a tall fridge about five foot six, but there's not a lot of space so it did have to be a micro unit. It wasn't a lot of money and it works quite well but don't expect it to be audiophile quality it isn't. To explain how I judge the unit my main hi-fi units the speakers weigh nearly 100 pounds the interconnecting wires to the speakers are silver plated all of its quite up market and all of it was bought used so it was much cheaper. Now I say that to show you I am a bit of an audio file, well that's funny isn't it, it's got the wrong words. I'm using Google voice recognition, a bit of audiophile is what I am. Anyway this little unit doesn't do a bad job at all. I set the treble on maximum the bass on maximum it also has a D Bass and a surround sound setting which widens the stereo image and both of these settings were applied and you really can hear the difference it makes. Initially I set it up by common sense and got it working, then I referred to the instructions supplied which are basic instructions, you go online for the full instructions using a QR code in the leaflet. I know there are more features I've not yet mastered like storing radio stations with Presets, setting alarms and I think more ways to alter the sound Balance so I'll go online later on. But all of the basic functions have been tried including Bluetooth so I've played music from my phone on it with no problem whatsoever. I tried connecting my phone directly with a lead to the USB port but it said source not supported. I don't understand that it's beyond my comprehension I'm afraid. I listened to a range of music on it from 1950s rock and roll through 60s 70s 80s right up to modern times and ended with the adagio from Mahler's fifth symphony, so a bit of a jumbled up eclectic mixture but it did quite a decent job and it goes quite loud enough for the kitchen easily with no particularly nasty distortion or unpleasant sounds. I did not get listening fatigue it didn't grate on my ears. So it's really very suitable for my purpose and I can definitely recommend it.

I needed to replace my existing Panasonic which I have had for a good 15 yrs. Unfortunately I was unable to get it repaired. After lots of searching this system is as near as possible to my previous one however this was is much lighter and slightly smaller. Its definitely value for money, the sound is quite good with speakers that came with it. That said I kept my existing speakers which are better quality despite them being bought in 1983 lol . With my own speakers it sounds amazing.