Philips EXP401 Pocket eXpanium CD-MP3 Player with 100 Second Anti-Skip
By: Philips Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 25
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 On: 2006-03-09
I bought two of these from eBay a few years back - one for me, and one for my now-fiancé. I was obsessed with its "small is the new small" style, and I loved its globular, from-the-not-so-distant-future look.
Was I impressed with it? Yes. Am I still? See previous answer. According to the manufacture date, this sexy little number will be five years old this September, and it has yet to cheese me off.
True, its not a battery conservationists dream - what high-drain one-battery device manufactured in 2001 is? In the not-so-distant future, I charge two NiMHs, use one, and keep the spare in my pocket. Come on, folks - it only uses ONE BATTERY!
True, its more than twice the size of my Rio Chiba Urban, which I also adore. But I dont have fifty SD cards, nor do I have the time to write and rewrite to the few that I have. I do, however, have fifty 88-cent 8cm CDRWs, and it takes a heck of a lot less time to write a 192MB CD than it does to transfer 128MB over USB 1.1 - not only that, but the player doesnt need to be anywhere near the computer, sucking batteries, while Im doing it.
True, it doesnt display song/artist/album information. Neither does the iPod Shuffle, and rich brats are all over those things like a fat cat on a bag of Meow Mix. Besides, you made the CD; you know whats on it. Element of surprise, and all that.
True, its slightly cheap and plastic-feeling. Heres a news flash from the not-so-distant future, kids: consumer electronics these days are rarely made with an eye for craftsmanship. Both of our units look only slightly worn after years of use, and they have that kind of stylistic "je ne sais quoi" that will have our descendants praising it as we do the Phonospheres of yore.
So yes, it has served me well over the years. Its a shame its no longer made, to my knowledge. Actually, come to think of it, maybe its a good thing - Im the only one (besides my fiancé) who has one, and its kooky kitsch potential will ensure its collectibility in the not-so-distant future.
 On: 2004-04-16
Bought this for my wife to use at work; was impressed by the resume ability and 2-minute ESD. The resume ability was for her to listen to long audiobooks; as the resume ability does not work (see review by "An electronics fan"), that idea is down the drain. Secondly, also mentioned in "An electronics fan"s review, the machine turns off if you take a particularly hard step while walking with it in your hand. Pitiful. Will be giving this away and buying a better one.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-07-22
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 doesnt work on my machine every since I got it. 2) after a month of use, my player starts shutting off whenever theres a jolt to it or if I drop it into my bag. Perhaps Ive 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.
 On: 2003-06-24
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 doesnt 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.
On: 2003-03-28
...I tested this out one weekend on the Metro, and also by walking around DC. I listened to it for over five hours, most of them without the ESP turned on, it never skipped while I was walking and the sound/headphones were much better than other unit I have used in the past. Navigation is generally easy, as you can skip by tracks, or skip by alblums, if you burn your songs into folders on the disk. Very easy.The media is 100X better than memory cards - it is an unbelievable difference if youve ever used MMC or SD cards before. Its cheap ...which unless you are hardcore, is a LOT of storage. I ripped/encoded 25 of my own CDs and they fit on eight mini-CDs, totaling just over 24 hours of music. There is a problem of transportation; I used a Case Logic wallet designed for a full size CD player, and the CDs shifted around a lot. Hopefully someone will address this in the future. My only complaint is that the unit is generally less sturdy than I would like. If you are careful then it probably wont be a problem, but even when the lid was locked down, it still moved from side to side a little. I was not impressed with that. But I got a two year warranty from BB, so I dont really care.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-02-14
I recently bought this item used from ebay. It is a alright mp3 player in fact it has turned out to be jog proof which is good. But sometimes when it plays it says "ps" which im going to guess means problem scanning then it wont play anything so i have to hit stop then restart it. I havent had any problems with the battery life it usually runs for about 5 to 6 hours with 1 enegizer battery. The player itself is pretty flimsy but it not a real big problem though. So my advice is if you want a joggable mp3 player and dont mind buying mini cd-rs its a good buy.
On: 2003-01-13
no complaints at all. i had my doubts about it being able to play. NO DOUBT, THE BEST MP3 PLAYER AROUND. im not kidding either. BUY THIS ONE!
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-22
Good sounding little player. Can stand up to most kinds of workout motions without skipping a beat. For those who complain about battery life... isnt it about time that more people switched to rechargables?
by: Anonymous On: 2002-08-21
The other reviwers have mentioned both the pros and cons of the Philips Expanium 8cm mp3 player, so Ill simply add a few words. The sound quality is superb and the portability is wonderful. Ive always been very happy with Philips products, and this little mp3 player is now at the top of my Philips list!
On: 2002-08-16
This is an overall great product. I have no qualms about its sound quality and features. And a 50 cent Pocket CD, which holds (for me) about 3-4 standard CDs in MP3 format, is a lot cheaper than more memory for other MP3 players, so throwing 10 Pocket CDs (equals about 30-40 regular CDs!) into my briefcase is very livable.HOWEVER... This unit absolutely DESTROYS batteries. It uses one battery per day EASILY, and more if you listen to music all day. So having to plug into the wall with the AC adapter (included, thankfully) removes some of its portablity, which is presumably one of the reasons one would want a unit like this. Thats one strike. Also, its a bit thicker than I would have suspected from the online advertising. Its almost an inch thick (about 3/4"), which again, for a "portable" unit, is a bit less than desirable. And one other minor irritation: the DBB (bass boost/enhance) doesnt stay "on" between uses. You have to explicitly turn it on each time you start the player. This could be a power saving feature (as with the ESP skip protection), but its a minor irritant since I always want it on. Otherwise, this is a great product by Philips and would easily warrant a 4-4.5 star rating outside of its carnivorous battery usage, its thickness, and the DBB issue. The sound and other features on the unit are more than satisfactory.
On: 2002-03-12
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 dont know if this is a common problem with others, but its a major drawback with mine.
5) If have any other questions, feel free to email me.
On: 2002-03-05
Im a snowboarder and Ive 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 itll skip if im doing some serious snowboarding. The thing is when it does skip it stays skipped for a more seconds than i care to count. Im not sure what PS means but i get it quite often - sometimes it recovers sometime it doesnt and you have to open the case and start over. Another thing is that i cant figure out what order it plays songs in and how it counts. Song 13 can be different songs depending on if youve rebooted it. Ive tried 3 different methods of writing to CDs but it doesnt 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 ive had thats a first. Also its usable unlike many of the other CD/MP3 players ive 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 ive no idea what it means.
 On: 2002-02-14
this is a great concept. 3 inch cds, how could one lose? well i think philips did loose it. It has a less than sturdy front cover, no ID3 tag support, there help line could not help me with this problem: when i went to play a cd it would work fine but when i pressed stop then play again (after 5 or 10 minutes) i got an error "CD DATA" which menas that the disc was not written as a MP3-CD disc, But the problem is it was the same CD that i had used 5 minutes previous,not good on philips behalf. I obviously have a flawed device, but i would think about spending your money on a different cd player, I would recomend a full size CD-MP3 player because, this is a good concept but if you think about it you are paying more money for less music on one cd. Sure you get the smaller size, but just by doubling the diameter of the cd player you can get up to 17 more hours of music on one disc! GO WITH A FULL SIZE CD-MP3 PLAYER! I have only given this the 2nd star because it is a good concept, it looks good, it is small, and it does not skip. but all exept for the size can be found greater in a full size CD-MP3 player. Take my advice you will not be dissapointed.
P.S.....
On: 2002-02-09
Ive been using portable mp3 players since 1999. My Creative Nomad is small and great for running because it doesnt 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 CDs with up to 10 hours of mp3 files but its 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, doesnt skip, its bigger than Nomad but smaller than portable CD players and audio quality is very good.
About battery life: Turn skip protection off if you dont 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.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-02-04
This unit has great sound, but no screen. With 3 - 5 hrs worth of music per disc finding a song is a bit difficult.
On: 2002-01-16
[....] 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!
On: 2002-01-08
I bought one for my sister to go snowboarding with. Didnt know what to expect - but it turned out awesome! Doesnt 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 cds are small enought that you can easily carry more than one.Im now here to order another one for myself! Cant wait to take it bump skiing at finally ski to music!! Cheers,
Tim
On: 2001-12-30
Ive been waiting for a good MP3-CD player for a while now, and after having tested the Philips EXP4011 ($...) against the Compaq IPaq PM-1 ($...), I like the Philips much better:1) You cant complain about the compact size. The Philips is just the perfect size to fit in a Lowe digital camera bag (LPD10, $12.99). 2) I dont mind the 3-hour battery life (1 AA battery), because I always carry 3 extra batteries in the camera case anyway. (The IPaq has better battery life, but using 2 AAA batteries.) You can boost the battery life to 5-6 hours by turning off ESP. If youre using the Philips for a 45-minute subway commute or for a marathon 5-hour library studying session, you dont need ESP anyway. 3) I dont mind having to purchase 8cm media, because the Philips supports UDF -- and you can playback CDRWs created using DirectCD. A five-pack of 8cm CDRW sold for $..., and these are good for hundreds of erase-and-rewrites. 4) The Philips also supports AAC. Using PsyTel 1.5, you need to encode WAV-to-AAC using the -lc and -adif command line options; the downside is that you cannot seek within the song when playing the AACs using WinAmp (e.g., with the out_aac.dll plugin). 64K-encoded AAC files sound just as good as 128K-encoded MP3 files. Since the AAC files take up half the filespace, you can fit twice as much AAC-encoded music on your CDRs or CDRWs. 5) ...
On: 2001-12-27
I honestly cant recommend this product - not while the Compaq PM-1 is out. Yes, the eXpanium is pretty good, but it lacks major functions - like it cant display ID3 tags, and you cant fast foward (search) through the middle of songs! The PM-1 has an inline remote that displays the ID3 tags, and it has the ability to search. The PM-1 also has 8 MINUTES of shock protection, compared to the 100 seconds offered by the eXpanium. The Compaq also comes with 3 mini CD-Rs to get you started, whereas the Philips comes with only one. Bottom line, the Philips is a solid product, but the Compaq PM-1 has more features for the same price.
On: 2001-12-19
I think this player is one of the best players, becouse it brings us one new thing: 8cm MP3 CD.
I know, that some companies have it for some months earlier, but i think this is the first profesional version.there is only one negative thing: it havent id3 tags.
On: 2001-12-09
Overall, I liked the simplicity of the product, its portability, the coolness factor, and the sound quality is above average. Im very happy with it, and so far it hasnt given me any problems. It may not be able to display MP3 ID3 tags but whos got the time to look at, much less read scrolling text, when youre running or working out? This portable mp3/mini-cd player delivers the goods very well, and thats the bottom line. For next years model, I strongly suggest longer battery life.
On: 2001-12-08
The moment i saw this babe introduced in a tech news site, I became interested......and finally obssessed with it. I searched and asked a lot of stores in Toronto, but none of them carry this product and thats really "bad". So finally I decided to drive 5 hours to/from the states to get this babe. AM I IMPRESSED? OH yeah, I think it is worth every bit of my money and time. It is actually smaller than I thought it is and sleek too. The only disadvantage is that the package didnt actually include a remote control and the headphone hurts your ears if you wear it for too long..... Besides that, I see nothing to complain about.
On: 2001-11-21
Actually Works! Tried Lots Of Other Types Of Players That Did Not.
The Only Thing It Is Missing Is An FM Tuner Which Would Then Make It A 10+ In My Book!!
On: 2001-11-03
The exp401 is really small. Theres no weird software you need to install into your computer to transfer the mp3s to the unit. You burn your cds 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 cds. Ive only used 1 level directorys so far and they work great. I usually use a cd-rw disc formatted in udf to test mp3s. (we shouldent have glitches) Then i will make a cd-r in iso9660+joliet format for longterm listening.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-10-28
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 CDs 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 doesnt display track names, which isnt that big of a deal on this model because the CDs probably wouldnt 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 wont skip once. I definently would recommend this product to anyone that is concerned about size, and that doesnt 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 dont fit comfortably at all. An all around great product, though.
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