Aiwa XP-SP90 is perfect for exercise freaks
Written: Feb 28 '00 (Updated May 27 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Never skips, great headphones
Cons: Eats batteries, battery hatch pops open unexpectedly
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| JulieQ's Full Review: Aiwa XP-V50 Personal CD Player |
My husband bought this portable CD player for me for Christmas because the Sony I owned was a real no-frills model I'd had for years. The only time I really want to use a portable CD player is when I work out, and the Sony prototype thing I had was completely without skip protection, so I couldn't walk with it, and it didn't even like to sit on the stair stepper while I worked out.
Enter the Aiwa XP-SP90. This thing is truly a delight to take to the gym. It sits happily on the stairstepper and never skips. I can walk with it. I can even run with it. And this is only utilizing the 10-second skip protection. I believe it has skipped once in probably 150 hours of use. There's no need ever to use the 40-second skip protection, as far as I'm concerned. That setting uses up a lot of batteries, too.
The headphones stay on my head pretty much no matter what I do. I was a little worried about that since they're the kind that sit back towards your neck rather than on top of your head. And the headphones are made all of rubber and plastic. Anyone who works out is going to appreciate this because it's pretty gross to have to wring the sweat out of the foam earpads on regular headphones. These headphones pretty much just have to dry, and you're all set for next time.
As far as the sound quality goes, I'm not an excellent judge. It sounds good to me. I like to use the double bass boost because it can be kind of noisy at the gym, and I use the rhythm of the music to pace myself. I think the XP-SP90 is probably a CD player for popular and not classical or more serious music. The nuances in serious music don't seem to come through very clearly.
There are only two possibly negative things about this CD player. It sucks batteries. It eats them a lot faster than it says it should in the information that accompanies the player. For me, they last about 6-8 hours (with double bass boost and 10-second skip protection); it says they should last 12-14. I don't know if this is a problem with my CD player or if it's common to all of them for sure. I would be sure to invest in rechargeable batteries for it, though. You can charge them in the CD player with the adapter. Very convenient.
The other con is that the batteries go inside the CD player, under where the disc goes. Sometimes the little battery hatch doesn't like to stay shut, and if it's slightly open but not affecting the batteries' contacts, the CD player does not stop playing. So you may not know that the battery hatch is open till it's all the way open and the batteries disconnect. I'm a little concerned that sometime when it opens and stays open for a while, it will scratch the underside of one of my CDs, but it hasn't happened yet.
Overall, this is a stellar CD player for anyone who works out or needs a non-skipping CD player for any reason. The rubber headphones are a great feature for sporty folks. Invest in rechargeable batteries and you'll be all set to go!
UPDATE: To date, I have dropped this CD player from chest height onto a hard surface about four times. It does not seem to have suffered any ill effects. Usually, the battery compartment pops open and it stops playing, but that's to be expected. So I'm going to say that the thing is pretty darn durable.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
JulieQ
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Member: Julie Qidwai
Location: North Liberty, IA
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 8 members
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