Philips Expanium AZ1138 - Early MP3 Boombox

Has anyone here ever gotten into MP3 cds? In case you don't know, an MP3 CD is a CDR or CD-RW that only contains .mp3 files. There were a few players in the early 2000s that supported them, and a lot more players that supported it as the mid aughts came and went. Discmans, car stereos, and also Boomboxes were all devices that could be made to accommodate MP3 files by making the CD readers capable of playing them. To me, it always seemed like a more cost-effective or value based method of getting into the MP3 craze of the time, and I remember MP3 Discman models in particular as being a bit cheaper than an MP3 flash player or HDD jukebox player. Not only that, a CDR could hold 700mb of music, and the most expensive flash players were at 128mb at this point.

What I am showing here is a very obscure boombox (at least in the US) that actually does BOTH MP3 Cds and CD-RWs. The Philips Expanium AZ1138.



This exact Philips AZ1138 boombox pictured here was the first ever boombox I really learned how to use, and also what sparked my love of music technology. It was my grandparents boombox; The unit was given to them as a gift from my parents in Christmas of 2002. They took really good care of it, and I think it looks new. My dad got this unit through a boutique store called 'Insider's Advantage'. It was a corporate store for CNN/TimeWarner in Atlanta GA located at TurnerStudios. The store offered really interesting products you couldn't find in regular big box stores, and they were all discounted because they were reconditioned, or the packaging was distressed. This unit was manufactured in 2001, and was reconditioned in early 2002. The store had a deal with Philips/Magnavox, and we ended up with a lot of their stuff at this time. It was all really good quality and lasted a long time. Sadly, Insider's Advantage is not around anymore, but the cool products they had were certainly a hit for company employees of Turner or CNN.




Being made in 2001 AND supporting MP3s is quite rare. After all, the iPod didn't appear until this year too, so it was still quite early for the format. Not only this, the AZ1138 supports 320kbps, which is another great perk. Combine that with the CD-RW support, and you could rotate 320kbps MP3s on a few CD-RWs and really get a nice little ecosystem going. This photo also lets you see a close up of the plastic, which was painted with spray paint infused with flecks of glitter.




Other notable features include digital tuning, cassette synchro recording, Dynamic Bass Boost, and also radio presets. Not huge features, but cheaper boomboxes of this time were still offering analog tuning and no presents (except drawing on the tuning line with a marker). There's also an interesting 'jump 10 tracks' selector, so if your MP3 cd has a lot of tracks on it, you can cycle through them faster. This boombox carrys the Expanium branding, which was Phillips' way of telling you that it was a better value to put 11hours of music on their player than to buy an iPod.




Sound quality is decent, but not great. It only has 2 speakers total, with a total output of 1watt per channel into 8 ohms. It does the job, but isn't exactly a joy to listen too. The Dynamic Bass Boost was a fan favorite when I was a kid, and as we know, kids like bass. (RIP my ears, which developed tinnitus at age 11 when I got my V-moda bass freq buds and started playing in a school Jazz band). DBB here just makes the entire listening experience muddy as a back yard dirt bike run after a heavy rain. There's also no headphone jack, something that frustrated me all the time.

Another area where this boombox really falls short is in the display. You cannot see MP3 track names with this unit, it only shows numbers. This is due to the display being so small and limited. Try putting a CD with 200 tracks in this unit... you'll go crazy trying to remember which track is which.

All in all, I think this unit is a quality middle of the road boombox from the early aughts with some trendy tech features that push it to be more upscale. With my grandparents passing recently, it's nice to remember the first boombox I really loved and remember the memories I made with it.

 

That's very similar in design to one my nan had in her kitchen, though it's not MP3 compatible if I remember correctly. Not a bad sounding unit, but could be better.

I use to burn MP3 to use in the car, was great that you could carry many albums and tracks around on one disc, meaning that having those wallets stuffed with cd's was greatly reduced! I've only ever ripped MP3 at 320kbps or they sound terrible.