Finally bought the Aiwa mp3 head unit

[gregulator]

Well I bit the bullet and finally shelled out some serious $$$ for this head unit from best buy but made sure that I did get the service plan so that when a better unit comes along I can trade it in. So far I love this unit. I could not believe when it actually played mp3's off a CD-R, i know the unit is supposed to do this but it is still quite a shock. now on to the bad: like evryone says this unit doesn't have the best skip protection, although i think it works fairly well (probably because i owned a jensen before) and yes there are lot of lights but oh well. i am not sure if i can change this little quam i have on the unit but i wish the text display would read the name of the song when tracks are switched. instead, it gives the album/track number and then just scrolls through some cheesy text that says something like "welcome to AIWA, awesome power, HBASS, DSSA" or some such nonsense. I a not sure if there is a way for it just to leave the track title on there or something but oh well... it serves the purpose i bought it for.. to only have 1 cd in my car. i think the cd-rw playback is not so true.. maybe i need a super high quality cd-rw or something but cd-r's are cheap anyway. at least i have something to complain about when i return it in 3 months when the new clarion model comes out or something. just some impressions, thanks all for the advice!

 

[Gunbuster]

To get it out of demo press and hold the disp button a few seconds

The "cdc-mp32" may come out april ish

 

[IamDavid]

Congrats... Enjoy it, I love my Kenwood MP3 player..

 

[gregulator]

thanks for the tip gunbuster, guess i missed that in the manual. anyone know the prices on the upcoming units? i figure if i bought local and got the service plan, i should at least make it worth my while. thanks

 

[Gunbuster]

I just hope the next gen model is real and not just an inventory Anomaly.

My thinking is it will just fix the problems the 1st gen model has.

Mind you the markup is over 50% on both models, pure profit. Aiwa must slap them together for around $50-90

 

[snut]

iam split weather I should go for a harddrive based or cd based unit.I was thinking about building my own hd base one...

 

[gregulator]

i was too for a long time but then i added up the cost and the investment would be quite a bit (mostly due to LCD screen), especially if I were to find out that the nice potholes of maine were to destroy hard drives. maybe if you could use a laptop HDD or something, they might be a bit more shock proof but i had a feeling that even after all my hard work i might end up with a system that does worse things than skip on bumpy roads... but i really did want to have a cool project to work on

 

[Zucchini]

things need to drop to ~200 level. It obviously can be done.. we have small players that can read cd-r/mp3s for 99bux.

 

[Valhalla1]

that Aiwa deck is one of the ugliest decks I've ever seen. :disgust: :|

 

[Doodoo]

200? I doubt that...good tape decks don't even cost that less.

 

[Zucchini]

i dont know what your standard of good is, but to me decent brands of discmen have great line out output and only cost $100. thats the minimum quality i'm talking about, for a sony/panasonic headunit with basic features and cd player $130-150.

 

[Ender510]

Couple questions regarding the Aiwa.. I've heard the detachable face is a pain to put it on and take it off.. is this true?

Also, anyone know of any way to have 2 decks? Right now, I have an Alpine Deck.. but I have space below it for another deck/EQ, etc. and was wondering how the wiring would be hooked up if I get the AIWA.. any way to daisy chain?

 

[flippinfleck]

Not personaly fond of Aiwa, but for $300 beans it might be an option. However I do think I'll wait till they come down in price a bit.

 

[randomlinh]

uhh.. question.. how does the service plan let you return it in 3 mo? I hope you do know how to argue your way around Best Buy's bull crap on service plans... if it's broke, they will send it away, or try to find the same model in stock (they'll prolly have it down the road, unless a flood of mp3 car decks are out). It varies, but best buys service plan is nearly pure crap.

 

[Cable God]

I have it in my car. I haven't had any problems with it in the 2-3 months I've had it.

 

[KevinH]

While we're on the topic of car decks, I have the brochure with Alpine's lineup (unfortunately not on there site yet) but OH MAN...bar none these are the best looking head units I've ever seen. Anyways, they have an MP-3 coming out and they also have a minidisc one as well (single din). Decisions, decisions.

 

[gregulator]

well my compaint that will let me get a new unit, in fact a different model is the fact that this unit will not play my cd-rw's as advertised. that right there, i believe, is basis enough for a return... plus i do have rather good bitching skills.