Customer Reviews

Philips EXP401 Pocket eXpanium CD-MP3 Player with 100 Second Anti-Skip

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The exp401 is really small. Theres no weird software you need to install into your computer to transfer the mp3's to the unit. You burn your cd's on your burner like regular computer data cds. You can play em in your pc, or on the exp401!!! You can bring more than one disc with you and change the disc when your in the mood. i usally have a different type music style on the 10 discs i carry around in my pocket with the player. blank mini cd-r discs cost about 88 cents each.

Its worked well reading iso9660+joliet, and udf formats on both cd-r, and cd-rw mini cd's. I've only used 1 level directorys so far and they work great. I usually use a cd-rw disc formatted in udf to test mp3's. (we shouldent have glitches) Then i will make a cd-r in iso9660+joliet format for longterm listening.

I just bought this a week ago and so far its awesome. The sound quality is great, the DBB (dynamic bass boost) works a lot better than the one on my panasonic discman. The 8cm CD's hold about an hour and a half of music, if you use bitrates above 128, which i do. The batteries and the LCD screen are the only bad parts. The batteries run out fast with the ESP (not that you need it), and the LCD screen doesn't display track names, which isn't that big of a deal on this model because the CD's probably wouldn't hold any more than about 30 songs. The ESP, is not even needed, unless you are doing some serious movment. I usually can run with it and have the ESP off, and it won't skip once. I definently would recommend this product to anyone that is concerned about size, and that doesn't mind not having 400 songs on a CD. If you do decide to get it, be prepared to get a nice pair of headphones, the ones that come with it arent exactly great, and don't fit comfortably at all. An all around great product, though.

1) The 3 hour battery life is not too bad. I usually carry around an extra pack of batteries with me.
2) I do appreciate that the player can read Joliet long filenames, unlike others which read only ISO9660.
3) The resume features have been touchy. Sometimes (at random) the player would resume at the beginning of the track or sometimes at the exact position i turned it off.
4) My main problem with the player is, for some reason, the battery would drain when left in the player, as if the player was on all along. I emailed philips about this problem, but I still have not gotten a response. I don't know if this is a common problem with others, but it's a major drawback with mine.
5) If have any other questions, feel free to email me.

I bought one for my sister to go snowboarding with. Didn't know what to expect - but it turned out awesome! Doesn't skip even when going over the bumps and 3 hours of mp3s in such a small package. It feels a little light (and cheap) but given that it is pretty cheap and does the job more than adequately - I say this is a great little mp3 player. Way better than those 64meg wimpy "oops you ran out of music" mp3 players. And the 8cm cd's are small enought that you can easily carry more than one.

I'm now here to order another one for myself! Can't wait to take it bump skiing at finally ski to music!!

Cheers,
Tim

I'm a snowboarder and I've tried many different MP3 Players. I bought this player about 3 weeks ago and I can say it does work. I love the size, fits perfect in my snow pants pocket. My biggest complaint is that is it sometimes just stops playing for no apparent reason, especially in UDF format. For some reason in UDF format it stops between songs and display PS in the LCD screen. Also even with the ESP on it'll skip if i'm doing some serious snowboarding. The thing is when it does skip it stays skipped for a more seconds than i care to count. I'm not sure what PS means but i get it quite often - sometimes it recovers sometime it doesn't and you have to open the case and start over. Another thing is that i can't figure out what order it plays songs in and how it counts. Song 13 can be different songs depending on if you've rebooted it. I've tried 3 different methods of writing to CD's but it doesn't really matter its still unpredictable. UDF is definetely not supported properly with those damn PS errors every time a song changes. Though the good thing is that its fairly loud compaired to other players i've had thats a first. Also its usable unlike many of the other CD/MP3 players i've had which hardly work at all. I wish they get this technology more stable.

Oh by the way i have read the "Manual" and there is nothing documented about PS so i've no idea what it means.

I like this product for its convenience, small size, and good sound quality. The mini-CDs hold about 4 hours of music in MP3 format (128 or 160 k-bit) each, and are very easy to carry around with you. As for the battery problem alluded to by previous reviewers, I solve the problem by using rechareable batteries and carry a couple spares with me.

I do have a couple problems: 1) the resume button doesn't work on my machine every since I got it. 2) after a month of use, my player starts shutting off whenever there's a jolt to it or if I drop it into my bag. Perhaps I've not been very careful with it, but the player should be better built than that. I will probably try a different mini-CD player next time, if the problems start to annoy me too much.

I've been using portable mp3 players since 1999. My Creative Nomad is small and great for running because it doesn't have moving parts but the flash memory is limited to 64mb or 1 hour of CD quality music.
I also have a Philips eXpanium CD/MP3 player (model EXP 103, the first one launched by Philips). This player can read CD's with up to 10 hours of mp3 files but it's big and skips all the time while running or walking.
The eXpanium EXP 401 is great because it can hold up to 4 hours of mp3 music, supports new AAC audio format, doesn't skip, it's bigger than Nomad but smaller than portable CD players and audio quality is very good.
About battery life: Turn skip protection off if you don't need it. This way, the player reads the cd, fills the internal cache memory and stops spinning for a few minutes(power saving mode). I can get 4 or 5 hours of battery life with a single 1600mAh NiMh rechargeable battery.
I recommend this product. Why 4 stars? Flimsy construction and no mp3 ID info.

Overall, I liked the simplicity of the product, its portability, the coolness factor, and the sound quality is above average. I'm very happy with it, and so far it hasn't given me any problems. It may not be able to display MP3 ID3 tags but who's got the time to look at, much less read scrolling text, when you're running or working out? This portable mp3/mini-cd player delivers the goods very well, and that's the bottom line. For next year's model, I strongly suggest longer battery life.

[....] for me, the eXpanium is original.... sheek...... and is the envy of mp3 players currently on the market. Even with the new Rios and their compact size, id tags, backlite, etc... nothing beats an 8cm cd. No need for memory, storage problems,or lost files and its quick and easy to use. No hassle with the mini cds by Sony which are not pc friendly.

For those of you looking for a unique gift.... the eXpanium is better than a portable cd player, pda, or electronic organizer. For the price [...], you will have a gift that will delight people from all walks of life. A must to have for those who wish to have hard copies of their favorite tunes without the bulky equipment and accessories to carry. And last....... its downright fun!

i have been looking for a device to listen to my music on the go, while i am jogging, driving or in the gym. i have tried the card based ones, fullsize cd players and also the hard drive based ones. finally this mini-cd player is the one that fits my life. it doesn't skip at all, even when i was jogging on the road, good idea to get an optional clip. I have a few mini CDRWs and i use them constantly, i fit upto 40 songs on a single disc. this baby works great for me, Battery life is also very good. i have had it for couple of months, as good as new.