Nice versatile deck
Written: Dec 30 '03 (Updated Jan 13 '04)
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Pros: attractive; excellent features; input jack!
Cons: illuminated bar at the bottom is quite bright
The Bottom Line: I think it's great. It was one of very few with the input jack and MP3 playback, and it even lets you switch some illumination color.
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| myuseraccount's Full Review: Aiwa CDC-X30MP Car CD/ MP3 Player |
I got this player for my wife's car, as a Christmas gift. Some of the selling points were the illumination colors, which can be all blue or with some of the buttons red, and the line-in jack on the front. The input jack is something hard to find, and I got it to connect an XM satellite radio kit later.
What the "XM Ready" decks don't tell you is that you have to buy a separate box for almost as much as the deck itself, and connect it like a CD changer. A line-in jack is great so you can buy a removable satellite radio, and hook it up indoors as well without paying another subscription fee.
MP3 playback is the other main feature, and it works nicely. I was able to play both CD-R and CD-RW discs, with quite a few songs on them. My wife reported one of her discs "cutting out" on some songs, but I haven't really investigated what was wrong; be careful to read the manual as far as encoding bitrates and folder/file structure before making a disc, though. The deck allows you to select folders independently of tracks, so creating a number of folders (per genre or artist) makes it easy to get to the song you want.
In general, we both like this deck a lot, both in function and appearance. I especially like the control knob and toggle lever, which are much nicer than buttons to use when driving. About the only trick is getting the faceplate off, and the included illustration doesn't help much: basically, after pressing the release button, you want to grasp the right end and lift upward slightly. The only thing really wrong with it is that the blue illuminated line along the bottom is very bright. I'm tempted to bend a strip of aluminum around the bottom of the faceplate, because it's somewhat distracting when driving.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150 w/rebate
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Epinions.com ID:
myuseraccount
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Location: western USA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Technology professional and car/motorcycle fan
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