CD/DVD/MP3/VCD Players	Volume 5 Number 2 Feb. 28, 2001	RealAudio

by Scott Tilley

I have owned an audio CD player since 1987. It worked pretty well for the first 10 years or so, then started having problems recognizing discs and refused to play many CDs in my collection. Instead of buying a replacement CD player, I bought a DVD player that can also play audio CDs. However, this DVD player can also play Video CDs (VCDs) and -- most importantly -- MP3 CD-R and CD-RW discs. Now I can pop in a single CD and enjoy over 10 hours of continuous music on my home stereo. It's digital music to my ears!

One of the problems with being an early adopter of new technology is that you quickly become left behind when the second and third generation product offerings begin to appear. When I bought my first audio CD player in 1987, a dbx DX5, it was state-of-the-art. It served me very well for about 10 years before beginning to show signs of first-generation aging. Admittedly, I must have played many thousands of CDs on the DX5. I have also moved it across the continent several times, undoubtedly jarring its laser and servo mechanisms mercilessly. In the last two years the DX5 became very finicky about which CDs it liked and would play, and which CDs it disliked and refused to play. It was clearly time for a change.

Since I was in the market for a new CD player, I figured I might as well look into the new DVD players as well. DVD players were the hot seller of the past holiday season. Even though DVD movies remain too expensive for my taste, renting the occasional DVD is still an attractive alternative to a trip to the local multiplex. The biggest advantage of a DVD player that can also play MP3 discs is that instead of 74 minutes of music from an audio CD, I can listen to over 10 hours of MP3 music through my home stereo system.

As often happens, the rapidly changing technology landscape changed my decision. I opted instead to purchase one of the newest DVD players on the market that could also process CD-R and CD-RW discs encoded with MP3 music files. I was only planning on purchasing one, but I ended up evaluating two.

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Apex AD703

My first selection was the Apex AD703. It has a 3-disc carousel DVD/CD changer for continuous play of DVD movies or music CDs. More importantly for me, it also plays CD-R and CD-RW discs containing MP3 files. Apex is a relatively unknown company in the home stereo arena. However, most of the big names in home audio are still sitting on the fence over the whole MP3 issue and seem unwilling to offer MP3-enabled DVD/CD players. 

The Apex machine cost $179.99 at Circuit City -- the only local retailer to carry it in their stores. When I returned home I faced the task of installing it. Like many people, I already have a VCR that is connected to my TV. And I have a home stereo that had the old DX5 CD player connected to. Finally, I had the TV connected to the stereo so that I could listen to movies through the stereo system rather than the tiny TV speakers. This setup works fine, but it did mean a rewiring job was required to insert the DVD player into the mix. After another trip to the local electronics store to get the required cables, splitters, and connectors I had the Apex installed and working.

Well, mostly working. The Apex played audio CDs fine and the MP3 CDs also played without a problem. But DVD movies were more erratic. The machine takes quite a while to examine the disc to determine its type (audio CD, MP3, etc.), but for DVD movies it just refused to play most of them. I even returned a brand-new James Bond movie and exchanged it, in the unlikely event that the new DVD was flawed, but it played perfectly at the store and the replacement DVD also failed to play on the Apex. So, I brought the unit back to Circuit City and looked around some more.

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Aiwa XDDV370

In the end I purchased an Aiwa XDDV370 for $219.99, also from Circuit City. I based this decision on several factors. I read quite a bit on the Web about problems that other people had experienced with the Apex player I had, and some other models in their product line as well. In contrast, the Aiwa had received quite good reviews, and it has a much larger and well-known company backing the product.

The XDDV370 is a single-disc DVD/CD player with MP3 decoding capability. Adding the Aiwa player into my system was actually easier than adding the Apex, because the Aiwa has extra audio-out connectors on the back so that one set of wires can go to the stereo and another set to the TV. It played all the audio CDs, DVD movies, and MP3 discs that I tried.

The Aiwa model can also play Video CDs, or VCDs. The VCD format is not very popular in North America, but in other parts of the world is it used quite often. I have tried a VCD version of the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" direct from China and it worked perfectly.

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Other Options

At the moment, the options available to anyone wanting to play MP3 music discs is rather limited. Of course the discs can be played on a PC or on one of the portable devices like the Creative Nomad. Very recently there have been several manufacturers that have produced MP3 "servers" on the market. These players, from the likes of Gateway, Dell, and Turtle Beach, rely on your PC to store and serve MP3 files. The files are accessed by the player across a network (Ethernet or telephone usually) from the PC and then played through your home stereo.

This setup has the advantage of playing a virtually unlimited number of MP3 songs, managed and stored on your PC. But this is also the disadvantage, since the PC must be on and connected via a local area network to your home stereo. For now, I'm satisfied with my combination CD/DVD/MP3/VCD player. Pop in one CD-R disc I've burned on my PC and I've got over 10 hours of near-CD quality audio to listen to. Now if car stereos only had this ability ...