Philips eXpanium EXP201 Personal CD Player

Pros: Good sound, well built, in-expensive.
Cons: None, what do you expect for $49.95?

The unit was purchased from Fry's Electronic in Fremont, CA for $49.95. This package is not refurbished and came with just the earphone. (I know there were others that came with the car-kit but I didn't need that.)

The unit played all the...

Pros: Will read CDs, CD-RWs, and MP3s
Cons: Awkward controls, poor skip protection, won't read CD-Rws created with Easy CD Creator

I travel a lot in my car for work, and normally lug around a CD case with 24 or so albums in it, in addition to my personal CD player. I was excited to purchase this product, because it will read both MP3s and CD-RWs, and figured I could just make a...

Pros: It was a gift from a loved one.
Cons: It's not durable.

I had a mp3 player for a while, but I had a 32MB RIO, and it just didn't hold enough songs. The newer ones were nice but too expensive. CDs are perfect as they hold an amazing number of songs, and it's relatively portable; not as much as the mp3 players,...

Pros: plays CDs and MP3 CDs as advertised
Cons: skip protection is useless, eats batteries, feels fragile, cuts out inexplicably

This CD player is so bad, I think I've lost my faith in Phillips as a company. I swear it skips more with ESP on, the sound quality is so so, and not only does the battery gauge not work, it eats batteries like no other. It is poorly made and I feel...

Pros: Competitive price
Cons: Glitchy playback, poor interface

The interface leaves something to be desired. The buttons aren't well thought out for touchy-feely fumbling without looking. The display is minimal, ID3 tag or filename support would be a nice touch.

After a short time, my unit started glitching on playback. Audio CDs would garble, and MP3 would freeze.

I never used batteries, and usually plugged into portable speakers or a car stereo adapter.

I bought it because I don't care for Sony's megacorporate bloat and the price jacking that comes with it. I guess, though, you get what you pay for. My Sony lasted much longer, and only failed at the hand of violence.