Phillips EXP521 MP3/CD Player

by Philips

Product Details

Product Manual [5.73mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009OOFW
• Item model number: EXP521
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Aren't newer models supposed to be better?, January 15, 2004

By 

A. D Urioste "Slayer4965" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phillips EXP521 MP3/CD Player (Electronics)

My former CD/MP3 player was the Philips EXP503, which I had for two years before I damaged it by mistake (long story). I desperately wanted to buy the same model again, but it was out of stock. I visited the Philips website and saw the new Expanium CD/MP3 player, the EXP521. The EXP503 was definitely the best CD player I've ever owned, so naturally I figured the 521 would be even better...

I couldn't hate it more.

There are several annoying issues with this CD player. Here are the worst that come to mind:

1. It takes a long time to start. I'm driving my car with the CD player hooked to my car stereo, pop in an MP3 CD and hit play. And I wait. I keep driving along, and wait a little longer. I know it's alive because it makes all sorts of noises as the CD spins and the laser reads the information. So finally I lose my patience and look away from the road for a second to see what in the world is taking so long. FINALLY a song begins. The longest I've ever waited was about 30 to 45 seconds. To some it may not seem like a lot, but again... my old EXP503 spoiled me.

2. I'm a nut for perfect sound quality, which is why I rip my MP3's at the highest possible bit rate (320). When I plug in my headphones into the CD player, I sometimes hear static and broken audio, which drives me crazy.

3. The push button for the bass has to be pressed every time you change CDs. My old EXP503 always kept it on, because the batteries inside remembered the last setting used. The only thing the EXP521 remembers is to cancel that annoying BEEP that you hear every time you push a button.

4. There's no belt clip, which may not seem like a big deal, especially if you're driving... but isn't this a portable CD player? Am I supposed to hold it wherever I go? If that were the case, I'd buy a small portable boombox with a carry-on handle. Again, my good ol' EXP503 had a very useful belt clip.

5. You can't fast-forward or rewind MP3 files. On that same note, you CAN fast-forward or rewind through normal CDs, but the audio transition is very choppy. On most CD players, you fast-forward and you can sort of make out where in the song you are. The EXP521 sounds so choppy you have to let go of the button to figure out how far into the song you are. Unless of course you look at the time lapse and know exactly where you want to stop.

6. The display background never lights up, which is pain when you're driving at night and you're looking for a certain song among 100 other MP3's.

7. The buttons don't respond. I'm listening to a song, hit the "next" button and nothing happens. The up, down, left, and right buttons on the left side of the CD player have to be PRESSED to make them respond. The two "Stop" and "Play" buttons on the right are the same. You have to press them either harder than normal or repeatedly to make them work. All the other buttons seem fine.

On the other hand, I do have some positive things to say about the EXP521 (which is why it earned two stars):

1. It takes either AA or AAA batteries. Pretty cool engineering idea.

2. The remote control has a clip to attach to your pocket or your shirt (but again... where do you put the CD player itself? Do you carry it or put it in a huge pocket?)

3. It reads ID3 tags, although slowly.

4. It has a good shuffle feature with or without repeat, which I use often on road trips.

5. Other than the occasional crackling, the sound quality is very good. I've heard other CD/MP3 players, including Panasonic's new model, and they sound very dull, like the treble is all the way down. The EXP521 has very clear sound.

Overall, I wish I had saved my money and not bought the EXP521. I'm desperately looking around the internet for any retailer that still offers the EXP503, or even a used one from someone who doesn't like it (how can they not???).
Shame on Philips for making a newer product worse than its predecessor.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Serious Sound Quality Problem, November 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Phillips EXP521 MP3/CD Player (Electronics)

This is the 2nd cd-mp3 player I've tried. For $89, and with as many sweet features as it has, you'd think the designers would try getting the *playback* right! Guess they were too busy writing games...

The Good:
---------------
- Huge display, shows you everything all at once.
- Good user interface, lots of buttons, so operation is straightforward, if a little sluggish.
- Has games... I haven't tried them.
- Takes *either* AA or AAA batteries.
- Remote control w/ clip

The Mediocre:
---------------
- Max Output level is ok, not as loud as I'd like from some soft
classical passages.

- Can't ff/rew inside mp3's.

- Headphone/remote jack has poor contact, crackles if you touch it

The Bad:
---------------
- Sound quality. There is a faint amount of hiss/distortion noise whenever sound is coming out. With MP3's, it's noticable. On audio CD's it is much worse; I've had perfectly good CD's drop out, warble, and distort... the mp3 ripped from that exact CD track sounds better! (scratching head).
The product literature says: 100sec ESP for a 128kb/s (16kB/s)mp3, or 45sec ESP for cd-audio.
Well, uncompressed cd-audio runs at 172kB/s, so this esp buffer *should* provide about 16/172*100sec = 9.3 sec ESP; it says it provides 45!!! I strongly suspect that this player buffers its cd-quality audio at a much lower quality, or it attempts to compress it in realtime, or something, because both the product literature and the sound quality strongly indicate that it plays regular CD's at *much* less than CD-audio quality. This player is not firing on all 16 barrels, for sure!

Parenthetically, I tested this device both with the supplied headphones, with & without the remote attached, and finally, patching it through my mackie mixer and using precision studiophones. It sounded equally bad in all these situations. Next, I listened to the same disc on my 4-year-old discman, which completely blew away the EXP521, both in maximum volume, and particularly in sound fidelity.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A bad cd player, April 23, 2004

By 

Brian Welton (McAllen, Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phillips EXP521 MP3/CD Player (Electronics)

DO NO BUY THIS CD PLAYER!(...)
You may ask why I hate this so much. Here are the reasons.
1. The ting eats up batteries, I only get 10-15 hours for 2 AA batteries.
2. The sound quality is bad. Out of nowhere it will get all fuzzy and skippy and sometimes it will skip 5 second clips.
3. It reads the cd tracks very slowly.
4. It takes about 30 seconds to load, WHY DOES IT HAVE TO LOAD.
5. You can not just skip right to one song, if you press buttons too fast it will get confused and the laser will move all around for no reason.
6. (...)The prosessor is too slow to show streaming graphics so the games are all skippy. If you play the games a lot you loose even more battery life.
7. The only format that it plays well is mp3. I do not want to waste a ton of blank cds just so that the cd player will play right.
8. You have to keep it still. If you dont then the sound quality is even worse.
In conclusion AVOID THIS CD AT ALL COSTS and buy the newest modest mouse cd. You wont be dissapointed.