Aiwa CDC-X176

Before shopping for a new CD head unit I did a little homework. I found that 2 RCA pre-amps are best, a remote control comes in handy and a good head unit will have a removable face and dot matrix display. This unit has it all and even though I had decided long ago to not purchase another Aiwa product, the Best Buy price and warranty had me sold.

After owning the unit for a week it went back to the store. This product suffers from heavy skipping even in parked conditions (and don't even think about playing lightly scratched discs or CD-R?s ). The bass at high volumes is nasty even on high quality speakers.

After taking the unit back and getting another 176 installed I returned once again to complain about the same problems and some new ones. When the unit does skip it often restarts the entire track or resumes on a totally different track. Occasionally it fails to resume from skips and places and nice little error code on the display. The Best Buy rep said the units had been recalled and that I'd be better off with a new brand.

Aiwa needs to get their products right the first time. There's no excuse for releasing a lousy model into the market just because the company is new to the car audio business. In fairness I must say the unit did include some revolutionary features including a steering wheel mounted remote and mini-disc audio input jack. However, in the end the best head units are skip-free and sound at least halfway decent. Stay away from this unit unless you want headache and embarrassment from friends.