The Panasonic SC-PM700 is an all-in-one stereo unit with two speakers that is perfect for small rooms, apartments or offices. This small stereo unit packs a ton of features for its size, with a CD player, Bluetooth connectivity, USB, and an FM tuner. The two speakers are two way with a 4” woofer and a tweeter.
Once you removed the SC-PM700 and it’s two speakers from the packaging, you find two speakers with connected wires, instruction manual, remote control, and an FM antenna. The Panasonic SC-PM700 control unit is very compact and doesn’t take up a lot of room.
Setup is very simple, connect the two speakers to the speaker terminals on the back of the Panasonic SC-PM700 and the FM antenna, set the time and date on the control unit and you’re off and running.
Using the different inputs for your music is very simple. You have your choice of FM radio, CD player, USB-A or Bluetooth to play your music through. All are very convenient to use and with the included remote you can change inputs, raise or lower your volume, skip the track forwards or backwards, dim the display, change and mute the sound.
The sound quality is good for smaller rooms or offices but lacks the lower end bass for larger rooms. You can use the bass and treble controls to tailor your sound or the preset eq settings. The overall quality of the sound is bigger than the Panasonic SC-PM700 small size would lead you to expect.
This is a very good compact three-piece stereo system that would be right at home in a dorm room or home office and would fill it with satisfying sound.

I have a moving box full of CDs sitting in the basement; sad, lonely, collecting dust. So, picking up the Panasonic 80W Stereo system was a great reason to break them out and introduce my teenagers to all the great, and not so great, bands from the ’90s.
In the box is the center console, left & right speakers, remote, speaker wire (hard wired into each speaker), antenna wire, and instructions. Setup is plug and play, connect each speaker to the center output, plug in the antenna (only required for FM radio reception), and plug in to power. The build offers a wide variety of setup, there is ~4′ of speaker wire per speaker, so you can have up to an 8′ spread between speakers or keep them consolidated on either side of the control console. The speakers are 9″ tall and ~5.75″ wide, plus the center console at 4″ x 8″, the overall footprint is minimal for the 80W output, but can fill a large area with a rich sound profile.
There are four source options: FM radio, Bluetooth, CD, or USB. You will need to connect the antenna for FM radio, however I found that you didn’t really need to do much else, such as run the wire in any specific configuration to get good reception. My teenager decided to claim the stereo as his own, and put on top of his dresser. He has it set up such that the FM antenna is plugged in, with the wire bundle laying behind the console, and picks up all the stations available in the area.
To control the stereo you can either use the enclosed remote, which allows you to dim the display, control input, volume, play / pause, skip / repeat, and setup, which allows for customized options such as save EQ settings, sleep timer, and auto off. The other option is using the buttons / dials on the console. On the console, there are dials for bass and treble and buttons for play/pause, skip / reverse, source, volume, and cd tray open / close. There is also a headphone jack on the front if needed.
The build is nice, the footprint is minimal, with the console feeling solid, and the CD tray having a smooth open / close. All knobs and buttons feel smooth, and give the impression that they will likely outlast your CD collection. The speakers are sleek, particle board backed, with stained black sides, and black mesh fabric covering. The build design is minimalistic and blends in well.
The overall output of the stereo is fantastic for an 80W bookcase setup. It easily fills a 14’x14′ room with rich audio, regardless of source. Note that prior to the teen claiming it for his own, I had intended this for use in my unfinished basement, where the speakers easily filled up the 2200 sq ft of workspace. After a week of use, I find that I prefer the audio quality from CD or radio over Bluetooth, as the sound needs a bit more volume when using Bluetooth. As I’ve introduced the teens to all the 90s hits from various genres, the depth and range of this stereo continues to surprise me. If you’re space constrained and looking for a standard stereo output, this is absolutely the way to go. The source and sound options offer a wide range of sound profiles as well as ease of use. I recommend for bedroom / apartment sound systems where space is limited, and multi channel is not needed.

Being a person of a certain age, I must admit what I wanted this system for was to play CDs from my collection without resorting to my computer or game console. The days of my stand-alone CD player connected to a bulky receiver are long past. This system is compact enough to tuck into an office or similar room without being too obtrusive. I did that myself. I could also see it as a good size to perch on top of a refrigerator or some cabinetry to use as a kitchen radio.
The setup process was extremely simple and you don’t need any special skills to connect the power cable and color coded speaker wires. There is also an FM antenna in the box, and like every antenna I have received with any non-portable radio I think I have ever got, it’s pretty terrible- just a bit of wire that can be connected to theoretically grab some FM radio signals. I played with it briefly and quickly discarded it as useless. A better antenna can be connected to the radio’s antenna connection without some weird or proprietary connector which I have encountered before. I was excited (it is really ridiculous to be excited about these things) to discover that this radio uses an actual pop-out type tray for the CDs. This felt both somewhat nostalgic and less upsetting than the players that just suck the CD in with no hope of retrieval if there is a problem. The headphone jack is of the 3.5mm type, and perfectly fine for this type device, but I found myself wishing that it was a quarter inch headphone jack so that I could connect a better set of cans I own without resorting to an adapter.
This system consists of the core “radio” and its two wire connected speakers. The design is fairly minimalist and is the same basic thing I have seen in this class of “Bookshelf” stereos for years now. Overall, I would say that the overall build quality feels good and not cheap or plasticky. I did notice that there are some issues with the finish on one of the speaker along the top front, and therefore easily noticeable. Though fairly compact, it is not the smallest such radio I have encountered. For years I had a stereo that included 2 cassette tape trays, a CD player, wire connected speakers (and a telescoping, adjustable antenna) that was about the same footprint, just a bit taller. The speaker wires are long enough for most scenarios I would imagine this stereo would be used. The selection of buttons and the layout are pretty straightforward, with operation and adjustment pretty simple for anyone that has run a radio/receiver previously. Like so many devices, the remote control is really an essential component as it is the best way to control the interface. One nice thing was the inclusion of physical knobs for bass and treble adjustment, rather than having to search through a menu of options. The display is simple, but large and easy to see/read.
Sound quality from this system is acceptable for background music or casual listening, but not outstanding. Out of the box the default sound settings were very sharp/thin and too skewed to the treble side for my taste. I typically listen to my music with studio monitor style headphones with everything set right down the middle, so I am not looking for muddy throbbing base. Still, it took some tweaking to get the sound to where I felt it had some of the warmth I was missing. Once that was done with one CD it remained consistent throughout my testing, so it was definitely the sound system not the recording. Pushing the volume up the speakers put out an acceptable level of sound and I was fairly impressed at how loud they went without distortion. Once I had the tones to my liking, the speakers did a pretty good job of filling the room with sound.
After testing the CD player portion, I switched over to Bluetooth to test. Connecting my phone and tablet to the stereo was simple and worked fine. I did find myself wishing that the system had at least one set of RCA inputs, or at the very least an auxiliary input 3.5mm jack. This to me was the biggest limitation of the design. I figure it’s both a cost-cutting move and one based on the fact that most people wouldn’t miss it. I’m old school and I missed being able to direct connect a playback device for quick and easy use or to improve on the sound you can get from a smart speaker/device. The design does include a USB port, and the manual states that it can play MP3s however when I plugged in a USB flash drive that I use in my vehicle for music playback, the display says “unsupported device”. Also, a puzzling choice is to have the USB port located on the back of the stereo where it is extremely inconvenient to get at if you wish to switch it out or remove it for any reason. It says that the port provides power so it is probably just going to be plugged into a USB powered accent light.
Overall, for me this stereo is fine for the location that I am using it. Audio quality is good, operation is simple and so far, the CD player is working flawlessly. I think that for the retail price of this radio it would have been nice to have one physical audio input such as a 3.5mm aux or stereo RCAs. I’m not sure why the USB playback wouldn’t work for me as it is a device I regularly use plugged into my vehicle. I also would like to have a better antenna either built into the core stereo or included as a plug-on option. It may seem like a little thing, and trust me, I see the flimsy wire style included with just about every audio receiver capable of pulling in over the air programming these days. Hilariously, the manual has a diagram showing how to put up the antenna wire with a piece of adhesive tape- not supplied. Still, having a proper antenna for a unit like this just makes it more usable for the same types of people (like me!) that still listen to CDs AND broadcast radio.
Overall, I gave this 4 stars and can recommend it to someone looking for this type of radio, but I feel like it’s really a 3.5. For the price, I would personally like to see a little more flexibility and functionality. Within its limitations the sound quality was quite good from the included speakers, but I have a set of self powered bookshelf speakers in use elsewhere in my home that sound just as good, with more input options, so the real benefit from this stereo is the integral CD player.

I have a few hundred CDs in my basement that haven’t been touched in years. Streaming has made them useless to me in recent history, until now! First of all, Panasonic is a brand that hasn’t had a huge presence like in the past but I am thrilled to see them make a CD system again!
Unboxing:
This Panasonic system was very well packaged, no damage from shipping. The speaker wires were folded, not rolled. Not a big deal but you’ll want to unfold them rather than pulling them out. I like that it comes with a remote, though it seemed a bit odd that there wasn’t a battery (AA) included, again – no big deal.
Setup:
Setting the system up was simple. The speaker wires are color-coded so it’s easy for most people to figure out what goes where without reading the suggestions. The system has four playing modes – CD, Radio, USB, and Bluetooth. Connecting to the Bluetooth was quick and easy as well. This Panasonic system has six buttons on the front – Power, play/pause, skip back, skip forward, modes, and CD eject. It has… a volume knob! I miss and love knobs for raising and lowering the volume. Buttons just don’t feel as good. I liken it to hanging up a cell phone by snapping it closed back when cell phones were used fo calling people. It also has knobs to adjust the bass and treble.
Playback:
CD playback is what you’d expect. The screen shows the track number and time elapsed. I do wish the screen could show the track number the whole time but it goes away after a couple seconds.
Bluetooth playback is seamless. You can skip tracks and change the volume on the unit itself, on the remote, or on your phone (or other music device.)
The sound is very good. I’d rate it 8 out of 10. The bass is not heavy, even with the bass knob all the way up. Clarity is very good though and no feedback or anything is heard through the speakers.
If I could change a couple things it would be the following:
As I mentioned, allow the screen to show the track number and time elapsed throughout playback.
I would also like to see a small amount of memory added so the system will remember what track you were on if you pause for a bit and it times out and turns off.
Lastly, the time out I mentioned, happens too soon. I pause it and walk downstairs to make a cup of coffee and come back up to find it’s timed out and powered off. It comes back up quickly but if you’re playing a CD you have to try to remember where you were at. Bluetooth, of course, picks right up where you left off. I’d like to see the time out period to be much longer.
Overall I have really enjoyed having the Panasonic CD system in my office. I really forgot the simple pleasure of hitting that eject button and popping a CD in there. It also brought back the joy of listening to an entire album at a time. PLus I’ve listened to bands and songs I hadn’t in years.
The system looks great, has very good sound and I am happy to have it!