National Panasonic RS-4360dft

The National Panasonic RS-4360DFT is very similar to the Panasonic RX-7700. For all practical purposes, they're identical, but due to trademark issues, the National brand could not be used in the USA, so the Pansonic brand was used instead. This model is very attractive in a "mature" and sophisticated way, like it would be better suited as a tabletop radio inside a nice home, not as a boombox you would carry around outside. It's black with a silver tuner dial. The Panasonic RX-7700 looks exactly the same, but that model was also available in silver with a black dial. The service manual can be found HERE and the operator's manual can be found HERE.

We don't know what the original sales price was, but it must have been extremely pricey. It was a top-tier model, and the quality of construction reflects that. It's more "overbuilt" than any other boombox I'm aware of. It weighs 25 pounds without batteries, making it one of the heaviest boomboxes for its size. Much of that is due to the extensive use of metal in its construction, from the inner chassis to the cassette deck. There are metal frames supporting all the pots and circuit boards. The side panels are massively thick, because they are intended to protect the front-mounted controls if the boombox tips over. The bottom has 4 rubber feet mounted with screws, like what you would find on the bottom of a 70s receiver. The tuner knob has a heavy flywheel, connected to a metal-finned tuning capacitor, a feature that is very seldom seen in boomboxes except for a handful of the highest-priced models..

Sound quality is excellent, with a lot more bass than I expected for such an old design (late 70s). It has 16cm woofers with rolled cloth surrounds for good mobility, and 3cm tweeters. According to the service manual, output power is 2x8W on batteries. Which was better than most, but not as much as the big boys like Sharp GF-777, Panasonic RX-5350, JVC M90, etc. People wishing to "blast" this unit outdoors may be somewhat disappointed. But that wasn't the intent of this model. It wasn't meant to be a street blaster. You wouldn't want to carry it outside anyway, due to its heavy weight (25 lbs) and large size (22-5/8" wide, 13" tall, 7-1/4" deep).

Everything about this model feels high quality. The volume knob has a nice detented movement with 40 detents, and the bass and treble knobs have 10 detents each. The song search feature ("MPS") is controlled by a knob with 11 positions, which seems better than forcing the user to push a button 11 times to skip 11 tracks. On top there are 2 pop-up rotating microphones covered with what appears to be stainless steel mesh. The antennas retract all the way into the boombox instead of laying flat like they do on most other boomboxes. You would think that this design would result in fewer broken antennas, however for whatever reason, the antennas on this model are almost always broken. It might be because users did not know that the antenna base needs to be pulled completely out before attempting to swivel it. So while it probably seemed like a good design, in retrospect, it might not have been a good idea.

This model used to be extremely rare, with one example known to have sold in Australia for over $2,600. That was back in 2013 or 2014, I think. But since then, some collectors in South Korea discovered that there is a strong demand for this model, and have managed to snap them up locally and offer them for sale internationally. This has driven the price down in recent years. Nevertheless, the price still remains fairly high for this model, especially if it's in top condition, because it has a very attractive, timeless look, extremely high build quality, and is still considered rather scarce compared to most other boomboxes.

A metal finned tuning capacitor is used on this model, a feature that is almost unheard of in boombox design due to cost