Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/626
Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car MP3-CD Player
by Mike Andrawes on September 25, 2000 5:51 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Introduction
The idea of moving MP3's away from the computer is one that has existed in the minds of many from the beginning of the MP3 craze over 4 years ago. In some cases the solution was simple - just hook your computer up to your home stereo and instantly you've got an essentially unlimited selection of music in your house. And that was pretty much the only option for couple of years after MP3's started becoming popular. Unfortunately, that doesn't give many reasonable options for music on the go, whether it be in the palm of your hand or in your car.
A few companies did notice the potential for MP3's in the marketplace, starting with Diamond Multimedia and their Rio portable MP3 player. The Rio was a flash card based device that could hold about 30 minutes of "CD quality music" in its first incarnation. Combine the limited play time with the fact that the "CD quality music" really wasn't thanks to a combination of low quality MP3 decoder chip, DAC, and output amp and the alternatives of MiniDisc or your own burned audio CD's were quite appealing. Nevertheless, the Rio gained quite a bit of popularity and the second-generation models were improved considerably, spawning clones by everyone from Best Data to Sony.
The car audio market still largely ignored MP3 playback as an option on new decks. There were pretty much two options until recently - 1. use a portable MP3 player, like the Rio, in conjunction with an auxiliary input on your head unit or 2. find a way to put a computer in your car. Once again, the Rio may be great as a portable device, but with only 1 hour of playback, there are better options out there, such as CD changers, to keep the music going in the car. As far as putting a computer in the car, many people have succeeded in doing exactly this, whether it is in the form of a notebook computer or a custom designed box to handle playback duties. This is essentially how the empeg evolved, with the Mark II model running Linux on a 220 MHz StrongARM processor with 2.5" notebook hard drives for storage.
While the computer in the car idea is an interesting one and certainly the most flexible, it is also a very expensive one - the cheapest empeg currently available is $1200, which is quite expensive for a head unit, no matter how you look at it.
As the empeg continued to gain popularity, it remained little more than a dream for many due to the high cost and limited availability. Simultaneously, MP3 fans everywhere were looking for better solutions a number of companies announced portable MP3-CD players that used cheap CD-R(W) discs as storage for MP3 music. It's such an obvious idea that it continues to amaze us just how long it took to for manufacturers to think of it. Unfortunately, the companies announcing these players constantly delayed their products and many MP3 fans gave up hope of ever actually obtaining one.
Finally Kenwood and Aiwa almost simultaneously announced plans for MP3-CD players early this year. They were both supposed to come to market early this year, but product delays had prospective buyers screaming "vaporware" once again, with many giving up and going with computer-based units in their cars.
It's now early fall and Aiwa and Kenwood have finally delivered their products. The Kenwood Z919 is selling for about $650, making Aiwa's CDC-MP3 and its $300 price tag the most appealing car MP3 unit on the market. It is this simple fact that has kept the CDC-MP3 selling out nationwide despite Aiwa's less than stellar reputation in the car audio market.
Specifications
The big draw for the CDC-MP3 is obviously its MP3 capabilities, but the vast
majority of the specifications have absolutely nothing to do with this part
of its functionality. The CDC-MP3 is after all still a head unit and handles
all the duties a normal head unit would handle.
First and foremost, that means there is a full AM/FM tuner section, unlike the empeg that only includes an optional tuner add-on. A total of 30 presets are available, including 3 sets of 6 FM presets and 2 sets of 6 AM presets. FM mono sensitivity, a specification that indicates a tuners ability to pick up an FM signal, is listed at 12.7dBf where lower is better. Although the measured value here is numerically worse than other tuners from mainstream manufacturers, it performed reasonably well in our testing - certainly better than many OEM head units that the CDC-MP3 may be replacing. It is the same tuner Aiwa uses in their other cassette/CD heads units. For those interested in bringing the CDC-MP3 from the US to another country, there is a switch on the bottom of the unit that will allow the FM tuner to work in 50kHz steps (instead of 100kHz) and the AM tuner in 9kHz steps (instead of 10kHz), as required in most countries of the world.
As an MP3-CD player, the CDC-MP3 can, naturally, also play audio CD's. Once again, we see a somewhat sub par specification from Aiwa in the form of the CD signal to noise ratio, which is only 85dB. While it's not horrible by any means, it is lower than pretty much every other CD section found in competing receivers, which are usually in the 90's and as high as 108dB. If you're really into car audio, especially competition level car audio, this specification may make a difference to you, but in most cars road/wind noise immediately eliminates this from affecting your listening experience.
Aiwa seems to make a big deal out of the fact that most of their newer models can play CD-R's and CD-RW's, but most CD players (be it for the car or otherwise) will play CD-R's just fine. However, CD-RW support is relatively unique in any stand-alone CD player for the car or home.
Like most mainstream head units (but not the empeg), the CDC-MP3 includes an integrated amp that drives 45W peak/22W RMS to 4 channels. This is one area in which Aiwa is able to shine, as this is pretty much the most power you'll see in a head unit's integrated amp. Unless it's a premium system (Bose, Infinity, Nakamichi, etc.), 22W RMS is more power than most factory head units provide and will be more than enough to drive non-premium factory speakers. An external amp is recommended for driving just about anything beyond the factory speakers, however. We'll touch more on those premium systems in the installation section.
For those that aren't even interested in using the integrated amp, Aiwa has included 2 sets of 2.2V preouts (front and rear) that can be used for adding external amps. That 2.2V output rating is pretty much average for an entry-level to mid-range head unit.
Higher voltage preouts mean that any noise you pick up in your signal cables will be smaller relative to your signal. For example, if you're picking up 0.1V of noise on a 2.2V output, 5% of your signal is noise. Meanwhile, picking up the same amount of noise on a 4V output results in only 3% of your signal being noise. Note that the first set of specs and pictures released proclaimed 4V preouts, but apparently some cost cutting was necessary between then and now in order to hit the promised $299 price point.
And if MP3's on CD-R(W) isn't enough or if a new standard arises, the CDC-MP3 does have an auxiliary input on its front panel. It comes in the form of a 1/8" stereo jack, much like that used on your soundcard, and accepts a 300mV (0.3V) signal. This would normally be surprisingly low voltage for a car audio device, but considering that it's meant for small portable devices, it should be fine.
If you still need more music, the CDC-MP3 can also interface with one of Aiwa's CD changers. To answer the question on just about everyone's mind - no, the CD changer cannot play CD's with MP3's on them, just standard audio CD(-RW)'s here. The reason for this is simple - the connection between the head unit and CD changer is analog, so the MP3 decoder would have to be in the CD changer itself in order to play MP3-CD's. While this is not impossible to do, it's something that Aiwa simply has not done - at least not yet.
Finally, the virtually mandatory detachable face for security purposes and a wireless steering wheel remote for convenience are included as well. More on both of these later.
Installation
The installation of the CDC-MP3 is just like any other head unit, so any car
audio shop will be able to handle it without a problem. If you'll be doing your
own install, we'll give you some of our experiences with the CDC-MP3. Aiwa also
includes a relatively brief poster describing the process.
There's basically three steps to installing a head unit in a car:
- Remove the old unit
- Wire up the new unit
- Mount the new unit
You'll want to disconnect the battery to insure that you don't damage your car's electrical system. This is a good general precaution when you're working on anything electronic in the car.
As with any car head unit install, the trickiest part is usually getting the old unit out. This varies from simply removing a couple screws to taking apart the whole dash - it just depends what type of car you have.
Assuming you're replacing a non-premium factory head unit, wiring is made much easier by simply purchasing a wiring harness for your car that interfaces with the plug that went to your factory head unit and providing you with free wires to attach to your new unit. Basically, this prevents you from cutting any wires in your car and also provides a standard color code for every wire that needs to be connected. Because that color code is standardized, they match right up to the colors on the CDC-MP3's wiring hardness so it's a simple matter of splicing the two sets of wires together. This can be accomplished by soldering, but crimp caps are much easier and provide an equally solid connection. The wiring harness will set you back about $10-15, but it's definitely worth it. If you've got amplifiers in the system, attach those signal cables here as well.
You may want to reconnect the battery at this point to test the new unit to make sure everything is working before you start mounting it and reassembling your car.
Complications may arise at this point if you've got a premium sound system because they often use a combination of external amps, non-standard speaker impedance, non-standard output signals, and/or non-standard antenna interfaces. There are adapters that will allow you to get around these problems in many cases, but unless you know what you're doing, these situations are really best left to the pros.
Mounting the new head unit will also vary a bit depending on the exact type of car you have. In most cases, you will place the included cage (sometimes called a sleeve) in the hole left by your old head unit and bend its tabs to secure it in place. From there, simply slide the unit into the cage until it clicks into place. This is known as Euro-DIN. Otherwise, you use screws to mount the new head unit to a bracket that held the old one in place. This configuration is known as ISO-DIN. A few other variations exist, but the others are variations on these. Crutchfield's site has information on the different mounting types offered in different cars. Finally, a mounting strap attaches between the back of the unit and your cars chassis to secure everything up. If need be, it's time to reassemble your dash and you're ready to go.
There were a few things to note about the CDC-MP3 that make it a bit different than most other units. Aiwa did not include a dimmer lead on this unit. If the wiring harness you bought includes such a lead, make sure you insulate the bare wire so that nothing shorts out. Similarly, there is no mute wire to automatically mute the CDC-MP3 when your cell phone rings. While this is not a feature found on every head unit out there, it is one that is becoming much more common on units in this price range.
The aforementioned steering wheel remote is a relatively simple install. A strap basically wraps around the steering wheel and you attach the remote to this assembly.
Unlike many other head units on the market, the CDC-MP3 has its preouts, antenna plug, and CD changer interface all directly on the rear of the unit. Most other models use a short dongle to make these connections easier to work with.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Sitting to the right of the display is the receiver for the IR transmitter of the steering wheel remote. Unfortunately, this isn't exactly the ideal location for the left hand drive cars found in the US since it simply moves the receiver that much further from the transmitter. Indeed the CDC-MP3 could use some help in this area, as our steering wheel remote was only functional when the wheel was turned such that the remote was as far right as possible. These findings have been confirmed by numerous CDC-MP3 owners posting around the internet.
Otherwise, the steering wheel remote has quite a bit potential, especially compared to the regular wireless remotes we're used to seeing with most head units. The one Aiwa has included allows for changing volume, disc, preset, and source from the remote.
The mute button is located to the left and above the volume knob, but unfortunately the system does not completely mute when you hit this button. That mute button also doubles as the power button, requiring you to hold it down for about 4 seconds to shut everything off. A simple solution to both these problems would be a dedicated power button as well as the addition of a pause button.
A function button is located to the right and above the volume knob. It should probably be named a source button because that's what it does - switch between sources. Unfortunately, there is no direct access to a specific source, so you potentially have to cycle through 3 FM, 2 AM, and 1 Auxiliary In to get to your MP3-CD if you're listening to something else.
The select button sits to the left of the rotary encoder knob and serves to cycle through audio settings, such as bass, treble, balance, fader, etc. This is also where you can access some of the more unique features that Aiwa offers, such as DSSA and H-Bass. DSSA stands for "Driver Sound Stage Adjustment." As the name suggest, it's designed to adjust the sound stage to fit a particular seat in the car. In our testing, it simply seemed to lower the volume, especially of mid to upper frequencies and flat out sounded bad. H-Bass is Aiwa's bass boost feature. The manual doesn't list a particular frequency that it works on, but there are 3 levels of boost and it seems to offer more flexibility than the loudness function included on many other units.
To the right of the rotary encoder are the track up/down buttons that also double as tuning buttons. Unfortunately, the tune buttons must be held down for about 2 seconds in order to get the unit to seek the next strong station. Ideally, this should be something that can be switched to fit the user's preference.
Like far too many manufacturers, Aiwa did not provide a way to randomize between all discs in the CD changer, only within the current disc. Further, when random mode is enabled, the fast forward/rewind capabilities of the unit are disabled and those buttons instead skip to the next song or back to the beginning of the current song, respectively. Notice that there was no skip to the previous song - it's not possible in random mode for some reason. Unfortunately, this lack of foresight with the CD-changers random mode will come back to haunt Aiwa later.
A nice touch by Aiwa is the inclusion of a source-level adjustment, which lets you adjust the relative level of the different sources that the Aiwa can access. This prevents you from destroying your ears when you radio, which may be relatively quiet, to a CD that may be much louder. We didn't find the need to use this feature, but it could come in quite handy under the right circumstances.
MP3-CD's
The big question on most people's minds is obviously "how does the CDC-MP3
handle MP3 playback?" After all, the big draw of this unit is the MP3 playback
and that's the exact reason it grabbed our attention here at AnandTech.
As should be obvious by now, the CDC-MP3 plays MP3's that have been burned to CD (both CD-R and CD-RW are supported). The manual states that CD's should be burned in ISO9660 format, but we had no problem using the Joliet file system that most CD burning applications use under Windows for long filename support. Note that CD's burned with packet writing software (e.g. DirectCD) are not supported, but multisession (with up to 5 sessions) is supported.
On the CDC-MP3, long file names up to 32 characters can be read from discs written in either ISO9660 or Joliet format. Rest assured that if you go over 32 characters, you can still read the MP3's, but the filename will be truncated on the display. MP3 files are simply recognized by the .mp3 extension on the filename. Folders, up to 8 levels deep, are also supported.
The CDC-MP3 supports MP3's encoded from 32kbps - 320kbps, including variable bitrate (VBR) files. If you assume 128kbps encoding, that's 1MB per minute of audio, which in turn means you can store over 10 hours of music on one CD-R(W). Obviously that introduces the problem of how to organize over 150 songs on a single CD.
Aiwa has taken the approach that each directory is treated like a CD in a CD changer, while each file is like a track on a CD. To navigate this structure, simply use the Album/Disc up and down buttons (Presets 1 and 2) to go through directories and the track up/down buttons to move between songs.
Files and directories are played back in alphabetical order by filename, so if you want a specific order to your music, you should probably name the first song as "01 - filename.mp3" followed by "02 - filename.mp3" and so on. There is no problem recognizing spaces, the upper and lower case alphabet, and most common symbols. You'll want to put your directories in order like this as well to make things as easy as possible to find.
The CDC-MP3 is able to read song title and artist information from version 1.x ID3 tags. The 32 character limit allowable character rules that applied to filenames also apply to ID3 tags, but this time, the length limitation is imposed by the ID3 spec, not the CDC-MP3.
MP3-CD Playback
The DISP button
to the right of the display toggles between filename, ID3 song title, ID3 artist,
directory name, song time display, and the clock. If all you're MP3's have proper
ID3 tags, you'll probably want to just leave it on the ID3 song title.
If not, the filename display may be the better option, or you can simply switch the display depending on the song that comes on.
If any of the above information is longer than the 10 character display, the information simply scrolls across to allow you to see it all. If ID3 tags are not included with a particular MP3, you'll get the words "None" in the display when you try to view such info.
We wish Aiwa had ditched the VU meter display and given us another line of text, which would open up quite a few options, including simultaneously viewing artist and song title from the ID3 tag or directory and file name. Even better yet would be smaller text, but with many more characters.
Now that you've got your MP3-CD's all ready to go, it's time to listen to some music. This is where Aiwa began to make mistakes in their MP3 implementation. The first problem you'll notice is the long delay time before an MP3-CD begins playing - approximately 20-30 seconds for most of the CD's we tested, but Aiwa warns that it can be up to 2 minutes depending on the number of songs and directories on the disc. Unfortunately, every time the unit is turned off, either by the power button or simply turning off your car, this 20-30 second delay is repeated again. The same goes for switching from the tuner to an MP3-CD that's been sitting in the player. It seems that Aiwa should have been able to keep this information in memory, just like they do with the clock time and radio presets - in other words, using the +12V constant power that comes from the car battery.
Along the same lines, there is a 3-5 second pause when seeking between songs, and about a 2 second pause between simultaneous songs. The seek delays are somewhat understandable, but the pause between simultaneous songs can cause an unexpected pause between tracks that normally flow together on the original CD. The unit should know what song is coming next, so prebuffering could easily solve this minor issue.
Unlike a normal CD head unit (including the CDC-MP3 when it plays standard audio CD's), MP3 playback does not resume where you left off. Rather, the last song that was playing is remembered, but it starts at the beginning of that song. Once again, it seems like this would be something relatively simple to deal with, especially given that the CDC-MP3 takes 20 seconds to get started as it is.
Looking around a disc for a certain song can also be an exercise in frustration. As you navigate through you're music, all you get is an album and track number display, as shown below. It would make much more sense to display the directory names as you move up and down through directories and file names (or ID3 song title) as you search for a particular song.
We mentioned earlier that variable bitrate (VBR) MP3's are supported, but unfortunately the time display is completely off for these MP3's, running somewhere between normal speed and 3 times as fast at any given time, even within the same song. The manual does warn that the MP3 time display may not be accurate, but this, once again, seems like a problem that could have easily been solved.
For some, the most frustrating part of MP3 navigation on the CDC-MP3 is the fact that you lose so much of the functionality that we've gotten used to on our computers. There is no playlist support, no way to play by genre/artist/etc, and random play only applies to the directory you're currently in. The lack of playlist or play by genre/artist/etc. support is somewhat understandable, but being able to randomize through the whole disc is fundamental and should be a relatively simple thing to implement. This limitation probably stems from the way Aiwa has limited their CD changers to random on one album (remember that an album is equivalent to a directory on an MP3-CD) at a time as well.
Of course, how this all effects your experience with the CDC-MP3 is all dependent on how you listen to music. If you like to listen to albums straight through, the CDC-MP3 is perfect. The same goes if you are willing to organize your music by genre and randomize through one genre at a time. But for those that listen to music in a variety of different ways, the CDC-MP3 simply is simply not flexible enough.
Another rather odd limitation of the random function is that if you have more than 128 songs in a directory, it must play the first 128 songs before it even touches the second set of 128. This is really only a problem if you want to put all your music in one directory so that you can listen to all of it on random.
Once again, the bottom line is that the CDC-MP3 is designed to play MP3's and it does play them well in our experience. As far as we can tell, if the MP3's are ripped properly they play fine, regardless of which encoder is used. However, MP3's with errors did cause skipping wherever an error existed, whereas computer players, such as Winamp, would just keep going with a slight blip in the music on the same songs. Of course, hitting a big pothole while you're driving is going to cause a skip in the music, just like any other CD head unit. There have been reports across the web of excessive skipping and problems with certain brands of media. All we can report is what we found and that was not the case in our use of the unit.
Conclusion
If you've been reading every word of this review, you may think that we weren't
exactly happy with the Aiwa CDC-MP3. That's not the case by any means since
it's main purpose for existence is to play hours and hours of MP3's in your
car off cheap CD-R(W) media and it accomplishes this. It's just that there is
so much potential here and the CDC-MP3 could have been so much more.
If you stop to think about it, this is the same pattern we saw with first generation portable MP3 players. The first generation Rio pales in comparison to current models, but at its launch was the best thing since sliced bread. The big difference here? The first generation portable players had many more fundamental problems, especially in the area of sound quality, than the first generation units we're seeing for cars. We expect the second generation units to be very good, but the question of how long it will be before we see them is still unanswered as no other big names have announced car MP3-CD players.
The empeg, of course, doesn't have most of these problems because it is essentially a computer that happens to fit in the space of a car stereo. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the empeg was designed out of necessity by a group of guys that could not live without MP3's in the car, while the Aiwa was likely designed by a team of engineers given a specific task. That's the difference between an MP3 fan designing an MP3 player without much focus on cost and a group of engineers that really don't know a lot about MP3's with a very limited budget.
It basically comes down to a few key questions whose answers will essentially make your decision for you - how badly do you want MP3's in your car, how much are you willing to pay for it, and how do you listen to your music. The empeg is obviously the most flexible solution, but the cost is prohibitive for most. Kenwood's Z919, which we'll be looking at in the coming weeks, is very similar to the CDC-MP3, but costs almost double. Is it worth it for similar functionality and a bigger brand name? That's up to you, but in most cases the answer will be no.
So if you need MP3's in your car now, the Aiwa CDC-MP3 is the obvious choice. And the fact of the matter is, if you want MP3's in your car that badly, the faults we found with the CDC-MP3 are not going to bother you too much, if at all.
How it Rates
AnandTech Rating |
|
Rating
(x/10)
|
|
Audio Quality/Performance
|
6.0
|
Features
|
6.0
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Price
|
7.5
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Availability
|
7.5 |
Documentation
|
5.0
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Overall Rating - Not an Average |
7.0
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