Review by J.R. Fisher
Sporting two bamboo cone speakers with woofers and Piezo tweeters, Panasonic’s SC-HC55 truly offers some of the best sound quality found on a finely contoured, compact audio system. Audio selections include an iPod/iPhone dock, Bluetooth wireless capability, XM Radio support, FM/AM radio, and oddly enough, a CD player. In other words, it pretty much does everything. The built-in dock serves as a charger for most compatible iDevices, plus the Internet radio offers hundreds of stations that you can preset to your liking.
(FYI: For internet radio via your IPhone or iPod you will have to download a vTuner app or one of the free internet streaming radio apps available.)
One of the system’s best features comes courtesy of wireless streaming, granting users the opportunity to answer incoming calls from the speakers when connected to any Bluetooth-enabled smartphone. Yes, you can surround sound all conversations, all while your playlist is put on pause until the call ends. While the SC-HC55 may be short on inputs, it does feature an HDMI output for those that looking to mirror audio content onto their HDTVs. Wow.
Now, we all know looks are important. And design wise, Panasonic’s audio dock is a sleek system. But all of its musical charm is hidden behind a smoked glass door, which opens with a single swipe of the hand, over the touch-free sensor door—revealing the docking station and CD player. It’s a unique touch.
With all its audio facets, would we be pushing it by claiming we still enjoy a multidisc CD changer? Not really. There are still a small group of us that rock CDs, and for those who still have their catalog, and enjoy the digital age of multitouch media devices, you got the best of both worlds with Panasonic’s latest. So cheers to the music lover in you.
