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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 11 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
The good: Rugged, attractive styling; includes case, remote, and charger; solid skip protection; jogging accessories.
The bad: Headphone ergonomics are poor; no WMA support.
The bottom line: Philips and Nike have designed the slickest mini-CD player to date, but it's not without its flaws.
Specifications: Device type: CD / MP3 player; Sound output mode: Stereo; Weight: 6.3 oz; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 02/26/2003
- Updated on:03/03/2003
- Released on: 01/09/2003
The CD8's decent remote has a rudimentary LCD that displays the track and the album number, as well as a rugged, four-way joystick that enables control by feel. We appreciate the fact that you can detach the headphones from the remote and swap in another pair. Many users won't be thrilled with the design of the around-the-neck headphones, which sound decent but don't fit smaller ears snugly.
The most innovative and, at the same time, debatable design element are the magnets that adorn both the remote and the headphone cord. Instead of the standard clips found on most MP3 players' remotes, Philips has gone with a magnet system for wire management. The idea is to clip the remote to a piece of clothing by placing the clothing between two magnets, one of which is embedded in the remote. The bottom line: The system is cool but not entirely practical, mostly because loose metal objects such as keys stick to the powerful magnets. For the uninitiated, mini-CDs have a storage capacity of 185MB, which will allow you to record up to 50 songs--or about three hours of music--on them. If, however, you rip your MP3s with less compression (say, at 160Kbps), expect to get closer to 25 songs, or almost two CDs' worth of music, on a disc. Those are pretty good numbers, and the discs cost less than $1 each when bought in packs of 10.
As far as features go, this guy has everything that you'd expect from a basic, portable MP3 CD player, including random play, a repeat mode, and a dynamic bass-boost option. ID3 tags scroll across the player's LCD but don't appear on the remote.
Philips/Nike bundles MusicMatch Jukebox for organizing your MP3s--sorry, WMA fans--but users should be warned that you'll be able to burn songs to only five mini-CDs with the included software; you have to upgrade to the $20 MusicMatch Jukebox Plus to get unlimited burning. That's no big deal, though, since you can use the software that came with your CD burner instead. It's also worth noting that any CD burner can burn mini-CD-Rs.
One major gripe: We wish that Philips had included a better automatic power-off feature. On one occasion, we accidentally forgot to press stop and found our batteries completely dead the next day. Many other players automatically deactivate after a set period of being paused. All in all, the CD8's sound quality is good, and the included neck-band-style headphones, while less than comfortable, deliver decent sonics. Battery life, rated at eight hours, isn't great, so we suggest investing in a couple of rechargeable AAAs.
Philips says that this PSA offers eight minutes of skip protection, and from our tests, the unit appears to be quite solid in this regard. We shook the heck out of the CD8 for more than three minutes, and it didn't stutter once. Flash-based MP3 players are more of a sure thing when it comes to skip-free playback, but this mini-CD player appears to be well designed for active use.
User reviews
- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 11 reviews
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