Aiwa XP-V516C Personal CD Player

I drive a 1989 Volvo. I'm madly in love with the car. The car stereo died about 5 years ago and my husband replaced it with an awesome system, except it only plays cassettes! (You can stop shuddering now!)

I stopped buying cassettes a few years ago, it seemed like such a waste of money! I also got tired of transferring my cd's to cassette tapes for the long car rides we go on to visit relatives. I became an FM radio master, programming in my favorite stations and then surfing constantly when the music was lackluster. I really needed a change and quite honestly, the car stays and the stereo is really nice (sans cd player) So I decided to get a personal CD player with a car adapter as a sort of happy medium.

My sister gave me a gift certificate to Target for Christmas, so I started my shopping there. I was attracted to the AIWA XP-V516C AUB4 silver player immediately. The package came with a car kit and I have owned AIWA products in the past and have been happy with them.

As soon as I was out of the store, I dug into the packaging. It took me awhile to get to the cd player. If you haven't purchased one lately, they are sealed inside of very heavy plastic and my Leatherman Micra tool was a great help opening it up! Of course I didn't read the instructions, just put the cassette adapter into the cassette part of my stereo and the power connector into the cigarette lighter. I put my favorite Steely Dan CD inside the player and pressed the play key. Instant bliss!

The player has easy to use and understand buttons. No learning curve here! Press play and it plays! The bass - oh the bass can really play here. Just press the DSL key for deep bass once and twice for very deep bass.

Now if you haven't been inside a Volvo 240 sedan, try to imagine little to no dashboard room. I don't even have cup holders. I had to place my cd player on the seat next to me so I could keep hitting the skip button. The player did manage to fall into the space between the bucket seats a few times and the disk did skip. I've corrected that problem by attaching some velcro to the bottom of the player and the side of my dashboard. This way the player doesn't get knocked around!

As I mentioned, the sound is very, very nice. The joy I have been receiving playing my cd's in the car on the way to work is tremendous!

Until I decided to read the instructions I was playing the cd's on the wrong decibel level. I was turning the volume way up on my stereo to hear the cd. I simply turned up the volume on the AIWA player to get it meshed with my stereo.

When I need to get out of my car I simply unplug the whole contraption, wind the cords around the player and tuck the entire thing into the side pocket of the drive door. Even though I didn't pay large sums to purchase this unit, I don't want to attract unnecessary attention.

The player comes with some nice features:

Electronic Anti-Shock System Plus (EASS) is supposed to reduce skipping when the player is jolted. I've skipped only a few times and it was only when the unit actually fell between or under the seats when I hit a good curve. With EASS the player keeps 40 seconds of sound in memory. The manufacturer recommends allowing 40-50 seconds for the memory to build up before jogging. They also comment that continuous shock can cause interruption, too, and not to worry. My skips were all corrected when I physically picked the unit up.

Resume will allow playback from the point where the cd was stopped. Nice feature, but I don't have any use for it at the moment.

Random Play allows the player to pick tracks in another order than those programmed on the cd. This is nice if you want a change from the usual lineup.

Repeat Play will allow either one track or all tracks to repeat!

The unit can be used with batteries. AIWA claims 27 hours of life with EASS setting of 40, 20 hours with EASS setting at 10 or off. Rechargeable batteries can also be used.

AIWA cautions against using the player inside a parked car where the temperature can get very hot. During the summer I'll remember to put it into my bag. The player is very small, the size of my husband's hand or just slightly larger than a cd, and extremely lightweight. There is also a caution against using the player in a warm, moist, high humidity area such as a shower room or near a heater. AIWA also warns against turning the sound up too high when listening with the included headset.

For the $40 I spent, I'm thrilled with the unit. Attractive, lightweight and brings me back to the real world! I live in New England and we have just had a spat of rough winter weather which grows huge potholes! I am jostling the player every day and since I've attached it to the dash it hasn't skipped once!

Next I have to get a cd burner for my computer so I can start burning cds for the car! I can't wait!

A good investment! Go have a listen!