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Aiwa CDC-MP3 Normally I would not consider car stereo products for a review, but since many of the new players also have the ability to play computer mp3 files I felt this review was more than appropriate. I listen to music all day long, but I have never had a CD player in my car. I hate spending money on my car (I would rather be buying home theater and computer equipment), and I especially hate the thought of spending thousands of dollars on a car stereo when many of the details of the music get lost in the typical car noise. I couple years I ago I did decide that as soon as a car CD player came out that would play mp3's (and was somewhat reasonably priced) that I would consider forking over some of my money. With the Aiwa CDC-MP3 both of those criteria were met. Anyone who tells you that an mp3 file sounds just like the CD version of the song isn't listening close enough or as with most people is playing the mp3 on a computer where sound quality is much harder to come by. In my opinion mp3 is perfectly made for car listening. The sound quality issue becomes non-existent because of all of the inherent noise in a car and you now can fit between five and ten albums per CD, which is a great space saver. Let's get into the specifics. Appearance CD
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One thing one needs to get used to is the process that is used to read the directory structure, and how it effects the order of the albums. Each album is given a number and this is determined by the alphabetical structure of the directory. If you want to directly access an album you will need to know how it fits in the structure. This takes a little while to get used to, but after using the player for a week or so it becomes quite comfortable. The player has the ability to read into memory 512 songs and eight levels deep of folder structure. When the player actually gets to a song, it reads the ID3 tag imbedded into most mp3's and all of the normal specs can be displayed. (Album Title, Artist, Song Title, File Name) I never had any problems in this area. The mp3 side of the player also has the random, intro, repeat song and repeat album functions. The random function is the only one that needs a bit more explanation. You would think that there would need to be both a random album and random entire disc function, but this player only has the random album function included. I believe some of the more expensive players ($600 vs. $300) include both features, but I cannot say I am real surprised. This is probably a memory limitation that a budget player is not going to cover. I did actually find a way around this issue. Normally when you burn the discs with the mp3 files each album is in its own folder. To randomly play all albums on a disc just combine all of the mp3's into one folder. The player will read the folder as a single album and you can randomize it from there. There is one other small annoyance you should be aware of when dealing with mp3 files. If you play a normal CD and turn the power off in the car, when you start the car up again the CD starts playing from the point you left off. When playing a disc with mp3's on it, the player restarts to the beginning of the song you were on. Normally (especially in California) this is not a big deal, but when you make a bunch of stops in a short period of time it gets annoying hearing the same song over and over again. (I just skip to the next track, but it is still an annoyance.) Tuner
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