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Philips EXP401 Pocket eXpanium CD-MP3 Player with 100 Second Anti-Skip

Philips EXP401 Pocket eXpanium CD-MP3 Player with 100 Second Anti-Skip

List Price: $149.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad although it could use some work
Review: I recently bought this item used from ebay. It is a alright mp3 player in fact it has turned out to be jog proof which is good. But sometimes when it plays it says "ps" which i'm going to guess means problem scanning then it won't play anything so i have to hit stop then restart it. I haven't had any problems with the battery life it usually runs for about 5 to 6 hours with 1 enegizer battery. The player itself is pretty flimsy but it not a real big problem though. So my advice is if you want a joggable mp3 player and don't mind buying mini cd-r's its a good buy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very good player
Review: I think this player is one of the best players, becouse it brings us one new thing: 8cm MP3 CD.
I know, that some companies have it for some months earlier, but i think this is the first profesional version.

there is only one negative thing: it haven't id3 tags.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: what do you mean
Review: I'm a snowboarder and I've tried many different MP3 Players. I bought this player about 3 weeks ago and I can say it does work. I love the size, fits perfect in my snow pants pocket. My biggest complaint is that is it sometimes just stops playing for no apparent reason, especially in UDF format. For some reason in UDF format it stops between songs and display PS in the LCD screen. Also even with the ESP on it'll skip if i'm doing some serious snowboarding. The thing is when it does skip it stays skipped for a more seconds than i care to count. I'm not sure what PS means but i get it quite often - sometimes it recovers sometime it doesn't and you have to open the case and start over. Another thing is that i can't figure out what order it plays songs in and how it counts. Song 13 can be different songs depending on if you've rebooted it. I've tried 3 different methods of writing to CD's but it doesn't really matter its still unpredictable. UDF is definetely not supported properly with those damn PS errors every time a song changes. Though the good thing is that its fairly loud compaired to other players i've had thats a first. Also its usable unlike many of the other CD/MP3 players i've had which hardly work at all. I wish they get this technology more stable.

Oh by the way i have read the "Manual" and there is nothing documented about PS so i've no idea what it means.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This little machine rocks!
Review: I've been using portable mp3 players since 1999. My Creative Nomad is small and great for running because it doesn't have moving parts but the flash memory is limited to 64mb or 1 hour of CD quality music.
I also have a Philips eXpanium CD/MP3 player (model EXP 103, the first one launched by Philips). This player can read CD's with up to 10 hours of mp3 files but it's big and skips all the time while running or walking.
The eXpanium EXP 401 is great because it can hold up to 4 hours of mp3 music, supports new AAC audio format, doesn't skip, it's bigger than Nomad but smaller than portable CD players and audio quality is very good.
About battery life: Turn skip protection off if you don't need it. This way, the player reads the cd, fills the internal cache memory and stops spinning for a few minutes(power saving mode). I can get 4 or 5 hours of battery life with a single 1600mAh NiMh rechargeable battery.
I recommend this product. Why 4 stars? Flimsy construction and no mp3 ID info.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Small, Allows MP3 CDRWs, AAC-compatible
Review: I've been waiting for a good MP3-CD player for a while now, and after having tested the Philips EXP4011 ($...) against the Compaq IPaq PM-1 ($...), I like the Philips much better:

1) You can't complain about the compact size. The Philips is just the perfect size to fit in a Lowe digital camera bag (LPD10, $12.99).

2) I don't mind the 3-hour battery life (1 AA battery), because I always carry 3 extra batteries in the camera case anyway. (The IPaq has better battery life, but using 2 AAA batteries.) You can boost the battery life to 5-6 hours by turning off ESP. If you're using the Philips for a 45-minute subway commute or for a marathon 5-hour library studying session, you don't need ESP anyway.

3) I don't mind having to purchase 8cm media, because the Philips supports UDF -- and you can playback CDRWs created using DirectCD. A five-pack of 8cm CDRW sold for $..., and these are good for hundreds of erase-and-rewrites.

4) The Philips also supports AAC. Using PsyTel 1.5, you need to encode WAV-to-AAC using the -lc and -adif command line options; the downside is that you cannot seek within the song when playing the AACs using WinAmp (e.g., with the out_aac.dll plugin). 64K-encoded AAC files sound just as good as 128K-encoded MP3 files. Since the AAC files take up half the filespace, you can fit twice as much AAC-encoded music on your CDRs or CDRWs.

5) ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best thing around
Review: no complaints at all. i had my doubts about it being able to play. NO DOUBT, THE BEST MP3 PLAYER AROUND. im not kidding either. BUY THIS ONE!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pocket eXpanium delivers!
Review: Overall, I liked the simplicity of the product, its portability, the coolness factor, and the sound quality is above average. I'm very happy with it, and so far it hasn't given me any problems. It may not be able to display MP3 ID3 tags but who's got the time to look at, much less read scrolling text, when you're running or working out? This portable mp3/mini-cd player delivers the goods very well, and that's the bottom line. For next year's model, I strongly suggest longer battery life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It does not get any better than this for an MP3 player!!!
Review: The exp401 is really small. Theres no weird software you need to install into your computer to transfer the mp3's to the unit. You burn your cd's on your burner like regular computer data cds. You can play em in your pc, or on the exp401!!! You can bring more than one disc with you and change the disc when your in the mood. i usally have a different type music style on the 10 discs i carry around in my pocket with the player. blank mini cd-r discs cost about 88 cents each.

Its worked well reading iso9660+joliet, and udf formats on both cd-r, and cd-rw mini cd's. I've only used 1 level directorys so far and they work great. I usually use a cd-rw disc formatted in udf to test mp3's. (we shouldent have glitches) Then i will make a cd-r in iso9660+joliet format for longterm listening.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Impressed
Review: The moment i saw this babe introduced in a tech news site, I became interested......and finally obssessed with it. I searched and asked a lot of stores in Toronto, but none of them carry this product and thats really "bad". So finally I decided to drive 5 hours to/from the states to get this babe. AM I IMPRESSED? OH yeah, I think it is worth every bit of my money and time. It is actually smaller than I thought it is and sleek too. The only disadvantage is that the package didn't actually include a remote control and the headphone hurts your ears if you wear it for too long..... Besides that, I see nothing to complain about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The perfect little "music box"!
Review: The other reviwers have mentioned both the pros and cons of the Philips Expanium 8cm mp3 player, so I'll simply add a few words. The sound quality is superb and the portability is wonderful. I've always been very happy with Philips products, and this little mp3 player is now at the top of my Philips list!


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