success - 2008-12-05 15:05
I'm deffinitely a National Panasonic "fan".
But I have four JVC, and I most tell no one had dissapointed me.
When I picked this little BBX I thought that I had made a mistake ... this BBX won't sound too much .. and lot of plastic sound was expected.
But it had suprised me heavily.
Output power look endless by its size ... no plastic sound. It's very clear and realistic.
No much bass ... you know .. the unit has very little speakers ... but deffinitely outperfoms systems with bigger speakers.
Deck
That unit has a detachable deck. It works as a walkman with only two AA cells. That's fine. I'm not a walkman specialist, but I remeber many vintage walkmans running on four cells.
Walkman quality is excelent. Nice design (love the red inside), heavy mechanism, true metal capability, dolby, tape counter and of course recording capability.
The doesnt have full stop, only for play. That's really a problem if you forget it in REW or FWD a long time.
It has a built in microphone and a mic jack.
Of course it has line in and out, but trough an strange connector that match with the one in the main system. So we can say that it's a cassette deck.
Pause control is electronic (motor off). That makes sense in a portable equipment (we don't want the motor running in pause wasting battery)
Good recording quality, even in metal with AC erase (no permanent magnet).
The deck has the music scan feature, but only when it's installed in the main system.
I gueed that music scan eats too much power, so it isn't intended for battery.
Amplifier
No real data about power output for this system, but as power consuption is 16W, 4x2 or even 5x2 makes sense and playing loud it will reach this without effort.
Features line-in, bass, treble and a large volume slider (nice)
Turner
Nice turner, altough the scale is very short, the turner section works PERFECT and tunning any station is really easy. Also the tunning won't drift once it's tuned.
It has four band and stereo/mono selector.
Speakers
Superb performance and excellent power handling by it's size.
For me the best point of the component.Each speaker has a bay to keep the batteries (one half in one speaker and other half in the other). Because of this, speaker conection has four wires. It isnt't a biamped Panasonic
... two are for sound and the other for power.
Each speaker is detachable. When they are hoocked to the main unit, the use a bay connector (like the deck).
When they are removed, the connect to the main unit using a four wire ribon cable (see third photo).
The handle cant be pulled back as any BBX, but it can be released and removed (a bit dangerous, if you don't lock the handle very well you will drop your PC 100 ..)
Conclusion
Excellent design. Plenty of power, nice built quality and good deck that is even great while walkman.
System
Deck ( walkman)
Components and speaker rear ...
Pedro
Thanks for the review. And that info about the handle is way important on any component set.
Great review. I have one of these too,same color as yours,it's a neat little unit for sure.
Saw one of these at agent's place: quality.
I know it's blasphemy of the highest order, but I'd like to see one of these modified to have an iPod dock in place of the walkman...
No blasphemy at all until you made permanent changes and loose tape funcionality.
I love changing belts and tires
true.
If the connector still worked for the walkman , but you could plug an iPod dock in it's place...
COOL
quote:
Originally posted by isolator42:
Saw one of these at agent's place: quality.
I know it's blasphemy of the highest order, but I'd like to see one of these modified to have an iPod dock in place of the walkman...
I have a $0.99 junker I bought without the walkman.... I will see what I can do with it. It sounds like an interesting idea...
quote:
Originally posted by SUCCESS:
Amplifier
No real data about power output for this system, but as power consuption is 16W, 4x2 or even 5x2 makes sense and playing loud it will reach this without effort.
Pedro
Excellent review SUCCESS! The PC-M100 is a real solid performer.
Speaker cabinet label indicates speakers are rated 3w nominal, 6w max. The manual specs. state amplifier output max. 10w (5w + 5w), music power 12w (6w + 6w), 3.2 ohms AC.
