Aiwa CSD-FD82 Fun Review: Possibly the Ugliest Unit I've Seen.

I found this lil gem while thrifting the other day that made me genuinely laugh out loud in the store. Have a look:


This in all it's Y2K glory, is the AIWA CSD-FD82. Obviously, it looks quite bizarre, and it's very rare, so let's investigate this alien further and see if it has anything worth collecting or buying if for.

Now before I get to the nitty gritty, lemme just say that this box is NOT what most collectors call vintage, It was made in mid 2001, and it came out in 1999, so It's not truly retro... just keep that in mind. Also, I paid 10 dollars for this fully functional specimen here, and its remote.




Appearance:

So... the physical appearance. This original creation of Aiwa's is a mixture of ill-defined curves and super clean lines. Typically, you would see one or the other, not both fighting for your ever-loving attention at the same time. The color scheme is something similar to the quicksilver PowerMac G4, and the super bold bass port and tweeters kinda make the unit feel like it's staring at you at all times... with... 4 eyes? Surely, there is a better way to design a four speaker system than this. Being an adolescent in the early 2000s though, this design instantly beings a smile to my face every time, and I give it a definite respect and admiration for owning its ugliness.




High-end, or Low-end?

This unit gives off vibes that it was designed to be high end for its size and market. While I'm not sure on the exact price since little info is available, there are a few features that stand out as unique and high-end. First, it has an illuminated display, and It's not dim either. It could totally double as a night light if necessary (yikes... maybe.). Not only this, the display has a few colors to choose from. Just take a look:





Blue and purplish/whitish... choices. That feature just makes this unit more weird... like who was asking for that feature? ... enough about the display though, this unit omits the typical el-cheapo piano key tape deck for a full logic deck that can be operated by the remote. Now that definitely separates this unit from its cheaper competitors. Oh, a remote you ask? Yes, I have one for it, and you will never see it anywhere on this post because it has yellowed to the point of no return. I've saved you from that unforgettable image. Other notable features here are a 5 preset EQ system, Q-sound virtual surround, and CD-RW support. Clearly, this unit was aimed at the higher-end market, and has many features that choosy customers would have found nice, and elementary school me would have not even noticed... not cool. Respect to the one dude who bought it just because the display could change colors.



SOUND!

The FD82's claim to fame are the three oval shaped buttons pictured above... QSOUND, T-BASS, and 3-MODE EQ. Let me just hit the highlights very quickly. When the unit has no enhancements of any kind turned on, it sounds like cell-phone speaker inside a barrel. Not great by any means. BUT, when you activate T-bass... You clamp the lid on one side of that barrel adding a whole new dimension of mediocrity. Seriously, I can't tell any difference between T-bass and no T-bass... nothing at all. The three mode EQ is actually quite decent, and It's very useful depending on what song/mode you are playing through. QSOUND is very dramatic, but not in a good way. It mutes vocals, and majorly overdoes treble while introducing a fake 5.1 effect... sounds crazy, I know.

Let me sum up the sound by saying, not good. I wouldn't want to spend any longer than about 5min listening to it. With that said, this isn't really even a boombox, more like a 'bap!'box.



Conclusion.

This boombox is by far one of the most fun I've ever seen. I loved writing this review, and playing with this gem. It sounds poor, looks ugly, but somehow, it has won over my heart and will forever have a place in my collection... and my soul.

 

honestly... and just my opinion ... .to everything..but I wouldn't buy it.... it looks like a dashboard of a car

 

Hideous, smash it up with a sledgehammer lol

 

What you have to remember is that to people in their late twenties who have had a smartphone since their teens this is vintage, and as the years go by it will become even more so. In the 1980s I was collecting radios made in the 1960s and 1960s and thinking they were vintage. For that reason I like it and at the price paid will give it .

If the CD drive is more reliable than the Sony ZS-D55 in my Avatar I will give it . It is extremely unlikely that any manufacturer will make a box with a full cassette logic deck again, and the rise of Bluetooth speakers means that the Boomboxes still being sold are probably worse than this one and certainly aren't as interesting.

 

Being that I'm around that age, I certainly do agree with that point, Longman. Albeit I think 80s pop culture will always be very collectible more so than other eras of vintage. Ready Player One (movie or book) does spell out a lot of that theory.

I was taken aback by the full logic deck too... It's something I didn't see much at all back then, and I have never seen on a newer box.

The CD drive is pretty reliable. Haven't had any issues with it at all. Wow, That D55 is certainly interesting in its own right. probably one of the more interesting CD/MD combo boxes.

 

The Sony ZS-D55 doesn't have an MD Deck but has an optical out for connecting to one.
There were similar boxes with MiniDisc rather than the cassette.


The CD on the ZS-D55 is a complicated slide down mechanism,

Unfortunately the lasers don't seem reliable. I have three boxes with the same drive but only one works, and there are often faulty ones on Ebay.


A final thought on the Aiwa. It was probably trying to compete against the Sony Xplod for street cred

Actually the Aiwa looks quite restrained in comparison.

 

Well... the G505 came out in 2006, and the AIWA came out in 1999. That's a 7 year difference. I'm not sure what Sony offered in 2001 that would be comparable. (yes, I do know SONY had majority control of AIWA in 2001.)

@Longman, see if you can find a boombox from Sony sold in either UK or US from 1999-2003 that has a full logic deck. I could not find one...

 

This is an idea for Boomboxery Dudes: The Ugliest bbox ever... AIWA in the OP looks soo wrong at so many levels... tweeters positioned at the outer limits of a bbox/speakers for a reason, they are placed further away from the listener on some speaker baffles to simplify x-over network for the right timing... This one is a Monstrosity!, but it looks kinda COOL, in a weird-Cyclopian way...

Lets post our Ugliest bboxes here, now that I think of it - Not as easy as drooling about the Grails

 

That was far easier than you expected. The deck is Auto-reverse too.


I was just going to suggest this might have been the last one when I remembered that if you expanded the criteria to include Japan you could fast forward over a decade
https://www.amazon.co.jp/ソニー-SONY-CDラジオ-CFD-S401-スヌーズ機能付きめざましタイマー機能を搭載/dp/B0725HXWJZ

 

I had no idea that the D55 was sold in the US. Wow, that WAS easy!

 

I would love to see some more UGLY boxes in this thread! Not that there's a competition, but finding one as ugly as this might prove challenging.

 

I'm not sure about that. The manual I posted was for Great Britain and Spain.
I do recall seeing them for sale in the shops back in 2000 and liking the look, which was why I picked some up when they started filtering through to eBay. The very similar but less radical looking ZS-D50 actually came from a local second hand store.

Regarding the XPlod I'm not sure if we got those in the UK as I couldn't find any on Ebay.co.uk. There are some very similar Sony boxes but with less in your face graphics and lighting.

 

It's supported on the SONY US website with a US manual and warranty card available for download, so I guess it was.

 

There are three for sale on eBay.com at the moment
https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-SONY-...664063?hash=item2650482abf:g:66YAAOSwqJJfPMBG
There is a big difference between the US and UK prices though. I didn't pay that for all three of mine and they were all in working order when received.

p.s The whole early ZS range was interesting as even in the name they were obviously trying to aim more upmarket.

 

It is at the back of the loft, so I have grabbed someone else's photo but I bought one of these new.


This was around the same time as I was admiring the Sonys, but at £30 the was about Venturer was about 1/4 of the price.
You can date it from the transculent blue plastic. Within a year of the first iMac coming out in 1998 you could get everything from a Radio to an Iron in Translucent plastic.

 

Nice review! Here's one of my favorites from the same year, 2001:
Philips AZ2555 | The Boombox Wiki (wikiboombox.com)

 

Hmm, first thing in mind by looking to photo was bmw dashboard

 

Thankies! I will probably do more reviews similar to this as I find stuff.

Oh I love Phillip's early 2000s offerings! In fact, My first ever box was a Phillips AZ-1574. I loved it!

 

Wow, that is pretty ugly... I remember those days.... I never wanted them to end!