Philips eXpanium EXP103 Personal CD Player

Pros: lots of music, battery life
Cons: Magic ESP only good with MP3s, will not play CD-RWs anymore, fragile, low volume

I bought this MP3 player a while back when new. It cost me $140, but then I felt it was worth it. I previously had a Philips CD player so I was not concerned about reliability. Everything worked well, had good sound, and was not so hard to use after...

Pros: more mp3 bang for your buck
Cons: better feature-rich mp3/audio players out there, and on the horizon

After giving this one a try for about a week, I've decided to auction it off and use that money for a Rio Volt mp3/audio player.

Here are problems I've encountered:

searching & ID3 Tag Support

If I'm going...

Pros: Light-weight, portable, holds a lot of music for the size!
Cons: We may have paid a little too much! (The price has now come down.)

My younger son, Garrett, purchased a new Philips 8cm MP3-CD eXpanium Portable Player recently and is quite satisfied with it. This product is smaller than a regular CD MP3 Player and it holds songs in an MP3 format like a regular MP3 player, but...

Pros: Nice Features, cool design, sturdy.
Cons: No ID3 song tags, slight problem with the car audio adapter.

I got this cd player for Christmas a while back when MP3 cd players were first coming out. So of course, when new technology comes out, you must pay the price. I got this unit for $200 about 2 or so years ago.

I really don't regret the...

Pros: The mid-size is good for jamming into your backpack when teacher walks in.
Cons: Skips as if the "Magic ESP" is working against you!

So after returning the RCA MP3-CD player I originally bought, I was then shown a $150 credit and a very large store to use it in. I looked at all of the CD players, especially the MP3-enhanced ones, but would it be that useful? I decided to get that...

Pros: Brand name, inexpensive, good sound
Cons: poor construction quality, navigation.

Philips was the first to introduce the mp3 cd player, sometime around last Christmas. It seemed to be a natural direction for mp3 players. People were backing up their mp3s on cds and playing them via their cd-roms on the computer, freeing up hard...

Pros: You can play mp3's on it using cds, allowing endless hours of music.
Cons: Takes awhile to start playing, large, open button barely opens, headphone jack is awkwardly placed.

The Philips Expanium is not worth the money you pay for it. It is large and awkward. The headphone jack is on the very edge of the mp3-cd player making it always feel like you are going to break it against something. The player also takes about 20...

Pros: Ability to play MP3 CD's
Cons: Slow at loading MP3's

This was actually a present for my brother, but I've used it so many times. It's great with batteries because they last so long, but the problem I've had most was the amount of time it takes for each MP3 to start playing... theres a delay that can be...

Pros: Listen to about 170 songs on ONE CD!!! Batteries last 10 hours! DBB!! 100ESP!!!
Cons: Expensive, Requires A CD Burner and some knowledge on CD burning.

A few months ago, my parents bought the Expanium for my brother. I didn't know much about it, so I asked him what's so special about this Expanium thing. He told me that all you have to do is burn all your MP3 files ontoa CD-R or CD-RW put the CD in the...

Pros: Plays MP3's at any bit rate, 10 hours of music
Cons: VERY INCONVENIENT, low volume, kills 2 batteries every 30 minutes, and much more

It's a mediocre player. It takes 2 minutes to "load" a cd and its very chinsy and inconvenient for $200.00. cannot display track titles and extremly low battery and goes threw batteries like water. very chinsy fell, i hate phillips in the first place...

Pros: Great Sound Quality, Easy to Use, Fast access time, great look
Cons: Inability to display ID3 track tags

I really wish I had bought the Expanium. Instead, I bought the RCA HP2410 player. Fortunately, I have friends that own the Expanium and have had the opportunity to play around with it. Believe me, the Expanium exceeds the RP2410 and the rest of...

Pros: Exceptional utility, battery life
Cons: Low volume, slow loading time

This Christmas (2000) I found a Philips Expanium underneath the tree. I couldn't have asked for a better gift. I love my music, and I love taking large amounts of it with me in a convenient package. This product definitely delivers.

Granted,...

Pros: Great skip protection, plays CDRW's, 10+ hours of music 1 CD
Cons: no ID3 tag support, long loads, no fast forward, cumbersome menu

The Phillips Expanium MP3/CD player is a great player if you are just looking for the function of an MP3/CD player. It lets you listen to 10+ hours of music written onto a single CDR and will even play the coveted CDRW's. The great thing about that is...

Pros: Large storage, lightweight, extremely portable, no skipping.
Cons: Song numbers instead of titles, hard to figure out what you're playing.

I bought the Expanium EXP103 after going to many websites, comparing prices and features. I have not been disappointed in my purchase.

Background:

Forget those $200+ MP3 players that only store 32MB, 64MB, or 128MB,...

Pros: lightweight, not expensive compared to mp3 players, convenient
Cons: still at the beginning of this technology

I bought a Philips Expanium about a month ago, and it has proved to be worth every penny. In deciding between a CD/MP3 player or an MP3 player, the choice was clear. Why would I want to spend just as much on a player which, although it might be a...

Pros: Plays high bitrate MP3s, very light, no skipping, reads all formats
Cons: No ID3 support, No FF or RW

Well the other opinions pretty much covered the pros and cons of the player. I just wanted to mention one of the main reasons I bought this instead of a cheaper product. It was the only CD-MP3 player I found that plays high bitrate MP3s - up to 320 kbs....

Pros: lots of music, good battery life, won't skip
Cons: unlit display, no track titles, no fast forward on mp3's

You have seen the new MP3 players out there that can hold music in a small no skipping player that is easily portable. But one of the problems is of the low amount of music these players can hold and the price of addtional memory.
There's a new...

Pros: Ridiculous amounts of music on one CD, Supports CD-R&W in addition to regular CDs
Cons: sort of slow, batteries don't last very long (6 hrs.), beeps.

Ever wanted to listen to ten hours of music on one CD? Ever wanted to listen to sixty hours of music on six CDs? Well, those happy Dutchmen at Philips have made it possible.

Here's how it works. Buy the eXpanium (approx. $180, I bought mine at...

Pros: Extremely light, and portable. Comes with everything you need.
Cons: Headphones suck, and can only use in car with cassette player. Serial # disappears!

On the road again, a song that pretty much sums up my life. I have amassed a countless number of MP3's and got tired of having to cart around CD after CD to play in my car stereo or on the run. Not to mention that I am also a blues review writer (for a...

Pros: Can play mp3 CDs as well as standard CDs; great full sound quality.
Cons: audible hiss emitted from headphones at low volume levels, frusterating mp3 playback functions

The Philips Expanium EXP 103 is a great cd, and mp3 cd player. Many people may be falsely brought to believe that mp3's are taking over and compact discs are fading, but it is a proven fact that traditional CDs are still the preferred medium for most of...

Pros: 650 MB worth of Mp3s, Supports Re-Writables, Mutisession support
Cons: Time to scan CD

This Mp3 CD-Player is really cool. The only thing that is lacking is Mp3 ID tag support and a fast forward for Mp3s. Philips boxes this player in a nice box that comes with the whole card accessory kit. The price of $199 really can't be beat yet for...

Pros: Awesome Anti-Skip, plays MP3's at ANY bitrate, CD-R or CD-RW disks can be used, battery life better than advertised.
Cons: Earphones are AWFUL, no MP3 ID TAG display, Battery indicator too small too see, low volume.

Happy New Year! This is my first post for the year 2001! First off, If you're looking for a CD/MP3CD portable player, The Philips Expanium IS THE UNIT TO GET....PERIOD!

First of all, It's sleek design is a eye-catcher! It has a 45 second...

Pros: otherwise good
Cons: none

I am wondering, my car stereo has no line input jack. Does it come with a cassette tape adaptor that i can slide into the cassette deck to get that stereo sound? Please let me know at genegart3@aol.com. Thanks, Gene.

I also collect MP3 files...

Pros: Virtually unshakeable! Handles everything well.
Cons: Somewhat short battery life - not too bad, though.

One of the first things I wished for, after obtaining a CD burner (an HP 9110i, which is very good, by the way), was a way to play my mp3 backup CDR's, instead of having to burn audio cd's instead. I like to take as much of my music with me as possible,...

Pros: Plays MP3-encoded CDs as well as audio CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs, Up to 10 hours of playback on 2 AA batteries, Never skips.
Cons: EARBUD EARPHONES - OUCH ! They just do NOT fit my ear. Got some good Sony earphones, DISPLAY IS HARD TO READ - ID3 tag is not a big issue with me, nor is a backlight (that eats up batteries big time). But the LCD display is small and a little hard to read

I owned one of the Memorex players and returned it after a week to buy the Expanium and now I love this thing. Before having the Memorex to compare it too - I was hesitant to buy the Expanium but now I see they've made some intelligent trade offs to get...

Pros: support for CD-RW, VBR, and lo/hi bitrates
Cons: no ID3 support, slow, no in-track seeking

I bought the EXP103 do have portable tunes in the car; for that, it's perfect. 10 hours of tunes on one CD beats a CD changer, and I can take it with me as well. It does not have ID3 support or in-track seeking, but the sound quality (with DBB off) is...

Pros: mass storage on cheap CD-R media, excellent audio quality, excellent skip-protection
Cons: no ID3 tag support, problems with 700MB discs, user's manual not as helpful as it could be

When solid-state MP3 players first appeared on the market, I was both excited and hesitant. I have a used computer as the heart of my home audio system, as I have converted my entire CD collection into MP3s. My reservations about purchasing an MP3 player...

Pros: can play both audio CDs, and CD-RW of MP3s, 100 second shock protection, can play multisession MP3 discs
Cons: cannot display track titles, resume function doesn't always work the way it is supposed to, can't save a program

I recently received the Philips Expanium Exp 103 as a birthday gift, after asking for a portable CD player for my daily walks. My husband thought to keep at least one trick up his sleeve and purchased a CD player that could handle both audio CDs and...

Pros: Stylish, Durable, 10 hours of music on one disc, great ESP
Cons: No ID3, no "fast search" within albums, long initial CD read times

I have over 400 MP3's on my computer, and considered many options. First was burning Mp3's onto CD's so that my regular CD player would play it (regular digital audio). Second was a new Mp3 player such as the Rio. Neither of these worked out, since...

Pros: Play CD MP3's with 150 songs each on them. It doesn't skip when jogging. Comes with a lot of peripherals.
Cons: You need to have a computer with a CD burner drive.

I was thinking about what category this review should go under and I wasn't sure if it would be portable CD or MP3 players. Let's get one thing straight. If you're going to buy a Discman, you should consider the Expanium. It plays CD's and has 100...

Pros: Large Capacity, no skipping, great portability, extra features and accessories.
Cons: no file names or ID3 tags makes cumbersome programming.

Your choice about whether you should buy the Philips Expanium is a very simple one, once you can decide if you should buy an MP3-CD player or not. If you are buying an MP3-CD Player, then the Expanium is the only one worth your money.

The...

Pros: good performance
Cons: I can't think of anything bad

This is a great MP3-CD Player. In term of sound quality, it is good. When I listen to my MP3s, I notice that piano and guitar harmonics sounds are kind of distorted. Even though I can't tell if it is MP3's encoding problem or the unit's decoding problem,...

Pros: great sound, 180mp3 files on one disk
Cons: larger than my rio or my nomad

first generation of a cd/mp3 player by a major company. I searched everywhere (newsgroups, the web) for info about this player and I know all the pro's and con's.
SIZE: It's smaller and thinner than the photo leads one to believe.
VOLUME: I...

Pros: Great sound, allows for files in folders
Cons: Load time for album and between songs

There I was searching through all the different MP3 cd players, (I had already decided that I would no go for one of those memory players due to the cost to expand) and had hit upon the 2 I wanted, Pine and the Expanium. Then came the time to weigh the...

Pros: Lots of music, lots of options, good sound
Cons: A bit coarse in the workings - first-to-market technology style

This new breed of CD players - those that can play MP3 CD's too - is a huge leap forward in personal audio technology, but I recommend holding off for another few months before rushing out to buy one.

The traditional CD player is great - an...

Pros: Plays any CD-R, CD-RW or regular CD's. Excellent sound with car kit included, Never skips and is durable.
Cons: Can't search through MP3, long load time, hard to read display

With my hundreds of MP3 files sitting unused in my computer hard drive, I longed for a device that would let me play my recorded CD's in a portable device that I could hook up to my car stereo. My car stereo (like most I found out) would not play my...

Pros: reads CD-RWs. Reads MP3s
Cons: large, slow between tracks

I bought the Expanium basically because I wanted more music with me on the go. I had an MP3 player, but it's memory is too minimal so I decided to try a name brand MP3 CD Player. The Philips is the only current one out there, and it's only for sale at...

Pros: Plays MP3s on a CD; Light; Cool
Cons: No FF/Rewind within songs; No ID3 support

I've been thinking about MP3 players for quite some time. However, the ridiculous price for what you get ($200 for an hour of music?) always kept me off. I don't jog, so the "skip free" nature of RAM based MP3 players was never a big...

Pros: It works!!
Cons: $$$ Volume problem

I bought this player because my current CD player started to die and seeing as how I already owned a CD burner why not spend the money. Besides, I usually like to have the latest stuff. In fact I often spend more than the item is worth. That may be...

Pros: Made by Philips, plays everything, battery life, accessories.
Cons: No ID3 tag or filename display, fragile, controls on face.

I've been anticipating portable MP3-CD players for a long time, I already had created many CDRs full of MP3s that can be played on any computer on the network at home from a server. Mostly, the story has been players to be shipping next month, every...

Pros: Plays wide range of bit rates and long file names.
Cons: Not drop-proof and does not display long file names.

Of all the mp3 cd players available the Expanium is the nicest.

I have been wanting an mp3 player for well over a year. The types that only stored songs in memory didn't impress me because they were limited to what's in memory and thats it. I...

Pros: Cost, New and useful technology
Cons: Lack of song title support in LCD

Well, it is about time.
I don't know why, but it took way too long for companies like Philips to develop an affordable, portable MP3 player. The first attempts by un-heard of companies fell flat, due to cheap components and research. However,...