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Skips and dies.

My first unit skipped like it was an Olympic event. It crapped out after a week. I replaced it with another unit. That one worked for about 2 minutes before it shut down. I was told by my Best Buy installer that it was going into protection mode becase one of the front speakers was busted. I replaced the dash speaker pair and one of the pair in the door sounded terrible. I had those replaced also. The unit worked for twenty minutes after I left the installer and packed up. I have been reading horror stories about this unit online all day today. I am going to cancel my appointment with Best Buy and just buy another brand.

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Blaukpaunt

Looks cool at night
Can select different folders so scrolling is easier if you take time to seperate the songs into folders
Plays CD's and MP3's
Functionality is not hard
Inter song delay time is negligeable

No Random play for all songs when they are in albums only per album-I hate listening in order
No pause
Loading time is a bit long amplified by the fact that it plays the last song it was at-from the beginning If you are driving in short trips running errands you won't get past one song.
Will not play MP3's on CDRW only CDR's even though it advertises it does however it does say that some CDRW's work better than others
Skipping only happens off road and occasionally on the road but not enough to bother you.
AM reception is just not as good as my stock radio
There was only one installation kit for my 2001 Honda Civic and it sucks.

If you buy it make sure you have recorded all your MP3's on a TDK CDR at 4x recording speed and you will have optimum performance, even 8x speed is fine really. It should not skip. If you are using it with CDRW's it skips like it's at a hopscotch competition so don't.
Let's face it for $240 I have an MP3 player in my car and I don't have to lug around my laptop which is so full of mp3's I have no disk space. On long road trips this system is a dream. No more shuffling through CD's. A compilation cd is no longer 20 songs.

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I read up online about Kenwood and it remains to be seen if Kenwood can restart from song last position or if it can read the thicker CD RW's
Compared to my laptop in the car hooked up to my stereo it is just not up there as far as functionality and skip control(laptop can put entire song in memory, not fair) but sound quality is great

It plays MP3 CDS! Has some good features. Good power. Plays CD-RW discs. Displays filename or ID tags of the MP3s.

Always plays at the beginning of the song. Takes about 10 seconds to "Read Disc" when you turn it on. A little pricey for not having features like an equalizer.

This is the first MP3 CD deck for cars. It never skips, even though I use mostly cheap discs (I am not paying $3 for a disc that a no-name company makes and a company like Sony brands as their own!). To all the people who have skipping problems: Try using Nero Burning Rom 5. I had the same problems you are having when I used Adaptec Easy CD Creator. The CD-RW feature is great (again, use Nero if RWs don't work for you). If you have a stock deck connected to amplifiers running subs and you want to upgrade to the CDC-MP3 and use it's RCA outputs, get a crossover like the Sony XEC--1000s. After I upgraded from my stock deck, even using my Rockford Fosgate 500a2's crossover set to LP, the bass was not deep anymore. I have no idea why this happened. I heard about a Sony MP3 deck that came out, definitely look into that if you are planning on buying this.

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None

Plays MP3s. Steering wheel remote is cool, if steering wheel is perfectly positioned! Sound is good. Controls are easy to do.

1) I've seen many people complain about skipping, and others saying theirs don't skip at all. I don't know if it's my burner (Philips CDRW-400) or my discs, but mine skips A LOT! Some songs skip so bad that it quits playing it! It doesn't skip on my computer, though!

2) The steering wheel remote is unreliable. Trying to change the volume on it is rediculous! You have to push the up or down button, and half the time the radio doesn't read what I am pushing, so I have to push it 20 times to raise the volume 10 units! They should make the remote more reliable on frequency and put a jog dial on for the volume!

3) I had the take mine back 4 days after I bought it because it ate my CD, and then wouldn't give it back! My second one skipped a lot, and my third one skipped too. I just gave up after that. I'm going to wait until Best Buy carries the new Kenwood KDC-MP8017 MP3 player and trade mine in.

4) Detachable face is a pain to take off and put on.

5) I have tons of MP3 files on each album, so I have it play it on radom all the time. But every time I change albums, it plays the same songs! What use is random there!

6) Starts every song over once power is shut off and turned back on.

As far as playing MP3s, it works well. But for the skipping, which may be my recording equipment, it falls short. Just like my weaknesses explain, the radio can use some revision, too. It's price was good, but it was too good to be true. I think that the steering wheel remote is a good idea, but it also needs revised. Aiwa does have a new model (CDC-MP32), but I don't know much about it. I think that just as with new types of cars, new technology is never perfect when it first comes out. I hope Aiwa is hard at work, because Kenwood, Sony, Rockford, and Panasonic are on their way for competition!

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Kenwood KDC-MP8017 ($359) will hopefully be better! Sony CDX-MP450X ($399) is also another new MP3 Player out. Aiwa has a new one (CDC-MP32), but I don't know if I can trust it.

Great Price on a good system, steering remote, front aux. input, many features, can use folders, overall a very good system

whole unit blinks 3 times when you change the volume (???). goes to the beginning of the MP3 everytime you turn the car off. wish it had memory capability.

My player DOES NOT SKIP except in REALLY bumpy situations (and I have an old suspension). The people who are having problems are most likely using cheap CD-R's or a cheap burner. I had an old burner which made disks skip in it, but since I got a new burner, I've had no problems. I suggest you have good initial recording equipment before you use this. I've also had no noise problems with my deck.

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None

plays mp3
tells name of song and artist
lightup blue face
sounds great
plays great
no skipping

cant keep display the way i want it
keeps repeating messages about cd player

looks great
plays great
its really a great buy worth the money
no problems at all

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It plays MP3's- that's awsome. I ran my head unit directly to four 6.25" Infinity two-ways without an amp and got very clear, impressive sound.

It skips terribly; sometimes even when I'm parked. It is also difficult to select any particular song through the interface because the only method of changing songs is sequential (next track, previous track) and loading the title to each song takes around a second.

The fact that this unit plays MP3's is fantastic. I recommend an in-dash MP3 player to anyone who's thinking about upgrading their reciever. You don't have the clutter or hastle of a CD changer in your trunk, and the quality and availability of MP3's are good.

In my opinion, Awia's first shot at an MP3 player has several short-comings. The first unit sent to me was defective; it has a poorly designed face-plate connector. Mine didn't work at all, and the second one is already starting to fail occasionally, leaving a blank display and rendering the controls useless. The reciever skips on a whim. The wireless remote is infra-red, so it is line-of-site only, and not very reliable.

Overall, this reciever works; but it could definitely be improved. I personally am going to look for a replacement which doesn't skip so much for my new car.

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As far as an in-dash CD player goes, it skips too much. Compared to software on a computer, it lacks the interface.

NONE...This headunit sucks

Skips, Skips, and Skips more

This is the worst headunit I've ever had or seen. I recieved the headunit and installed it in my Toyota Celica. I took it out on the road to see how it was, and oh man did it suck.......I drove around for about 10 mins and it skipped on every bump I hit. The sound quality on it sucks, and the mp3 playback sounds even worse. I quickly took it out and sent it back to Crutchfield for a full refund. I then got a Pioneer DEH-8200 and it blew the awia away. Ive hit train tracks at 40mph and the pioneer didn't skip. Do not buy this headunit because you will be very disappointed with it. Spend the extra few dollars on something worthwhile like a pioneer or an alpine, you will be better off.

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Pioneer, Sony, Alpine

Decent display, adequate power, good sound.

Skips ocassionally, display flashes on volume change.

Best Buy installed it for parts cost only ($30). Replaced factory radio on Jeep Cherokee and it sounds much better/richer/powerful, even on FM. Sound quality on mp3's vary, depending on recorded quality - maybe bitrate, I'm no expert but some sound CD-like, others sound a bit muffled. Has 3 setting for bass boost, song title scrolls across the screen, pop-off display, randomizes the whole disk (about 160 songs) if desired. However, starts at the beginning of the last song you played instead of where you left off in the middle of the song.

Does skip on hard left turns and extreme bumps, maybe once every 15 minutes or so. This must depend on vehicle type as others have more trouble with it. There also seems to be a volume 'alert' in case your partner tries to change the volume without you noticing, the display flashes!

No other mp3 player on the market anywhere near this price. Good value.

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Factory radio, 1st mp3 player.

There are no Strengths that this deck has over any of it's competition. Well, it was cheap at the time I guess.

1. Skipping is very bad
2. Remote will only work if pointed directly at the deck, it doesn't work very well when placed on the steerling wheel.
3. The volume!! you have to turn the volume up to like 50 for it to get loud, you have to keep turning and turning the knob.. what a pain!
4. Flashing blue lights when you press buttons.
5. Isn't very compatible with a very wide range of CD-R Media.
6. The VUmeter takes up over half of the display, you only get a few letters of the artist/title, it has to scroll for like an hour before you find out what song you are listening to.
7. The deck looks cheap, almost like a toy.
8. Long delay waiting for CDs to load/change tracks.
9. Songs do not start off where they left off.
10. Only has 2 VOLT Pre-outs, originally said to be 4v
11. Deck gets extremely hot in a matter of minutes.
12. Face plate is a pain to attach/detach

I am not trying to diss Aiwa, we all know it is a division of Sony, but this deck is a flop. I feel like I have been ripped off bad by Aiwa, I have had this deck for about a month and I already want to get rid of it. I would not recommend this deck to anyone.

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I haven't used any other MP3 products as of yet, I am going to be purchasing the Kenwood model, this time I have done more research and found that it is much better quaility.