Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car CD Player

Ok, it was a changer in the trunk or an MP3 player in the dash. I originally used this head unit with a set of Rockford Fosgate components and Pioneer 4 way 6x9's in the rear deck of my Toyota Camry. I later decided to go with separate amps and a sub. Read on for the whole story.

This little gem seemed to be my ticket to solid auto audio. Kenwood has a rather nice MP3 head-unit that costs $650, which I felt was too expensive for my car audio budget. At 300 clams, this unit was VERY affordable.

First, about the unit. It's festooned with color. Luckily, the unit doesn't have the annoying "Slot Machine" type display so common on Aiwa's mini home stereo systems which really serve no useful purpose. The display is bright and readable at night, and still readable (though a little less so) during the day. Daytime readability is not a problem, so don't let that stop you from buying this unit. The contrast can also be adjusted.

The display shows peak level in a bar gauge (eh, useless), and the text Time/Song Title/Artist/Function which scrolls the title of the MP3 you are playing (though it cuts everything off after a certain amount of characters. While the Aiwa manual says you can get beyond this limitation by using an ID tag in your mp3's, a lot of my mp3's filenames/songnames STILL get cut off. For the most part though, the information is enough.

There's a bunch of buttons as well. There's the following buttons on the face:

Mute/Power (press for mute, hold for 2 seconds to power off)
Function (AM/FM/CD/AUX/CHANGER if you have one attached)
Track up/Track down
Select (for Bass/Treble/Fader/Balance/H-BASS/DSSA)
Display (for cycling through the display modes)
Info (for adjusting the timer, largely useless)
P.S. (for scanning for presets, picks the strongest signals and puts them in your preset memory)
Open (For accessing the disc slot and removing the faceplate)
6 preset buttons which also double as CD controls for Disc UP/DOWN, Random, Repeat, Intro scan).

The faceplate pivots downward upon hitting the Open button, allowing you to insert a CD (5" CD's only! No 3" or odd-shaped CD's will work in this unit), or remove the faceplate. When the faceplate is removed, there's a blinking LED that flashes every couple of seconds to alert people that you have a stereo in your car (*rolls eyes*) but no faceplate. I'm not sure how good of an idea that is. Included with the unit is a plastic carry case for the faceplate (nice).

The buttons are fairly well laid out, and you'll have no problem getting around this unit without reading the manual. The jog wheel performs most of your sound adjustments, such as volume, bass/treble levels, etc.

Installation

Installation cannot be epinion'd completely, as every car is different. Here's what's known though: It has 2 sets of RCA outputs (front and rear). It's a standard DIN size (if you have a double-din sized opening for a stereo, there's a really nice converter out there that has a little pocket under the din opening. works great for holding a few CD jewel cases). The unit will control an Aiwa changer using the connector on the back of the unit. The lighting on the unit is colorful, but not overly bright to the point where it will stick out like a sore thumb in your dash.

Features

The aiwa is certainly no slouch in the features department, though there's a few more i'd like to have. Some of the more noteworthy features are:

Front input jack (Standard 1/8" plug). You can use this to connect your portable music device. Not a bad idea, Aiwa!

The ability to play MP3's (standard or variable bitrates) on CDR or CDRW media (ISO 9660 format only folks, no packet writing software allowed).

DSSA (Driver Soundstage Adjustment), though I think it sounds horrible. I disable it.

H-BASS adjustment (basically a bass boost, also sounds terrible and makes the Aiwa's predisposition to mid and high bass even worse. I disable this as well, but some people might like it).

Performance

First of all, the internal amp stinks. While it's rated at "45x4", it distorts heavily at higher volumes. At first I had this unit going direct to my speakers (Pioneer 4 way 6x9's in the rear and Rockford Fosgate 2 piece components in the front). The amp on this unit favors mid/high bass quite prominently. There's no midrange adjustment, so vocals sound pretty nasally. I was not at all impressed with the amplifier quality of this unit. I decided to use the RCA outputs to a couple of amplifiers and also decided to add a 10" Pioneer subwoofer in a small bandpass box. That changed the sound dramatically. As a standard head unit, if you plan on using this in a decent quality system, make sure you use the preamp outs and not the internal amplifier.

What I LIKE about the unit

Of course, it plays MP3 audio from burned CD's on CDR or CDRW media. I recommend a 160kbit encoding rate (44khz) to minimize the treble loss inherent to MP3's.

When used with the RCA outputs, the sound is quite good. I would definitely recommend amplifiers that have some sort of bass adjustment so you can get it just right. Since this unit favors mid-to-high bass, I find that adjusting my Pioneer amps to a 60hz crossover frequency to be perfect.

It certainly looks pretty. The scrolling filename/songname is nice to look at.

The controls are well thought out. To navigate to a different "CD" on an MP3 CD, just hit the "Disc up" button. It goes to the next directory and reads filenames in alphabetical/numeric order (make sure you use the track number at the beginning of the filename, as it doesn't read playlist files. It sorts all songs in the order it finds them alphabetically/numerically. Also, an entire CD's songs should exist in its own directory. The unit will scan 8 directories deep and will allow up to 512 tracks on a CD).

Radio reception is good, and there's plenty of presets.

The faceplate is detachable, and the unit comes with a storage device so it doesn't get banged up.

It's *CHEAP*, only $300.

What I DISLIKE about the unit

There's a silence gap of 2 seconds or so between every MP3 song.This is annoying for long techno CD's that often play continuously throught the CD. This is by far the one quirk Aiwa should have resolved before shipping this unit.

The internal amp is garbage. Don't use it.

The unit favors far too much mid-bass, and the h-bass control only makes it worse.

The display only scrolls 32 characters in a song or album name.

There have been complaints about the Aiwa falling apart with regular use. I'm skeptical of this, and will be watching for it. I'll keep this epinion updated.

Summary

It's not a bad unit when used with the RCA outputs. I'm giving it a final rating of 3. The MP3 playback works well, and makes a fairly good substitution for a changer.

To give this unit a rating of 4 stars, they would have to get the pause-between-tracks issue nailed down. That is the single most annoying issue with this unit, and will likely scare buyers away from it. This glitch is severe enough to drop it a single point in my rating.

To give it a 5, they'd have to also clean up the amplifier's output, add a set of Subwoofer RCA jacks, allow the scrolling screen to display up to 64 or 128 character filenames/songnames, and add a midrange control. I'd even allow a $100 higher pricetag for these fixes. I'd still buy it.

Bottom line: Changers aren't dead yet. If you CAN hold off until the next generation of players, do so. If you have to have MP3 in your car, and are willing to look past the little quirks the Aiwa has, the price is certainly affordable. I'm not TERRIBLY disappointed with mine, even with the glitches.