- High Quality Sound and High Power with 2-Way 4-Speaker and Big Size Speaker Box - 280 W[P.M.P.O]
- Music Port on Front Panel for Digital Audio Player Playback
- Natural Surround & High Quality Sound with MP3 Re-Master & Sound Virtualizer
- Plays CD, CD-R/RW and MP3, CD AM/FM radio Cassette Recorder,
- AC 110V to 240V for Worldwide Use. Comes with Remote
In the "old days" you'd had to go to an import store or a military exchange to get it. This is one of those units. It comes with the outlet adapter from the round pins to the flat blades and has the overseas voltage choice as well. This is a very nice portable, and I've had more than my share of stereo equipment and portables over the decades. This is a no nonsense portable. I've bought several Sony boxes in the past for friends and relatives.
This is older school, high wattage, 2-way vintage. The manual shows 10W x 2 RMS max for this "55" model and the 4W max for a "50" model, a model lower, so Amazon has been cutting this product short in its errored description.
This is a fine portable for the money. The casette player even has a separate dampened, hideaway door (dust) cover that hides the buttons on the top so that you don't even see them.
The plastic is thick and the buttons are larger and of a better grade and tactile feel than the typical cheapos straight out of China.
The CD drawer is on the bottom. Smooth as it is!
The remote is full sized and high quality and includes everything you could ask. Even has an input level control on the remote for the line in jack! It has a variable OFF sleep timer, clock, and alarm. It has different modes of choice in how to display MP3 tags, info, etc.
It has a place for four AA cells for memory backup underneath the main power 8xC cells. It will keep your settings, stations, time, etc. unplugged by using its four AAs!
It's manufactured in Indonesia and if you know anything about electronics, especially radio equipment, Indonesia was always one of the better places such products were manufactured.
This is what I'd say is an Ivy League grade portable to be appreciated more by the adults in a quiet setting of a fine room, and not so much a kids airbox, distortion box. A BMW or Audi, and not a Dodge higher end.
It's not cosmetically embarrasing full of chrome and multi-colored plastic junk, fake allen head screws, and lights it's all business.
It has a clear, quality, FT backlit, orange display with solid segments not dot matrix. It seems to have an auto loudness feature that you can tell fades out as you get the volume up high. It goes from a very rich sound at moderate levels to more midrange as it nears the top which is how outdoor systems sound so loud. A narrower sound, but all the power is concentrated there. No distortion, just gets loud at the top and a little narrower for projection say outdoors, etc.
At lower to moderate levels it is a full, but tight, Hi-Fi sound which a single, 1-way speaker, lower powered box just doesn't achieve. It's nothing like a radio sound. Very much the same as a dedicated, small, quality, shelf system with separate bass and treble, which by the way is also on the remote, plus 5 EQ settings.
It's a compact, dense, low distortion, low noise, true Hi-Fi system that is not too big and bulky, and can be carried by its fold away handle.
Don't let the 3.125" woofers scare you away. There are optimal size cones that can be efficiently controlled at given power levels. A higher throw, edge rolled, 3.125" woofer running on a 10W amplifier with a separate ceramic tweeter compared to a Sony 4" full ranger running on 2-2.3W.
Overall frequency response of the casette player is given in the manual as 50-12KHz.
Power consumption is given in the manual as 29 watts. Weight is 4.6 Kg with batteries (10.14 lbs.).
This box is built rugged enough. It has the metal screens on both sides covering the speakers which are recessed as well.
I was shooting for a quality older school box with MP3 capability. I got everything I was hoping for.
Plays MP3s off my thumb drive perfectly. Have yet to try MP3s on CD, but I'm sure it will do great.
Quite pleased with it!
If you're in the market for something rarer and finer quality than run-of-the-mill, big box junkers, this is one to consider.
Take it on your international travels as well, and it will fit in a suitcase with room to spare!
If out of stock here you can purchase atWell beyond a mere "boom box," this is a compact stereo system to truly appreciate. It can run off of an included AC cord or 8 C-size batteries. Have had mine a year now and it is pretty perfect.
To turn on, push the AM/FM button. To turn off, push TAPE/OFF.
In place of a lot of bulky equipment, I have always let boomboxes be my only stereo system, by connecting powered speakers through the headphone jack, just to let you know that you have that versatility if you want (and if you can still find the powered speakers for Walkmen and boomboxes.) But don't worry, the sound quality on this unit is truly excellent "as-is."
There are five equalizer presets including "heavy" (more bass), "soft" which is helpful for late-night listening, "clear," "vocal," and "off." You can fine-tune these by independently setting both the bass and the treble (selecting from eight settings for each.) So, eg., if "heavy" is a little too heavy, set the bass a notch or two lighter.
The virtualizer feature projects sound, and, amazingly, there is a "re-master" feature which reproduces the frequencies lost during recording.
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AM-FM RADIO:
First, you will want to get four fresh AA batteries and install them in the player otherwise a power interruption deletes radio presets. And install batteries in the remote.
There are 16 presets each for AM and FM. Setting them is like setting a car radio, with one extra step.
Start by tuning to the lowest radio frequency. On the remote, hold the forward arrow button down for a second and it finds the first station. Say you want a preset there; press "program"; then the number buttons to assign a number to it (eg., press #1) and that is your preset. Push the forward button to find the next station you want; press "program" then the number buttons (eg., #2) and that's all there is to it.
Alternatively, you can use the "auto preset" button and presets for the strongest stations in your area will automatically be set.
To listen to your favorite station press its number on the remote's keypad.
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CD'S:
For CD's, you can program the order of tracks, omit tracks, etc.
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USB FLASH DRIVE:
Love the port for a USB flash drive to play (MP3 only) music from it. You can use up to an 8GB; if you don't have one, they are only about $12.00 at WalMart. Not only can you get a gazillion songs on one 8GB flash drive, YOU are in control of which songs are there. My most sincere thanks to whoever invented this system.
There are a couple of ways to get music onto the flash:
1) Synchronizing with computer
You want to choose this method if you use playlists that let you set the order songs play in, such as in Windows Media Player. Unfortunately there is no guarantee these playlists will be followed. However, I've seen reviews for several MP3 players where they either don't have playlists, are cumbersome to setup, or don't follow them. Reading reviews, a lot of people like playlists, so this is an area manufacturers may want to develop.
On the Panasonic, have found that about 70% of the playlist order will be followed, if you sync correctly with Media Player.
To get started, open computer and Windows Media Player; insert flash into the USB port and Media Player will recognize it. Click the arrow under "sync" and if you want playlists, choose which ones. Click to start; wait until it says it is done, then read the report to see if some files were not added. You can re-sync or manually add these.
2) Direct copy and paste method
In this method, you don't bother with Media Player; you insert the flash drive into the computer's USB; open My Computer; open the flash drive; open your Music folder; and just copy the files just the music files not the folders and sub-folders! into the flash drive window as you would any other window.
I learned one thing the hard way. My unit is a year old the USB has always played beautifully, so imagine my surprise when only a few of the songs would play recently! I felt horrible, but figured I can still use the boombox for my CD's, cassette tapes, and radio. But truly, I was brokenhearted. Lo and behold, it wasn't broken.
In popping the flash into the computer, I saw it contained all music FOLDERS instead of the music FILES as before. In adding recently purchased music to the flash, I had mistakenly changed all the music on the flash drive as they are on the computer. As soon as I removed all the folders and sub-folders, leaving just the songs on the flash, now the music plays perfectly again. Whew!
Even if you turn off the player and turn it on a week later, it remembers where it was on the USB drive and takes up on that song; you know when it has gone through all the music, as it stops and waits for you to hit "USB" again.
*****
Digital Rights Issues:
Some of my music was ripped from CD's I own. In Media Player, I changed the format to MP3, easy to do. The rest of my music was downloaded from Amazon. Have had NO problems with digital rights, which is appreciated, as the music was paid for.
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Adding Auto Volume Leveling to Music on USB Flash Drive:
When listening to music, do you ever find that one song will be too quiet so you turn it up, then the next will be too loud, so you have to turn it down again.
Adjusting music volume is called "normalizing." This makes the overall volume sound similar from song to song without changing the high's and low's inside the songs. Windows Media Player has Volume Leveling available but these features don't transfer to your flash drive.
If you are somewhat "tech savvy," (you needn't be a sound engineer) you can use a free program called MP3Gain.
Start by Googling MP3 Gain for the You Tube demo videos and the website of the product. Get a sense of it and how comfortable you feel in trying it.
If you get this product, please be sure to READ the Help file first; particularly, you want to be sure it is set so that the changes are reversible if you don't like them. And backup your music beforehand.
You can put music on the flash then level it, or you can level your My Music folder on computer before copying to the flash.
With other programs, normalizing re-encodes your music, which changes it slightly. However, MP3Gain makes a point of not re-encoding.
I used MP3Gain following the above advice and could not be happier with the results. If you like the program, please make a small contribution to the author.
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MP3 PLAYER:
The port for an MP3 player is a 3.5mm round port which would connect from the headphone port of the MP3 player. I don't have an MP3 player, has anyone used theirs with this boombox, how does it work, is it more functional than the USB flash method?
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CASSETTE PLAYER/RECORDER:
If, like me, you have a collection of cassette tapes, it is getting hard to find players for them anymore. Besides playing your cassettes, you can use this player to convert your tapes to MP3 format on your computer for the cost of an inexpensive 1/8" (3.5MM) male and male cable. These come in different lengths eg, 3, 5 or 7 feet. Order it through Amazon or get at Radio Shack, etc. Connect one end to your boombox audio out (earphone) port, and connect the other end to your computer's line-in (light blue) port. Hint: your boombox is powerful; keep the volume down low to begin with.
Download the free Audacity software and the Lame plugin. Now use Google to find the many videos on how to use Audacity. It does look intimidating at first, but turns out it isn't that difficult. Once you get your tape programs in MP3 format, you can copy them to your flash drive or any portable MP3 player.
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OTHER FEATURES:
Alarm clock, for those using the unit as a bedside stereo.
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If you have read this far, I thank you for reading, and hope this has been of some help to you. Enjoy the music!I bought this Panasonic player for my husband based on researching many many products to play both AM/FM Radio, CAN Record, Casette, CD, port of iTunes from iPod. The reviews on this Panasonic D55 were all PRO, no CONs.
Also...Custom Service from VCT Electronics is fast, knowledgeable, helpful...they phoned me to help 'troubleshoot'.
I suspected I was doing something wrong, I was, and it was a simple 'fix'.
This unit is capable of using both 110 V and 220V.
The plug comes with BOTH configurations.
IMPORTANT: The factory presets the voltage based on the delivery address. But there is no note enclosed stating this fact. Customer Service told me this at the time of the call.
I read and re-read and followed the printed instructions. It states to use a screwdriver to rotate a recessed turn-screw to point to the proper voltage.
Just in case, you need to know this CLARIFICATION:
The markings on the plastic are vague as to where to line up the turnscrew.
Look for the tiny 'deformed' arrow next to the imprinted voltage...
Align the turnscrew to that tiny arrow, not the printed numbers eg.110V.
Here is the IMPORTANT PART:
The Factory ALREADY presets the voltage based on the delivery address. However, there is NO NOTE enclosed stating this fact.
There was NO NEED for me to set the voltage...in so doing, I misaligned the turn screw to Miss the Mark.
The Customer Service Representative explained this to me during the 'troubleshoot' phone call.
She also said that many customers have had this same incident...
VCT Electronics is going to let Panasonic Corp. know to enclose a note telling the purchaser that the voltage has already been set for them and therefore the instructions on this point can be 'skipped'.
There is NO "ON SWITCH"...per se.
The function simply turns on when the function button is pushed.
Example: AM/FM button...push it and the radio function lights up in the digital window.
By the way, there are 16 PRESETS for each AM and FM mode.
To TURN OFF any function:
Push the TAPE/OFF button in the upper left fact of the unit.
The remote is a convenient function.
Now that the preliminary set up is done, it is a complete pleasure to listen to this unit.
It plays with far greater quality than what these small speakers would be expected to put out.
Hope this is helpful.This is a great little boombox that you can listen to just about any audio source with. The sound quality is quite astounding for such a small unit (and for such small speakers). I like having the ability to adjust bass and treble separately from the preset EQ settings. This stereo has a great CD player. It plays CDs very well and they sound really nice on this system. Aesthetically, the unit is very handsome looking. It is also quite professional-looking and has that "look" of a strictly-business type of audio system. I wish the LCD display on the stereo was a little bigger, though. Like others have stated in their reviews, the factory pre-sets the voltage selector to the country the unit is shipped to. I didn't have to mess with anything or go out and buy a plug converter. The converter is already on the cord. I have a couple of complaints, though. Even though I do not listen to tapes and don't think I will ever need the tape player, I found that the tape player in the unit was defective. The tape door will not stay closed for some reason. I guess the latch is misaligned or something because the tape door just stays popped up. I had to put a piece of tape on it to keep it closed. It just irritates me that I got a defective unit, even though the "defects" are only confined to the tape player. Oh well... One other complaint I have is with the radio tuner. It's just not very sensitive, especially on the FM band. I was hoping that this stereo would have a pretty good tuner in it since it was apparently manufactured in Indonesia, and Indonesia typically manufactures high-quality electronics, especially radio tuners. I don't know, maybe I'm just being a little too picky. But it just doesn't pick up stations very well. It can't even pick up some of my local stations here that I am only 7-15 miles from! Next time, Panasonic, please include a better tuner in the next boombox you come out with. Other than this, everything works fantastic, and the sound quality is great!
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