Customer Reviews

Philips NP2500/37 WiFi Internet Radio Network Music Player with Rhapsody (Black)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The entire problem with this player is that it does one thing really well, but has a couple of other features thrown in addition that don't work as advertised.

As a player for Rhapsody, this really rocks. The songs come up quickly, the interface is easy to navigate, and all the songs feature artwork that looks great on the small but crisp LCD. The only downside is that it requires a paid Rhapsody account, although the free month is a nice introduction.

When it comes to internet radio and streaming music as an UPnP device, this player really falls apart. The internet radio functions work well, but the connectivity is very slow compared to the Rhapsody service, and it is unable to display song information from every station. Some stations work, some don't. Also, to find radio stations you are limited to either browsing the menus, or using the number pad to enter the station's name or a serach keyword. The number pad works about as well as using a cell phone without T9, so it is functional but very, very slow.

The UPnP service for streaming music from your home computer never worked for me. I installed the bundled software, updated it from the company's website, but the music never started. I was able to find my music library, even my iTunes playlists, but when I hit "Play," the player just hung forever and never started the music. FYI, I'm running a Macbook Pro with iTunes, and I keep my music on an external network hard drive, so that may have been the issue. A search through the forums of the Twonky Media Player(used for streaming) revealed nothing helpful, and I was unable to resolve it in the time I had to review the item.

As far as the player itself, the design is attractive and should fit well with most home electronics. The screen is bright and clear, and the remote works as well as can be expected. There are no on device controls, so the remote is essential to any use of the player, but I had no problems. It was also easy to connect to the internet, although entering a wireless network password using the number pad was time-consuming.

Bottom line, don't expect it to work seamlessly as a streaming media center from your PC or Mac's music collection. If you want it mainly for internet radio, it works, but is a bit hard to use. Rhapsody works great, but again, it requires a subscription.

Philips NP2500/37 Network Music Player is a pretty attractive and moderately functional internet radio interface. You can access online music services such as Rhapsody and your PC music library. You will need to have a set of speakers to hook this up to, unlike the Philips NP2900/37 Network Music Player which has integrated speakers but also costs about $100 more. In terms of the basic functionality of an internet radio interface to your home audio system, the NP2500 does the minimum that you would expect from it. Where it falls short is in a few more subtle areas of functionality.

HITS

** The international features of this device are excellent. Those in multi-lingual homes have 7 or 8 on-screen language options including Italian, French, Swedish and German. You can use international standard dates and military time too, which were both features I was looking for. You also have much better flexibility in terms of how to search for music by location of the station. Kudos again.

** The ease of hooking up to networks via both wireless and wired Ethernet connections is very good. I tested connections with both using several networks and had no trouble connecting and connectivity stayed strong. Just make sure that the wireless connection is your own. By default it will grab onto the easiest network to connect to.

** The standard inputs and outputs are mostly integrated. In addition to a headphone / line-out 3.5 mm jack, there are traditional RCA speaker inputs and outputs for standard connectors and a nice optical output.

** The screen on the unit itself is nice, and the integrated clock is automatically updated via the internet. The clock is very easy to read, unlike some other devices I own. Some may take this for granted, but this is a very nice feature!

** The compact size of the unit allows for more flexible placement compared to fully integrated speaker radios like the Phillips 2900 or the Logitech Squeezebox Boom. Newer units like the Squeezebox Radio, Grace and Mint are offering integrated speaker options in almost as small a size. But the sound quality of those units is limited. If you have high quality speakers, you can fit this display into a tight area and wire it to your speakers elsewhere.

** The list price of this unit is definitely reasonable considering what you get. While there are a few quirky shortcomings, in my opinion, to this device, at least the price isn't as inflated out of the box leading to an almost immediate need to mark it down. Kudos to Philips for pricing this model right.

MISSES

** While there is an integrated clock (that is very easy on the eyes) and alarm, the alarm feature does not seem to function for all audio outputs. For whatever reason, when connected via headphones the unit powers on without sound output.

** It is inexplicable that a simple line-in jack was not included on this model for connecting MP3 players. For those that want to use this device without using their computer's media library, this seems like a huge missed opportunity considering there are only more and more MP3 players being used to store music collections. Some will be surprised that there is not a standard serial port to connect an iPod dock. Even if they weren't going to include that, a simple 3.5 mm line-in jack has become a requirement for all home audio devices.

** There is an integrated folding cover that has gaudy advertisements on it. While most surfaces have protective plastic that is easily removed, this advertisement seems to be very difficult to remove. Did Philips really want people to keep this adhered to the top? And if this is meant to double as a fold down cover when transporting this unit, why did they integrate adhesive strips into it instead of some kind of slots for holding it in place? And did nobody else think that this gaudy advertising was in poor taste?

** The remote has an unnecessarily large click-wheel for accessing menu options, but the buttons and the text above them are all unnecessarily small. Not to mention, all the buttons have printed text instead of backlit text. Those with poor eyesight will have trouble with this remote, which is very busy with buttons and seems over-designed.

** Unfortunately, the screen seems less well designed for actually seeing information about what is currently playing. Few people have their home entertainment systems within a close distance from where they usually access it. So for those who need this to hook up on their desks, they will have an easier time reading the screen. There seems to be almost no options for changing the formatting of the view, which is entirely based upon how different internet radio stations map to the devices screen properties. That means some sites look good but many have text that seems to over-flow onto itself and is not very readable. Once again, this will be less important for some but for me this is almost a deal breaker.

** Once you can set up your personal music library with this device, track information displays well and the response time is good. However, ease of installation for certain features is better than others. I think that those who are primarily going to use this to connect to internet radio have a fairly pain-free installation ahead of them. Those who primarly want a unit to connect to their computer media library will have to set aside some time to work through an installation that will seem quirky to those who are not tech savvy.

** The sound quality is as good as one would expect. There are equalizer settings for a few music categories. This seems strange given than this device is essentially optimized for 2.0 sound. It doesn't include all the available digital audio codecs for surround sound and advanced features. Those who would want true equalizer settings will have to route this unit's output through their receiver to make equalizer changes if they are expecting them to mean anything. So audiophiles who are demanding in terms of sound should not expect much more than serviceable sound from this unit.

** The selection of internet radio stations is limited compared to what is out there. Navigating through them is cumbersome. If you like to explore a variety of internet radio stations, this unit seems to have the array of options artificially limited. Some stations are also blocked from playing on this depending on what country you're in. That defeats the purpose of what internet radio is supposed to be.

** The subscription options are limited. If you are a hardcore Rhapsody subscriber, this unit is designed for you. But for those who are subscribers to one of the many other services such as Pandora, this unit is not flexible enough. I hope that Phillips will expand their support for other alternatives in future releases.

** The durability and build quality leave a lot to be desired. Mine came with a loose power connection that resulted in it constantly turning itself on and off. I will update this review if and when I can get this problem solved. Suffice it to say, this unit's construction will not inspire confidence.

THE ALTERNATIVES

I'm happy to a degree with the improvements of this unit over the prior Streamium products. But if I had to choose between this unit or competing devices like the Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System or the Logitech Squeezebox Boom Network Music Player with Integrated Speakers, I would probably still choose either of those over this one. I think that those who need the clock feature will find the Philips NP2500 to be better than the Logitech alternatives. But in every other area, the Boom seems better able to access my media library. In the case of the duet, the fact that the screen is on the remote may make more sense for a home theatre user. Even though the screen is smaller and, arguably, not as nice, it is easier to read since it is at your fingertips.

The Philips NP2900 seems to offer a good compromise between all these devices. Though I still feel like the software is not as good as the Logitech Squeezebox Boom's software, the integrated speaker on that unit overcomes the issue with the alarm not working on this unit under certain setups. It also has the nice integrated LCD screen, which the Boom does not have. Once again, while the Philips design includes a few more features, Logitech's brand is just a little bit more reliable in my mind so it's a toss up. I would advise anybody debating whether to spend the extra $100 for the NP2900 to do so. The NP2500 is good, but the few extras you do without in this model really seem to be a problem after time.

Newer units like the Logitech Squeezebox Radio, Grace Digital Wireless Internet Radio GDI-IR2000 and the Aluratek AIREC01F WiFi Internet Radio also have to be considered. Many of them offer better price points, more subscription options, integrated speakers and other advantages.

CONCLUSION

I will revisit this product after a few more months of use. While it will still get plenty of use on my desk, I regret that I couldn't really use it for what it is marketed, specifically for connecting it to my home stereo equipment. I also wonder about the built quality considering mine came with a hardware problem out of the box. It's still worth considering, but review the alternatives before you pull the trigger on this one.

Enjoy.

I've been working from home a fair amount and have a netbook that has my music library loaded on it. I keep my music library on a netbook as opposed to an Ipod because I rip my music using a lossless format to preserve the quality of the sound (I love classical music and have top of the line headphones so want to preserve the detail of the original recordings).

When I'm home, even though I have my big stereo and could use the actual CD -- I find that I'm spoiled with my playlists from my netbook and don't want to have to get up and switch CDs all the time. I would hook my netbook up to a set of Klipsch 5.2 speakers and that worked pretty well but it seemed kind of stupid to have those speakers sitting next to my main home stereo system.

Enter Philips Network Music player. I can now access my computer music collection and play it through my home stereo system. I can even use a remote to control the music. Set up was a breeze with our wireless router and hooking into the amplifier of our system. Sound quality is even better than through my headphones or the Klipsch speakers -- presumably because my home system is much much better.

I have played around with the internet radio some and that seems to work well. I particularly like the access to the XM station play lists. I gave the system 4 stars, though because using the internet radio features etc wasn't as intuitive as I would like.

This is a near-perfect little system that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to take advantage of all the hours spent ripping their music collection onto their computer and creating playlists just the way they want them. Price is very reasonable -- especially considering the amount of money we have invested in our home system and our music collection.

[NCJVR]

This is a wireless network music player that allows you to listen to your music library from your computer by streaming (utilizing proprietary software). You can also subscribe to Rhapsody for music stations (this includes a 1 month free subscription). However, this device does something that I have never experienced. It allows me to access internet radio stations from anywhere in the world. You can search by keywords, genre, country, language, recorded shows, new stations, popular stations, and various types of programming.

Items that I have that are similar (with regards to music) :

XM/Sirius Satellite Radio
iPod MP3 Player (Classic)

WHAT COMES IN THE BOX?

Streamium Music Player
2 AAA Batteries/IR Remote
1 RCA Cable
AC adapter
CD ROM with manuals
Quick Start Guide

SETUP

The menus are self explanatory and intuitive. Without reading instructions, I was able to set this up in about 6 minutes (unboxing, hooking up cables, and connecting wirelessly). This can hook up to your network by Ethernet or Wireless connections. Entering your SSID and WEP password (Hexadecimal, not paraphrase), allows you to get started accessing programming throughout the world. Entering the information is cumbersome with the remote control as you toggle through the various characters on the alphanumeric keypad (like your phone). You can even register the product through this device by entering your email address.

THE REMOTE

The remote control is responsive, but somewhat large given modern standards (though it is still smaller than my television's remote). The remote is piano black with a central multidirectional button for navigating through the windows.

There are quick keys at the top for Internet radio, music, auxiliary input, settings, clock, search and favorites.

CONSTRUCTION

To me, this is aesthetically pleasing to the eye with its piano black finish (i.e. glossy black) and small profile, it can be displayed in plain view or hidden. It matches my television so it works out well.

The construction is plastic with a plastic base. The top of the unit has a power, volume control, and mute function. The back has ports for an ethernet cable, digital out, Single headphone jack, left and right line out (RCA) and left and right line in (Aux). The LCD screen is color and text is sharp. Graphics from each radio station is variable. On music from your own library elapsed time and total time are shown with a 'time bar' showing the remaining portion of time.

Given its small size, it should have been designed to operate with rechargeable batteries for more portability given its lack of speakers.

OPERATION

Powering up takes about 20 seconds. There is a wireless signal meter in the top right hand corner. This is menu driven with categories chosen by using the multidirectional button and pushing enter (or you can just push the hot keys at the top of the remote). At the top of each menu item, there is an indicator letting you know how many menu possibilities there are. For the state of Florida, for example, there are 38 genres and 415 Radio Stations. I was able to connect to a radio station in Alaska in a just a few seconds so distance from a 'hub' does not seem to be an issue. As you proceed through the menu for the Internet Radio, and you select your station, there is a status screen that shows a circular graphic (showing that it is working) and "Buffering" - "buffering" has ranged from just a few seconds to a minute (India, for example). If the station is unavailable, there will be a pre-recorded message stating that you should check your configuration. If the station is available, you will automatically hear your programming.

For curiosity, I tried stations in various parts of the world. I was able to listen to stations in India, Canada, the Carribbean, Japan, Portugal, and the Ukraine.

Contrasting with XMRadio, this does not require a subscription however, depending upon the number of connections to a particular station, you may or may not get a 'signal'. However, given the diverse spectrum of programming from almost every country, this product is the biggest competitor to Satellite Radio. However, there is no recording capability, no artist information or song names.

The equalizer has presets and there is a noticeable difference unlike other devices that have 'preset' equalizers. Presets can be toggled through the EQ button or by scrolling through the onscreen menus.

CD

The CD Contains Twonky Media and a Video Tutorial. The multimedia approach is excellent, if you are not tech savvy.

TwonkyMedia

This somehow wirelessly networks with your device allowing you to listen to your music library from your computer. I was testing this on a Windows device. Selecting the songs work almost instantaneously, as opposed to the "Buffering" from Streaming from the Internet. You can browse all the available songs on your computer which seem to link to the "My Music Folder". Switching from one song to the next, is close to selecting a song on your iPod with regards to the 'delay' from one song to the next.

PROS
Don't need a PC for operation
Compact footprint
No subscription fees
Album graphics, artist name and song name for TwonkyMedia connections

CONS
No built in speakers
User's manual is on a CD so technically, you need a PC to view it
Should have been designed with rechargeable batteries

WHO IS THIS FOR (assuming you have high speed internet access)?

Music lovers (not necessarily an audiophile since music is not necessarily CD quality)
Educators/students (access to foreign programming;culture immersion)
Gadget lovers (like myself)
People considering satellite radio

OVERALL

This is a great little invention that gives you 'access to the world' with a simple set up.

Despite some limitations, I love this thing!

Highly recommend.

I am not a big gadget person, but this Network Music Player from Philips was so easy to set up. It only took a few minutes. The sound is awesome. I can't believe such a small item could have such a quality sound. It is portable also, so I can carry it to any room. I also really liked the internet radio. Friends and family came over and we listened to radio stations in Africa and Italy. It sounded like the stations were local they were so clear. Thanks Philips for a great product!

I've owned this unit for over a year now and have been relatively pleased with it. I own this unit along with the Philips NP2900/37 WiFi Internet Radio Network Music Player with Rhapsody (Black) and the Logitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Network Music Player / Wi-Fi Internet Radio. This NP2500 is for the most part identical to the NP2900 with the exception of the built-in speakers which this unit lacks.

If you're debating between the three units, you should consider the following:

- Do you have a stereo system to plug this unit into? If not, you'll either have to purchase one, or consider other options. If you've got a nice stereo system, this could easily be the centerpiece, and you can be streaming music from your computer/network drive or internet in no time!

- Is portability a concern? Since this one does not have built-in speakers, you will need to supply your own. The NP2900 and the Squeezebox Boom both have built-in speakers, albeit at a premium price.

=====

Installation is simple and straightforward. You can either connect it to your network via WiFi or wired ethernet. For wireless, just select your network and then key in the security key.

The menu on the unit is fairly intuitive. To stream music from your PC, you'll need to install the included Twonkey Media program onto the system with the music.

Internet radio was easier to use on this unit than the Squeezebox boom. For the Squeezebox Boom, you would need to set up your stations via the net on a computer. For this, you can browse the plethora of stations directly on the unit! You can search for it by different categories/genres, languages, etc.


This unit works well, and would be a perfect complement to any existing home stereo/theater system. However, I've found myself using the Squeezebox Boom more often as I prefer not to have to power up my entire stereo system every time I want to listen to my music.

The Streamium NP2500 by phillips is essentially a great internet radio player that works extremely well plugged directly into a router or set up on a secure wireless network to play anywhere. I had a devil of a time with the "Twonky" Server, so I forgot about that. I talked with some friends who use the full version of Twonky, and they had the same experience as I had with out of the box "half" versions of "twonky"; As soon as the server is up, it falls over within a few minutes. It also makes some alterations to the network, both the registry and the settings on the router that did not make me too happy.
In essence the easiest way to set the NP2500 up, is to plug the unit into the router and start it running, select some radio stations from the huge worldwide list that you like ( for me it was BBC, ABC, for talk, and HARD RADIO plus a few similar ones for music), and then pick your generated access WEP or WPA codes from the router setup screens, and then you switch the Radio over to Wireless and it allows you to enter one of the access codes in WEP, WPA or similar ( from, in my case, a LINKSYS router) and then it switches over. The quality output to headphones or to an audio device is amazing. This little device is a total bonus.
It may be possible for me to stream my own audio to my device in house, but until I get a server that is less dodgy than Twonky, I will stick to the Radio stations I have, the quality is awesome.

IN THE BOX

Streamium Music Player NP2500
Remote control w/2 AAA batteries
1 RCA cable
1 AC power adapter
TwonkyMedia CD ROM
Manuals and start guide

STREAMING FROM THE INTERNET

After getting the NP2500 out of the box it took me about 5 minutes to connect it, set it up and start using it. The overview clearly indicates you need to connect this to an external sound system (RCA cables included), I have seen some reviews of people complaining about this unit not having built-in speakers, while I may understand that would be neat, the product description was quite clear in my opinion, so I would not know why would someone have expected this to have them. I plugged this to a sound system I have on my living room and the sound is simply great, in a matter of minutes I was listening to French radio stations with a clarity that surprised me. There are thousands of free radio stations to pick, they are easy to browse and you can filter them by genre, country, language and you can actually select and add "favorites" so you don't need to browse for them next time.

You can plug this via the Ethernet jack or wireless (like I did); important thing to note is that you need a good internet connection as the stations have to buffer and in a slow connection this may cause intermissions while listening to music as they do.


STREAMING FROM A COMPUTER

To do this you need to install the software included, TwonkyMedia, this enables access to the music in your computer. Once installed it is very simple to use and you can access your computer music folders from the NP2500.

The display screen is very well designed and contains very basic information on what you listen to, which in my opinion is enough.

I would recommend to those interested in this product to get an additional speaker (I own one of those Ipod speakers with an AUX input) to connect it if you are interested in something small; the device is actually mot too bulky as it may seem and nice looking, what I did is that I connected it to that speaker instead of my sound system, to save some space and for practical purposes.

As a gadget, I must say I love this! But I do agree with other reviewers who believe it is a bit overpriced for what it actually offers.

Let me first say that in all my years as an Electronics Technician (and specializing in Audio/Visual equipment), I have seen many amazing products and that this one by Philips has to be one of the most interesting.

This player is a convenient inexpensive way to listen to the 1000's of radio stations which are on the internet plus it will playback songs from your computer.

Unlike the internet there is no typing when using the internet radio (unless you use the search feature), you just select the channel you want and in moments (after a little buffering) you are listening to a radio station which could be anywhere in the world.

To playback songs from your computer you use the software included called TwonkyMedia which creates a server and you can then access songs from folders on your computer using this player. To do this, you have to ensure the folders on your computer have file sharing. I had problems with the TwonkyMedia included with the device so I downloaded the latest version. This works fine and I have it running on Windows XP SP3 and Vista 64 computers. The one thing to watch is that your firewall doesn't try to block the program.

Now of course with all high-tech gadgets there are drawbacks, not every station you select is available to US users and some are simply not there. Also sometimes the information can be corrupt so occasionally it will lock-up the system but generally this device runs smoothly. My advice if it locks-up, is to unplug the power for a few seconds and this will reset it. I expect Philips to make updates (this appliance has the option) so hopefully problems like this will go away.

The other advice I would give is to ensure you have a high speed internet connection and output the sound to your amplifier using the digital coaxial output and not the standard AV connectors. The sound is a lot higher quality this way and true digital sound.

Overall I have to give this product top marks, the technology is remarkable and scanning through all the stations is a lot of fun. I love the ability to be able to listen to radio stations in the UK, Australia, and Ireland etc. There are literally 1000's of internet radio channels, I couldn't give a guess how many and I am sure new ones spring up every day.

The design of the unit is also ultra-trendy; it fits alongside the rest of your audio-equipment and has a very modern look. The menu etc. on the appliance is easy to use, the display screen is very clear and you can be listening to stations in minutes plus it will playback your favorite songs from your computer.

Full marks go to Philips for an excellent product!

I have a Western digital MY BOOK network drive, on which I store my music library. I wanted a network player to play such library. Also I wanted to be able to listen to internet radio stations with the same player.
Philips NP2500 player did these 2 tasks perfectly. Setup was a breeze, found my WIFI network and got connected without problems. I had to reset my network drive media server though to have the player discover the media storage. Pictures also are displayed and look nice.
If you have a secured wireless network, it is better to setup the password through the manual settings/SETUP instead of having the device discover the network and ask for password. The first one saves the password even if power goes off, while the second will always ask for the password.

The setup I have is:
1. Linksys E2000 router
2. Audio Unlimited wireless speakers
3. Western digital My Book white light
4. High Speed internet

Minor Issues:
1. Sometimes when starting an internet station, the player hangs up and show "Buffering" forever. An easy fix to unplug the power cord and replug it again.
2. Although the screen is very clear, it seems small compared to the total size of the player.
3. I have some media files stored in Arabic. The player doesnt decode these file names, and show them as scrambled. It plays them though.

Finally I am satisfied with the purchase.