I bike to work and back every day and have brought it with me religiously and haven't had it skip once that 40-sec anti shock thing works. I have read jogging is another story.

I taken extra care of the md recorder after reading so many people comments about the flimsy door and weak clip on the remote. I hope they will fix these problems. Thus far everything has worked perfectly.

I have done quite a bit of recording transferring my cds to md and find it quite good. Many of my blues cds aren't in stereo so the mono has extended my md from 75 mins to 150 which is of course excellent.

The remote is nice first take the player and push the hold button to the on position this stops all buttons on the recorder/player from being activated. Stick it in your pocket and now use the remote with out worrying about the music changing from the device itself. The remote does the job and is back lit which is helpful.

Well you have heard the good now the bad. The door it is flimsy with a weak spring!! I am worried whenever i open it! The door does not open fully buy itself and needs assistance each time. Also one side opens first then the other (scary). The internal battery door does not close snugly and leaves a 1-2mm gap on one side.

The earphones are very bad and remind me of my first walkman headphones and i would not be surprised if they were the same mini speakers.

They are tinny and fall out of your ears unless you are dumbo the elephant. I suggest buying a new pair at the time of purchase. I have to say after i bought new ones its sound was much better. Price is in my opinion is still to high for the products quality.

When i contacted aiwa in japan and asked for the location on the inter net of there manuals they replied promptly which was nice but suggested i send them $7.00 and they would be happy to send me an manual (like i haven't spent $260.00 on there machine already!!!!!) i would have to say the machine works but maybe another company is a better bet! I recently purchased an Aiwa F80 from Y3K Tech, and I must say, I am very pleased with this recorder. My first recorder I purchased was the Sony MZ-R70, and I had nothing but problems with it. My Aiwa has very little problems.

First, the Unit has a backlight, which I allready find very useful at night. Titling with the unit is a breeze with the Jog Dial, allthough you can't title from the remote, the remote is very useful with it's large screen. As for recording, I have had no problemswith that either, I use a plain 1/8 Headphone double sided cord to plug into the Optical Jack right to the Line Out of my computer, being I have an extensive MP3 collection, I mainly record from my computer. Many people tell me to buy an MP3 Player, but I have played with them, and I don't like them, much room for improvment, AND the fact that Memory is EXPENSIVE, im on a Navy Budget, minidiscs are perfect for my needs.

The only issue I have with the recorder is the CRAPPY headphones Aiwa supplies. The sound sucks from them, and they hurt my ears. You would think after spending decent money you can get a decent pair of earbuds.

After reading other reviews around the web, I decided that this would be the best recorder for me, I love Aiwa, I've used there audio products ever since I can remember, and the sound is fantastic.

One point of advice before choosing who to buy from, if anyone is in the Millitary, DON'T buy from them, It's 290 Dollars, and it takes forever to be shipped. I went with Y3K Tech, I found through Yahoo Shopping, they sent me the Unit, the Battery, and Car Kit for 259 Dollars total. I was very happy with them, and they send there orders out straight away!

If you are just looking for a simple, Nice looking recorder, that records good and plays well, you should look into this inexpensive unit. If the Sharp 831 impress's you, from my expeirence, i've used one, and there is nothing special about it, and the scren isn't backlit, sure its Slightly smaller, but believe me, if your used to CD- Walkmans, the Aiwa is SOOO much smaller, and easily fits in your pocket! I carry around my Pocket PC (which by the way play's MP3's, if you want to kill 2 birds with one stone) and My minidisc player in my pockets, and it's not at all clutterd. You really need to see the unit and play with it to understand how cool a Minidisc Player can be, Just go out and buy one if you have the cash, you won't at all be dissapointed! I purchased this unit several months ago and I have been quite pleased with it. The problems listed below are strictly nitpicks.

I have had no problems with the quality or reliability of the unit, however I am very careful with it. As with any small electronic device, I absolutely advise getting a carrying case; there is one supplied with the unit, but it is a felt baggie. I have found that a small camera case is a perfect size.

The rechargeable battery door is very flimsy, but I haven't had a need to use it since I first put the battery in. The supplied headphones are also weak and the cord is too short to be useful. Furthermore, the remote is pretty small and not a great design, so I have not really used it too much.

The sound quality of the unit has been excellent. I have recorded from my computer, cd's and also vinyl and it is really top quality. I doubt anyone short of the biggest audio-fanatic could find fault with the sound quality. While the playback is also quite clear, it is not too loud through headfones, even if a good pair is used; I personally would have appreciated a little extra power. There is no use for the DSL bass feature which adds sloppy bass to the sound, Awia could have left this off as far as I'm concerned.

I would like if it had an optical output. I also have found that editing is a little tricky, but that might be that I haven't got the hang of it just yet. Another wish would be for a dedicated output, but the headphone jack works just fine, and I have found having the volume control acts as an amplifier when I use the Awia with my car stereo.

A nice feature is that you can disable many of the extra function of the unit. The "ear guard" volume control, the "beep" when buttons are pushed, and the backlighting can all be turned on or off to suit the owners preference.

Overall I would give this unit a top rating because it is reliable and effective as a portable minidisc recorder. Introduction and Concept

The Aiwa AM C-80 (AM-F80 with AAx2 battery capacity) MiniDisc player is my first MiniDisc machine purchase. I have helped others set their MiniDisc units up for various purposes which I believe prompted my decision to buy one. As a musician, I hope to supplement the use of MiniDisc in addition to the DAT format. If the sound quality is acceptable, I plan to buy a professional unit and use it in place of DAT and get away from the precarious nature of tape. As I researched (online) the MD recorders out there at the time of this writing (3/2001), I kept coming back to the AM-C80 because of the included car adapter and jog wheel. I bought the Aiwa AM C-80 from Planet MiniDisc for $239 USD. I didn't worry about the optional lithium-ion battery until I really got into using this machine.

Getting Started

Within 24 hours after taking the recorder out of the box, along with doing some recordings and playbacks, I was on the phone ordering the optional battery (I paid $60 USD). I prefer to have this thing run on its own power source without being dependent on a wall wart or 12V car adapter. The included bulky battery pack was not very handy and will probably end up in my electronics junk box along with the cheesy ear bud headphones that came with this unit. I agree with the other reviewers here that Aiwa should have included the rechargeable battery but it probably would have driven up the initial price and might have deterred me from a good machine. The other included accessories however, I've found quite useful. The cigarette lighter power and cassette adapters are good quality. The cable length on each allow for convenient placement just about anywhere in the front area of your vehicle. The remote is very nice with its backlit screen and the controls are laid out in an easy to use fashion.

Recording

My first recording on the Aiwa AM-C80 was from an analog source. The playback from this first recording was quite good even though I had allowed a couple of peaks which shows as 'over' on the recording level indicator. There was no distortion in the playback despite these peaks. After some fiddling and experimentation, I was able to connect the digital out of my computer to the digital in of a DAT recorder. With the DAT recorder in record-pause mode, this allowed me to connect the optical input TOSlink cable from the optical out of the DAT for my first digital recording. There was a definite sonic improvement and a recording advantage of less peaking due to the digital source input. Perhaps my favorite feature of this little machine is the jog wheel. Its default function is volume. During recording, you can use it to name the track without disturbing the process. The jog wheel allows really fast indexing of characters. The Shift/Search button toggles you between numeric or upper and lower case in three modes. With some practice, I've become fairly quick at naming tracks and discs. My one beef with digital recording on the Aiwa AM-C80 is that synchronized recording can only be done from a connection made from another Aiwa product. It would be nice if unattended recordings of multiple separate tracks could be made.

Test Drive

Having made a few discs for listening, it was time to take a test spin in the car. My car stereo is the stock unit that came with my car ('96 VW Passat). I popped the cassette adapter in, plugged in the remote and 12V power and I was off and running. I find that the remote is very handy while driving. The remote can clip to your shirt or jacket so you can change tracks, adjust volume, etc. without taking your eyes off the road. The controls can be quickly memorized by feel with a little practice. Immediately I noticed that the sound quality was superior to my MP3 player. Even MP3s below 256k recorded on MD sounded excellent. Through canyon turns and bumps the AM-C80 never missed a beat. The LCD on the main display stays constantly lit whenever the AC adapter or 12V car adapter are plugged in. This is nice for night driving and late night recordings in your laboratory. The remote backlight goes out with a few seconds after any button is pressed regardless of power source. After stop has been pressed, the unit powers off a bit too fast for my liking but I guess I'll appreciate it more when I am running on the battery for a long stretch.

Summary

Overall I have to say my experience with the Aiwa AM-C80 has been very good. I feel a little sorry for my MP3 player that very well may end up in the Recycler classifieds. There's a good chance I'll pick up a professional MS recorder soon and I will put it through the paces and post my results here. Stay tuned.