When iPhonefreak attended CES in January, one of the many products we snapped pictures of was Panasonic’s HC40 stereo system.  At the time there wasn’t much information about the unit, or its HC20 and HC30 brethren, floating about, but now the HC40 and HC30 have been officially announced in Japan, with the added nickname of D-Dock, we have a full specification list.

The design of the HC40 sees two 20W speakers mounted either side of the main control unit, which has a motorized sliding door that moves left or right in order to expose either the CD or the iPod dock.  The whole system measures a slim 69mm at its thickest part and can be wall-mounted.

As the HC40 is equipped with Bluetooth 2.1, it can be controlled from your iPod or iPhone even if it’s not docked, plus music can be streamed directly to the device.  The built-in SD card slot can be accessed from your iPod, plus radio and CD can be recorded on to an SD or SDHC card too.  It was also noted at CES that the HC40 can support hands-free calls if you’re docking an iPhone, a fact confirmed in the Japanese release document.

Both the HC40 and HC30 will be available to order from the 8th March, but won’t start shipping until April, the same release schedule given alongside the HC range at CES.  Seeing as nothing is mentioned regarding a worldwide release, could this mean these stereo systems will be Japan-only?  Seems a little odd if they do turn out to be that way, though.

As far as pricing is concerned, converting over the highest quoted price in Yen from here, we get a $300 tag for the HC30 and $400 for the HC40.  If that’s correct, it seems a little high for a 20w CD/Dock!

(via Geeky Gadgets)