I wanted an effective 2.1 sound system for my home. The main purpose was watching movies, streaming videos using Chromecast and DTH. My Full HD television of TCL has a Dolby Decoder and the native speakers sounds exceptionally well in mid and highs but where it lacked was the lower frequencies i.e. bass. What I was looking for was an upgradation to full range speakers i.e. the one which can give clear and pure output in all frequencies between 20Hz to 20,000 Hz. My budget was maximum Rs. 10K. There are exceptional speakers available online like Swans M10 and Logitech Z623 in a range of Rs. 7,000. However, both the speakers have focussed on some particular frequency range to lure different schools of audiophiles. There are several popular models available in local electronic shops and big chains like Croma and Reliance Digital which sounds loud, has amazing bass but they all lacked in pure and balanced quality sound. All of them has great RMS value some crossing 100 RMS as well. But, most of them had overpowering bass because most of that RMS value is devoted to produce (unnecessary and unnaturally) loud bass and that compromises the 'pure sound'. I also came across models F&D T60X, Panasonic SC HT21 and Philips M8080W which succeeded to impress me with their specifications and sound quality. While the F&D model was costing Rs. 9,000 in Nehru Place, the Panasonic and Philips model was available at Rs. 6,000 at Croma. They were very big in size, has the most advanced connectivity features and looks really well. However, the only con with them are they are produced to just lure the customers by placing big subwoofer driver creating a very very loud thumping effect, primarily good only for sci-fi action movie lovers. What I wanted was offcourse a good bass but with equal focus on mids and highs for clarity of dialogues and purity of instrumental effects which are very much required if you want to watch dramas, reality shows or listening music. After analysing all those options and specifications- I zeroed down on Panasonic SC HT18GWK because of the following specifications: 1. It has 20 W bass and 25 W (12.5Wx2) speakers which seemed to be very well balance of bass, mid and highs. The sound output range was shown as between 20Hz and 20,000 Hz which means it is a full range speaker capable of reproducing every kind of sound frequency a human ear can listen to. Believe me 20W subwoofer is good enough to produce a thumping effect for a big living room and producing those vibrations. 2. It has the smallest dimension in all available 2.1 speakers I looked for. However, it still managed to pack 5 inches subwoofer driver and 3 inches speaker driver which is really amazing. All other models I compared before were very spacious in terms of size with reduced size of satellite drivers. 3. Distortion level at >0.5% is exceptionally low (lower the better). Other expensive models available has atleast 1% distortion. Signal to Noise Ratio >70dB is at par with expensive models. This model is available for sale in most of the popular e-commerce websites. Apparently, Amazon was selling at Rs. 2,999, Flipkart at 2,599 and Snapdeal at Rs. 2470. Snapdeal was out of stock, and I ordered it from Flipkart. It was delivered in 4 days. Now coming to my review of the product after using it for past 3 days: 1. The speakers are really compact in size and big in sound. The voice and instruments sounds pure. The bass is also very good, very balanced and not overpowering. Overall sound quality is amazingly loud and doesn't lose out on quality at high volumes. My greatest apprehension was how it will sound but this one really impressed me. 2. This speaker lacks bluetooth connectivity. So, I bought a generic bluetooth audio receiver from Amazon in Rs. 199 and connected the same to this speaker's USB input for powering that. It worked well this way. 3. It doesn't have separate bass and treble control and the remote has some presets like pop, classic, jazz etc but they didn't work either. I am not sure it is manufacturing defect or the functions are not supported. Though I strongly feel that you won't need any adjustment of the native sound which is very well balanced, however you can still adjust sound output using equalizer application from your mobile or laptop. 4. It has only one RCA output. The speaker came bundled with RCA-to-AUX converter cable. It doesn't have any other output mode. I had to buy a RCA-to-Female-AUX cable (good quality cables costs Rs. 75 from Nehru Place market) to connect it with my TV. Worked well. 5. It also has FM, but signal reception is very weak in my ground floor apartment. I didn't try the USB play yet. Conclusion I really liked the speaker. These speakers are absolutely stunning and give complete sound experience. Don't expect any high-end features from this system except 'quality sound'. Don't ignore this speaker system seeing its low price. Panasonic has actually put its entire focus on prod

****UPDATE after 18 months of use*** Still going strong !!! Few days back I ordered "Edifier R1280T Bookshelf Speaker (Brown and Black)"' which costs Rs 10,000, plugged in and out of curiosity tested the Panasonic and Edifier side by side. Edifier is 2.0 channel and the Panasonic is 2.1 channel so the Panasonic wins in the Bass section. Edifier is a little crisp, clear and warmer to listen to but not as loud or thumping as the Panasonic. The Panasonic is quite good but not as good as the Edifier, the difference in sound quality is not huge tough the Edifier sounds a tad better but after few equalizer adjustments the Panasonic was almost as good as the Edifier in terms of pure sound quality. The Panasonic is 45 watts and the Edifier is 42 watts but surprisingly the Panasonic at full volume sounds twice as powerful as the Edifier (Edifier never distorts at full volume however the Panasonic does after 90% volume) I got the Panasonic for Rs 2400 which makes the Edifier almost 5 times more expensive than the Panasonic. -------- I will try to give an honest and justified review here. I am an owner of Logitech Z 4i and Logitech Z 2300, both the Logitech speakers I have are award wining in their respective segments and now I have these little monsters. I will summarize the Panasonic speaker as below :- Build Quality & Looks Subwoofer has a wooden cabinet and the satellite speakers are of decent quality plastic, built quality is good. The speaker looks elegant and classy, I have black speakers with grey metallic grills, looks somewhat like Bose Companion 5 Series LOL. The grills gives it a premium look. Sound Quality Balanced Highs, Mids and Lows. Subwoofer packs a decent thumping sound, very well balanced and its deep (does not have extra loud fake, hollow and boomy Bass with is found in many music system nowadays) Mids are absolutely perfect, you can hear crystal clear words and sounds. (believe me the Mids are of pure quality.. awesome experience while watching movies and videos) Highs are also well balanced however at high or maxed out volumes the treble overpowers the Mids and Lows while listening to songs with heavy music (like techno, trance, rock, heavy metals etc) so u need to lower the high frequencies with the player equalizer as there is no treble control on these speakers) Bottom line is it gives crystal clear perfectly balanced sound across all frequencies. DOES NOT CRACK AT ALL EVEN AT FULL VOLUME. I have maxed out the volume and listen to several genres of music and it does not crack at maxed out volumes. To test these speakers I have maxed out the volume in such a way that the speakers are at 100% volume and the VLC player on my desktop has been topped out at 200% volume which is the absolute max you can go and still there are no cracking sound whatsoever The quality of sound goes down a little bit only because the Treble or the Highs overpowers the Mids and Lows at very high volume, so please adjust it with the equalizer to maintain the quality of sound if you want to go very loud. (In my opinion in order to get the best sound output its always better to play music max at 70% volume be it any speaker you have) In terms of Quality and Looks I can call it "Bose Companion 5 Series Ka Chota Bhai" because of its somewhat similar looks, design and the quality of the sound it produces. Keep in mind that the Bose companion series cost around Rs 31,000 and this one costs only Rs 2,500. (One of my friend has a Bose Companion Series and I listen to it frequently so I know what I am saying) Features Present or Lacking No Bass and Treble volume control - I dont know why Panasonic has not included this feature Short Wires - Too bad if you want to space out the speakers Remote is working fine, a lot of people complain remote is not working but luckily mine is working just fine and even the FM works decently however it does not have any FM channel display which is quite irritating. The remote is small and the presets on the remote does not have any audible difference between them, it sounds almost the same so better use your music player equalizer. It does not have Bluetooth connectivity Conclusion You simply cannot get better quality speakers than this one at this price range and segment. In terms of pure sound quality its better than my Logitech Z 4i and Z 2300 (minds you these Logitech are now way bad, they are damn good however this one is better in sound quality). I prefer clarity over fake hollow boomy bass that most speakers gives nowadays and the Panasonic fits my requirement. It gives you balanced quality sound across all frequencies and its better than many expensive speakers in the market in this segment. If you are planning to buy a 2.1 channel speaker under 50 Watts RMS then blindly go for this one and for Rs 2500 its a steal. YOU ARE GETTING MUCH MORE FOR THE AMOUNT OF MONEY YOU ARE PAYING... !!