MP3 playback, ID3 Tag Display, 22x4RMS power, 2 preamp out + 1 aux in, CD changer control, Remote, in-track seek/scan, screw(for permanently attaching detachable face!)

Remote response (spotty at best), Interface (almost useless at night unless you know it), no in-track resume @ power on, poor use of cache to unswitched power, buffer overruns on high bitrate files

Overall, this is probably the most exciting geek toy purchase I've made in 10 years. I have numerous MP3 CDs burned from rips of CDs I own. Who wouldn't want the entire Led Zeppelin catalog on 1 CD? I no longer have to shuffle through 4 Joni Mitchell Albums to find "Blue." As an instrument of joy, this work of inevitable genius gets a perfect score. Sadly, as a Car Stereo, it falls short. 85dB signal to noise ratios on car CD players would be unacceptable under normal circumstances. However, I live in Pennsylvania (U.S. Commercial Drivers rated Pennsylvania's roads the worst in the nation)and after taking normal precautions when installing my head unit, I experience very little terrain-induced skipping.
The panel looks right at home in my Honda Civic coupe. The exciting multi-color flashing just screams Japanese techno-pop culture. I have to admit, though. If I were driving a European car, I would much prefer the low-key Kenwood display, less colorful and more soothingly passive. The two units appeal to two completely seperate audiences in this respect.
Here's the hard part to admit. I purchased the Aiwa unit over the Kenwood for one reason. Cost. Even after allowing for a comfortable premium on the MP3 playback luxury (It's not all that expensive to do this to a cd player) the Aiwa CDC-MP3 is well worth $300 for a head unit. It has self contained power (45 watts x 4 channels max / 22 watts x 4 channels rms) and installed in 30 minutes.

Final note:
Who should buy it - Music loving CD-R owning geeks who drive cars.
Who should not buy it - Any of above who already own a portable MP3 CD player and a cigarette lighter power adapter for it. Spend the $300 on a head unit with better specs and an aux in, and throw 3 more dollars at Radio Shack for a 6' 1/8" stereo cable. (Hint, you can use the same cable to run your laptop audio through it. Just in case you haven't had a chance to burn it yet.)

Similar Products Used:

WinAmp, Windows Media Player, Creative Portable MP3 CD Player, Kenwood eXcelon

None.

Style, sound, signal sensitivity (FM radio), and skips and pauses on ALL files, unit gets hot to the touch even in cool weather (operating heat).

What can I say? It's pretty useless for MP3 playback, and if your OEM head unit is already a CD player, you have less of a reason to change it. The only thing I like about it is the front aux input (though it is not a good reason fork out $300).

FM sensitivity sucks. My OEM head unit did not have any trouble picking up stations I listen to here in San Jose (105.3, 104.9, 106.5, 101.3), but with this unit, there is alot of static and signal loss. So it's also useless as a radio.

Style IS important -- esp. in a new car. This complaint is for ALL 3rd party car stereos. Can't any of them make use of the DIMMER line? GAWD!

I haven't fully tested the regular CD portion, but from what I heard, that skips as well.

Here's an idea that I don't mind someone stealing: USE A BETTER PROCESSOR, USE BETTER CACHING TECHNEQUES, USE A RELATIVELY FAST (4x) DRIVE! And support for VBR times is NOT hard. MP3 resume is NOT hard. Caching MP3 last position when off is NOT hard. Come on, people!

The only way I can build a good CD-based mp3 player is to make it PC based, and empeg already shows some downsides (and alot of upsides) to it.

Aiwa should have known this is going into a CAR, not a shelf, so it was their fault for not putting in any buffering for either playback. Will there be mass complaints to Aiwa soon so they can recall all of these POS? If so, I want in!

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Before this, I used Gencia's portable CD-MP3 player, and though it pauses and skips, it does it once in a while. The Aiwa wins for most skips per song.

The CDCMP3 has incredable value. It has 45watts X4 for only 299, alone that is a good deal. I am quite a connousour of the unit. I ended up writing software for cataaloging the huge volume of music i can now have in my car. I hve it available for download here is the blerb:
Works with the AIWA CDC-MP3 mp3 car player. Automatically catalog all song titles in your CDR MP3 collection. Print a song catalog grouped by CD title,jewel case inserts, alphabetically, to find the CD and song fast. Compatable with Palm devices. Written in MSAccess. http://www.qasdatabases.com/cdcmp3

Needs catalog software.

The CDCMP3 has incredable value. It has 45watts X4 for only 299, alone that is a good deal. I am quite a connousour of the unit. I ended up writing software for cataaloging the huge volume of music i can now have in my car. I hve it available for download here is the blerb:
Works with the AIWA CDC-MP3 mp3 car player. Automatically catalog all song titles in your CDR MP3 collection. Print a song catalog grouped by CD title,jewel case inserts, alphabetically, to find the CD and song fast. Compatable with Palm devices. Written in MSAccess. http://www.qasdatabases.com/cdcmp3

Similar Products Used:

None

I dont have any problem, read all MP3 Discs, It sounds very good, support VBR, (encoded my songs at 256-320 kbs, ..and no problem). Excellent Bass! IR remote control, Beautiful in night, It performs very well for the money price!

Maybe..more treble, more adjustments, maybe...subwoofer channel, little difficulty to plug the detachable face (..you need to used to...)

KENWOOD Z919 It retails for $750, over double the retail cost of the CDC-MP3 ($350). KENWOOD Z919 does support multiple levels of subfolders. However, it will not display any ID3 tag information, while the CDC-MP3 will. The Z919, it will not let you scan within an MP3 file, while the CDC-MP3 will. Finally, nothing I've seen indicates the Kenwood has any form of theft protection. The face is motorized, but doesn't detach (see the Crutchfield link above), making the Z919 both the most expensive unit in the Excelon line as well as the only one that doesn't have a detachable face. So what am I saying with all this? Imagine if Aiwa hadn't introduced the CDC-MP3. Your only choice for an in-dash CD MP3 player wouldn't support ID3 tags, wouldn't allow scanning within a track, would cost $750, and would have no way to stop the car stereo thieves that would be lured to it like flies to honey. Suddenly, those random play problems and the difficult detachable face don't seem nearly so bad.
Just go buy this thing. Seriously. The CDC-MP3 is just about everything you could want in an in-dash CD MP3 player. Organize your CD's well, and you'll be able to hop to any track you want within a few seconds. The sound is great; the look is great. And from a usability perspective, the thing just works. It's so good that i suggest to all MP3 users!! ...(And something else..., i was tired to wait when KENWOOD Z919 comes in EUROPE and buy it...I am happy with this AIWA CDC-MP3 !!!)

Similar Products Used:

KENWOOD Z919

It plays MP3s... if the disc is perfectly clean, burned at 1X, and the car is parked.

-Skip-o-rama, even on smooth roads.
-Large delay initializing MP3 discs, which is repeated every time the unit is powered on, even if the disc hasn't changed. If it can remember what track you were playing, why can't it remember the disc?
-No pause button.
-Has great difficulty reading some CD-R's and CD-RW's. Performance is better (but still not great) when the discs are burned at 1X.
-Looks really cheesy in the car... it doesn't look so bad in the store next to dozens of other cheesy car stereos. Who designs these things, anyway?
-Bright flashing blue lights whenever you touch the volume
-Can't resume in the middle of an MP3. (it will do this for normal CDs, however) It will just start at the beginning of the track you were listening to.
-Random only works in a directory, meaning that you can't do random for a whole disc if it has directories.
-No dedicated "Random" light-- when in Random mode, the display just says "RANDOM", and you have to press DISP to get track info. Even then it flashes back and forth to "RANDOM"

This deck skips like you wouldn't believe-- it's absolutely intolerable. I have yet to make it through a song with fewer then 10 nasty skips on the drive to work. The drive is flat, smooth roads, and the car is a 2001 honda civic... not the cushiest ride, but certainly not stiff enough to warrant that kind of skipping. A simple ESP setup like my $60 discman would have made this unit light-years better.

I've tested discs burned with ERoaster on Linux, and Adaptec EasyCD Creator 3.51 under win98. I've tested mp3's encoded with bladeenc, lame, and xing on both operating systems. I've tested CD-RW's from compusa and memorex, as CD-R's from imation. All of them skip like a bastard, and if they aren't burned at 1X, sometimes the disc won't even initialize and I get an "ERROR 3" message-- even if they do init, the unit has large problems reading mp3s on discs not burned at 1X. It will simply freeze up 40 or 50 seconds into a song, and be unable to continue playing.

The interface is lousy, too-- it would be livable if it played discs without skipping, though. No pause, can't resume in the middle of mp3s, random only works in a single directory, random mode puts "RANDOM" right in the middle of your display, annoying flashing lights when you touch the volume, long disc init time *every* time (even if the disc hasn't changed), etc...

I don't recommend this unit at all. Save your pennies for the kenwood, or just wait another year for somebody to release a reasonably priced model that works.

Similar Products Used:

Honda Civic 2001 Factory w/ laptop connected via casette adapter

Well, MP3's CDR CDRW, MP3 ID Tags, 150 songs on a CD. It sounds very good. Easy to use.

Remote Sucks. The lights blink when volume it changed.

I have had no problems with this unit skipping. My car is dumped on the ground and I have had no abnormal skipping.

Good Deck and I am very happy with it. I even bought 1 for my GF and she LOVES it.

Similar Products Used:

N/A

It plays MP3s and I can have all the music I need in just one cd. Has a good baass as well as tremble. looks good and I actually liked the blinking lihgt whenever you turn the volume.

Nonve really I took the time to read the manual and install it right.

I would recommend it to anybody that likes to have a lot of options wihtout to have to change the cd every time it sures beats a cd changer.

Similar Products Used:

none

Plays MP3s, Displays ID3 tags, Display looks cool, great sound.

Lack of sound modification options, useless IR Remote.

Skipping is not a problem for me on this one... yes it does skip, but the amazing part about this receiver is that it plays MP3s for ONLY $300. What other receiver can do that?? NONE. Aiwa did a great job of being the first to deploy a low-priced MP3 playing car receiver. Yes it has its weaknesses, but when a new model comes out I'm confident Aiwa will iron out the details and get it better. Mine is matched up to a Clarion amp and 10" MTX sub with 5 1/4" Cerwin Vega speakers front and back.

Sounds great, capabilities are unbeatable for the price.

Similar Products Used:

High-end Pioneer and Blaupunkt receivers.

+Plays MP3's
+Looks kinda cool/Lights on it are cool at night
+Good bass on my system
+PHAT warranty (not really a plus for the stereo)...Best Buy says that if they come out with a new model within 4 years, they'll upgrade and install it for free!

-Skips alot (HELLO? Aiwa, forget about skip protection??)
-Seems to have a weak laser or something; it seems to have trouble reading some CD's that other players have no problems with
-No rewindfast forward when playing MP3's
-No pause
-When I use the Repeat functions, I doesn't like to display the track info. I say doesn't like, because I could swear it's shown it while on Repeat before, but I can't get it to do it now.
-Weak treble on my system. I can get the bass to bump my car around, but even with the treble turned al the way up it isn't enough.

Well, it's only saving grace is the MP3 capability...and the fact that I paid a bunch or money for it. I think it looks cool and even sounds good, but the skipping and the non-pause really sucks. Plus, if you are going include MP3 capabilities, why the HECK would you leave out fast forward ewind?? Crap-dangit, I say! Aiwa better come out with a new one soon so I can get the free upgrade! Avoid this one 'til they work out the bugs in it, then it should rock!

-Tobias

Similar Products Used:

Any other car stereo I've used hasn't skipped this much...but nothing else plays MP3's

Plays MP3's
Looks Pretty Cool

Skips alot
Blinks when you adjust volume
No pause
Restarts Song if you change source or Turn off and back on (mp3 playback only)
Face Plate is a pain to take off and reattach
87 db signal to noise ratio = Not very loud

The only reason this deck is still in my car is because it plays MP3s. That is its only saving grace. Anybody who asks me about it, I tell them that I hate it. It was however a pretty good deal with my employee discount. As soon as I can save up enough I am going to get the kenwood unit. Considering that everything else in my car is fairly high end, it will fit in well.

It is a shame pushing a Soundstream 75x4 amp with a deck that is as crappy as this CDC-MP3.

Similar Products Used:

Clarion w/6 disk changer: Clarion was just as loud, a little clearer, and with the changer could play almost as long. I am just too lazy to go put the clarion back in.