by Jon11582 » Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:16 am
the c8300u is almost the same as the c8400u I have now.
It its got a max of 4x25/50w instead of 4x26/60w, and the display isnt customizable like the 8400. Otherwise, I think its the same thing. I got the 8400U, honestly, because it wasnt too much more and I wanted to play with the customization thing (and a little extra power as a bonus), but its purely novelty.
I have no complaints getting another Panasonic at all. After about a month of research a few months ago, I bought the Panasonic 983U, and I really was unimpressed with the SQ and sound shaping, but liked everything else about it. As soon as this new 8x00U series came out, and I found out about the 7 band EQ, I was itchin to get it. I got it as soon as I found a buyer for the old one.
In functionality and SQ, this is way above the old one. My fav feature of the new one is the SBC-SW, which makes your rear speakers act as your low pass speakers (like subs). I dont have subs right now, so the SBC-SW makes it sound worlds better without actually having a sub in the back. (the rear 6x9s are more suited towards bass fill than high/mid quality anyways). Using the low pass filter, bass setting, seven band EQ, and sub level control with SBC-SW really makes the rear speakers pound.
With subs, its got the 5v preamps in addition to all the sub and bass features, so its still nice.
Plus, no other company can touch the display. Even when its displaying just text (which is probably where itll be set most of the time after the novelty of the motion pictures wear off), it looks great. I only have two minor complaints over the old model.
1) The buttons on the 983U one looked better. Buttons were more integrated with the design, and were all reverse lit (the text was lit, not the button lit). No big deal, 8x00U still looks good
2) For MP3s, Old one used to let you display artist on line1, and title on line2. Closest the 8x00U lets you display is album on line1, and title/artist on line2. I could care less about the album name. Again, minor nuisance.
Its also worth noting they dropped satillite radio in the new 8x00U series, but I never used it anyways.
They added alot, including headunit tilt, motorized faceplate, SBC-SW, LPF, HPF, 7-Band EQ, more pictures and scenes, and for the 8400U, bumped the power to 26/60w, and added customizability.
The customizing thing is cool. Ive only done it with a few pictures so far (few from our East coast Solara meets), and its decent. I havent been able to do movies yet, since it only works with AVIs and i havent found a AVI I wanna put in there yet. Its definitly a novelty feature though, and you wont miss it much if you get the 8300. Mines on text 99% of the time, except when on radio.
As far as the difference from the 25/50w amp to the 26/60w amp. Well my 8400U does sound alot better than my 983U did, but I think thats mostly a function of the sound shaping rather than the new amp.
I think you should definitly go for the Panasonic, but Im a little biased.
2000 Black Solara SE
Some people think 5 channel just means more power... hahaha just making sure you knew 
.. Also, the 745 doens't have dolby digital/DTS processor,, but has input ports for things such as,,,, a dolby digital proccesor or 6-disc/DVD changer.