At first I loved it. The sound quality is excellent. It has a good thump and even sounds nice and crisp at very high volumes. But, after only a year the CD player gave up. A buddy of mine also bought a very similar Aiwa model and his CD player exhibited the same problems as mine... Hmmmm.Still I kept it and hooked a CD player to the AUX. The Aiwa, once again, sounded excellent. After a few more months of use, when I turned it on, it just shut down. NEVER again will I buy Aiwa, they sound pretty good, but for how long?

For an afordable, feature ladden mini this is quite a good system. This unit has tonnes of features : karaoke, DSP, 20band EQ, 3disc, optical outputs, 4 channel sound, decent main speakers, tonnes of low distortion power(less than %2 fully driven) For rockers or rapers this unit is a dream. But when playing very intricate pieces of music (ie Mozart #41) this unit will falter. As for reliabilty, i've had no problems for 3years now, and have sold this system to my sister who is now fully enjoying it. When you are ready to move up to higher grade audio equipment may I suggest ENERGY loudspeakers. They are one of the best speakers in the sub $2000 price range.

I bought one a few years back in Hong Kong - complete with Short Wave in the Tuner which at the time was attractive. It's okay, I think, for the price. I had the same below-mentioned problem with the CD, which I was also told was a weak laser and would cost x dollars to fix. It was nothing of the kind. I took the back of it and adjusted the tracking myself and fixed it within a matter of minutes. You'll have to figure out which screw to turn yourself. Give yourself about ten minutes of hunting around max. I'll give it three stars, but maybe it deserves more. It certainly has tons of grunt - not that the speakers can handle it!

I bought one a few years back in Hong Kong - complete with Short Wave in the Tuner which at the time was attractive. It's okay, I think, for the price. I had the same below-mentioned problem with the CD, which I was also told was a weak laser and would cost x dollars to fix. It was nothing of the kind. I took the back of it and adjusted the tracking myself and fixed it within a matter of minutes. You'll have to figure out which screw to turn yourself. Give yourself about ten minutes of hunting around max. I'll give it three stars, but maybe it deserves more. It certainly has tons of grunt - not that the speakers can handle it!

Crisp stereo sound.

Tape deck, cd player, repair services

My system sounded beautiful for a little over three years. From the other reviews, I should consider myself "lucky". First, the cd player started acting up. I thought maybe it was the cds. They were older and the system would only skip for older cds. Then it would do the same for the newer ones too. Then the tape deck # 2 would jamb which means you cannot use tape deck # 1. I took it in for repairs which cost me $110. I get the system back after a month of it sitting on the shelf and now it shuts itself off after four minutes of play. I would not recommend this system to my enemy.

Sound quality. Features. Ease of use.

CD Player.

I think I was lucky that it was pretty perfect for about 3 years. Then the cd player started acting up, just like the other reviews said. I tried to get it repaired about 7 times because I liked the thing so much, but no luck. I had to junk it because it wouldn't play cds anymore...

Similar Products Used:

Sony, etc.

good for the first year

breaks down

well its my third year, sure enough it broke down. the cd player broke down the second year. tape player broke down third year, and the LCD is dim and unreadable now. I just use that piece of garbage to use it for video output now.

Very loud, resonable speaker

Construction, longetivity

Oh dear oh dear, just wanted to add my voice to the merry throng here. If my experience of buying an Aiwa has taught me anything, it's not to buy them again! This is my fourth year of owning this piece of c**p, the CD player doesn't pick up half the CDs I put in it, both tape decks are dead and chew up tapes, there's some sort of strange interference in the amp, there's a whole lot more but it's really not worth it. This is was and always will be an awful system. The price was good when I bought it, but the amount of times I had to call out the warranty people to fix it was unbelievable - thank God for extended warranties! If you're offered this second hand - at any price - do NOT buy it. I haven't bought anything from Aiwa since, and probably never will again. At least with a name like Sony or Technics or whatever you can trust the quality of their products, but Aiwa's are cheap and tacky.

Awesome power, Adjustable Graphic Equalizer

nothing

I bought this system about 4-5 years ago. I have owned it the whole time. Once in that time it didn't pick up a cd. The face fades a little but that is honestly the worst that I have experience. It is so powerful that I have run my 15" Kicker subs from it! The DSP is advanced for it's time. I have never seen another mini that I would want more, that is why I still have it. 5 years without a problem. I totally love it, sorry to all of you that have had problems :-)

Similar Products Used:

other cheap mini-systems

Let me tell you something and I hope you never forget it.

There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little cheaper, and the people who only consider price are the man's lawful prey. It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything , because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The Common Law of Business Balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.
IT CAN'T BE DONE