I've had a few National Panasonics, not a lot mind, but a few, and to be brutally honest I've not REALLY loved any of them. Yes, even the 5700. Sure she's lovely but she just never clicked with me on a sonic level. There are a very short list of Nationals left on my neeeds list, all are the upside down models.
So with a little bit of trepidation I plonked down some of my hard earned yen on an RX-7000. This was really my last throw of the dice with actually paying a decent amount for a 'big' National as I figured if this one let me down I'd just stick to cheap domestic models I'm sure I will eventually come across.
About $330 dollars later I get my RX-7000. Yahoo.jp is even more of a crap shoot than ebay, so you really need to prepare yourself for things not turning out as you wish, especially with their crummy little pictures and lack of any kind of useful description. First thing I noticed was her drop dead gorgeous design. The condition of this particular one was very good, so her best features shined. Both antennas original and intact and only a modicum of japanese death mould on metal controls. This stuff is a nightmare on chromed plastic, but I found a good bathroom mould remover takes care of any of it on metal parts with ease. A bit of a wipe down and she looked superb!
I plugged her in and got her line in active and gave her a test run, be aware I was expecting very little sound wise! Well, I was flatly blown away!!
The clarity of the mids and highs was almost BigBen quality and the bass was smooth and dimensional. The volume isn't astronomical, but for listening and not blasting this gorgreous specimen delivers superb quality audio. Gotta say, I would rank this radio very highly in sound reproduction, VERY highly. The Ambience expand mode gives wonderful stereo imaging, she always surprises me with high quality source material off line in or cassette. Just wonderful.
The overall finish and quality of the 7000 never ceases to please either. From the weighted tuner knob to the full logic deck controls.
The cassette deck proved a bit of a pain, I'd like to thank Norm for suffering through numerous PM's regarding my inability to get it going properly. At this stage she plays, records and stops fine, but rewing and fast forward try to kick in but don't budge. I can live with this for the time being as just getting the play function working was a real sturggle for me based on my ineptitude and lack of belts. Thanks again Norm!
Here's some pix of her, and she'll probably be my next video review (depending on whether or not I have the patience to further deal with one of my Denon's in the mean time).
This radio has single handedly restored all my faith in Nationals and I'm looking forward to getting quite a few more in the future!
Rock On.
So with a little bit of trepidation I plonked down some of my hard earned yen on an RX-7000. This was really my last throw of the dice with actually paying a decent amount for a 'big' National as I figured if this one let me down I'd just stick to cheap domestic models I'm sure I will eventually come across.
About $330 dollars later I get my RX-7000. Yahoo.jp is even more of a crap shoot than ebay, so you really need to prepare yourself for things not turning out as you wish, especially with their crummy little pictures and lack of any kind of useful description. First thing I noticed was her drop dead gorgeous design. The condition of this particular one was very good, so her best features shined. Both antennas original and intact and only a modicum of japanese death mould on metal controls. This stuff is a nightmare on chromed plastic, but I found a good bathroom mould remover takes care of any of it on metal parts with ease. A bit of a wipe down and she looked superb!
I plugged her in and got her line in active and gave her a test run, be aware I was expecting very little sound wise! Well, I was flatly blown away!!
The clarity of the mids and highs was almost BigBen quality and the bass was smooth and dimensional. The volume isn't astronomical, but for listening and not blasting this gorgreous specimen delivers superb quality audio. Gotta say, I would rank this radio very highly in sound reproduction, VERY highly. The Ambience expand mode gives wonderful stereo imaging, she always surprises me with high quality source material off line in or cassette. Just wonderful.
The overall finish and quality of the 7000 never ceases to please either. From the weighted tuner knob to the full logic deck controls.
The cassette deck proved a bit of a pain, I'd like to thank Norm for suffering through numerous PM's regarding my inability to get it going properly. At this stage she plays, records and stops fine, but rewing and fast forward try to kick in but don't budge. I can live with this for the time being as just getting the play function working was a real sturggle for me based on my ineptitude and lack of belts. Thanks again Norm!
Here's some pix of her, and she'll probably be my next video review (depending on whether or not I have the patience to further deal with one of my Denon's in the mean time).
This radio has single handedly restored all my faith in Nationals and I'm looking forward to getting quite a few more in the future!
Rock On.
