Hi Guys,
I've always had a thing for a nice, quality 3 piece unit. My Hitachi TRK-9300W and 9140E are IMHO fine examples of heavy build quality 3 pieces and both see regular use both indoors and outdoors.
Well I've just picked another box!
I can't help myself!! 
This one was another local Ebay find.
Introducing my Panasonic RX-DT680. Now I normally have very poor luck with Ebay, always buying boxes that are not as described.......
Well my luck hasn't changed!!
Over the phone the box worked perfectly and was in good condition. On inspection, I found out the thing had fallen off a shelf at some stage resulting in both speakers boxes sustaining cracks and broken internal screw posts.
It did sound OK though and the CD player etc worked ok. A working remote was included too so for $50 I decided to take it on.
After getting it home, I opened up the speaker boxes to find bits of broken plastic in urgent need of repair! Panasonic really did make these things lightweight as the plastic is super thin and cheesy. 
No sound deadening either!
Anyway, after repairing the speaker boxes to a good standard, I fire it up............
Unfortunately, after inserting 10 D cells, it wouldn't power up!
The 4 AAs that maintain the memory settings had also leaked over the terminals too.
After a quick clean up etc, the memory functions are now working fine. The AC switch on the back was cruded up and after a clean, DC operations are now OK.
What can I say about the sound? Well, it does have nice bass and highs and sounds better than my other 3 piece units
. The remote works well with the cool motorised volume knob and other functions. The tape decks also work well. No LINE IN though is disappointing. 'CD OUT' - now that's handy! 
Now you might be asking why aren't I sounding super enthusiastic about this beast. Why aren't there any of these:
in this thread?
BUILD QUALITY!!!!
The main unit casing, the handle, pretty much everything on this thing feels thin, thin, thin. it feels very fragile. The handle hasn't a particularly solid in feel either.
To be fair, I don't think Panasonic really intended this thing to be taken outdoors. It just doesn't have the tank-like build of late 70s/early 80s units. It is much lighter weight too despite it's extra size and features.
The speaker boxes for example on the Panasonic weigh 1.6kgs. The Hitachi 9140E speaker boxes weigh 2.2kgs. You can feel and hear the difference too. Even the way the speaker boxes attach on the more modern Panasonic feels a little cheap and flimsy:
Size comparison:
Plastic on plastic slide style attachment:
Compared with metal on metal connections:
Panasonic RX-DT680 dry weight:
Hitachi 9140E dry weight:
Now don't get me wrong, the Panasonic sounds better than either Hitachi. And to many, that's enough to consider it a vastly superior unit. I do love the way it sounds. Up to about 50% the bass and treble are awesome!
But for me, build quality is as important for regular indoor/outdoor use.
Peace,
James....
I've always had a thing for a nice, quality 3 piece unit. My Hitachi TRK-9300W and 9140E are IMHO fine examples of heavy build quality 3 pieces and both see regular use both indoors and outdoors.
Well I've just picked another box!
I can't help myself!! This one was another local Ebay find.
Introducing my Panasonic RX-DT680. Now I normally have very poor luck with Ebay, always buying boxes that are not as described.......
Well my luck hasn't changed!!
Over the phone the box worked perfectly and was in good condition. On inspection, I found out the thing had fallen off a shelf at some stage resulting in both speakers boxes sustaining cracks and broken internal screw posts. It did sound OK though and the CD player etc worked ok. A working remote was included too so for $50 I decided to take it on.
After getting it home, I opened up the speaker boxes to find bits of broken plastic in urgent need of repair!
Panasonic really did make these things lightweight as the plastic is super thin and cheesy. No sound deadening either!Anyway, after repairing the speaker boxes to a good standard, I fire it up............
Unfortunately, after inserting 10 D cells, it wouldn't power up!
The 4 AAs that maintain the memory settings had also leaked over the terminals too.After a quick clean up etc, the memory functions are now working fine. The AC switch on the back was cruded up and after a clean, DC operations are now OK.
What can I say about the sound? Well, it does have nice bass and highs and sounds better than my other 3 piece units
. The remote works well with the cool motorised volume knob and other functions. The tape decks also work well. No LINE IN though is disappointing. 'CD OUT' - now that's handy! Now you might be asking why aren't I sounding super enthusiastic about this beast. Why aren't there any of these:
in this thread? BUILD QUALITY!!!! The main unit casing, the handle, pretty much everything on this thing feels thin, thin, thin. it feels very fragile. The handle hasn't a particularly solid in feel either.
To be fair, I don't think Panasonic really intended this thing to be taken outdoors. It just doesn't have the tank-like build of late 70s/early 80s units. It is much lighter weight too despite it's extra size and features.
The speaker boxes for example on the Panasonic weigh 1.6kgs. The Hitachi 9140E speaker boxes weigh 2.2kgs. You can feel and hear the difference too. Even the way the speaker boxes attach on the more modern Panasonic feels a little cheap and flimsy:
Size comparison:
Plastic on plastic slide style attachment:
Compared with metal on metal connections:
Panasonic RX-DT680 dry weight:
Hitachi 9140E dry weight:
Now don't get me wrong, the Panasonic sounds better than either Hitachi.
And to many, that's enough to consider it a vastly superior unit. I do love the way it sounds. Up to about 50% the bass and treble are awesome! But for me, build quality is as important for regular indoor/outdoor use.
Peace,
James....
