Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After researching Panasonic's line of compact stereo systems on the web for a few days, I decided to pick one up. Upon returning home from the store I realized the model I had bought was the SC-HC27, not SC-HC25 as was on display on the shelf. At first I thought "Hey, it's a newer model obviously, if anything it's better". Man, was I wrong!!! The SC-HC27 is the "low end" model with 10 watt speakers, and yes, I was well aware when I purchased it. In fact, the sound output is really the very least of my disappointment with this unit. What really ticked me off about it is how Panasonic dramatically cheapened the 27 as opposed to the 25 or the 20. It's an over-all lousy unit compared to those previous models. So what makes the 27 lousy in comparison? Let's take a closer look at what Panasonic stripped from the new unit, shall we? - AM radio support - CDR/RW, and MP3 disc playback - Support for iPod mini, iPod Nano 1st gen, iPod 4th gen, and iPod 5th gen (video iPod) - AUX input All of this is stripped from the 27 model, while the MSRP is left basically the same. So Panasonic cuts corners, and consumers get the shaft. This is the oldest trick in the book, make a lousy low end model that offers basically nothing for the money and it will entice the consumer to pay extra for the bigger one. In other words, this is not a good value at all and they know it. I wanted this mostly to play along with using my 5th gen iPod video and my CDs, but there's no way I can even use my iPod at all. So I'm going to have to return this dumbed down version, and maybe see if I can get a hold of the older model, or else go with another brand all together. For a low end compact stereo, I cannot recommend the HC27, especially knowing what the previous model offered.