Philips AZ7594 Portable CD Player

by Philips

Product Details

Product Manual [447kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TB2A
• Item model number: AZ7594
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #394,886 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

With its brushed-aluminum lid, shiny silver faceplate, and blue backlit display, the Philips AZ7594 looks like one of those secret-agent gadgets that saves the day as James Bond drives off in his bulletproof sports car. Although this portable CD player won't annihilate any villains, it did blow us away with its technically advanced features and excellent digital-to-analog converter.

The AZ7594 plays rewritable CDs, which is great if you've got a CD-RW recorder and you like to make compilation discs. The player runs on both rechargeable nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries and standard alkaline batteries. For AA batteries, a detachable "box" connects to the back with contact pins. Playing time is rated at an impressive 45 hours with the NiMHs and 40 hours with AA batteries.

The AZ7594 has a 45-second memory buffer and includes a car adapter kit. In addition, the player comes with a remote extension that plugs into the headphone jack and allows you to adjust volume, as well as pause, stop, play, and skip tracks. Philips wisely opted not to build the remote control into the headphone cord. Instead, it comes as a separate 2-foot adapter, which allows you to upgrade to a high-quality pair of headphones and still use the volume control and CD function switches. Either way, the remote extension adds 2 feet to the length of your headphone cord.

To test the player's sonic capabilities, we listened to a wide variety of CDs, from electric blues to progressive rock to contemporary female vocals. Thanks to the player's digital-to-analog converter (DAC)--which provides excellent channel separation--the headphones were well balanced, delivering smooth stereo transitions from one speaker to another.

Although the headphones demonstrated decent bass, they had a tendency to distort the upper midrange at high volumes. Philips does offer a three-stage bass boost, but we found level three to be a bit bloated and artificial sounding. In short, the player's built-in DAC is superb, but the headphones are only slightly above average. If rock is your passion, we recommend upgrading to a better pair.

No matter what kind of music suits your fancy, the Philips AZ7594 is an excellent investment. Unlike many portable CD players, the AZ7594 is made to last. It's loaded with state-of-the-art features, and its polished design won't fade out of style. --Eric Gill

Pros:

• Eye-pleasing, durable aluminum lid
• Superb digital-to-analog converter
• State-of-the-art features
• Handy remote-control extension cord

Cons:

• Average headphones

Amazon.com Product Description

Philips designed an ultracompact, sophisticated portable CD player with the AZ 7594. It features all the basics you've come to expect but also includes such features as introscan, which allows you to review a disc to find any desired track. The AZ 7594 is also CD-rewritable compatible so you can play CDs you've recorded yourself. To protect your listening experience from bumps or jumps the AZ 7594 delivers Electronic Shock Absorption technology. It stores digital music bits read from the disc in a memory chip with a memory buffer capacity of 45 seconds. This stored information is used to fill in gaps that may occur during playback.

The Powersave mode accommodates a long playing time of 45 hours. The power-saving measures include power off at the end of a CD to conserve battery power. It uses a standard NiMH rechargeable battery with a built-in system that recharges when you plug the player in with the AC adapter. To make operation more convenient, the AZ 7594 has a three-key remote that includes a volume control dial. Other features include 99-track programming, shuffle, repeat for one or all tracks, next/previous track, and forward/reverse search with sound.

The six-digit LCD screen is a stylish blue with backlighting. It indicates track in play, playing time, selected CD functions, Dynamic Bass Boost setting, battery condition, and antishock on/off. This model includes ergonomically designed headphones, an AC adapter, rechargeable batteries, and a carrying pouch.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an excellent player!, May 15, 2000

By 

+++ (OR, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips AZ7594 Portable CD Player (Electronics)

I bought this player for my daughter a while ago, and I never regretted about choosing the Philips. Before I decided which player to buy, I went to a the local electronics superstore and tried out everything what they had on display. It didn't take me long to realize that with portable CD players you basically get what you paid for: while there is a number of cheaper players, they sound so much worse that it would be a mistake to trade the quality for just a few dollars of the price difference. I have chosen three best players from about 20 which I tried, and then finally decided on this one since in that particular store it had the best price of the three. It has very good sound, suitable not only for pop music, but also for classical pieces, nice set of features, and a very long battery life.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, but not perfect., June 8, 2000

By 

skyfish (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips AZ7594 Portable CD Player (Electronics)

I received this unit from Amazon today. It is quite well-built and eye-pleasing (except for the cheesy stick on the cover saying CDRW compatible). Aluminum cover, plastic base, solid and heavy. The headphone is big and ugly (personal taste). Since the in-line remote control takes standard headphone plug, I used a pair of Sony earphones instead. There are three buttons on the remote (play/pause, skip forward, and stop) and a rotary volume control, but no skip backward! Also the remote looks dumb compare to the Sony's.

Now the sound quality. It is very good in normal playing mode (no DBB). I've tried some rock, some jazz, and some classic on the unit and it performed very well. With the DBB on however I didn't feel like gaining too much of the richness at the low frequencies, except for the annoying fake boost. (This could be personal-flavor dependent). I also took the unit for a drive to try the skip protection. I am very pleased with the ESP45. There wasn't a single skip during the half hour driving with the unit on the ceter concole in my truck. It is for sure better than the Sony sports model (DE51) which gave me a lot headache in skipping.

This unit is manufactured in China and carries one year free exchange warranty world-wide.

If you want a perfect portable CD player, you should look for something else like a high end Sony. If you want to balance the quality, function, and price, then I would recommend this Philips AZ7594.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Cd player ever!, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Philips AZ7594 Portable CD Player (Electronics)

This is a great cd player.I bought because it had all the extra stuff sony and panasonic had,but i was alot cheaper.The esp45 is great,not a single skip ever.The carrying pouch is nice too.The remote is the best because u can put the player down in the car and hold the remote to adjust volume or change the song.Out of the hundreds of cd players i looked at and the the ones i used to own,this is definitely the best!