Customer Reviews

Philips PSS110/17 256 MB Personal MP3 Sound System

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

 

 

I purchased this product because I'm looking for something that I can use while in the bathroom/shower in the morning. Normal shower radios always sound awful and most don't have MP3 capability. Obviously I can't take this unit into the shower, but it takes up very little space and I can set it near the shower without any problem.

First the good:

1. This unit sounds really good for what it is. It's not going to compete with your stereo system, but the sound is clean and crisp. It's also very loud when you turn the volume all the way up. Easily loud enough to accommodate a midsize room. It sounds better by far, than any other speaker I've heard that is a similar size.

2. It has a rechargable battery, with a life of about 10 hours. Some people may see this as a liability, but I hate changing batteries all the time so I like it.

3. This thing makes a very passable alarm clock. Some of the other comments knock this feature, however, after upgrading the firmware many of the problems go away. After upgrading the firmware, you can choose which song the alarm plays. Also hitting any button engages a 10 minute snooze. Hitting a button while it snoozes turns off the alarm. I'd even consider using it as a replacement for my current clock radio, and then taking it with me while I get ready.

4. The unit got great radio reception for me. I know some people had problems with this, but after I attached the included antenna, I was able to receive a lot of different stations. I suppose other's mileage will vary.

Unfortunately, the unit has has some real limitations which as a result caused me to return it.

1. It's only USB 1.1. It takes quite a while to fill the device. I do not understand why they didn't go USB 2.0 on this. Basically, if you add the full 256 MB of music, you might as well go get some coffee while it loads.

2. It only works, officially, with the included musicmatch software. Since I run Linux, this software is no good for me. I was able to get this to work using a third party software package named pyGogear: http://freshmeat.net/projects/pygogear/ This software manipulates the SQLite database which the unit uses to access the playlists and what not. It has no GUI and certainly is not for the faint of heart, however.

I don't understand why they didn't make it so that you can just copy the tracks on. Granted you may not get the ID3 taginfo (this is my guess as to why they didn't do it) and hence song navigation by artist, album, etc; but it could still just play the music and maybe list the filename.

3. It has no expansion capabilities. An included flash reader seems like it'd be a no brainer to me.

4. This one is the biggy...It's only 256 MB. I knew this going in, thought I could make it work, but I couldn't. It simply is not enough capacity. It takes so long to transfer music to the device, making it painful to change the track selection often. I thought maybe I could bear re-encoding my MP3s to 48 or 64 kb/s, to get a larger selection on the unit but I couldn't. They simply sound too horrible at the lower bitrates, particularly through this device which sounds pretty good with higher bitrates. WMA isn't much of an option for me because I run Linux.

In short, I really wanted to like this unit. I do like this unit. It's so close to amazing (you have to hear it)...If Philips releases another one that uses a microdrive (a few gig capacity) with usb 2.0, or uses a flash reader (this would be optimal); I'd totally buy it, keep it, and give it 5 stars.

I have been looking for a travel alarm with MP3 and good sound for a couple years, here it is - almost.

The good:
Firmware upgrade improved functionality greatly - hopefully more to come
Nice package, right size. About 7.5" X 2" X 2".
Rechargeable battery - and long playing on a charge.
Amazing sound for the 1.2" drivers and small case.
Logical controls.
Flexible alarm features - once, weekdays, daily.
Snooze.
Soft on. ********** SEE BELOW!!!
Wake to music (selection), alarm, or radio.
Aux input.
Case, charger/adapter and cords included.


The bad:
Although the sound is very impressive for the size it still lacks bass below 80HZ.
No subwoofer-only output jack.
Have to use pc software to load and catalog rather than simple MP3 file transfer. Slow download.
Setup text too small.
The AC clock should show alarm indicator and time and should have adjustable brightness - is too bright for nightstand.

The worse:
Just 256k with no known way to add more memory.

Conclusion: Philips, great job, but add storage, provide an optional travel subwoolfer (or at least a sub output), keep improving the functionality through the firmware upgrades, loose the pc software interface, FIX THE ALARM TO ALLOW VOLUME ADJUST and you get 5 stars.

Followup after a couple months use: A MOST ANNOYING non-feature is how the alarm functions. You can set a play list to be awakened to. Fine. When the alarm goes off it starts low and increases quickly to LOUDER THAN YOU EVER WANTED AND LOUNDER THAN YOU LAST OR EVER PLAYED IT. YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING AND WHEN YOU TOUCH IT TO TURN IT DOWN it shuts off completely. You have been awakened and then BLASTED BY YOUR FAVORITE SONG AND NOW IT IS. . . . . . gone. When you turn it back on, your selection is lost which leaves you to either listen to the default every *$^%ing morning OR to use 4 different buttons and the small screen all bleary-eyed to reselect the play list.

If you want to enjoy this product, which by the way you can get at sams club for only 50 bucks, there are a couple of things I would recomend, so that you don't run into the same problems most of the people here did.
First off, do not plug the thing untill you have installed the software and read the manual which is also on the disc.
Connect the device direclty to a usb to the computer, DO NOT USE USB HUBS!!!!
Before you unplug the device use SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE, on the botton right hand side of you monitor skipping this very simple step could result in the device freezing, and you would probably have to use the reset button on the back and would have to use the Device manager that is specifically for this product and you may end up resetting the device to original factory settings or updating the firmware alltogether.
If you download the latest firmware be aware that when you press to the next track it skips a little, which can be annoying. Although the latest firmware allows you to use windows media player, I could not load up a playlist I was able only to load up music. Besides music match is not that bad.
If your player does not power up when you open it the very first time all you have to do is press the reset button on the back with a pen. ( reading the manual could have saved many people here a lot of frustration).
So there it is, I am enjoying very much this product, which by the way I got a one year extended warranty for only five bucks more, do not be concerned by the freaked out reviews posted here
I'd bet that all of them could have been resolved easyly.
Now is there room for improvement? definately, expandable memory
ogg vorbis for example, but com'on fifty follars I think is reasonable for what you get.
Last but not least, although this device has built in alarm clock
is mostly a digital audio player as advertised on the original packaging, you can get an alarm clock at the 99 cent store which by the way work much better.
Did I mentioned that this device's volume can fill a room with decent bass, I've showed it to many people and they can believe how loud it is.
You can hear a very minimal distortion at the highest volume, almost perfect.
Enjoy.

i got the shoqbox about a week ago at best buy. it was on sale for $99, and hey, even amazon can't hardly beat that! i am so impressed with the shoqbox!!! this thing is TINY, and yet produces so much sound you would think you were listening to a full sound boombox! its insane! granted, its not bose or anything, but if you want something portable with great battery life, an FM tuner (which actually works, i might add), an alarm clock (upgrade your firmware), and space for about 50 or 60 songs, this is perfect! it is really amazing how good the bass is considering how small it is! it does not distort even at the loudest volume, unless you are listening to poor-quality songs. there are a few drawbacks, of course, the main one being that there is no expandability via sd card or something (256 is all you have), and you HAVE to use the MusicMatch software included (a real pain, and slow... believe me, i tried the windows explorer route, dragging and dropping into the player's hidden folders, but it didn't work)... but overall the benefits far exceed the slight drawbacks. oh yea, one other thing: the line-in jack is PERFECT,,, you can hook other MP3 players or whatever up to it and the sound is just as great! i definately recommend this product.

I bought this as a temporary solution for my daughter whose car stereo was broken. It's hard to believe how much volume comes out of this banana-sized device which is actually high volume speakers -- and it even has a 256mb MP3 player and FM (although the reception isn't that great). It's so small you'd never guess it was speakers loud enough to play audio in a car (over the road noise etc.). It's like a boombox in a mini-umbrella sized case. I'm just really impressed.

I purchased my first Philips Shoqbox last year & happily surprised with the sound that came of such a little package! It really amplified the sound from my laptop & Ipod, aside from wowing my tech-savvy brothers. While many of the popular complaints are true (e.g. small, non-expandable 256 MB memory, difficult user interface, etc), I overlooked all of this due to its amazing portability & sound.

The sad news is that I ordered a 2nd Shoqbox for Christmas this year at Amazon's steeply discounted rate; however, the internal battery was dead & could not be revived after 3 days of continuous charging! Ugggh! I was so hoping it would work but I ended up having to return it to Amazon.

It's hit-or-miss with the Philips PSS110. Just wish they could come out with a new, improved model since this is one of a kind!

You have a _great_ product here. I loved having it. The sound is good, and rechargeable batteries make it so convenient.

You need to do two things with this product:

1) Allow music to come from a SD card

2) Use USB 2.0

Then you will have a winner and I'd definitely get one.

I returned mine.

all i can say is that the sound from this little thing will blow you away.
for the price that amazon has these radios on sale it is one of the best purchases i have ever made.
amazing.
wish it had more memory and wish the transfer of songs was a bit easier.
if they could play songs on a removable media like a card it would be fantastic.nevertheless.
awsome product . great price.
perfectly worth it. super fast shipping. amazon rules.

If you take a magnificent piece of hardware and put horrible software, what do you get? JUNK!!!

The HARDWARE construction of this product is OUTSTANDING! The SOFTWARE is absolutely USELESS!!!

PRO's:
- Sound quality is AMAZING for coming from such a small package. Speakers are only about 1.5" in diameter, but deliver the sound of a large boombox! (Almost seems like the Bose cube speakers)
- Size is incredibly small for such a huge-sounding device (7" W x 2" D x 2.5" H)
- Stylish with a clear-on-white body finish (very Apple-ish style)
- Battery life is very good -- It has always lasted through lengthy cook-outs (Labor Day, etc.) and is a great way to bring big music to a party without wires.
- Carrying case looks like it will take a beating and protect the unit.

CON's:
- Software is HORRIBLE! It requires that you install their version of Musicmatch. No other way to get music onto it. Even then, you have to jump through many hoops to get it to work -- VERY FRUSTRATING!!!
- 256 MB of memory
- Radio reception is terrible (can't get ANYTHING, even with the antenna)
- USB 1.1 takes about 30 minutes to load the full 256 MB with music
- Sporatic crashing (must be reset by jamming a paperclip into a rubber nub in the back)
- Ruberized door on back has cheap snap-shut clips that break off within a few uses (back panel is always open now)

Once you've suffered through the painful music loading process, you will swear never to change the music on this thing again! However, with only 256 MB, you will soon be tired of what seems like 10 songs over, and over again.

To sum it up, the concept for this unit has great potential -- but not the way it's implemented! Sound is great and awesome for BBQ's, beach, etc. Philips needs to make it compatible with other software products and allow track drag-and-drop onto the device. Windows Media Player will NOT work on this.

I'VE FOUND THAT IF YOU SCAN TOO QUICKLY THROUGH SONGS THE UNIT LIKES TO LOCK UP. PLUS MY RESET BUTTON WONT WORK. OTHER THAN THAT, AWSOME DEAL FOR $45.