MP3 Music is possible on the AD-500W and it will play both Constant Bitrate (CBR) and Variable Bitrate (VBR) files. I have tried many different types of media including 74 minute CDR/CDRW, 80 minute CDR/CDRW and 87 minute CDR's all with perfect results.

The AD-500W has a similar on-screen menu as the AD-600A. It is simple having only 8 characters per song name and any spaces or unknown characters are represented as an "O" as shown below in the examples for Billy Joel (BILLYOJO) David Bowie (DAVIDOBO) and Elton John (ELTONOJO).

Navigating around an MP3 disc is like that of the AD-600A too. You use the cursor keys (Up, Down, Left, Right) to move the highlight, ENTER/PLAY to start playing a track, STOP to stop playing a track and the |<< and >>| skip buttons to jump to the next/previous track.
Shuffle play is also possible by pressing the "SHUFFLE" key before pressing Play. Shuffle also works across multiple folders, not just one folder.
If you have multiple folders you can return to the Root Menu by pressing "PROGRAM".
Another novelty (but nice!!) feature on the AD-500A is the "PITCH" keys and these allow you to slide the pitch of the music up and down!

However the AD-500W has trouble if the CD is burnt using the wrong format or character set. If your MP3 CD does not get recognised chances are it has be burnt using ASCII and not ISO9660/Mode 1 standard. If you are using Nero here is how to set up the burn options to get optimal results. Only the two yellow highlighted options are necessary and the other options are up to you but I suggest using ISO Level 2 File Length so you can still read what the MP3 file is if you use the CD in your computer.

Unfortunately it is not all good news because the 500W also suffers from the same problem as the 600A in that the first half-second of a song is cut off. Apart from that MP3 music plays fine and I have not found a track the 500W won't play yet.

NOTE: Also be aware that the 500W suffers from playing back MP3s made with Musicmatch Jukebox's default setting, which is joint or composite stereo. The music breaks in and out on the right and left channels.