Customer Reviews

Philips EXP203P eXpanium Personal CD Player with MP3 CD Playback & Car Kit

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this player for it's MP3 capability, HOWEVER, when in MP3 mode, the player emits a random ugly "barking" sound in the right channel. There is even a mention of this in an addendum to the user manual. Philips calls it "monkey chatter", supposedly caused by "random electrostatic discharge", whatever that means. All I know is, it is extremely annoying and it totally ruins the sound of most MP3's played through it.

The unit works fine when playing music CDs, but if you want to play MP3's, stay away from this barking dog.

I bought a 201 model. Worked GREAT. Dropped (as busy people tend to) a few times. Finally, it had the final say and the third time, stopped working. 'Well, maybe it was because I bought it used,' I think. I buy the 203 brand new. drop it ONCE- just the other day as a matter of fact. Now it won't read anything. Didn't even have thirty days with it. What'll Philips do?- I dropped it, it's my responsibility to fix it. I had an older 40 second skip-protection model with them that I used for jogging, cross country, all of that. Must have dropped it over a hundred times, and it is STILL working like new. This thing I buy, twenty days later drop once, and it doesn't work- and it doesn't just happen once but TWICE to me.

Sorry, I'm sure some models are just made differently, but I'm not made to like Philips anymore.

The player is bogus, save your money for an RCA RP2450 if you have clumsy hands like mine- it's made to drop...several thousand times.

I purchased this Philips EXP20317P CD/MP3 player a few weeks ago and have been very happy with the unit so far. I have created several MP3 CDs using "Music Match" software and have crammed up to 196 songs on one 700 MB CD. This Philips player plays these CDs with ease. It is user friendly and works great with headphones or through an AMP with speakers. The sound is clean, clear, and crisp although I would like to see just a little extra Bass boost. I would recommend a good quality head set such as Radio Shack's PRO-35 TITANIUM headset for very life like sound. The battery life is quite good at around 8 to 10 hours on 2 AA's although run time does decrease if you skip around hunting favorites. The unit also has fast access time in both CD and MP3 modes. I would recommend this unit to anyone who is looking for a good player at a pretty good price.

This is really good cd player and Mp3 player. This is an upgraded version version of Philips EXP103 Expanium Portable MP3-CD Player. The interface is easy to use compared to the previous version. I love the player's music sound quality, and think it sounds great. A must buy for MP3 players. The only reason I gave it 5 stars is because that is the maximum they would let me have. This product is excelent. I use it for my car, and it never skips a beat. I have 152 songs on my cd now. ...with a car kit included how can you go wrong. [Inexpensive] and affordable, once again, its a great product. Best buy even for the joggers, the anti-skip works really well. A BEST BUY OF ALL THE MP3-PLAYERS AVAILABLE.

Quick review:
Good ESP... no complain about that... And i liked the belt clip too but the desig is poor... and buttons are hard to identify whithout seen (whoever uses the player while driving would appreciate to be able to keep the eyes on the road) The cd cover release is easy to open accidentaly i.e. when trying to adjust the volume or when taking the player off the belt. Also the Superbass feature distorts the sound if you set it to the maximum. The resume mode doesn't completely work... the player will start in the song it was playing but at the begining.. and you have to press the mode button to go back to random or repeat modes. Batery life is decent (around 11 not continuous hours with a pair of alkaline AA)
I would add a random-dir play mode (to be able to play in random order the tracks in a directory)
My advice is "take a look at the Riovolt sp50, soul player or if you are into big brands you can even get a sony for the same money)
The bottomline: This player would be a good value for $35.00
The two stars are one for the esp and the other as a late christmas gift for Phillips. ;-)

I had previously used a Rio Volt, that also had the same problems, and I had returned it. Then I saw this one at a very attractive price. But no, it isn't worth wasting your time on it. You should rather buy the next higher model, EXP 301/303. This model EXP 201/203 comes without belt clip, the Electronic Skip Protection is very delicate in beginning of each and every song, it cannot read directory structure if you created it with DirectCD, the batteries last only 8 to 10 hours rather than 15 as claimed by Philips on internet. After using it for a month, and getting very annoyed at the end, I returned it! (But don't dispair -- I bought the EXP 301/303 model and I am very glad about it. None of the problems I listed above exist in the newer model. I will buy a couple more for my family members.)

+ Fast startup - 2 to 4 seconds usually to read a MP3 disc.
+ Easy navigation. Folders & track seeking is fast. So is in song FF/RW you can hear. good for audio books.
+ Survives drops. Had mine go 3+ feet to concrete many times.
+ Nice high-visibility orange display (not backlit tho).
+ Smooth analog volume dial. No distortion heard at very loud volumes.
+ belt-clip
+ Nice chromed buttons.
+ Lots of sticker space on top (if you're into that)
+ Reads <128Kbs to 320Kbs MP3s w/o a problem.
+ Solid feeling construction (eg. Rio SP100 yucky!)
+ Button beep can be turned off.

+/- about a 10 hour battery life on 2 Ni-Mh AAs.

- Resume feature doesn't work right. Sometimes does, most of the time doesn't. Goes back to track 1 mostly.
- yucky in-ear headphones with ill-fitting rubber protrusion.
- newer players out have ID3 track display, backlit display, a working resume, etc. for the same ~...price.

Basically, great, durable, fast player marred by no ID3 tags & bad resume feature, now superseeded by the newest MP3 portables.