Wealth of Features

Cheaply assembled... poor quality.

I purchased this based on the features offered for the price. Initially it played wonderfully and was a perfect addition to my "budget conscious" home theatre system. However, after a litte more than a year after purchase, the CD player would only play discs intermittently and the cassette would occasionally get stuck during the head rotation in auto-reverse. 3 months later, the only thing function was the Video inputs and the AM/FM tuner.

This unit (as apparently ALL AIWA systems) is very cheaply made. It is one thing to cut corners to reduce costs... it is quite another to build something that will guarantee to fail within a short time. The drive mechanism for the CD changer and CD transport are entirely made of ill-fitting plastic. It is a wonder this unit EVER played CDs.

I would not recommend AIWA systems.

I've had this unit for about 3 or 4 years and have been very satisfied. Although it does lack in bass, its makes up in clarity and sound quality. Just recently the CD player would not recognize some of my CD's. I simply removed the outer cover of the unit and used a camera lens cleaner to clean the CD lens. It's been about 6 months since the cleanung and I have yet to have this problem reaccur.

This product has great features and works well in a surround sound, audio/visual environment. Sound is great and customer service is also good.

Bad Bass!

I have been very satisfied with my minisystem since Jan. of '97. I love listening to my cds or watching a great surround sound movie like Jurassic Park. The bass is very mediocre so I suggest getting a subwoofer. Recently my cds have not been recognized and won't be played. It only occurs to certain cds, so I have no clue what's wrong. If anyone knows if this is a design flaw or just wear please email me.

looks cool

cd broke w/in 6 mos.

my brother's cd broke w/in year. two friends aiwa cd broke w/in 1 year. 4 out of 4 aiwa cd players broke in less than one year. my tape player broke w/in 2 years as did my two friends. 1-800-aiwa support # had only obnoxious liars on phone. i will never buy one again. i also share all my aiwa experiences with anybody i see stereo shopping. aiwa must be stopped.

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sharp rules

Cheap, loud. Doesn't sound horrible.

Cheap, gimmicky, ugly, CD player broke.

From talking to others, and reading the reviews posted here, it appears that Aiwa mini-systems have chronic problems with their CD players. Mine broke after one year. Now I have a discman plugged into the auxillary jack.
Although they are cheap, don't waste your money on Aiwa mini systems. Save some pennys and buy something better. Check out Yamaha.

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I will never use anything like this again.

Excellent sound quality, if you purchase the optional $200 subwoofer

cd changer doesn't work properly

I had problems with this unit from the time I got it home. The center speaker had a short and did not function properly. I was told by the retailer that I had not hooked the system up properly. After several phone conversations I packed up the whole system and returned it. After much discussion I did receive a new system from the Good Guys. Then the CD player started not playing properly. Luckly I had purchased the extended service plan from the Good Guys. They had it for 3 weeks only to tell me that once again it was my fault that it works fine I just need to keep my cds clean. I tried to explain it didn't even work with new cds. The cd player is now totally useless I am enraged by the service I received from both The Good Guys and Awia. I will not purchase another product from either.

I purchased this system last July. I have been happy with it so far, how-ever, last week, the C/D player took a major dive. It was not able to recognize that there was a C/D in the tray, therefore, it will not play. I was fortunate in that I purchased the extended warranty package from Fry's Electronics.I took it in to be repaired and discovered to my horror that
they had two identical systems in for repair, ALL with the same problem.
This is not a good sign in MY opinion.I wonder if it is a serious design
flaw, and if so, will this repair (which will take up to 10 (TEN) weeks to
complete) fix it, or will I be back again and again until my warranty runs
out? This makes me nervous and unhappy.

I have own this machine for a little more than 4 years now. This first month I bought it, I had to take it to Authorized repair shop to get the cd changer spin table repair because it is not working properly. Then, the laser pick up was lame, a lot of my CDs can't be player normally. Now, my spin table is broken again, I have to take it to shop again, this time, no warrenty, probably going to cost me about $50 to $100 to get it repaired.

good sound

has had to be repaired 5 times in the last four years

AIWA must be too sensitively set or made because both of the AIWA mini systems (including a model from 1997) that I have had had to be repaired or cleaned. The one I bought in 1996 was fine for the first year and then it had to be repaired twice the next year and then once each year after that. The SONY I've had for 10 years had never had a problem.

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CX-NMT50

Very loud - various audio settings very cool as well.

Surround Sound Speakers and Center Speaker Suck(s).

The sound volume level and the various audio settings are pretty cool, for the quality and price paid - not bad.
However I have had this goddam thing for almost five years nad have still not figured out how to make this thing a mini-home theater as they keep mentioning in the instructions!

The so-called surround sound speakers are horrible and the center channel has yet to churn out more than a low level hiss. However, the floorstanding speakers are phenomenal and rival much pricier competetion.

Thought about purchasing the subwoofer as an addition, but based on my overall experience, and reading these other reviews, no way. Next time I will fork over the cash and buy a bose system. Sorry aiwa (the microsoft of home audio), throw in a little more quality and testing before you roll out this stuff and tell people that they have to have stereo VCR before they spend hours trying to config this thing to sound half-way decent when you watch a movie!
Folks don't spend $350-$450 bucks for problems and crap - What the hell am I talking about, I sure did. Go Bose!