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Philips EXP103 eXpanium Portable MP3-CD Player with 45-Second Anti-Skip and Car Kit

Philips EXP103 eXpanium Portable MP3-CD Player with 45-Second Anti-Skip and Car Kit

List Price: $149.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sounds amazing but might return it
Review: Heres the good points-- Sounds better than every other MP3 player (no kidding), no hiss, navigates between folders easily Heres the bad points-- The tiny not backlit screen SUCKS!!! If my $20 watch can have a backlit display, then my $150 MP3 player should have one! Does Phillips think no one will use their product after the sun goes down? I guess I'm supposed to carry a flashlight with me whenever I want to see what song number I'm on? All that stuff about not skipping is false. If you play any MP3 thats 128 kbps or less, then it may not skip, but all my MP3s are 192 or higher, and mine skips all the time. I'll just be walking down the street with it in my coat pocket, and it will skip! I'm beginning to wonder if mine is just broken, because it skips on audio CDs too, so I'm thinking about exchanging it. I bought it because it was the only Mp3 CD-R that could play higher than 128kbps, and I think anything less than 128 sounds like crap, but if ESP only works on 128 Kbps or less tracks, then I might return it. In spite of these two major flaws, I still think its the coolest Mp3 player on the market, and its defintely worth $150. Some people say its not loud enough, but if you have good headhpones, then its fine. (I could hear it over the NYC subway!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I don't think it could be better.
Review: I mean it sounds great, has everything i need like AC adapter, headphones and car kit. The batteries give a lot of time of playback, and I'm using rechargable batteries. I'm only missing the line out cable, but for 150 bucks i think i got more than enough. If you want a high quality and easy way to play your mp3 collection, this is a must have!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredibly rugged machine - as usual from Philips, but...
Review: Well, if it weren't for its disability to search music in MP3 tracks, less-than-easily-read display and lack of a remote control, I would take it with me to the grave. For the time being though, I take it anywhere on earth, especially off-road in my 4x4, where it has proven to be not virtually, not practically, but absolutely skip-free. I doubt if any producer can come up with a better MP3 player in a conventional case for in-car installation. And, how else can I listen to my most favorite 136 tracks, in recorded or random order, anywhere, in just one CD-R lasting eight hours straight? My tank, player's batteries and my trip can't last THAT long.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent Player with only one major MP3 Flaw!
Review: I bought this player when it first came out and it is an incredibly solid and reliable unit. The only major flaw is that it does not fast forward (search) or rewind (reverse search) through individual MP3 files (it searches fine on CD Audio files). It also searches fine through folders/directories, both CD Audio and MP3's. The LCD isn't that great but that's not important to me. It doesn't read id tags but I don't care about that either.

If id tags and FF/REW doesn't matter to you, I'd say buy this one. It will play ANYTHING you throw at it. ANYTHING! 32-320 bitrate, 22,44,48Hz, CDR, CDRW, ISO9660, Joliet. I was thrilled with the player, but I really need a FF/REW feature because I listen to many MP3 books. Some of the chapters are 30-45 mins long. If I have to stop in the middle of a chapter, I end up having to listen to the first half all over again!! bummer. So I bought a RioVolt to solve that problem.

Anyway, my Expandium is still alive and well and used for MP3 songs, not books. I highly recommend this product except for that one MP3 seach flaw. I hope Philips gets the hint and will fix this in their next rev.

-The case is well made and sturdy. -The hold button works fine. -The sound is good (if you don't use the included earbuds). -The separate Line Out works great. -I've never heard it skip a beat. Ever! and I'm not exactly dainty with electronic gear. -The Resume feature resumes to the begining of the last track played. note: This is another less important flaw (to me)--it doesn't resume to the exact spot where you powered off, but at least it goes back to the folder and file you were last listening to. Many players don't resume at all! Supposedly, the RioVolt resumes to the exact spot with a firmware upgrade--haven't tried it yet.

Bottom line: Buy it if you don't need to search thru individual MP3's and if you don't need id3 tags.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: nice as my first mp3-cd player, but there's better ones
Review: when i first got my expanium, life was good. when it first came out, it was the best mp3-cd player of its time. the only things i didnt like is no ID3 tag support, lack of searching a song, and the long start-up time. the more directories i had, the longer it would take to start, up to 45 seconds.

now i have a Rio Volt, which starts in 15 seconds, had a backlit display... its the best CD player i've ever had, and the best mp3-cd player.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: gives meaning to my life <sniff>
Review: when i imagined the machine i wanted to play mp3s, this was it. i can put up to 10 cds in mp3 format onto a cd instead of hauling 10 cds around, or having to buy more REALLY expensive memory on top of a REALLY expensive mp3 player, and still not be able to play as much music. the "hold" feature to freeze the buttons is nice, so if i have it in a bag or jacket pocket, it doesn't accidentally change tunes or turn on/off. in-ear headphones are great, so is the car kit. it mentioned the remote, which would be handy, but that wasn't included in the package. can't turn off the esp for some reason, to add battery life. could use a light for display, and fast-forward capability per song. also doesn't seem to recognize my multiple-session cds. i have to admit, i haven't bothered with the documentation yet (it's a guy thing), which may have all the answers. overall, as a first attempt crossover device, this is outstanding.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works well, but very slow to start.
Review: I use mine in my car, where the great accessories to power it and adapt it to a tape deck work flawlessly. A good CD-MP3 player is one that you don't notice at all, and for the most part it fits the bill. The sound is great, and I've never had a single skip. The position memory takes off at the song I leave off at when I last park the car, which is really nice.

My peeve with it is the fact that it takes *so* long to start up. It does a full scan of the CD, even if it's the same CD that was previously in there. This usually takes between 30 and 60 seconds, which is a big distraction if you're making short trips. It should store the CD ID and song contents in its buffer and only rescan if it needs to. It would also be nice if it had a song title display, but that's not a big issue for me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Buy
Review: I bought this player about three weeks ago now and i am fairly impressed. The player works how it should except for the battery life. The instructions read that you should get about 10 hours of mp3 playback with alkaline batteries i recieve about 3 hours. Another bad thing is that the display is very dark and it doesn't read song titles. I think the expanium is a good product but if i would have know about these problems i would have waited untill the technology got better.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great sound, but slow start
Review: This product was not good. I bought it, and the sound quality was great, but it took like a minute to start playing. I returned it and got a cd/ AM/FM radio player (Aiwa)and it was great. I do not recommend this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: It has only two cons: Slow to start. Can't go forward in the same track in MP3 format


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