Rating: 
Summary: Philips Expanium is Awesome!
Review: I picked this player up a few weeks ago and I really like it. It is a good value for what you get. The ability the cd player has to play mp3 encoded cds is great. You can fit about 10 hours of music on one cd and it will play cd-rw's. The sound quality is excellent, and I think the included ear buds are fairly high quality. The car kit and a/c adapter are a nice addition. I still haven't heard the player skip, so I think there is something magical about the ESP. Pick this one up if you're seriously into MP3s.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice try... but no ID3 Tag support
Review: I like the new expanium very much because it let me play CD burned in multiple sessions. However, I have just bought the new AIWA XP-MP3 and it has all the features of the Expanium plus ID3 Tag support for the same price. If you are going to buy an MP3 Cd player, you should first check out the new Aiwa mode.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great MP3-CD Player...gets the job done.
Review: A great MP3-CD Player. Read every mp3 I put on it. Two gripes: No ID3 Tag support. Skips when I jog with it on the treadmill - It actually won't even play when I jog with it on the treadmill.
Rating:
Summary: Great MP3/CD player
Review: I was leary of purchasing this device(since I couldn't find ANY competitive players in stores), but its GREAT! Once I realized that I couldn't use DirectCD to create the CD's I had NO problems. The only negative I could find is the small ard to read LCD with no ID3 capability.Butr if you want a great CD player that can play HOURS of MP3's this is the one!
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth it yet. Wait awhile.
Review: Although this device would be nice to have, it is only the beginning. There are many improvements to be made. First of all, this unit it too big and heavy. I am waiting for a circular unit that can fit in your pockey like some of the new Sony and Philips CD players. The next problem is the display. What good is having access to 10 hours worth of songs if you can't even see the title of the song you want. The unit could also use a hold button to prevent buttons from being accidently hit and a resume button. With a lack of options and poor design, this hastily designed product needs some work. The next generation of CD MP3 players will include the round pocket size designs, Indiglo backlit displays which read and display ID3 tags, the ability to search within songs, and many more options dealing with playback. These things will come at a higher price, however. I can definately gaurentee that no new players that have all these features will be $200, but they will be worth it. Save your money and be patient. You can email me and thank me later.
Rating:
Summary: EXACTLY What I Was Looking For !
Review: As an AVID music lover who travels a LOT, this unit is EXACTLY what I wanted. I have SEVERAL GIGABYTES of MP3 music and want to travel with it all <grin>, and the traditional "memory type" of device just was NOT big enough for what I needed, and if I did get one of them that was big in memory, well ... it was also very big in price. I had ORIGINALLY seen the Kangaru MP3 CD player in a computer magazine, bought it and was TOTALLY disappointed - skipped like CRAZY even if you just breathed on it (seriously). BUT I later saw THIS unit in an ad and went out and bought it without hesitation and high hopes, and have NOT BEEN DISAPPOINTED. This unit is AWESOME! PRO'S (1) Put close to 170 songs on a CD-R / CD-RW for HOURS of play on CHEAP media. I could take my whole music collection with me on just three disks! (2) I have NEVER EVER HAD THE UNIT SKIP! I have shaken the heck out of it while playing and NEVER had it skip. Although when the battery was dying (after about 8 hours of play mind you) the music started to "skip and scratch" ... understandable when the battery is dying <grin> (3) GREAT FOR CAR TRIPS! The car adapter kit works flawlessly CONS (1) EARBUD EARPHONES - OUCH ! They just do NOT fit my ear. Got some good Sony earphones (2) DISPLAY IS HARD TO READ - ID3 tag is not a big issue with me, nor is a backlight (that eats up batteries big time). But the LCD display is small and a little hard to read in daylight and impossible at night <grin>. (3) SEARCH FF/REW - would be nice if you could FF / REW through a track without having to start over again, but I can live with it. SUGGESTION: A "different" car kit. I often rent cars and some of them have CD players in them but NO CASSETTE PLAYER ... thus rendering the cassette adapter car kit useless. I would recommend that if you are like me you obtain one of the adapters that transmit the signal to a "blank band" of your FM band on the radio. I was SOO bummed on a long trip with a NEW car with NO CASSETTE DECK to plug my adapter. OVERALL: THE BEST DARNED UNIT OF ITS TYPE ON THE MARKET - PERIOD!
Rating:
Summary: Philips almost gets it perfect - better than all the rest
Review: I owned one of the Memorex players and returned it after a week to buy the Expanium and now I love this thing. Before having the Memorex to compare it too - I was hesitant to buy the Expanium but now I see they've made some intelligent trade offs to get things right. 1) You can navigate through a cd w/o looking at the player - the memorex had a complicated procedure that was impossible to use w/o looking at the lcd display. 2) Battery life rules 3) Resume is actually pretty good. I don't even have batteries in mine (works through car charger) and I had it unplugged for 8 hours and somehow it still knew were to start the cd!! (sure it doesn't get the same part of the track, but the same track is close enough) - they say they have Magic ESP - I think they have Magic Resume! And a work around to those long tracks in audiobooks - get a program to split it into smaller files. 4) ESP that's great! I haven't heard the expanium skip yet, and I keep it vertically in a bag that bangs all over the place when I walk! The Memorex only had ESP on Audio CD's. It skipped if you looked at it. 5) Audiobook usage: I'm a big audiobook user too, and in my opinion the skip between tracks is better than the Memorex and than most other cd based players - the only time it's noticeable is when the tracks are split in the middle of a word - but this is actually pretty rare. The only problem is that Old Time Radio would have to be broken into parts by some software before burning the cd. No big deal for me though because I can generally listen to an entire program before I get anywhere decent in my car... 6) Sound quality is great. 7) It's available right here! (when in stock)
Rating:
Summary: Great sound quality
Review: Yes, it has great sound quality. The only reason I returned this item to Circuit City is once you stop the unit it will restart either at the beginning of the track you were in or at the beginning of the next track. I listen to recorded books on CD and some tracks are longer than 20 minutes. If I stop it 15 minutes into a track, I have to listen to the whole track all over again. There is no search function to zip to the middle of an MP3 track. Why hasn't Sony, GE, or other major manufacturer of CD players put out an MP3 CD player yet?
Rating:
Summary: Philips eXpanium rocks
Review: Philips has a few advantages at the moment over the other players out there (1) 10 hours battery playtime (Genica and MPtrip have 5 hrs). (2) supports all bit-rates 32-320 Kbs including VBR. (3) multisession CD's are supported. (4) Easy skipping forward from album to album (folder to folder). (5) A real shuffle / random feature which is for me the highlight. Other players come sometimes with a shuffle that has the same track order time after time. (6) Resume, starts at the track which you have previously stopped. Best MP3-CD option out there at the moment.
Rating:
Summary: It's just OK.
Review: The unit itself feels cheap and weak. It's not that sturdy and probably won't take much abuse. I do like the unit and have it permanently affixed in my car. However, the Car Adapter is also cheap and now refuses to stay seated in my cigarette lighter adapter. If you are in a hurry, this is the one to get. Otherwise, wait for the second generation with ID3 tag support. And go to your local electronics store to touch and play with it first.
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