This chunky hi-fi will take you back to the bassy days of yore

That looks like the stereo I had in my old Renault Clio…

Only much nicer. Sure, it’s still undeniably hefty – but it’s less garish than many an all-in-one, and Panasonic has limited the neon lights to just a few touches. Which could be a blessing or a shame, depending on your taste. Want to take it with you to the snooker club? It’s got a carry handle, too, because why not.

Does it have bass powerful enough to blow a hedgehog’s socks off?

How does 300W sound? That should be plenty – arguably too much – for most listeners, unless you happen to have a cavernous home and no neighbours.

Power isn’t everything though.

You’re quite right – which is why Panasonic has also kept things balanced with the SC-UA3. Sure, the central domes are all about that bass, but there are tweeters mounted on both the front and the corners of the box, for a wide spread of sound, while audio presets should see every taste catered for. There’s no Coldplay mode, mind.

That’s all well and good, but does it have a cassette deck?

Of course not. Cassette’s scheduled for its retro reboot next year. For everything else, though, the UA3 has got you covered: it’ll take your CDs, talk to your kit via Bluetooth and deliver tunes from USB, too – making it quite the multi-talented box.

I’m not sure it’ll go with my wallpaper…

You might want to take a look at Panasonic’s new SC-HC1020 instead, then. It’s a wall-mountable speaker that’ll play nice with Bluetooth, Spotfiy, TuneIn and more, kicking out your favourite tunes with 40W power – or streaming them around the house to other pf Panasonic’s ‘All’ series of wireless speakers. It’s just 71mm slim and packs a special sound mode to adjust audio output when it’s stuck to the wall, which works impressively well in person.