Aiwa has never let me down
Written: Mar 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Convenient, nice backlighting, jog dial
Cons: THOSE HORRID HEADPHONES!
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| mixylplik3's Full Review: Aiwa AM-F70 Personal MiniDisc Player |
I bought the Aiwa AM-F70 for $279 at Tweeter. I was getting it to replace the entry-level Sony bundle that had a basic player and home stereo component. I was quite underwhelmed with that, but have been very happy with the Aiwa.
First of all, Minidisc is a killer format. It's very compact and much more convenient than CDs. It _NEVER_ skips, and the fact that you can title everything from album name to song name is great. If you have a CD player or DVD player with an optical output you can transfer a CD to Minidisc with minimal effort. Basically you hit play on the CD and the F70 will handle the rest, including the automatic detection of track changes. Minidiscs will hold 74 minutes of stereo sound, the same as a CD. It is also possible to record in mono and double that capacity, but what fun is listening to music in mono?
To title a track or album on the main unit, Aiwa has equipped the F70 with a nice little jog dial which you turn to select a character. This is definitely the fastest and most convenient way of inputting text other than a keyboard.
The backlit-everything on the F70 is nice to look at and is extremely handy in the dark (of course). The remote control unit that the headphones plug into is handy, especially if you're walking around or working out with it. The F70 comes with a nice little blue felt carrying bag, which is cool but less practical than perhaps a compact padded case which would offer more protection in case you dropped it.
On the negative, the F70 includes these ridiculous headphones which seem like a good idea but fall far short in comfort and sound quality. The hard plastic "Swoops" as Aiwa calls them, wrap around the back of your head and over your ears. They are very uncomfortable and sound lousy. The reason is that they are made from a very hard plastic and will not flex to fit you very well. I have found that pushing them into my ears harder allow the sound to reproduce nice bass and overall sound, but it's impractical to walk around this way. The new F80 model fixes this among other things, but unfortunately is only available in Japan. (On a side note, you can buy the F80 and many other Minidisc players and supplies at http://www.minidisco.com, I would also highly recommend these people for anything Minidisc as I have nothing but positive experiences with them.)
Overall, I'm very happy with the Aiwa. I would highly recommend this Minidisc player/recorder.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mixylplik3
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Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 0 members
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