Philips Expanium MP3 CD Player

Solid-state memory cards such as SmartMedia and CompactFlash are the storage solution of choice for most MP3-player manufacturers. But have you ever questioned why? After all, they're extremely expensive for the amount of space you get - about £2 per megabyte on average - and even a 64Mb card struggles to store a couple of hours worth of tunes.

Now consider that most new PCs come with a CD rewriter drive, which provides a renewable 640Mb of storage on a single disc at around 50p a throw. As CD is the chosen medium for music, it seems strange that it has taken this long for someone to come up with a portable CD player that can decode MP3 as well as standard CDs. Philips' Expanium is such a device.

Shake it all about, don't miss a beat

The big advantage of SmartMedia and suchlike is the fact they don't skip and miss out big chunks of your favourite tune as you move about, a favourite failing of traditional CD players. Early personal CD players jumped at anything more vigorous than a deep breath, but try as we might, no amount of shaking prompted Expanium to miss a beat. Impressive.

Other than MP3 and shockproof playback, this isn't very special. Looks-wise, the Expanium is one of the most utterly and unequivocally dull things you'll ever see - just the thing if you like your hardware to be understated.

It comes bundled with a mains adaptor, a grim set of headphones, cigar-lighter attachment and a cassette-to-CD converter so you can use it in your car's tape player. Why bother with the inconvenience of a CD changer in your boot when you can get 10 hours worth of tunes on one disc? It's safer than fumbling around in your glovebox for a change of CD, too.

A bit rich for most tastes

If it saves your life, it's worth the £200 asking price. If it doesn't, it's vastly overpriced and not worth half that.

Expect this to be the first of many CD-MP3 hybrids. Easy to use but very expensive, this is strictly for rich MP3 lovers.

Contact
Philips: 020 8689 2166, www.philips.co.uk

See also:

Napa MCD380 CD-MP3 player

Another variation on the portable MP3 player.  18 Feb 2002

Olympus DM-1

A cunning blend of MP3 player and digital dictaphone.  12 Nov 2001

RioVolt digital audio player.

A great portable music machine.  06 Nov 2001

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