Almost passed the test...but

I agree almost entirely with Philip's review, the DAB worked great, the USB slot accepted my memory stick and played flawlessly, a CD played great. BUT I made 2 MP3 CDs containing 192kbs and 128kbs mp3 music files, they both read in ok, producing track and artist, but they both skipped and pop and struggled to play smoothly. It was mp3 playing on the CD I needed most, so back it went.

it's good

bought this because of the the low price and am very happy with it. manages to pick up a good signal although i live in an area with only mediocre digital reception, my walls are 3 feet thick and i live in a valley. i don't know if this would be any different with any other make/model but i can say this has a great sound for it's size; it's easy to use (apart from the mistake in the instructions regarding preset stations detailed in other reviews) and i reckon it looks nicer than most other digital radios on the market. if my house burned down and i got a big pile of insurance money i'd get exactly the same again.

Great sound, poor quality

This is a nifty little unit. Aesthetics wise perhaps not to everyone's taste, but the Philips is packed with features. Great bass reproduction and treble is reasonably smooth although not particularly detailed. USB and ipod compatibility an added bonus.....Now for the bad news!

If you intend to listen to music from a memory stick it may get frustrating. The Philips struggles to read the memory sticks I own even though other hifi systems have no problem playing the files (tried this in the shops). Secondly the speakers are a tad on the cheap and nasty side although admittedly they do sound OK. Lastly, and this is probably the biggest drawback, the black labels on the buttons fade and eventually disappear! After just an hour of using the up/down tuning buttons, to tune in all the radio stations, the one button label had rubbed off completely!

I've owned Philips units for years now and have always been impressed with the sound and build quality, however I think Philips have cut corners with the MCM398D. It's a shame as I was enjoying the system until the labels starting disappearing! Now I have to return it and look for something else. Buy the way there is no tape deck in case you were wondering.

Very good for the price!

I've only had this for a week but here is what i think so far. I have a Creative Zen Vision M and it connects to the HIFI via USB and is detected no problems, you can play your stored files through the HIFI. I have also tried connecting USB flash pens and both were detected no problems and stored files played no problems (albums in their own folders too!).
The only slight problem i have with the HIFI is that you cannot transfer files from your player/USB flash to the HIFI. You would have thought this was an essential option to have! So you have to burn the mp3's to a CD (make that waste lots of CD's) then insert the CD into the HIFI as it DOES transfer them from CD's no problem. Re-naming songs is very tedious (you do it like mobile texting through the remote) so make sure they are named correctly before you transfer.
I would have given it 5 stars if you could transfer from USB devices.

Even still this seems to be a great little player if you can forgive the USB issue.

MCM 119 Review

I bought this system yesterday and found it quite okie. I would not say that it is mind blowing cause I am not very happy with its bass depth. Otherwise its nice set. I use with my laptop as pc speakers mainly...

Brilliant but for one stupid flaw

This unit is great in almost all respects - it's compact, well featured, provides good sound quality, attractive and great value for money. The truely unbelievable thing about it is that the DAB antenna is just a two meter long wire"T" shape that's integrated into the unit. There is no co-axial socket to plug in a better aerial and the wire can't be replaced. That means you can only place this unit were this silly little aerial can pick up a signal, which you can guarntee is not where you want to put it.

A truly great piece of kit let down by poor instructions

I would have given this system 5 stars but for the instructions which do not deal adequately with some installation issues.

I was given the centre and satellite for Christmas and it worked straight out of the box - however the system must have been in storage for months, if not years, as it had the original firmware and and an old Gracenote database which did not recognize many of my CD's.
It is at this point that, unless you are computer-literate and have access to a computer connected to the internet, you could become very frustrated. I guess most people who buy this system will, like me, already have a computer and wireless internet access as it is in this situation that the Streamium system really comes into it own.

In fact I have several PC's on a wireless network using Livebox for internet access. With such a system, assuming that Philips Media Manager (PMM) is installed on each computer, then both the Streamium centre and the satellite(s) can play any of the music stored on any of the computers. If you also install Philips Wireless Audio Device Manager (WADM) on the PC then it too can play the music stored on the Streamium centre.

I downloaded the latest firmware from Philips and successfully updated the Streamium centre via the ethernet cable using the WADM software. I then updated the satellite's firmware wirelessly using WADM. I also updated the centre's Gracenote database using a CD-ROM (just to see how it worked) but you could do this wirelessly as well.

You have to invest more time in all of this than you would expect because the instructions provided by Philips are either inadequate or just plain wrong. For example the 2-way remote control provided with the centre CANNOT access many of the centre's advanced functions (such as setting up the wireless connection) even though the instructions imply that you CAN and the error message you get if you do use the remote is not even listed in the instructions. You can instead use the buttons on the front panel for setting up the wireless connection UNTIL you come to enter the WEP or WPA code for you wireless router which then requires the remote control. And here it gets really stupid - you have to use the 1-way remote control (which comes with the satellite) to enter this code. I only found this out by visiting the excellent Streamium forum at www.streamiumcafe.com

Both the centre and station(s) should be configured for wireless connection with the router (so that both can get music direct from your PC's) so you have to go through this exercise again for each station. Entering a 20 character WEP using the remote control requires some degree of patience!

Now my Streamium is all working I have junked my old hifi system which with its big speakers and associated CD storage shelves which all took up far too much room. The Streamium system is far neater and now I have ripped all my CD's these can be stored in the garage. The centre produces really good quality sound and, considering its size, the satellite's sound is also amazing.

One last piece of advice - there is an excellent freeware called WACHANDLER which provides a much improved PC interface to the Streamium system.

cd player broken but radio is quality

i got 1 for christmas about 3 years ago and within 4-5 months the reader for the cds had broken and the cds were jumpin and the drawer would not move up on its own so i had to push it up. the souind quality is god though and the radio is excellent but its the cd drawer motor that has packed up on mine. i dont no if this was jus because mine was faulty or if the parts in it stopped workng. hope this review is helpful

philips mini hi-fi system/fwm139/05

I just have to let someone know how delighted I am with my new mini hi-fi system. I found itso easy to use and the very easy tuneing to radio stations,great sound from the twin speakers. A great bargain for so little cost to buy and next day delivery. I could not be more pleased.

MCD708 - Philips DVD Micro Theatre System

For a micro system, and for the price of this unit, this is an absolute quality system, I cannot fault the looks or the quality of the sound it produces, with an excellent picture quality through the built in DVD player, if you require a micro cd/dvd player you will not go wrong with this one.

Utterly useless

Thank goodness it's been discontinued so that nobody else will have to suffer this utterly useless product.
It's sold as an alarm clock, yet:
The clock frequently freezes or sets itself to a random time, so the alarm doesn't go off.
The display is bright enough even on the dimmest setting to read a book by.
The alarm volume cannot be changed - on first going off it ramps up over a 10s period to FULL VOLUME! After a snooze, it comes straight on at FULL VOLUME.
Philips are well aware of these problems but have no intention of doing anything about them.
Avoid at all costs.

Pleased and satisfied

I am more than happy with this player. It says what it does on the box. Aesthetically pleasing. Sound not brilliant quality obviously but then the price reflects that. Well pleased and consider it good value for money.

This machine is a WOW

After searching for a micro hi-fi with MP3 capability and deliberating many, I read the reviews on this one and decided to buy. Not only was the price better than reasonable, the sound quality is simply supreme for such a small piece of kit.

It's an excellent discreet piece of equipment, not dominating the lounge and of course it doesn't have the annoying cassette deck which so many manufacturers insist on providing in these days of MP3.