Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car MP3-CD Player

General Use
For a moment, let's ignore the MP3 aspect and focus on how the CDC-MP3 operates in general. From the picture of the faceplate below, you can see that there is a relatively large display, a rotary encoder volume knob, and your standard control buttons.

Click to Enlarge

Unlike many head units out there, the buttons on the CDC-MP3 are not crammed together, but rather have quite a bit of unused space around them. This makes using the unit relatively easy with unwanted buttons rarely pressed. All the buttons provide good tactile feedback that is further reinforced by a beeping sound when any button is pressed. That beep can be disabled if it bothers you

The rotary encoder volume knob allows for quick volume changes. Unlike most factory stereos, but like just about every other knob on aftermarket head units, the knob is a digital device that can be used for adjusting numerous sound options, such as bass, treble, etc. Fortunately, Aiwa did not make this knob a button as well - other units have done this and its simply too easy to hit the button by accident when you're trying to adjust the volume, especially for passengers that may not be familiar with your stereo.

For some odd reason, Aiwa decided to make the volume range run from 0 to 80, but it doesn't really affect the usage of the CDC-MP3. However, what's really annoying about the volume control is the fact that all the blue lights on the faceplate blink every time you change the volume. We're not sure what Aiwa was thinking when they made such a design decision, but it's very distracting and is definitely noticeable in your peripheral vision while driving. During the day, the blue lights pretty much wash out in the sunlight, but at night they emit quite a glow.

While we're on the subject, it should be mentioned that the looks of the CDC-MP3 have been described as everything from "ugly" to "cheesy" to "wicked." Most of the AnandTech staff has been leaning towards the cheesy/ugly side of the debate, but this is obviously a very subjective topic. The design is actually inline with what most of the car audio industry seems to be pushing these days (Sony's Xplod line comes to mind).

Click to Enlarge

The CD slot is hidden by the faceplate, which flops down at the touch of the open button in the upper right hand corner of the faceplate. This is not a motorized process for those that are wondering. Once the faceplate is down, an eject button can be found next to the CD slot. This is also the position that you remove the faceplate from - simply give it a tug and it comes off. Unfortunately, putting it back on is not quite so simple and takes quite a bit of practice.

Click to Enlarge

The large display of the CDC-MP3 is right in the middle of the faceplate and is quite easy to read in most lighting conditions. The one exception is when the sun is at just the right angle to reflect directly off glossy plastic finish of the faceplate. Otherwise, despite the lack of a dimmer feature, the CDC-MP3 is fairly easy to read in bright sunlight or complete darkness. A contract adjustment is available to help compensate for different viewing angles, but was not necessary in our testing.

Click to Enlarge

The top half of the display is taken up by a very nice text display, containing 10 characters, each of which is made up of a 5x7 dot matrix. This really comes in handy when it's time to play MP3's, but the rest of the time it's used for simple tasks like radio station frequency and preset, clock time, elapsed time on CD's, track number, etc. The CDC-MP3 does not support RDS (Radio Data System), so you won't get station name information on that beautiful text display.

We've all gotten used to the visualization features that computer MP3 players provide us with. Well Aiwa apparently felt the need to do something here and has included a simple VU meter that takes up about half the display. Unfortunately, they neglected to include a dedicated indicator for random play, choosing instead to waste the text area of the display for this information and simultaneously prevent the display of time elapsed information.