Exonion Mp3 CD Player
Sexy styling

The FIF(Fields in Filename) file format is one of the player's most welcome additions. It overcomes the hurdle of ID3 tags. ID3 information is stored as the last few bytes at the end of an MP3 file. This is no good when the player is caching track/artist names as it would take the player forever to boot up if it was to go through every file and seek the last few bytes as well as the beginning of the track. As the name would suggest it puts all the ID3 fields in the filename thus allowing the player to kill two birds with one stone. It can scan the whole CD and grab all the relevant information it needs. The formats for FIF are as follows:

[Artist][Title][Genre].mp3, [Artist][Title].mp3, (Artist)(Title)(Genre).mp3, (Artist)(Title).mp3, Artist-Title-Genre.mp3, Artist-Title.mp3.

Changing files into FIF can be time consuming but it's well worth it when you can search for any MP3 you want. In addition to this the player can play MP3s contained in Directories/Sub directories. So you can organize a few albums into directories and just play that album if you wish. The Exonion is the first to offer this FIF feature. It's an absolute godsend when you have 150+ mixed songs on a CD and want to find a particular song/artist or album.

The next best feature on this player would have to be its 8mb ESP. Under standard conditions walking, running or just putting the unit into a back pack it won't skip. The player's memory is phenomenal and is probably beneficial to the player's battery life. It buffers whole songs into its memory and then stops the CD spinning. The most power consuming part in your average portable CD unit would be the motor. It only restarts the motor when the next track is coming up or when it needs some additional data when the song is larger than the buffer.

The LCD was a generous size with plenty of screen real estate. The back lighting was an inviting indigo blue. The LCD displays the current FIF Play mode ( ie. Title/Artist/Genre Mode), Repeat Mode(standard Repeat One/Repeat All), Equalizer Setting, Bass Boost Setting (on/off), ESP Status, Battery Indication. This is just the top 1/4 of the display! The next line displays the track title whilst the following line displays the artist. The last line displays the genre if you're using ID3 mode or simply "FIF" if the player is using FIF mode. In addition to this it displays current track number and total playlist size followed by sampling frequency, current bitrate, a cute little spectrum analyzer animation and track time.

The remote is pretty standard for a wired remote. The remote is quite small measuring only 7.5cm (2.9") long and 3cm (1.8") wide at its widest point. The back of the remote has a spring clip to allow you to attach it to a shirt pocket or something similar.

The actual player has 9 buttons on its front face and one "Hold" slider switch on the left side. The left and right arrows allow you to skip tracks whilst the up/down arrows allow you to increase/decrease volume. This player does have a FF/RW feature if you hold down the arrows but this only seems to work when you're listening to CD audio. The play/pause and stop buttons were exactly as on the remote. If you hold them down the play corresponds to on and the stop to off.

We are witnessing a true next generation MP3 player. Gone are the days of buggy firmware, substandard audio playback and frequent skipping. This player promises to deliver and meets our expectations with flying colors. The audio playback whilst not being the absolute best we've seen delivers admirable performance. This is one of the best MP3 CD players we've seen to date. The inclusion of an LCD screen, FIF support, remote and 8mb ESP really show how far MP3 technology has come and puts some of the competitors to shame. If you're in the market for an MP3 player at present you really can't go past the Exonion.

Features:

Plays audio CDs and CD-Rs/RWs burnt with MP3 files
Roughly about 150~170 MP3 files can be stored on one CD-ROM
FIF(Fields in Filename) navigation
Backlit 4-Line (64x128) LCD. displaying information including track title/artist/ID3 info/genre and bitrate.
Remembers the track names of the last 3CDs played
8MB ESP memory 8mins @ 128kbps of MP3 anti-shock and 48 seconds of CD audio!
10-hour playback time
Rechargeable batteries
4 Equaliser modes (Normal, Classical, Rock and Jazz)
8kbps up to 320kbps and has VBR/CBR support
Wired remote control
Line-Out Socket


Accessories:

1 x Stereo earphones 1 x Remote control with clip 1 x operating manual 1 x AC/DC adapter (uk style plug) 1 x Carry case 2 x Rechargeable batteries 1 x Software CD

Specification:

CD Writer required to enable MP3 CD burning
Dimension - 130 x 150 x 30mm
Weight - 270g
Media - CD-DA, CD-R, CD-RW

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