My favorite new toy :)
Written: Mar 07 '01
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Pros: Plays CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs encoded with MP-3 data allowing 200 songs on one CD.
Cons: Relatively slow in loading mp3’s. Very cheap remote.
The Bottom Line: This is by far my favorite car stereo I have owned yet and until something better comes out, for the price this is the best on the market.
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| nate873's Full Review: Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car CD Player |
I have had this unit for about two months now. I wanted to become very comfortable with the unit before I wrote an epinion on it.
I recently had to replace my Blaupunkt car stereo due to very lousy performance from it. Not only did CD’s skip all the time, but the radio also died on it. After checking out the latest car stereos at Best Buy, I noticed the Aiwa CDC-mp3. Since I have been collecting mp3’s for several years now, I have upwards of 2000 mp3’s in my collection. I knew this unit would be perfect for me, so without a second’s hesitation I bought it.
The only other car stereo I know of that plays mp3s is a Kenwood unit. But with a price tag of $650, that was a bit much for me to spend on a car stereo. Even though Aiwa is not known for high quality car stereo, for $300 I could afford to try this one out.
The unit came with free installation from Best Buy, although it was a week later before they could install it. I was told that the installation would only take an hour, but it ended up taking the technician over 3 hours to get it installed in my vehicle. Since my Isuzu Rodeo didn’t have the proper mounting brackets, it took him a lot longer than expected. It wasn’t that big of a problem since I can easily spend 3 hours wondering the aisles of Best Buy, which is by far my favorite store.
I was very excited to try my new stereo out with several mp3 disks I had already. These were just disks I had used to archive many of my mp3s, so they were not very organized. The first CD-RW I tried was a very poor quality and took a very long time (about 1 minute) to load the songs and then it skipped every so often in the middle of an mp3. At this point I was wondering what I got my self into. But then I tried a higher quality CD-R and the performance was near perfect.
DISPLAY
The display is relatively large and easy to read. While playing mp3s, you are given the option to display the filename. I save all my mp3s with the artist name followed by the song name, so in my display the following is scrolled…
Artist Name – Song Name.mp3
One caveat with this is that the display will only show up to 32 characters, so if the filename is any longer than that, it will be truncated. ID3TAGS can be used to get around this. If you use tags in your mp3 files, you can display the song title or artist, or album; each with a maximum of 32 characters. Even though this is slightly annoying, it really isn’t that big of a deal and is still better than having no information about the song at all. While listening to the radio, I catch myself looking at the display to see the song artist and title, but of course the technology is not in place to have that yet. Someday maybe.
A large potion of the display is taken up with a level indicator, which adds to the effects, but is basically useless. I think this area could have been utilized for more useful features.
And of course you have the option of just showing the clock in the display. When you do this, anytime you adjust anything (ie. Change volume, radio station, etc.) the clock will go away momentarily to show you what you just adjusted and then after a few seconds will go back to the clock display.
BUTTONS
- PWR (power on/off)/MUTE button (tap once for mute, hold for 2 sec to turn off)
- FUNCTION (AM/FM/CD/AUX*/CHANGER**)
*The AUX function is used if you have an auxiliary device attached to the unit. There is an AUX IN jack (3.5-mm dia.) on the front of the unit.
**This only shows up if you have a CD Changer attached to the unit.
- Tune/Track up and down
- A.ME (Auto Memory) / PS (Preset Scan
- DISPLAY (cycles through all possible display modes)
- SELECT (Bass/Treble/Fader/Balance/H-BASS/DSSA)
- INFO (allows you to set a timer to tune to a certain radio station at a particular time)
- A.ME (Auto Memory) / PS (Preset Scan)
- Open (Folds the faceplate down to access the CD) *faceplate is removable.
- Preset station buttons 1-6 (also used as Album/Disk up and down, Intro, Repeat, Repeat1, and Random for CD controls)
- Jog Dial (sound adjustments)
ON the Remote:
- Volume up/down
- Function
- Track up/down (holding down will do the same as Album up/down)
FEATURES
Advanced Driver's Sound Stage Adjustment (DSSA)
This is what Awia says about it:
“Equal output from all speakers is fine when you're carrying passengers. But when you're driving alone, why not enjoy a sound presentation that's optimized for your seated position? That's what AIWA's unique Driver's Sound Stage Adjustment provides at the push of a button, giving you a more natural stereo image without having to readjust the balance and fader controls every time.”
In reality, this feature makes everything sound like crap. It is Totally Useless!
High-Voltage Preamp Outputs (I just use the internal amp, it sounds good to me)
Full Flap Type Detachable Front Panel
I actually really like this feature. The unit comes with a small plastic carrying case for the detachable front panel. The faceplate is very easy to detach and re-attach. They decided to add a little red LED lamp “Security Lamp” that flashes ever few seconds when the faceplate is removed. This is intended to deter theft, but give me a break Awia, who is this really going to fool. It draws more attention to the faceplateless stereo than anything else.
Front Input Jack (Great idea, but I doubt I’ll ever use it)
My Information Switch (useless)
H-Bass Enhancement
This is what Awia says about it:
“Conventional bass boost circuits also affect the mid-bass and midrange, resulting in muddled, "boomy" sound. AIWA's sophisticated circuit provides true deep bass enhancement for a dynamic, palpable bottom end that does not destroy the clarity of vocals and other mid-frequency content. You can select from three levels of H-Bass enhancement to suit the type of music, volume level, and your individual taste.”
I actually like this feature and use it all the time. Mine is set to H-BASS 3.
Anti-Shock/Anti-Vibration Mechanism
Very seldom does this unit skip, only when I go over a very large bump in the road or a pothole. Poor quality CD-Rs or CD-RWs causes songs to skip without hitting any bumps though, so only use high quality CD-Rs.
THE GOOD
Of course by far the best feature of this stereo is the fact that it can play mp3s. I now have my entire CD collection (over 200 disks) in addition to all the mp3s I have downloaded, all at my fingertips while I am driving. I have a visor CD holder that holds 10 CDs burned with mp3s of every song I could ever possibly want to listen to.
Navigating an MP3 CD is very easy. When you burn a CD, each folder is shown as an album and every file is shown as a track. They controls are relatively easy to use to skip to the next track in an album or to skip to the next album on the CD. The unit can read up to 8 folders “albums” deep, although doing this will result in a greater delay when reading the disk. The unit will read all files and albums in alphanumeric order, which allows me to know exactly where the song is at on the CD that I want to listen to. Of course if you want the songs to play in order that they are on the original CD, then you will need to place the track number as the first part of the filename.
30 radio station presets. Definitely more than I could ever need or use.
The fold down and detachable face.
Very quick disk eject/insert mechanism.
The scrolling mp3 filename on the display. Yes it is a little distracting to my driving when looking down, but I still like it.
THE BAD
Compared to a regular CD, when reading an mp3 CD it takes upwards of 1 minute to initially read the CD. The more folders you have on the CD, the longer it will take the unit to read it.
There is a several second gap between songs. Somewhat annoying, but you get used to it.
The display space could be used much more effectively. Much of the display area is cluttered with useless items such as the level indicator.
Using a poor quality CD-R or CD-RW will result in skipping songs.
The random function only randomly plays songs inside the particular folder “album” you are currently in. The only way to get around this is to not use any folders when burning your mp3s to disk.
THE UGLY
The cheap remote is nearly useless. A direct line of sight is required, so if anything gets in the way between your steering wheel and the “eye” on the unit, the remote will not work. Since the “eye” is on the right side of the unit, 90% of the time the remote doesn’t work. They give you a small strap to attach the remote to your steering wheel, but at least on my steering wheel, this strap slips all the time making the remote hard to use. Also the remote is poorly attached to the strap, so bumping it wrong will cause it to fall off, which has happened to me several times already.
When the unit is powered off, it will not continue playing an mp3 at the same spot it was powered off at. Instead it starts the mp3 song over from the beginning. I find this very annoying, where others may not. However when playing regular CDs this is not the case.
OVERALL
Overall I am very pleased with this unit. I would only suggest getting this though if you are relatively computer literate and know how to burn a CD. Of course if you do not currently have or plan to have a large collection of mp3s, then there is really no use for this. However if you are debating between this and a CD changer, I would highly suggest buying this.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299
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Epinions.com ID:
nate873
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Member: Nate Anderson
Location: San Diego, CA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
US Navy Pilot (SH-60B)
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