AIWA... The Good The Bad The Ugly
Jan 30 '00
Well we all may not be familiar with The Clint Eastwood Film, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, but most likely we have heard someone ramble off this phrase before. Unfortunately I feel it applies to what seems to fall into the whole Aiwa Category.
The Good
Aiwa’s unprecedented sound quality distinguishes itself from its competitors so much so that I have seen it recommended more so than any other system. With a 3-Way Bass Reflex Speaker System, even at high volumes there is little distortion. Added sound features include Aiwa’s Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound that yields an uncompromising realism to the listening experience. Throw in Aiwa’s DSP (Digital Signal Processing) controls and you can simulate different acoustic environments (simulations include: disco, live, and hall environments on my model). And of course there is the GEQ (graphic equalizer) which allows you to choose a style that you want your music to be played (styles include: rock, pop, and classic on my model).
Added Features
* High speed dubbing
* Optical Digital Output (can use this to connect other devices without the loss of quality as in normal copper wire)
* Multi-disc changer that allows you to change discs while CD is playing
* Karaoke
The Bad
From what I have seen the Aiwa mini-systems have been plagued with problems regarding their CD players. Almost everyone I have encountered that owns a mini-system has had a problem. The problems can range. From the laser not reading the disc correctly to the disc not spinning at all. My system chooses not to spin the disc on occasion making the laser believe there is no disc in the player. Because Aiwa many time has a small window in the top of their systems you can actually see what is going on with the CD player. I have noticed that the discs do not seem to be loading straight. This can accommodate for the two types of problems I have listed above. Here are my barbaric remedies that may help:
Because my disc is not loading straight it will not spin so what I have found to work is to give it a tap on the side (I find the left side is better to tap based on the angle of the disk), enough so to shake the whole system in a single motion. This will cause the disc to fall into place and start spinning. Timing is necessary. You have to jar it just when the disc loads and you see it not spinning. If you wait to long it will think there is no disc, drop it back in the tray and move to the next disc.
If your disc is spinning but the laser is not reading the disc, this may help. Before loading the disk into the player, make the system not level by putting something under the bottom of it on one side or holding it up while the disc loads. I can’t vouch for this one, but a friend of mine said this helped him with his system.
The Ugly
I have come across a glitch in my system (nsx-5200) that may be present in other systems too. Aiwa allows you to change discs on their multi-changers while another disc is still playing. This is a really cool feature but can have a gruesome outcome on your CD’s if this glitch is present on other systems. To change CD’s while the player is currently running all you need to do is press the “Disc Change” button. This is fairly simple. Once you have finished loading the new discs, you need to push the disc change button again to close the tray. Right next to the “Disc Change” button is the “Open/Close” button for the CD tray. It would make sense that this too should be able to be used to close the tray after changing CD’s while another one is still playing…BUT, upon pressing this the system tends to get confused, thinking that the tray is still inside the player. The tray will start to close but at the same time the disc inside will be dropped back to the tray. Most of the time the disc makes it back to the tray (not on a disc holder) good enough to be retrieved by fishing a little. Unfortunately there are times when the disc doesn’t quite make it to the tray and falls into the stereo getting caught up in the trays gear mechanism. By the time I was able to fish one CD out it was scratched all over and unusable. Really the best thing to do in this situation is turn the stereo off and if you are not afraid to take a system apart, open it up and take it out. It may be time consuming, and extremely annoying, but this will be the only way to really save your disk at this time.
I would recommend this product for its sound quality, but I would warn anyone before buying it about the problems with the CD player. There is a chance that it will be ok, but I would rather purchase another brand of similar quality for more money that I know normally does not run into problems.
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Epinions.com ID:
dmatter
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Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 14 members
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