Great 1st-generation product
Written: Dec 31 '00 (Updated Dec 31 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great price, good performance, good features
Cons: Some annoyances with remembering settings
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| ysyi's Full Review: Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car CD Player |
I got the CDC-MP3 about a week ago, purchased and installed at Best Buy. I shopped around for quite some time for a car MP3 player, going through review after review about some unreasonably priced (empeg) or ridiculously stupid designed (i2Go) players. Hard disk based players didn't appeal to me, because they're somewhat limited on a fixed amount of storage (and expensive storage with moving parts, at that). Solid state media based players also didn't appeal to me, since it's very limited on the amount of data you can store on one piece of media. CDs seemed perfect: media is inexpensive (anywhere from $0.15 - $1.00/ea) and can hold a relatively large amount of data (650MB).
So it came down to the Aiwa CDC-MP3 ($300) or the Kenwood Z919 ($750).
According to reviews, Aiwa isn't known for making great car stereos while Kenwood is. But that's for audiophiles. I can't tell the difference (generally speaking) between good speakers and really good speakers. I'm the type of person who can't tell the difference in quality after 128kbit encoded MP3s (I believe this unit does up to 192kbit and VBR up to that rate). That means that for me, Kenwood would have to redeem the $350 price difference in features -- and it didn't do that.
In general, they have the same/similar features, such as being able to read CD-R discs, CD-RW discs, containing either audio CD data or MP3 files on ISO9660 filesystems (although it can read Joliet filesystems as well).
Instead of boring you with more paragraphs of dull sentences, I figured I'll write up a pros/cons list.
Pros:
* Can read ID3 tags, unlike the Z919.
* Convenient steering wheel mount remote (read the entry in cons, though).
* Produce good quality sound (at least, to me -- a non-audiophile).
* Detachable face
* Auxiliary input jack
Cons:
* The bottom half of the display is wasted on the useless visualizer (or whatever it's called -- that little bar/meter) instead of using it for an extra line of text, to include artist / album / etc. On top of that, the text line can only display one piece of information at a time: artist, album, song name, elapsed time, album/track number, filename, and so on. It'd be nice if you could have it display multiple pieces of information, such as track number + song name ("001 - Song Name"), or artist + album ("Artist - Song Name"), or whatever.
* The IR (infra-red) sensor is on the right side of the unit, making steering wheel mount remote's usefulness / range very limited. It somewhat depends on where in the dash your player is mounted, but in general the remote seems to be able to reach the sensor when it's centered or turned to the right, but even if it's a tad bit off-center to the left, it doesn't reach. Did they design it this way with Europeans in mind?
* The "random" play feature is relative to the current "album" (or directory on the filesystem). Once you switch up to the next album, it forgets that you wanted random play. This often forced me to compromise between organization and convenience, by either dumping everything in the root directory (convenience for random play) or hitting the "random" button every time I switched albums.
* I'm not sure if it's just me, but every time a new CD is put in (or even the same CD removed and re-inserted), it seems to "forget" my display settings. For example, I would have it display the song name on the display and have it remember that by holding the "Disp" button down for 2 seconds until it beeped. It will remember even after I power off/on my car. But after a new CD, it first displays the long "Welcome to..." string, then it scrolls "Bass Treble ..." (although it seems to remember the settings, that display won't go away until you scroll through all the settings by hitting the "select" button many times). Then, after you hit the display button to get where you like, and hold it down for a few seconds to save it, it will display the "Welcome to..." string AGAIN. Very, very annoying.
* The "mute" button doesn't mute all the way -- if you have it at a slightly-louder-than-average volume, you can still hear it after pressing the "mute" button. Seems to only decrease the volume.
I've been over some bumpy roads (there are LOTS of roads here that are being dug up and re-patched for fiber, etc), but didn't notice any skips. The blue lights, which blink when the volume is adjusted, can get pretty annoying when driving in the dark although you can change the contrast settings (I haven't messed with that yet) which may help.
If you're thinking that I dislike this unit by looking at the pros/cons list, you'd be wrong. I absolutely love it. Burning a CD takes only 5-10 minutes on my 12X CD burner, and since it can read CD-RW's, I can mess around with some music mix choices (it can read multi-session discs, up to 5 sessions) and burn a final copy on CD-R later once I get the selection perfected.
All in all, I think it's worth every penny of the $300 that it cost. I got it with the "PSP" -- Performance Service Plan -- from Best Buy, which ran $40 or $50 which covered it for an additional 4 years (bringing the total warranty to 5 years). You may also need a harness kit, and maybe a "spacer" kit if your stock stereo like mine is a "double height" unit. The spacer they put in mine was a useful CD holder (holds 5 or 6 CDs).
The installation ran a bit over $100 after taxes, which included a wiring harness, a set of bass blockers, an installation with warranty and a re-installation of your factory stereo in the future. You'd probably be spending at least $150-$200 on a in-dash CD player of this quality and features (can read CD-R and CD-RW), so why not spend the extra few bucks and get MP3 decoding functionality?
Oh, the installation took a bit over an hour and a half but only because there were others in line before me. You'll most likely have better luck at the wait time than I. Plus, during that time I got to look at lots and lots of pretty fish. And a parrot or two.. at the pet store nearby. :-)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ysyi
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Member: Yong Yi
Location: San Jose, CA
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
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