Philips Exp022 Review

Good Points
Recharge/docking station, easy to use, beautiful sound quality. Not too hard on the batteries - even the included AAA batteries run for a few hours on a full charge. Slim design, fits nicely in a small CD-player carry case, lightweight and convenient.

Bad Points
"Random" play mode always plays songs in the same order - every time! So it's not truly a "random play" option. A little pricey.

General Comments
The Philips Exp022 is a fine little CD player I bought about 2 years ago, and have been very happy with it. The sound quality is very good, and the included earphones are actually some of the best I have ever tried (and I've tried heaps of different earphones). The controls are easy to use, and the display clear and easy to read (a backlight would be nice though).

The player can read normal audio CD's, MP3 and WMA files. ID3 is supported, and you can skip back and forward easily between folders on MP3/WMA discs at the push of a button.

The docking station is a great idea. Unfortunately you have to disconnect the earphones to mount the player on the docking station, which means wear and tear on the earphone socket. The sound quality from the docking station is surprisingly good for what it is, very clear and crisp sound, not much bass response, but perfectly good for the bedroom, etc. the docking station is mains powered, and can also recharge the batteries at the same time.

The player can be run on AAA or AA batteries, and two different battery cover doors are included depending on which batteries you use. It's fairly easy on battery life, even on AAA batteries you get about 4-5 hours playback. I use AA rechargeable, which I find last me for a few days between charges.

Overall, this is a nice little CD player, probably a little long in the tooth now in the day of large-capacity flash-based MP3 players, but if you already have a reasonably large collection of discs of MP3 files, this is a worthwhile little player.