Aiwa XP MP3: A REALLY Good Buy!
Written: Jan 31 '02
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Pros: Sturdy, cheap, feature-filled.
Cons: Burns through batteries, but all these things do.
The Bottom Line: Competes with all the other players on the market and costs less.
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| Alkaiser's Full Review: Aiwa XP-MP3 Personal CD Player |
When I went to Japan for the first time this year, one of the things I knew I definitely wanted to buy was a portable MP3 player. My car has no working stereo to speak of, and although it plays cassettes, cassettes are dead to everyone on the planet. (Unless, of course, you're the American Music Industry and you need a format that has sharply decreased sales in order to "prove" that music sharing hurts them despite the fact that they post a $1.6 billion profit.)
So, I walked around in Akihabara for a while look for a store that was selling the Rio Volt or the TDK Mojo. I was ideally looking for the TDK Mojo, because my friend had just bought a Rio Volt for her car and it completely refuses to play any CDs after 2 months.
It was really hard for me to find either of them, especially since my Japanese skill is nearly useless in the real world. Eventually I found a store that had both of them, and at a price for cheaper than both of them, the Aiwa XP MP3.
The Aiwa XP MP3 portable MP3 player looked like it had all the features I wanted. Anti-skip protection, it reads the filenames off of the disc, plays both audio CDs and MP3 discs. I wasn't asking for much, just that it work, and it play all the stuff that I had, which it does perfectly, and at 12000 yen ($93.75 at the exchange rate back then, now it'd be around $88.89.) it was a steal, considering the TDK Mojo was going for $130, plus shipping and tax.
This thing has been great. I have had no problems with it so far, except for the fact that I can't figure out how to make it shuffle the MP3 tracks. I know there's a way to do it, I just haven't figured it out yet, and the manuals aren't in English/I've thrown them away.
Battery life on the thing is about 10 hours on 2 AA batterieis in MP3 mode. I think you get more life out of it if you're just running it with a CD because it doesn't have to run the decoding software.
Sound quality is great. I really don't have any complaints about it, it sounds just as good as when I'm running the MP3s in Winamp on my computer.
As far as style goes, there's nothing really cool or bad looking about the thing. I thought the TDK Mojo looked rather utilitarian, and the Rio Volt looked pretty cool, and the Aiwa player falls right in between. But, hey, it costs less. What do I care?!
The earplug headphones that come with the system have the built in controls to switch tracks, pause, etc. Very convenient if you're on a plane and don't want to have to keep picking up the system.
It seems fairly durable, I was carrying it around in my pocket, and running around various parts of Japan, and went through the rigors of being in my luggage over and back to Japan, so it's not a delicate piece of machinery.
So, for my money's worth, I strongly recommend the Aiwa XP MP3 player. You get the same features as the other players, but you pay less for the Aiwa. And it's not like they aren't a brand name or anything.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 94.00
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Epinions.com ID:
Alkaiser
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: Clayton Chan
Location: Irvine, CA
Reviews written: 655
Trusted by: 344 members
About Me:
Broke the 700 pound mark on my leg lifts.
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