Aiwa XP-MP3: The MP3 Accessory to Buy
Written: Sep 22 '01
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Pros: lets you enjoy lots of music on the go
Cons: not perfect, anti-skip feature only works on normal CD's
The Bottom Line: If you are a music fan and you want to enjoy your tunes wheverer you go, consider the Aiwa XP-MP3.
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| Cornell2000's Full Review: Aiwa XP-MP3 Personal CD Player |
If you're a college student like me you probably have a large MP3 collection. While having a vast music library on your hard drive is great, it would be really cool if you could listen to your music anywhere you go. If you want to be able to do this, then get the Aiwa XP-MP3 player. You'll be glad you did.
This player is not as inexpensive as your typical standard portable CD player -- you'll be shelling out close to $200 for this one. Be sure to look out for discounts or coupons for the online stores to save money. Also compare what is offered at different stores. Mine came with the car adaptor and sometimes the unit is sold without it for the same price. You can buy it at Amazon.com like I did or from a number of other online electronics stores. One of my friends said he saw it at Best Buy so you might be able to get it there also.
What is great about this player is that it doesn't require a lot of work to understand and use it. Unlike MP3 players that use solid state memory (chips), you don't have to hook the unit up to your computer to add or change the music. Additionally, you can have many songs (up to perhaps 200) on an MP3 CD. Many of you will already have CD's full of your MP3 files as backups. They will probably work great in this player. You can often only fit 20 or 25 into a standard "MP3 Player".
There are other cool features in this player. There is a display window which goes above and beyond the standard track number and time display on most CD players. It actually displays the name and artist of each MP3 file in the display window. This feature is dependent on ID3 tags being present in your MP3 files, which should not be a problem for most people. Another neat thing is the bass boost feature which makes the music sound better.
Personally I don't think this player sounds as good as my old trusty Sony Discman when playing standard music CD's. This is perhaps due to the fact that the included headphones are terrible. It is worth it to spend a little extra money on good quality stereo headphones with this or any other portable music device. Another irritating aspect of the player is that the anti skip function, called "EASS" on this unit, only functions with standard music CD's. If the product is being touted primarily as an MP3 CD player, this feature or something equivalent to it should also be included for the MP3 discs.
Overall, I would recommend this product. If I were giving it a grade it would be a "B". It goes through batteries faster than you want it to, so you might want to buy premium batteries that last longer or rechargeable ones. It is a great product, it comes from Aiwa - a brand I trust, it does sound very good overall, and you will enjoy it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 179.99
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Epinions.com ID:
Cornell2000
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Member: Justin A. Nachod
Location: Ithaca, NY
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 36 members
About Me:
I am a junior at Cornell University, majoring in microbiology/pre-med.
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