Philips SA255 256MB Audio Player (with Mini-SD)


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Philips SA255 256MB Audio Player (with Mini-SD)

The Philips SA255 256MB Digital Audio Player is all you need to listen to your favourite MP3 and WMA music on the go. You can also record direct to MP3 from any source via line-in or make your own voice recordings anytime, anywhere.

Dynamic Bass Boost maximises your music enjoyment by empahsisng the bass content of the music throughout the range of volume settings - from low to high - at the touch of a button! Bottom end bass frequencies ususlly get lost when the volume is set at a low level. To counteract this, Dynamic Bass Boost can be switched on to boost bass levels, so you can enjoy consistent sound even when you turn the volume down.

An added slot on your player accepts mini-SD cards, so you can add additional memory to your player.

Navigate through tracks easily and smoothly - at one at a time - in a few seconds. You can choose to move through your playlist one song at a time or just press and hold down a little longer to scroll swiftly to your desired track.

Features:
- Dynamic Bass Boost to enhance your tunes
- Built-in mini SD memory card slot for memory expansion
- Enjoy MP3/WMA playback
- Voice Recordings
- Direct MP3 recording via line-in
- Navigation based on trac, artist or playlist
- SuperScroll navigation to find songs in a simple, fast way

Specifications:
- Display resolution: 128 x 48 pixels
- Backlight colour: White

- Channel separation: 50 dB
- Equaliser settings: Classic, Jazz, Pop, Rock
- Frequency response: 30Hz - 18000KHz
- Signal to noise ratio: > 80 dB
- Output power (RMS): 2 x 4mW Audio Playback
- Compression format: MP3, WAV, Windows Media (TM) Audio
- ID3 tag support: Album title and artist name

- MP3 bit rates: 8 - 320 kbps and VBR
- MP3 sample rates: 8, 11.025, 16, 22.050, 24, 32, 44.1, 48KHz
- WMA bit rates: 5 - 192 kbps

- Built-in memory capacity: 256 MB
- Built-in memory type: NAND Flash
- Supported memory card type: miniSD
- Battery type: AAA Alkaline

- Software: Musicmatch Jukebox

- Dimensions (W x D x H): 43 x 23 x 97.5mm

System Requirements:
- Pentium MMX 166MHz or higher
- Windows 2000 (SP4) /XP (SP1)
- 96MB RAM
- 50MB free HD space
- Free USB Port
- CD-ROM drive

Box Contents:
- SA255 Digital Audio Player
- Headphones
- USB Cable
- Neck strap
- Line-in cable
- AAA battery
- Quick start guide

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Product Types	Price (inc VAT)	Qty

Single retail unit [459] Manufacturer Code: SA255	£41.40

To submit a review, please login first	Avg Rating: 1.3/10

All opinions expressed in customer reviews are the personal opinions of the reviewers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SVP Communications.

Review by Kiel prescott from Paignton on 13/01/2007 01:21:31	Rating: 1 /10
Pile of rubbish
I bought this device linked it to pc found hard drive in My Computer put mp3s on and when I went to play wouldnt find them. what a pile of rubbish. Also noticed earphones crackle and music which is already built in is quiet even after turning it up full blast. My opinion dont buy this peice of junk!

Review by C A RANK from London on 07/10/2006 17:02:57	Rating: 1 /10
The worst MP3 player I've ever bought
To start with Daniel the above post has said, most of what I would've said. Just to add the trouble I've had Syncing the files is unbelievable so many times it goes to the first track (that is the track WMP decides is first) starts to convert shows 0% and that is it nothing.

Review by Daniel Tootill from Nottingham on 02/10/2006 00:27:57	Rating: 2 /10
More trouble than it's worth...
It is not possible to drag 'n' drop MP3s onto the player's logical drive and have the player pick them up and play them, the device has to be synced with Windows Media Player (not Musicmatch Jukebox as stated) in order to update its internal database. There is another discrepancy with the specification in that the device does not recognise the album title field in the ID3 tag; it can only sort tracks itself by artist or playlist. This brings me to my gripe with this player and it's a major one – Windows Media Player does not support playlists on this device, this was confirmed to me in an E-mail from Philips after several wasted evenings trying to figure out what was wrong. Windows Media Player has an option to create a hierarchy on the portable device (in other words a set of folders to keep MP3s in some sort of order), but this is permanently greyed out. A document in the FAQ for the device on Philips' web site states that in order to use playlists, it is necessary to use Musicmatch Jukebox 9 and provides a link. After installing this version of Jukebox (complete with Philips logos all over it) I was bemused to find that it didn't support the device at all – it would only straight copy files without updating the internal database. I reported my findings to Philips who advised me that the issue would be escalated to their tech team. Meanwhile, I tried downloading Jukebox 10 instead. This picked up the device properly and looked promising, unfortunately it suffered from the same problem as Windows Media Player in that it would not create a hierarchy in order to support playlists. Once again, syncing a playlist would update the internal database but the the 'playlists' section on the device remained empty. I reminded Philips that as things stood, I could not transfer a CD to the device and have the tracks play back in the correct order – fairly fundamental stuff I thought. I am still waiting for a response from their tech team. To SVP's credit, they offered me a refund. I chose not to return the device as I eventually found a work-around. The device only seems to recognise the “artist” and “title” fields in the tag (or at least these are the only fields referenced by the internal database) and orders tracks alphabetically by title. The only way I could get it to sort tracks by album and play them back in the right order was to edit the “title” field to read “Album – Tack Number.mp3” e.g. “Demon Days – 05.mp3” before syncing. I sacrificed the title itself since it would get truncated in most cases (another annoyance). As the “artist” field is recognised, the device could still order tracks by artist if required (although – for some reason - in reverse track number order). Editing tags isn't ideal, but luckily there is a freeware ID3 tag editor available at http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ that makes light work of this task. This isn't a bad MP3 player for the money, but it comes with a fundamental flaw and bafflingly irrelevant documentation.