Engineered in Japan.
Written: Jul 17 '01 (Updated Jul 17 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Relatively small system packed with lot's of features and power.
Cons: No important ones.
The Bottom Line: Small packed system, with 160 watts of power, and nice subwoofers.
|
|
|
| alseltzer's Full Review: Aiwa NSX-AJ54 Digital Mini System |
I have to admit that this is my first AIWA, and I even hesitated to buy this piece for a few reasons. First of all I had a preconception that all Japanese audio systems have lousy speakers, I learned that a long time ago, when I first bought my Sony ZFD…. The actual system was good and reliable, but speakers were pretty bad, so I figured all Japanese systems have lousy speakers. Second preconception that I had is that anything that’s not big sucks. Literally, if a system doesn’t have big speakers and a huge centerpiece, then it’s got to sound bad. However as time went on, I slowly started buying Japanese audio products, and inch by inch I regained my faith in Japanese audio equipment. And so when my huge $300 RCA 5 cd changer broke down I decided to finally buy something better, because after all Japanese do make better centerpieces(by that I mean all the mechanical stuff, like CD player, radios, tape decks etc,.). So, I went out and bought Aiwa NSX-AJ54, and I’m quite pleased by what I have now.
First of all, I’m like a little kid and colored stuff gets my attention very quickly. So did this system due to it’s metallic with blue and little green coating. I figured that if it looks so space-like and sophisticated on the outside it’s got to be good on the inside, so after some button poking I whipped out my wallet and paid $210 bucks for it. The I finally brought it home and unpacked it didn’t look so good anymore, but nevertheless it sounded terrific, thanks to built in subwoofers, which produce soft and deep sound. Here are some other features that this system has:
-3 disc CD changer- it seems weird, but you don’t see over 3 CD’s in an AIWA stereo system that often, and even if the system has a 5 CD changer it costs a lot more, and there’s a bunch of other stuff added on top. Just for comparison, you can get an RCA stereo with 5 CD changer for a couple of hundred bucks. An AIWA system with 5 CC will cost you over 400 hundred bucks.
-CD-R/CD-RW compatible- they list it as a feature, but I don’t see it as a feature, because any system that came out in the past two years is CD-R compatible, and it’s not like it’s an expensive thing to put in your system. Basically any CD player will read a burned CD. Again it’s listed as a feature, but don’t kid yourself, it’s not the same as having extra 20 watts in your system, or even something small as an extra few radio presets. Important! Don’t get this phrase “CD-R compatible” confused with “CD-R write compatibility”. The lasy phrase means that you can burn CDs on your system, the first phrase means that you can listen to burned CDs.
-160 Watts, that’s a lot for a mini system such as this. Don’t be scared by the words “mini system”, it doesn’t mean that it produces small or weak sound or something of that sort. It simply means that AIWA people put a lot of stuff into a small system, that’s all. As I’ve said, those 160 watts will blow you away, if you turn on your Bass. Subwoofers that are built in the speakers smooth out the raw power coming out of the speakers and so 160 watt system delivers powerful deep sound through fairly small speakers. Plus it all depends on how much room you want to cover, if you need to cover a huge dining hall, then you’ll probably need all the power you can get out of this AIWA, but if you are listening to it in a small room, then you probably won’t use one tenth of the power that it has. And of course it all depends on how loud you want you music to be, but that’s all individual things.
-AM/FM radio has 30 presets, and god knows that’s enough presets. If you don’t know what a preset is, then it’s my duty to tell you. When you find a station you like, the system can remember it’s position, and when you’re bored listening to that station you can tune in to the other station, and when you’re bored with that station you can just press a button and the radio will switch to the previous station that you selected. Ahh, I’m sure everyone knows what a preset is. Anyway 30 presets is more than enough unless you’re a radio station junky or something.
-5 band Equalizer is a great thing to have because the system can adjust to various types of music. You can choose one of five settings. What it does, is that for example when you’re listening to classical music it’s very important that speakers are producing a low frequency wave, or soft sound or in other words bass. If you’re listening to rock, then bass is not that important, in fact guitar will fade away or at times get lost if there’s too much bass. So, by switching to different equalizer presets, you adjust your music to the best possible sound. That’s quite nice.
-Bass Boost and Super T Bass are really important features, just like in any system. By using bass, you can adjust sound to make it softer, which is really important if you’re listening to soothing music, like classical stuff. Bass is really important when you’re trying to smooth out vocals, or make singers voice a bit more pleasurable. Bass boost here does not make that big of a difference, it just smoothes music a bit, but if you really want to feel the beat, or make the music as deep as you can than Super T Bass does the job quite well.
-Dual cassette deck is great, because most of us still don’t have CD burners, and so we need rely on good old tapes to record from radio or cd, make mixes and other cool stuff. I don’t use it at all, because I do have a CD writer, and all my stuff is on cds, but it’s still nice to know that I have a tape deck. I think you can get a dual deck in practically any system over 50 bucks, and it will be pretty good. However if you want a good tape deck you can buy one for a couple of hundred bucks, that is if you want it for professional work. Deck in this system will do for any home recording though.
-Remote control? Yes of course it has a remote control, I haven’t seen a system that doesn’t. A remote control is a remote control, you can turn on radio and change presets or tune it with you RC, you can play cds, and turn on Bass or other sound enhancments.
-Last but not least this system has a headphone jack, which means that you can stick your headphones in it, and listen to radio, cd or tape. As soon as you switch to headphones speakers stop playing, so that you can use your system when people are sleeping, or whenever you don’t want to disturb them.
-Speakers have built in subwoofers, which is great, subs produce real deep smooth sound, and make up for the small size of speakers.
Needless to say that I’m not disappointed with this AIWA, it did prove to me that Japanese can make good speakers, and I’m pretty happy that I bought it. Hopefully it will work for another few years, and if it doesn’t I’ve got a three year warranty, which I advise you to get if you plan to buy something that costs more than $200. Bottom line is that this is a very nice system it’s worth the money, but if your price range is not above $200, then don’t worry, you won’t miss out on much.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
alseltzer
|
|
Member: Alex
Location: Somewhere in Asia
Reviews written: 59
Trusted by: 12 members
About Me:
I'm absolutely in love with cheese, and thanks for reading my reviews! Kisses sunshines!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.