Customer Reviews

Philips EXP313 Portable MP3-CD Player with Car Kit (Red)

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

 

 

I bought this player to use primarily while driving, and I've found it to be almost perfect for my needs. The criteria I used to select this model were car adapter included, resume feature, and MP3 capability. Unlike what another reviewer stated, the resume feature works fine for both audio and mp3 cd's, even after a day or more of non-use. He must have had a defective unit. The LCD display is extra-large and easy to read. The skip protection works much better than the last player I owned.

Initially, the player would not play my MP3 CDs, which had me worried until I read the instructions. I was using a Linux computer to burn my CDs and was using the Rockridge extensions. The instructions state that the player will only support the Windows-compatible Joliet extensions. After burning a new CD with Joliet only, it played perfectly.

I was also initially disturbed by the fact that the resume feature did not seem to work. Later, I realized that since I was using the car adapter exclusively, I had neglected to place AA batteries in the player. Batteries in, problem solved.

I have one gripe that prevents this player from scoring 5 stars. It involves the behavior of the player when using the car adapter. When turning off the power by switching off the ignition on the car, the player occasionally locks up and must be "reset" by removing the batteries. This happens about 50% of the time. I have found through trial and error that I must press the stop button on the player before switching off the ignition in order to prevent this behavior. Unfortunately, however, the unit remains ON for about 30 seconds after pressing the stop button before shutting off completely (some sort of standby mode or something). If I shut off the ignition during this period, then the resume feature does not always kick in. Therefore, I have to wait 30 seconds after pressing stop to turn of the ignition. I have almost trained myself to press stop on the player when entering a parking lot, etc, so I don't have to sit idling for 30 secs.

Other than this one problem, I've been very happy with this player.

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The Philips EXP313 is one of the latest MP3 CD players available today from Philips, and appears to be an upgraded version of their prior 301/303 models from a few years back, models which didn't have ID3 text display but only numerical track/folder display.

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Although the added ID3 tag support is appreciated, the problems introduced in this latest EXP313 model makes it less friendly than the prior 301/303 models - such as complete hangups when the car ignition is turned off when used with the DC adapter, inability to FF/RW to the next/prior song when the end of the current song is reached, title scrolling on the LCD panel stops after 3 rounds, display settings don't stick, etc.

Here's one time where I would say the EXP301/303 series is the better buy. Less annoying even though it only has numerical track/folder display. Keep in mind the latest MP3 CD Portables from Sony and Panasonic are worth investigating - they'll probably be better, and they all have ID3 tag displays.

Philips Expanium EXP313
-------------------------------------
+ Takes everything. CBR, VBR, various bitrates.
+ Fast startup times. Under 3
seconds for all discs, usually faster. Just like a regular CD player. Keep in mind that discs that have been burned but have not been fully closed will take longer to read (eg. open multi-session/track discs). Closing the disc immediately removes the read delay. Read delay can be up to 5-10 seconds for open session/track discs.
+ Controls are fast and responsive - just like you'd expect and know from any regular
Philips audio CD portable. Song to song & folder to folder navigation
is quick, press FF/RW and it'll skip to the next song in under a second or two, and can be done blind. FF/RW within
a song has a momentary <1 second pause before the song FF/RWs so you can easily review audio books and language lessons. Not as quick to respond as the EXP301 series I had reviewed earlier.
+ Navigation of the files & folders is quick and easy. Just press the Next/Prior Folder or Next/Prior Song (FF/RW) buttons to navigate all the folders and songs on your CD. At most, a 1-2 second delay between songs, but usually almost always ~1 second or less to skip from song to song. Quick response here.
+ Solid battery door latch.
+ Analog audio level dial! Perfect adjustment of audio levels quickly
and easily w/o any trouble at all.
+ Large LCD display. Easy to understand, scrolls title, author, album names. Can be difficult to view off angle from a distance - eg. when used in a car (then again, the other MP3 CD players out today with the exception of the Panasonic models have even smaller LCD displays by far!), but easier to read when driving than the other players.
+ Beep when any button is pressed can be turned on/off. Beep on is softer than the 301 series and can be left on without much annoyance vs. the louder 301 beeps.
+ ESP can be turned off to lengthen battery life. 15/23 hours for MP3 playback with ESP on/off.
+ Even better shock support than prior 45 sec. Philips CD
portables - now up to 100 seconds. Shake and bake, this baby won't skip.
+ Belt Clip to attach player to belt included.
+ Visible battery meter to let you guage remaining life of the 2 AAs used.
+ Metallic red top cover, dark gray bottom. Same design body as prior 301 series.
+ Battery door on outside.
+ A complete printed manual.
+ ID3 tag supported.
+ Headphones decent for the cheap price.

- LCD Only scrolls the title, author, album title three times, then stops scrolling. You have to push the DISPLAY button to skip to the next choice to get it to scroll for 3x before it stops again.
- Does not automatically scroll through all three - title, author, album title. You must press the DISPLAY button to see each one.
- Does not remember the prior track's display setting when playing the next song. Automatically defaults back to displaying the FILENAME. Annoying! especially if you want to display just the TRACK TIME, eg., at all times. No way to fix/set the LCD display to a specific item at all times.
- Does not properly shut off when plugged into car DC adapter. When you shut off the car, you can often get this unit to hang completely - ie. totally non-responsive to the buttons until you completely remove power by unplugging the DC adapter and removing the batteries!!!! BAD!
You must press the STOP button twice to make sure the unit is completely off before turning off the car ignition to prevent this from occuring.
- No backlight.
- Keeping the FF/RW buttons pressed to the end/beginning of a song does not let you skip to the next/prior song! (EXP 301 does allow this as do almost all other CD players) Very annoying if you're trying to FF/RW through mutiple passages of an audio book.
- FF/RW is slow. Seems like it's only 2-3x FF/RW speed.
- Resume doesn't work just like prior 301/303 series. You can set it like the manual says, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Appears they haven't fully updated the firmware inside to fix this bug. And no, you can update the firmware at all.
- Buttons are placed far apart on opposite sides of the LCD panel, and not as textured/easily distinguished during blind navigation to activate. Fine if you're looking at the unit however. Buttons are placed towards the top back of the unit, so if you've placed this in a slot of a car cubicle, you can't easily reach the buttons.

I am happy with this player, in general. I think the sound is great. The anti skip protection is also great. I wear the player on my belt using the belt clip while I jog and it hasn't skip once yet. By the way, the belt clip is a fantastic thing to have. I hate the fact that not a lot of portable players have this feature. For me sound and good anti-skip protection are the determing factors in getting a player (as well as a belt clip).

However I have some of the same complains as a previous reviewer.

This player could afford a redesign. As is, the volume button is definitely too close to the open/close button. I keep opening the player when all I want to do is adjust the volume. This problem got to be so aggravating that I put a rubber band around the player. On my player it takes between 9 to 30 seconds before the player starts to play MP3s, depending curiously enough on which burning program I use to burn the disc. The resume feature is useless with mp3s.

It plays mp3s with good sound quality and has great skip protection, it's a lot better than having to be tied to a desktop or laptop, but other than that it is poorly designed. The headphone plug is always pulling out. The button to open the case is right next to the volume control on the bottom, so I have to be careful to not open the case when adjusting the volume. It often displays garbled song names, like taking a previous song and combining the name of the current song. The resume remembers for a long time but only on CDs. The resume only remembers for a minute if you listen to mp3s, otherwise it's back to the beginning of the cd next time you go to use it. You can program a playlist but as soon as you open the cover (normally trying to adjust the volume) you lose all of your programming. Another antifeature is disconnecting from the ac or dc adapter causes the player to shut off, even with batteries in the unit. If there are a lot of mp3s on the cd then the unit will take a while reading the cd before playing, max 15 seconds. Too bad I lost the receipt :-(

I lost my old panasonic CD player and I bought this MP3 player. I am really satisfied with this product. It is so convenient that I carry all my songs in one cd (MP3 format) and play them.
Worth the price.

It plays mp3s with good sound quality and has great skip protection, it's a lot better than having to be tied to a desktop or laptop, but other than that it is poorly designed. The headphone plug is always pulling out. The button to open the case is right next to the volume control on the bottom, so I have to be careful to not open the case when adjusting the volume. It often displays garbled song names, like taking a previous song and combining the name of the current song. The resume remembers for a long time but only on CDs. The resume only remembers for a minute if you listen to mp3s, otherwise it's back to the beginning of the cd next time you go to use it. You can program a playlist but as soon as you open the cover (normally trying to adjust the volume) you lose all of your programming. Another antifeature is disconnecting from the ac or dc adapter causes the player to shut off, even with batteries in the unit. If there are a lot of mp3s on the cd then the unit will take a while reading the cd before playing, max 15 seconds. Too bad I lost the receipt :-(

This is a great affordable Mp3 player, I bought mine a lot cheaper at [local store]only $$$. The skip protection is great and it plays Mp3s with no troubles. The sound quality sounds the sames as if I were listening to a CD. Dont listen to the other person saying that you will accidently hit the open button instead of volume its easy to find the volume

I bought it... so surprised to see it a bit expensive here! ... I returned it since I found a lot of features are broken. Such as the ones mentioned in the previous review.