Rating: 
Summary: A bad cd player
Review: DO NO BUY THIS CD PLAYER!(...)
You may ask why I hate this so much. Here are the reasons.
1. The ting eats up batteries, I only get 10-15 hours for 2 AA batteries.
2. The sound quality is bad. Out of nowhere it will get all fuzzy and skippy and sometimes it will skip 5 second clips.
3. It reads the cd tracks very slowly.
4. It takes about 30 seconds to load, WHY DOES IT HAVE TO LOAD.
5. You can not just skip right to one song, if you press buttons too fast it will get confused and the laser will move all around for no reason.
6. (...)The prosessor is too slow to show streaming graphics so the games are all skippy. If you play the games a lot you loose even more battery life.
7. The only format that it plays well is mp3. I do not want to waste a ton of blank cds just so that the cd player will play right.
8. You have to keep it still. If you dont then the sound quality is even worse.
In conclusion AVOID THIS CD AT ALL COSTS and buy the newest modest mouse cd. You wont be dissapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent MP3 CD player, few small quibbles
Review: Got this last night, so not totally familiar with all functions, but, been playing with it a lot, so thought I'd review.
Features I like-
Controls are pretty darn intuitive. If you've used a Cd player before, you'll likely have no probs using this one. I was already listening to an MP3 CD by the time I got around to glancing at the manual. You don't get a paper manual, just a .pdf file on the included CD-ROM. But whatever language you speak, there's likely a manual included in your language.The LCD displays 5 line, 3 lines of which are info about your MP3. First line shows the current play mode, (shuffle all, shuffle repeat all, repeat, repeat all, shuffle album, shuffle repeat album, repeat album) Second line is just label for the third line, bass boost if on, and anti skip if on. Battery indicator spans first and second lines. Third line is album number (which folder on the CD it's in), playing time, and track number, plus a semi amusing little dancing stick figure or two. Fourth shows which format of ID3 is being displayed (filename, artist, title, album, or [mp3 cd]), and on beginning a song, the chosen info scrolls along Fourth and Fifth lines. After 10 or 20 seconds, it stops scrolling, and just shows 16 characters of the info on the Fifth line. Remote will accept any headphone with a common plug. Player and remote have separate volume and hold controls. So player can be on hold in bag, and you can control the playback with the remote, using the play/pause, stop, and forward/back buttons. And you can easily customize the volume. I have it with the volume on the player all the way up (30), and the volume on the remote adjusted to where I like it. The sound quality is great, IMO, even with the included headphones. While listening to an acoustic song, I could clearly distinguish each part of the music, including the high frequency tambourine in the background, which many other players distort. Features that are lacking-
The LCD display doesn't have a light. You only get the preset ID3 display options, which are [mp3 cd], artist, album, title, or filename. I'd prefer to be able to customize the display to show artist then album then filename, but since I use essentially the format I'd like to see when naming my MP3s, I just set it to show filename and I'm happy. You can't change playing time between elapsed time or time remaining like a lot of CD players let you. Mp3 is the only digital format it plays. No wav, no aac, no ogg, just mp3 and CDs. Other
Haven't really played with the games yet. The program function isn't terribly intuitive, but the manual explains it well, and it's not complicated. It lets you program up to 50 tracks. The model I bought did not include an A/C adapter or rechargeable batteries, although the manual lists them for some models, so the player should support rechargeables. Supported Disc formats: ISO 9660, Joliet, Multisession, UDF, Enhanced Music CD, Mixed Mode CD (Burnt discs must be finalized to play) Supported MP3 bit rate: 32-320 kbps and variable bit rate Total number of music files and albums: around 350 (with a typical file name length of 64 characters)
Rating:
Summary: No problems
Review: I payed £50 for this player, and I have to say I'm quite satisfied with it. The ESP is absolutely top notch, and having done many hours of running, I havn't experianced one single skip with my mp3 tracks yet. As for quality, it is generally very good. Admittedly I haven't used the supplied headphones, The remote is sturdier than some players that I've seen, and the price wasn't excessive. There are some neagtive points however, I totally agree with the guy using it for audio books, the player doesn't turn on very easily, which can be a bit annoying. There is no rewind/ffd function once you've loaded a track, but for me that doesn't really matter too much. I don't agree with complaints about the sound quality of this player however, I've tested it through my creative inspire 5.1 sytem at home, a DB opera PA system + behringer mixer and have to admit that the sound quality was fine with both mp3s and audio cds. Perhaps it may be a faulty unit? Personally, and overall, I think it's a good player, and excellent for on the go. But don't buy it for the games, they stink! However, the layout of the player, similarl to a joypad is a real plus, and makes doing what you have to do very easy. I'd recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: No problems
Review: I payed £50 for this player, and I have to say I'm quite satisfied with it. The ESP is absolutely top notch, and having done many hours of running, I havn't experianced one single skip with my mp3 tracks yet. As for quality, it is generally very good. Admittedly I haven't used the supplied headphones, The remote is sturdier than some players that I've seen, and the price wasn't excessive. There are some neagtive points however, I totally agree with the guy using it for audio books, the player doesn't turn on very easily, which can be a bit annoying. There is no rewind/ffd function once you've loaded a track, but for me that doesn't really matter too much. I don't agree with complaints about the sound quality of this player however, I've tested it through my creative inspire 5.1 sytem at home, a DB opera PA system + behringer mixer and have to admit that the sound quality was fine with both mp3s and audio cds. Perhaps it may be a faulty unit? Personally, and overall, I think it's a good player, and excellent for on the go. But don't buy it for the games, they stink! However, the layout of the player, similarl to a joypad is a real plus, and makes doing what you have to do very easy. I'd recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: My former CD/MP3 player was the Philips EXP503, which I had for two years before it I damaged it by mistake (long story). I desperately wanted to buy the same model again, but it was out of stock. I visited the Philips website and saw the new Expanium CD/MP3 player, the EXP521. The EXP503 was definitely the best CD player I've ever owned, so naturally I figured the 521 would be even better...
I couldn't hate it more.
There are several annoying issues with this CD player. Here are the worst that come to mind:
1. It takes a long time to start. I'm driving my car with the CD player hooked to my car stereo, pop in an MP3 CD and hit play. And I wait. I keep driving along, and wait a little longer. I know it's alive because it makes all sorts of noises as the CD spins and the laser reads the information. So finally I lose my patience and look away from the road for a second to see what in the world is taking so long. FINALLY...a song begins. The longest I've ever waited was about 30 to 45 seconds. To some it may not seem like a lot, but again...my old EXP503 spoiled me.
2. I'm a nut for perfect sound quality, which is why I rip my MP3's at the highest possible bit rate (320). When I plug in my headphones into the CD player, I sometimes hear static and broken audio, which drives me crazy.
3. The push button for the bass has to be pressed every time you change CD's. My old EXP503 always kept it on, because the batteries inside remembered the last setting used. The only thing the EXP521 remembers is to cancel the annoying BEEP that you hear every time you push a button.
4. There's no belt clip, which may not seem like a big deal, especially if you're driving...but isn't this a portable CD player? Am I supposed to hold it wherever I go? If that were the case, I'd buy a small portable boombox with a carry-on handle. Again...my old EXP503 had a very useful belt clip.
5. You can't fast-forward or rewind MP3 files. On that same note, you CAN fast-forward or rewind through normal CD's, but the audio transition is very choppy. On most CD players, you fast-forward and you can sort of make out where in the song you are. The EXP521 sounds so choppy you have to let go of the button to figure out how far into the song you are. Unless of course you look at the time lapse and know exactly where you want to stop.
6. The background never lights up, which is pain when you're driving at night and you're looking for a certain song among 100 other MP3's.
7. The buttons don't respond. I'm listening to a song, hit the "next" button and nothing happens. The up, down, left, and right buttons on the left side of the CD player have to be PRESSED to make them respond. The two "Stop" and "Play" buttons on the right are the same. You have to press them either harder than normal or repeatedly to make them work. All the other buttons work normal.
On the other hand, I do have some positive things to say about the EXP521 (which is why it earned two stars):
1. It takes either AA or AAA batteries. Pretty cool engineering idea.
2. The remote control has a clip to attach to your pocket or your shirt (but again...where do you put the CD player itself? Do you carry it or put it in a huge pocket?)
3. It reads ID3 tags, although slowly.
4. It has a good shuffle feature with or without repeat, which I use often on road trips.
5. Other than the occasional crackling, the sound quality is very good. I've heard other CD/MP3 players, including Panasonic's new model, and they sound very dull, like the treble is all the way down. The EXP521 has very clear sound.
Overall, I wish I had saved my money and not bought the EXP521. I'm desperately looking around the internet for any retailer that still offers the EXP503, or even a used one from someone who doesn't like it (how can they not???).
Shame on Philips for making a newer product worse than its predecessor.
Rating:
Summary: Aren't newer models supposed to be better?
Review: My former CD/MP3 player was the Philips EXP503, which I had for two years before it I damaged it by mistake (long story). I desperately wanted to buy the same model again, but it was out of stock. I visited the Philips website and saw the new Expanium CD/MP3 player, the EXP521. The EXP503 was definitely the best CD player I've ever owned, so naturally I figured the 521 would be even better...
I couldn't hate it more.
There are several annoying issues with this CD player. Here are the worst that come to mind:
1. It takes a long time to start. I'm driving my car with the CD player hooked to my car stereo, pop in an MP3 CD and hit play. And I wait. I keep driving along, and wait a little longer. I know it's alive because it makes all sorts of noises as the CD spins and the laser reads the information. So finally I lose my patience and look away from the road for a second to see what in the world is taking so long. FINALLY...a song begins. The longest I've ever waited was about 30 to 45 seconds. To some it may not seem like a lot, but again...my old EXP503 spoiled me.
2. I'm a nut for perfect sound quality, which is why I rip my MP3's at the highest possible bit rate (320). When I plug in my headphones into the CD player, I sometimes hear static and broken audio, which drives me crazy.
3. The push button for the bass has to be pressed every time you change CD's. My old EXP503 always kept it on, because the batteries inside remembered the last setting used. The only thing the EXP521 remembers is to cancel the annoying BEEP that you hear every time you push a button.
4. There's no belt clip, which may not seem like a big deal, especially if you're driving...but isn't this a portable CD player? Am I supposed to hold it wherever I go? If that were the case, I'd buy a small portable boombox with a carry-on handle. Again...my old EXP503 had a very useful belt clip.
5. You can't fast-forward or rewind MP3 files. On that same note, you CAN fast-forward or rewind through normal CD's, but the audio transition is very choppy. On most CD players, you fast-forward and you can sort of make out where in the song you are. The EXP521 sounds so choppy you have to let go of the button to figure out how far into the song you are. Unless of course you look at the time lapse and know exactly where you want to stop.
6. The background never lights up, which is pain when you're driving at night and you're looking for a certain song among 100 other MP3's.
7. The buttons don't respond. I'm listening to a song, hit the "next" button and nothing happens. The up, down, left, and right buttons on the left side of the CD player have to be PRESSED to make them respond. The two "Stop" and "Play" buttons on the right are the same. You have to press them either harder than normal or repeatedly to make them work. All the other buttons work normal.
On the other hand, I do have some positive things to say about the EXP521 (which is why it earned two stars):
1. It takes either AA or AAA batteries. Pretty cool engineering idea.
2. The remote control has a clip to attach to your pocket or your shirt (but again...where do you put the CD player itself? Do you carry it or put it in a huge pocket?)
3. It reads ID3 tags, although slowly.
4. It has a good shuffle feature with or without repeat, which I use often on road trips.
5. Other than the occasional crackling, the sound quality is very good. I've heard other CD/MP3 players, including Panasonic's new model, and they sound very dull, like the treble is all the way down. The EXP521 has very clear sound.
Overall, I wish I had saved my money and not bought the EXP521. I'm desperately looking around the internet for any retailer that still offers the EXP503, or even a used one from someone who doesn't like it (how can they not???).
Shame on Philips for making a newer product worse than its predecessor.
Rating:
Summary: Great button layout but play button can erase memory.
Review: Personally, I feel the button layout could not be any better: video game controllers have evolved into this interface and it works equally well for CD players. My original intent was to use this as an MP3 audio book player for my mother, therefore, the interface should be as easy as possible and those stylish (but silly) remote-controlled players would not do. I was very sad to return this product, however, due to the following problems. The biggest issue was that occasionally the player would not resume playback from where you had shutdown. I discovered this to be caused by the play button. The play button requires a full one-second press in order to start the player loading. If you merely just click the play button, you hear a short crackle and "wa la" your resume memory has just been erased. Other issues:
- Cannot scan (fast forward/rewind) within MP3 files.
- Headphone connector seemed a little noisy.
- Info display could be better considering its 3 line by 16 character layout.
- File name and ID3 tag scrolling is annoyingly slow.
- 2 to 5 second gaps between MP3 files (nobody offers gapless MP3 playback). Pros:
- Great button layout and very easy to use.
- The games are stupidly entertaining while listening to audio books.
- The included headphones are super comfortable and do not leak noise.
Rating:
Summary: Great button layout but play button can erase memory.
Review: Personally, I feel the button layout could not be any better: video game controllers have evolved into this interface and it works equally well for CD players. My original intent was to use this as an MP3 audio book player for my mother, therefore, the interface should be as easy as possible and those stylish (but silly) remote-controlled players would not do. I was very sad to return this product, however, due to the following problems. The biggest issue was that occasionally the player would not resume playback from where you had shutdown. I discovered this to be caused by the play button. The play button requires a full one-second press in order to start the player loading. If you merely just click the play button, you hear a short crackle and "wa la" your resume memory has just been erased. Other issues:
- Cannot scan (fast forward/rewind) within MP3 files.
- Headphone connector seemed a little noisy.
- Info display could be better considering its 3 line by 16 character layout.
- File name and ID3 tag scrolling is annoyingly slow.
- 2 to 5 second gaps between MP3 files (nobody offers gapless MP3 playback). Pros:
- Great button layout and very easy to use.
- The games are stupidly entertaining while listening to audio books.
- The included headphones are super comfortable and do not leak noise.
Rating: 
Summary: 100%Quality 0%problems
Review: The sound of this MP3 player and Cd player is awesome and the headphones are extremely comfortable. It is nice to have the remote and the LCD display to tell you what you are listening to. Finally the games. They are awesome! My personal favorite is copter. Hope you like this product!
Rating:
Summary: Very Serious Sound Quality Problem
Review: This is the 2nd cd-mp3 player I've tried. For $89, and with as many sweet features as it has, you'd think the designers would try getting the *playback* right! Guess they were too busy writing games... The Good:
---------------
- Huge display, shows you everything all at once.
- Good user interface, lots of buttons, so operation is straightforward, if a little sluggish.
- Has games... I haven't tried them.
- Takes *either* AA or AAA batteries.
- Remote control w/ clip The Mediocre:
---------------
- Max Output level is ok, not as loud as I'd like from some soft
classical passages. - Can't ff/rew inside mp3's. - Headphone/remote jack has poor contact, crackles if you touch it The Bad:
---------------
- Sound quality. There is a faint amount of hiss/distortion noise whenever sound is coming out. With MP3's, it's noticable. On audio CD's it is much worse; I've had perfectly good CD's drop out, warble, and distort... the mp3 ripped from that exact CD track sounds better! (scratching head).
The product literature says: 100sec ESP for a 128kb/s (16kB/s)mp3, or 45sec ESP for cd-audio.
Well, uncompressed cd-audio runs at 172kB/s, so this esp buffer *should* provide about 16/172*100sec = 9.3 sec ESP; it says it provides 45!!! I strongly suspect that this player buffers its cd-quality audio at a much lower quality, or it attempts to compress it in realtime, or something, because both the product literature and the sound quality strongly indicate that it plays regular CD's at *much* less than CD-audio quality. This player is not firing on all 16 barrels, for sure! Parenthetically, I tested this device both with the supplied headphones, with & without the remote attached, and finally, patching it through my mackie mixer and using precision studiophones. It sounded equally bad in all these situations. Next, I listened to the same disc on my 4-year-old discman, which completely blew away the EXP521, both in maximum volume, and particularly in sound fidelity.
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