Plays 10 hours, shuffle play, cheap, comes with car & home adaptors.

Sometimes takes 2 or 3 tries to read a disc.

Great budget machine. Plays Factory CD's & burned CD's & MP3's. I agree with most that the output is very low even at full volume. I usually have it hooked up to my home receiver, so it's not much of a problem. No problems with it skipping even when purposely shaking it up, since it plays from a memory buffer. Love the convenience of nonstop random music of my choosing that lasts 10 hours!

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First CD/MP3 player

Incredible sound quality, delivers what is advertised, doesn't lock up/skip/crash.

I was hoping it was made of metal but it's plastic.

I was on the waiting list for the Mambo-X for months. Finally I got it and my hopes were shattered. The Mambo-X is crap, pure and simple! The sound quality sucks, the firmware crashses frequently. When I say crash, it REALLY crashes -- HARD! You open the lid and the laser stays on, the motor keeps spinning, etc.

So, I got an eXpanium in August. I was one of the people that got the first three they had on the "pre-launch" day. It works FANTASTIC! Reads CDs fast, reads CD-RW, plays all my VBR and high-bitrate MP3s without any trouble! I would have preferred ID3 tag support or some way to determine which album I am listening to, but I can't complain otherwise.

Works great!

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Mambo-X (junk)

-Nice battery life
-Plays all bitrates
-Nice looks
-Durable and quality build

-NOT NEARLY LOUD ENOUGH!
-TOO EXPENSIVE
-Too slow browsing directories

I have to agree with the other reviews, this is a nice unit. However, I have a pair of Sony 7506's (nice nice headphones for the price :-) and this unit honestly doesn't power them worth a DAMN! The sound quality isn't so hot, yet all the other features on the player are there. It's depressing to see that there isn't a single MP3/CD player that is at all near perfect yet... but hopefull someday. If you wanna blow 200 bucks and buy a HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER, then go for the eXpanium, if not... go for the cheaper MP 2000 (Not the MPTrip!).

Take care all and feel free to email me!

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Various Sony CD Players, MP Trip, MP2000 and hopefully soon the RCA RP2410

OK sound quality

can't play my CDRW and CDRs

Bought this about 3 weeks ago and when I finally burned and put in my CDRW and CDR, my dreams of an MP3CD Player was SHATTERED! It could not play my 'unconfirmed' CDRW and it pauses every 50 secs when it played the CDR. And according to the manual, it is supposed to be able to play "unconfirmed multi-session CDRWs".

Both of the CDRW and CDR were done using a HP 7500 series CDWriter. Though the discs were not manufactured by big brands (HP,Imation etc), no errors were reported during the burning process. The unconfirmed CDRW could be read on another CDwriter by Iomega. And the CDR could be read on any standard computer CDROM drive. So, I am sure the discs are fine.

I sent the unit for servicing and the Philips engineers have claimed that the Expanium
a. does not play unconfirmed CDRWs, (which contradicts what was stated in the manual)

b. does not play MP3 CDs recorded using CDWriters. (Huh??? How else do you record MP3s on CDs?)

I have yet to resolve this problem and am very frustrated and disappointed with Expanium. Philips have suggested that I go down to their service centre and speak to their engineers. I really hope that their engineers are not like the Expandium I bought - hopeless!!!

Will keep readers updated on the outcome, in the meantime Expanium SUCKS!!!

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none

Plays MP3 CD-R, CD-RWs

No ID3 tags

This product is awesome. Can you imagine having 150+ plus songs on one CD that costs less than 50c. This unit supports Constant Bit rate upto 320 and also variable bit rates. I encode (rip) my original CDs using Music Match Jukebox software and then burn the mp3s onto a CD-R using Adaptec Easy-CD Creator. The resultant MP3 CD is of excellent quality and it plays flawlessly in this Philips Expanium MP3-CD Player. I have played it on my home stereo system, in my car and the sound is fantastic. Agreed the sound coming off the earphone jack is not as good as a regular CD player, however I find it adequate enough. Too much sound is bad for your ears ... you might become deaf :-)

So go ahead and spend on this player and its the best value on the market right now.

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None

No ID Tags, No Goto function

I love it very much. I had to by it in last Agust, but I did not find enywhere in Hungary, but now I do!!!
Plays all of My MP3 Cds, independent from bit rates,quality of CDs, and mixed /Datas&Mp3s/
The best function is ESP. It's really the Best!!!

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only computer

Has great anti-skip time, long lasting battery power and has great sound quality.

NONE

GO OUT AND BUY THE THING!!!

Good price, able to fit 150+ songs

Poor electronic shock protection, takes too long to read CD and to switch to next track, decent sound quality

I couldn't resist purchasing the Expanium at such a low price, just $95 at my local Best Buy. However, I was immediately dissatisfied with the electronic shock protection. The player cannot withstand any kind of movement, especially during MP3 playback. Furthermore, the sound quality was not nearly what I had hoped for. I can only thank Best Buy for an outstanding 2 year warranty (for which I paid an extra $10) because I am prepared to return this soon and use the money towards a MP3 player. The Expanium doesn't come close to matching digital audio quality or the easy personal use found in a MP3 player. It did not meet my expectations!

Looks nice, has cool LOOKING features

Skips all the time, takes WAY WAY WAY too long to load, song skip does not work, shakes

I read over the other summarys and maybe I got gyped or somthing. Maybe it's just wal mart, but this is really a problem.

First thing I noticed was that it was kind of quiet. So I thought duh, turn it up. I tried, it was at max. Oh well. Maybe it was just the crappy headphones I got with it.

Then I put it in my pocket, and with ESP ON I started to walk. It chocked up. IT just displayed "oops" on the screen. I held it and looked at it, it took a good 5 seconds of being stationary to regain it's position and start playing. I wanted to smash it on the ground and say "oops"

When you put a CD in it says "reading" for WAY too long. It had a problem with trying to play songs other then track one. It would play 1 then 2 then 3, but if you skipped to 3 it would just blink, you could feel the moter spinning then slowing.. then spinning some more and it just goes back to the stop position. Tried with different batteries and many different CDs, still all same problems.

Overall, I might just be the one that got skrewed, might just be that walmart is terrible, I don't know. Luckily they have a good return policy so I'll be there getting a SONY thank you very much. If they're out I'll try another one of these--All these testimonials do kind of convince me otherwise..

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None

1 CD = 150+ songs. Refuses to skip. Good sound quality. Portable and versatile.

Can't power non-portable headphones. No ID3 tag support (but this may not be an issue for you). Battery life only 10 hours when listening to an mp3 CD.

I can think of a number of situations where this player would be the best choice on the market today. Here they are:

1. You're an "on-the-go" person who has a huge music collection that you want to take with you wherever you go.

2. You want to be able to play more music in your car but you only have a cassette stereo.

3. Your car stereo has a miniplug input.

4. You cherish variety when you're out running or working out.

5. Your computer is too far away from your home stereo and you can't use the two in conjunction with each other to play mp3 files.

If one or more of these conditions apply to you, I'd suggest you take a long look at the Expanium. The sheer volume of songs it allows you to easily transport more than makes up for its few shortcomings. If you're looking for a player for stationary use or you have (or plan to buy) a nice pair of headphones, look elsewhere. This unit has a tough time powering anything more than the earbuds it came with. In fact, even with the volume at the highest setting, my Sony MDR-V100s barely put out enough sound to listen to without annoying me. In stores you'll pay about $150, but most eBay auctions end at around $100.

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Sony and Panasonic portables.