Forget the CD Changer
Written: Mar 14 '01
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Pros: Plays MP3s
Cons: H-Bass, blue lights, lack of characters in display
The Bottom Line: So, at $275, this deck is well worth the price. Sure there are other receivers on the market, there is also a market for an in-car MP3 player.
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| visage's Full Review: Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car CD Player |
An audio CD with about 16 songs or an MP3 with about 160 songs? A CD changer that costs extra, that mounts in the trunk, requiring more discs, or a single CD?
Those were basically the two questions running through my head at the time. Simply I chose an MP3 CD player. I do not have the ends to buy a new deck and changer. I know that the MP3 format is a compressed format that compromises audio quality for space. But I don’t really mind since I’m not competing in car audio contests, and I have the factory speakers with no immediate plans to upgrade.
I did the installation in my garage. It was installed into my 1992 Acura Integra, and took about an hour.
Out of the box the receiver looked great and flashy. After I had everything all bolted back together with the deck in the dash, I really started to think, and basically came to the conclusion that the deck is way too flashy for my car. The blue lights illuminate my interior like no other. The LCD is nice and subtle. The little volume display adds a little action to a mainly static interior. Where have these jog wheels gone? I know that going completely digital with feather touch buttons everywhere is great and all, but with a quickly turning up and down the volume with buttons is sometimes difficult. Kudos to Aiwa for using a jog wheel. Removing the faceplate is simple and can be done blindfolded. Putting the face back or isn’t as easy. It takes a few tries and practice to get the hinges to match up. A red light also blinks when the face is removed, adding a little sense of security against would-be thieves.
There are a few unnecessary functions that come along with this piece. Mainly, the Aiwa demo mode that happens to be active when the deck is first powered on. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to get out of the demo mode that I will NEVER activate again.
Aiwa’s H-Bass synthetically increases the bass frequencies. The H-Bass actually seems to amplify the higher end bass frequencies making for real boomy sounding music, as opposed to the low-end bass that I was expecting. Aiwa also added a great mute button, for those times that an instant decrease in volume is needed, like when drivers need to vent a little road rage at the four-wheeled bucket that is going slow, or when a cellular phone needs to be answered (a convenience feature for passengers, drivers should stay off phones). At higher levels of volume, the mute button actually only decreases the volume instead of muting completely. The decrease is more than enough so I’m not complaining.
It has some pretty standard features like an 18-station memory, clock, AM/FM, and stuff like that.
Now the interesting part of its MP3 capabilities. It plays 650MB and 700MB CDs full of MP3s. Brand names and no-name CDs work just fine. It also claims to play CD-RWs, but I haven’t had a chance to personally try this. When reading an MP3-CD, it reads the individual files as tracks, and reads directories as albums. For example, 12 directories will be called albums and each track in those directories is the tracks, a very convenient way to organize a large number of songs. When playing discs, skipping is pretty evident. It isn’t a constant thing that occurs on every bump, but watch out for those big potholes in the road.
Since MP3s are a compressed format that sacrifices audio quality for space, be prepared to hear music that doesn’t sound as crisp as audio coming off an audio CD. If you’re planning on using this deck to replace the factory stereo, consider the Aiwa CDC-MP3. If you plan on replacing all the speakers in your car with high end, expensive equipment, along with subwoofers to blow the doors off other cars in traffic spend more money on a better stereo.
The steering wheel remote is better than no remote at all. It’s a real simple remote that controls track selection, album selection, station memories, volume, and the selection of the audio input source. The only gripe I have with the remote is that it is stuck to the steering wheel and my passengers don’t get to use it.
So, at $275, this deck is well worth the price. Sure there are other receivers on the market, there is also a market for an in-car MP3 player.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 275
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Epinions.com ID:
visage
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Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 33 members
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Fascinated by what is not known.
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