I'm Blue da ba dee.... (Panasonic CQ C1123NW)

Member Name: nereesa85

Product:	Panasonic CQ C1123NW
Date:	16/03/07 (448 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's cheap, durable, good sound quality and doesnt skip.

Disadvantages: It wont power more than 4 speakers (Waddya expect for £85???)

Ok stop shouting at me I will stop singing!!! Read on it's safe no more singing involved...promise....

I was looking through the catalogue pages for car stereos back in November. I only wanted the head unit replacing as the old one was robbed by my dad for his Rover, you little monkey daddy! There are so many thousands of different head units in those pages and most of them haven't even been written about. First review bonuses people, get in there!

Anyway I was most disappointed as I had no research behind me and not the foggiest idea of which of the hundreds of head units to buy from the guy at Bits for Cars. Of course every single one came with the usual torrent of praise from him and promises of his famous discount card. Bless his cotton socks he's a right salesman that guy! Anyway I finally decided on this one. Mainly because it's got a blue backlight which matches my blue flashing L.E.D.s in the door speakers. Well sorry guys but colour matching is important in your cars interior design. Also is price. This little baby will set you back a cool £80 from Bits for Cars in Heckmondwike. Off ebay you can get this slightly cheaper including delivery.
But getting it off ebay doesn't get you the exclusive BFC Discount card…Can I get an OOOOO from the readers?! Seriously if you want a discount card Jonny's got about a dozen now, you can have one of those!

I was just looking for a snazzy looking head unit which would use my new 6x9s and door speakers to their fullest capacity. I wanted fairly good quality sound and controls that were uncomplicated as in I can change the track without having to take my eyes off the road and press about a million buttons. I was assured that this little baby would tick all those boxes.

At 45W it's not the most powerful of all units available. In fact it's towards the bottom end of the scale. However, I am not a girl racer or modder. I don't want my car to be standard and boring but I'm not exactly going to be gutted that it's not in the latest Max Power magazine. 45W is enough to use on four speakers. If you're going to deck out the boot and throw an amplifier, sub bass speaker and about 8 6x9's then you can afford summat else! If you're like me and just want to crank the volume up every so often then this is ideal.

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Installation
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I let Jonny install the stereo and speakers for obvious reasons but it did look rather uncomplicated. He just pulled out the actual stereo back box thingy and stuck on a frame that came in the head unit's box. Then you just power up obviously and stick on your head unit. You can't actually put the head unit on backwards or upside down my mistake because it won't fit. No worries there.

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How is it to use?
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Set up is a little more complicated but not much more difficult. It tunes itself in and presets itself to all local radio stations which has to be the best thing about it! Altering the bass, treble and such to suit your speakers is also pretty simple. You just press the volume button to gain access to the different options and twist it to increase or decrease that level as appropriate. Easy. So easy in fact that although I didn't watch Jonny customise it for me or read the instructions, I managed to set up the sound to my own tastes all on my own and it didn't take me longer than 10 minutes.

The buttons are all clearly marked and self explanatory. The display itself is well lit and the text is clear and easy to see at a glance. After two or so weeks of driving to and from work 20mins each way, I could operate the unit without taking my eyes off the road. Each button that you usually want is very distinguishable from other buttons on the unit and there is enough space between the buttons to prevent accidentally pressing the pause button when you wanted to press the skip button!

The CD's never skip, even going through Roberttown which is like pothole heaven! It plays copied and original CDs with the same quality there is no difference in the sound. Listening to the radio (if you must) is also a pleasure. You can tune into the usual FM, LW radio stations. The unit will find and programme 18 FM stations and 6LW stations.

The unit itself is quite impressive looking. Its blue coloured display is attractive and it looks as uncomplicated as it sounds. Although it's got a protective carry case included, it does tend to take some stick from me. I've already dropped it twice and my nails do scratch the buttons on my phone so I would have expected there to be some damage to my head unit. One close inspection later and I'm happy to report that it still looks new. Its almost 4 months old and doesn't have any scratches, chips dents and it works as it should do. No problems at all.

To sum it up this a great buy for somebody like me who just doesn't want the original stereo. It's uncomplicated and cheap to buy without losing out on quality or appearance. 5 stars it ticks all the boxes and is more durable than I would have expected for the price I paid.

Now all of you go out and buy a new head unit so we can fill those empty catalogue pages!!! Thanks for the read muchly appreciated.

Summary: Cheap but great quality very easy to use and good looking.

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