Aiwa XP-Z3C Personal CD Player

I took my Koss Portable MP3 Player back to Radio Shack after taking it to Cuba and discovering it just wasn't for me. It had no "hold" button; that is imperative. As well, the directory system was just terrible. Finding the name of a song in the 16th directory required you to type the exact name of the song using phone-style typing or just clicking the "next track" button a hell of a lot. As well, it was very large and clunky, and ate batteries like nothing else. However, I found the prospect of fitting 150 songs per cd very attractive.

I took the player back to replace it with a similar model, one with a hold button. I was looking through the casing when my eyes lowered onto a cute player. It looked like a cd player, but was about half the size. I asked the guy at the desk what it was, and he told me it was a new model that had just come into the States/Canada from Japan and played the new 8cm cds instead of the 11cm we are all used to. These new cds held 200mb of data as opposed to 650-700 on a normal cd, but it held my attention nonetheless.

I took one look at this player and made up my mind that it was worth it. It played data mp3s, and you can easily fit a good 30-40 songs per 200mb mini cd, justifying the purchase, as this is far more than the 74 minutes a normal audio cd can do. I used to use a minidisc, and the size of a full size cd player was just too big; I couldn't even fit it in my pockets unless I was wearing huge jeans, and I have only one pair of those.

The problem with minidiscs is that it records in real time, and well, that just ticked me off.

The media that fits into this tiny machine can be recorded on a normal cd burner. Take a look inside the tray of your burner and you will notice that about halfway into the tray is a notch to hold these mini cds. They are very small and very very cute.

This XP-Z3C comes with a beautiful, backlit remote as well as double NiMH rechargable batteries, AND a recharger that you just plunk the player onto and it recharges the batteries for you! No more plugging stuff in and out, watching out for cords and other bull.

The player also comes with a car-cassette adapter and a cigarette lighter plug, so you can listen to the mini cds in your car.

The sound is spectacular, and you will never notice that it isn't a full quality cd. The DSL (The generic bass increase) keeps your lower frequencies present even at low volumes, although at very low volumes, the sound becomes muddled because the amplification doesn't follow the same curve as the volume - nonetheless, it works quite well at higher volumes.

The 8cm media is around the same price as normal CD-R media, but you will LOVE the smaller size of the player and will fall in love with the cute little cds. Trust me, it is much more convenient to have to change cds every once in a while rather than not being able to sit down because there is a huge cd player sticking out of your pocket.

This player, the XP-Z3C is highly recommended, and I loved it from the moment I set eyes on it. The media is very easy to find (Staples, Best Buy, minicdsonline.com).

Recommended! Look for 8cm media to take off in the next few years as audio compression increases in quality and size, so 200mb will be plenty.

SIZE DOES MATTER.

***UPDATE***
After having used the player every day for a month, I have a greater understanding of the build and "quirks" of this player. Leave all doubt at the door, however, I am still deeply in love with the XP-Z3C, but now I have a wishlist for future 8cm cd players.

Firstly, the player just DOES NOT GET LOUD ENOUGH. Enough said! If your songs are hard rock and/or contemporary 90's pop, you will be fine. Recent and digital recordings (anything recorded IN the CD era) will have full, unabridged sound and will be plenty loud. The problem arises in the old music, The Beatles, the old blues, Van Morrison, Al Kooper, etc. These jam bands were recorded in less-than-stellar cicumstances and the microphones were just too far away from the music. I know this sounds like a small quibble, but when you are in a loud subway station trying to squeeze out every last drop of volume, the extra bit of oomph! comes in handy.

Rest assured, however, for those who listen to your Nickelback, Our Lady Peace and Limp Bizkit, your sound will be PERFECT down to a T! I cannot tell the difference between this and a CD.

The other small problem arises in the fact that even though the song is mostly loaded into memory (twenty or so seconds into a song, the disc will stop spinning and play the next 3-4 minutes from memory), if you open the player while music is playing, it will stop. This usually wouldn't be a problem, however the player opens REALLY EASILY. It has one of those cheap-plastic-swivel-to-the-side entries and the lack of any sort of tension can really be annoying when it slides around in your pocket or is picked up the wrong way. I've only had it open on me twice out of probably 100 solid hours of listening, but those two times were incredibly annoying. Again, a small quibble.

My last problem, and probably my most relevant one, is the backlight. Oh, the backlight... lalalala DOH! This is the single most annoying feature of the player and could be corrected SO EASILY! When you switch the player on, or press any button, the backlight will turn on, no matter what time of day or anything like that. The problem is that IT ONLY STAYS ON FOR 2 SECONDS!!! If you want to read the full title to a song in the dark, well, YOU CAN'T! There is no manual control to turn on the backlight, and you have to press the "DISPLAY" button to get it to light up again. It's not a big problem if you won't use it during the day, and you can still see the song title when you change to the song, but it would be lovely if there was a manual light switch so you could keep it on for longer. I realize the battery life concern, but still.

Onto battery life, fully charged and ready, the two NiMH cells last a good 5-6 hours. With a single AA battery connected to the player using the supplied mechanism, however, the battery life increases to 26 hours. The problem arises in the fact that the battery holder is so damn bulky, it defeats the entire purpose. It juts out like a sore thumb and is angled in a way that it will hurt you to try stick it in your pocket, no matter how large the hole is. The design was not well thought out.

So, those are my little quibbles after a month of solid use. Everything I said above still stands, and I love the guy to death. Don't let these small problems deter you from buying this gem. Look and see if any of the above annoyancies apply to you, and if they do, take them into consideration. 5-6 hours is plenty of time for the batteries, and the charger is portable enough to be taken anywhere. The car option is really cool and provides awesome sound quality through the tape deck adapter.

GET THIS PLAYER!

***END OF UPDATE***