Aiwa XP-V716 Personal CD Player

I had a big OLD Sony car discman, with big clunky anti-shock mountplate, for several years. It worked great and I never thought I'd buy a new CD player. But, alas, the old girl couldn't do CD-RW. So I bought this AIWA CD player new and thought it was pretty darn cool. The price was nice (70.00), the sound quality was good, and it came with a car kit - I thought I'd have to buy that separately. It also came with some really (nice looking) but cheesy headphones. NP, I had some more around the house. Besides, this was for my car. This thing also came with a remote. Something I didn't really want or need. This CD player has never given me any trouble. One thing I didn't like was, since it sits on the passenger seat of my car, it tends to slide around. I fixed this problem with four pieces of small Velcro. When I tried the remote, I found that using it across distances, oh, greater than the width of an average passenger car, didn't work too well. A friend sitting in the back seat couldn't even get a signal with the remote. I used it in the house with a pair of headphones, while preparing for a garage sale. The shock-protection was awful. Also, it got dropped and developed a small crack in the face. It didn't do any damage, and the crack hasn't spread, but I could see that the thing was pretty flimsy. The area near the control panel is also made of brushed aluminum. Nice, neat looking, but is easily scuffed - quite easily. Battery life was average, especially with 'bass mode' turned on. And whenever key is pressed, the display lights up in 'Indiglo' fashion. This may potentially waste battery life. I usually do run it off my car as a result. Still the unit has good sound and has worked fine otherwise.

Bottom line: the remote is a fancy feature so more $$ can be charged. The case is flimsy. Not recommended for people on the go - joggers, or anyone who is remotely active. This CD player is quite content to stay put, and not put it's anti-sock protection (or lack of it) to work.