Aiwa XP-Z3C Personal CD Player

After not receiving the 20gb hard drive player i wanted for christmas, I decided to take things into my own hands and, after a bit of research on epinions, i purchased the aiwa xp-z3c for 80 dollars, used on half.com.

When I received the unit, since it was used, it did not come with a car kit, the aiwa headphones, or the included cd-r media, so unfortunately, I cannot tell you about these items.

Anyways, after putting the strange japanese NiMH batteries into the unit (there are 2 rectangular batteries!), I began to fool around with the features. First, I turned the volume on full with some cheap $15 dollar sony ear bud headphones (sorry i didnt have the aiwas), i thought my head was going to explode. The sound on this unit is louder than it has been on any portable cd i had ever used before. Beleive me, if you listen to rap or alternative rock like me, a setting of 14 or 15 out of 23 is plenty loud, even in noisy environments. Another shocker was that with the sound on full volume, there was barely any distortion! This was what i found most surprising, since most units can't really dish out enough power for the max volume setting. Also, there is a feature called DSL (dynamic super linear bass) that really makes a difference in the boldness of the sound. Overall i think that the sound deserves a 10/10.

the remote is REALLY easy to use. When i first took a look at it, I thought "oh boy, heres a bunch of buttons to accidentally push". But, as usual, I was wrong. The remote is simple, the buttons are not too sensitive, and they are all placed in good location. The remote can display the song name, the file name, or the track number/ time on the backlit lcd display. Oh, and about that backlight, its great, but it only stays on for 5 seconds. It doesnt bother me that much, but if that kind of stuff bugs you, I thought you might want to know. Anyways, the main point is the remote is cool. I give it a rating of 8/10, just because of the backlight and

On the cd player part of the unit, there are only basic functions like search, play, pause, stop, and volume. I would recommend not using the remote when jogging; its just way too awkward. The only other things on the cd player unit are the hold switch and the quick/normal setting. On normal, the cd loads in about 15-20 seconds, but on quick mode, the unit loads the mp3s on the cd in about 7 seconds. The catch is when you are using the quick feature, you cant randomize the songs or use the +10 song feature. Its no big deal, but I stick with the normal mode.

The best thing about this player is definitely size. 8cm disks (gamecube size) hold 180-185mb, which is about 3 albums/45 songs. I have put my entire 250 song library on to only 6 discs. I hate to say this since im a 15 year old guy, but this player is cute. I know, I cant believe i said that either, but it is! It looks like what it is- a mini cd player. And unlike its competition (the iomega ripBURN and philips expanium mini-cd player), its not butt ugly.

Finally, im almost done! Now i have to talk about the batteries. It gets a good 7-8 hours battery life without the extra battery case, but when you put the BULKY 2AA battery casing on the top, it gets 26 hours. Not bad, but I prefer no bulk and just charge it every day (takes 4 hours). The included batteries are sweet. They are rectangular! Yeah, I know, that is cool. Batteries get a 9/10.