I bought this player as a replacement for another player that stopped working. The main reason I went with this player was that it was inexpensive (I paid about $120 shipped) and for its good amp (22w RMS, 45w peak) and official support for CDRW discs.

Overall, my experience has been pretty good so far. The controls are pretty easy to figure out, and most buttons are large and well labeled. One nice feature is a "mute" button that, with one touch, will turn the radio down to a barely hearable level (another touch brings it back to normal).

The receiver has the usual array of tuning options (fade, balance, bass, treble) as well as an "H-Bass" option that boosts the bass. It has 3x6 FM presets, 2x6 AM presets, and an aux input on the front panel for hooking up an MP3 or MD player, etc. You can also change the front panel illumination from blue to red, which is nice.

I found the radio reception wasn't that great. Some stations that I used to be able to pick up great with my old receiver now have a little static on them. Most stations come in loud and clear, however.

My main worry about this receiver before I bought it was the weird location of the station preset buttons. It takes some getting used to but it's livable. It does let you keep your finger in one place when scanning through the presets which may have been the point.

I had problems getting the included steering wheel remote to work correctly. Even with a fresh battery, it had a very poor range of about 3"-4", and only when I faced the "wrong" side (the one that would facing away from the unit when mounted on the steering wheel) to the receiver. I may have gotten a defective remote however, and once I talk to Aiwa I'll update this review.

If you're planning on adding an amp to your system, be advised that system only has two sets of pre-amp outputs, one for the front and rear. There is no non-fading output. The unit also does not have a "amp turn on" lead, so you may have to use the power antenna lead (I didn't see whether this lead is active only when the radio is on or not).

Updates:
Some things I wanted to add to this review.
1. Minor jolts (ie. running over a reflector inbetween two lanes) make it skip occasionally. Nothing too bad but it gets annoying.

2. You can't hit a button one time to get to CD mode. If you're in FM1, you have to keep hitting the button and go through FM2, FM3, AM1, and AM2 to get to the CD mode. This is very annoying, especially when you're supposed to be looking at the road...