Philips Streamium NP2900
Manufacturer: Philips Consumer Electronics Part number: NP2900/37
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Philips NP2900 is a great-sounding Wi-Fi radio with a unique color display, but it doesn't offer enough features to justify its price premium over competitors.
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CNET editors' review
Philips Streamium NP2900 price range: $274.84 - $299.99
- Reviewed by: Matthew Moskovciak
- Edited by: John P. Falcone
- Reviewed on: 06/02/2009
The good: Excellent sound quality for its size; unique color screen that displays album art; full Rhapsody integration; provides access to thousands of Internet radio stations; stylish exterior design; easy setup to stream music from connected PCs.
The bad: Interface can get sluggish with large music libraries; slight delay between tracks; no support for Pandora, Last.fm, or Slacker; included remote occasionally confusing.
The bottom line: The Philips NP2900 is a great-sounding Wi-Fi radio with a unique color display, but it doesn't offer enough features to justify its price premium over competitors.
When the Logitech Squeezebox Boom came out last year, it set a new standard for Wi-Fi radios. Yes, it was expensive, but it offered excellent sound quality, a smart design, and tons of features in a tiny package--no competing products even came close. The Philips NP2900 is the first real competitor (sorry Tivoli) to the Boom's dominance of the high-end Wi-Fi radio market. It's the first Wi-Fi radio we've seen with a color display, and it makes the most of it with a graphical user interface that displays your album art along with your music. The NP2900 can stream music from a variety of sources (Internet radio, Rhapsody, connected PCs), and its Living Sound feature does a surprisingly good job of making the radio sound bigger than its size. The biggest problem with the NP2900 is its street price--currently $330--which is more than $50 than the Boom is selling for. It's hard to justify that extra cost, when the Boom offers more streaming music services, has more responsive controls, and sounds just as good. Judged on its own merits, the Philips is an excellent Wi-Fi radio, with a particularly attractive design and solid sound quality, but its high price will limit its audience.
Design
The NP2900 is a slick-looking radio. Sitting atop a small silver stand, the NP2900 consists of a long (13.6 inches), slim (2.7 inches deep) black cabinet, with rounded corners, and a tapered back panel. There's a silver strip that runs along the perimeter, and the front of the unit is dominated by a black speaker grille that surrounds the display. In terms of style, we'd rather have the NP2900 in our kitchen than the competing Squeezebox Boom.
The only buttons on the NP2900 are located on the top of the unit, and there are only four of them--power, volume up and down, and mute. That means you can't navigate your music collection using the controls on the unit; instead you have to use the remote. We would have at least liked a clickable wheel on the unit for times when the remote goes missing, or when you're standing right over the radio.
Separating the NP2900 from every other Wi-Fi radio we've reviewed is its 4-inch color screen. While most Wi-Fi radios have a simple monochrome display, capable of displaying a couple lines of text, the NP2900's screen is capable of displaying album art and a full graphical user interface. The screen definitely serves as eye candy--we love that it displays all of our album art--but it's also functional, making the device less intimidating for tech novices.
User interface and setup
The basic user interface is well-laid out, with simple menu options like Music, Internet Radio, Rhapsody, and Aux showing up on the home menu. When you start playing a song, the artist and song information show up on the display, with the album art in the background. We're meticulous about updating our album art and it was a treat to see the NP2900 automatically display it when it started playing our tracks. Album art is also available on Rhapsody tracks.
While the NP2900 zips through the standard menus quickly, it's not quite as quick to sort through a large library of music. The competing Boom is incredibly responsive in this regard, where as the NP2900 chugs along at a slower--sometimes frustrating--speed, even when its SuperScroll function kicks in. It's not unbearable, but a bit more speed would really help the NP2900 with large libraries.
As mentioned before, the only way to navigate the NP2900 is by using the included remote. It's a full-size clicker, which we like, but we did run into some issues. For example, the directional pad doesn't work exactly as you'd expect it to. Counterintuitively, the right and left directions won't move you right and left in the menus; you need to press "OK" to move right and the back button to move left. We got used to it, but occasionally we'd revert back to the more intuitive controls. Some people may also be annoyed that there's no option to fast-forward or rewind, which can be a minor annoyance, especially on podcasts. On the other hand, the remote does a good job of separating important functions like the volume rocker and playback controls, while the full number pad makes it easier to enter in search terms.
Features
Like all Wi-Fi radios, the NP2900 can tune into the thousands of free Internet radio stations, instead of the standard AM/FM fare. If you can't stand what's available on AM/FM (neither can we) and don't want to pay for satellite radio (neither do we), there are plenty of great stations available online for just about everybody. Philips doesn't disclose what service populates its listings, but we found plenty of quality stations across several genres. If your favorite station isn't listed, you can register on Philips' Web site and add it yourself.
The NP2900 also offers access to the premium streaming-music service Rhapsody, which is a subscription service ($13 a month). Rhapsody allows you unlimited streaming from its gigantic catalog of music. We're fans of the service and the NP2900's integration is nicely done. All the albums you've stored in your library are available and you can search for new music, although it's a bit tedious with the remote. With the subscription cost, Rhapsody certainly isn't for everyone, but you can take advantage of the 30-day free trial to see if it's worth it for you.
In addition to media streamed off the Internet, the NP2900 is capable of streaming media off of a connected PC. The NP2900 comes with TwonkyServer software included, and our experience setting it up was fairly painless, which is quite a feat for a network music player. Our testing scenario included a networked-attached storage drive filled with music, and we were easily able to point the TwonkyServer software at the applicable folders to create our music library.
Between Internet radio, Rhapsody, and your own music collection, the NP2900 can deliver tons of music options, but it's worth pointing out that the competing Squeezebox Boom has even more functionality. In addition to the NP2900's features, the Boom adds Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker, Live Music Archive, and MP3Tunes functionality. That might be overkill for most people, but hard-core music enthusiasts may prefer the Boom's incredible array of options.
Around the back of the unit, the NP2900 offers up a few inputs and outputs if you want to use it with other equipment. There's a headphone jack for late-night listening, as well as a coaxial digital-audio output if you want to connect the NP2900 to a home theater receiver. (If you don't need the built-in speakers of the NP2900, you can opt for the step-down NP2500.) There's a stereo-analog auxiliary input, which consists of two RCA jacks, rather than the more common minijack input. Rounding out the connectivity is an Ethernet jack.
Performance
The NP2900 has several optional sound modes designed to enhance audio quality. The best of the bunch is Living Sound, which utilizes two speakers in the back of the unit, plus some additional sound processing to create a more room-filling sound. We're usually skeptical about sound-altering effects, but Living Sound is well-implemented and really helps the NP2900 sound bigger than its diminutive size. Full Sound purportedly "restores" the lost information from compressed music, but we found it mostly boosted the bass, which occasionally led to distortion, so we turned it off. DBB (Dynamic Bass Boost) is another bass-boosting option, and we turned it off, too.
At this price level, high-quality sound isn't a perk; it's a requirement. With Living Sound on, we played through tons of tracks, spanning a bunch of genres. We kicked it off with Deerhunter's melancholy "Microcastle" and the lush mix was a good match with the NP2900's room-filling Living Sound effect. The sound was detailed and warm, exactly the opposite of what we usually find on Wi-Fi radios. We wanted to see just how hard we could push the little unit, so next up was Black Sabbath. We expected the NP2900 to fold under the hard rock sound of "Jack the Ripper," but it held its own and Geezer Butler's bass sounded nimble and tight. We switched gears and put on jazz guitarist Pat Martino's "Live at Yoshi's" and the NP2900 didn't skip a beat, with Pat's guitar clearly in the center of the mix and Billy Hart's hi-hat firing out of the back speaker, nicely widening the mix. The NP2900 gets surprisingly loud, and yes, if you push it too hard, the sound will distort, but our medium-size living room was comfortably rocking with the volume at halfway.
Next, we put the NP2900 right up against its main competitor, the Squeezebox Boom. We played a similar selection of tunes, but even with the units right next to each other, it was tough to pick a favorite. The NP2900's Living Sound feature is impressive directly compared with the Boom, as the NP2900 did a much better job at creating a wide soundstage. On the other hand, we thought the Boom was more faithful to the original recordings and was able to rock out just a little bit more, even if it did sound less immersive. If we were forced to make a pick, we'd go with the Boom, but both radios offer very good sound quality for the size and you're best off auditioning them yourself to see which sound suits you better.
Apart from sound quality, we did run into a couple snags that dampened our experience a bit. The NP2900 isn't nearly as good as the Squeezebox Boom at playing back albums seamlessly (without gaps between tracks), on Rhapsody tracks, or songs from your PC. That might not matter to most listeners, but if you're listening to "Abbey Road" and there's a three-second gap between "Sun King," "Mean Mr. Mustard," and "Polythene Pam," it can really take you out of the moment. Our other issue was that we had some difficulty getting the included TwonkyVision software to play back our albums in the correct running order. Upgrading to the latest version of TwonkyServer fixed the problem and luckily the included software worked with the updated software. Lastly, the NP2900 froze up on us a few times, sometimes taking a few minutes to finally wake up, but twice requiring us to unplug it and plug it back in. It didn't happen enough to really frustrate us, but we're hoping Philips updates the firmware to iron out some of these occasional hang-ups.
Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET.
User reviews
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Great music from a small device
by megwu on December 18, 2008
Pros: Connection is very easy and I finish the Wifi connection within 3 minutes.
LivingSound is incredible filling my whole room with music
Color LCD with album art beat over its competitors !
very attractive User Interface.Cons: Buffering time needs to wait for a little bit, but still acceptable.
Internet time needed to go to menu to start it before it could show the time automaticallySummary: It is really a good companion to me and I like to start putting it on in the LivingRoom playing some background music while I am reading magazines and enjoying ...
Summary: It is really a good companion to me and I like to start putting it on in the LivingRoom playing some background music while I am reading magazines and enjoying cappuccino there. It saves a lot of my space too.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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A nice player with an incredible sound
by ematig on December 17, 2008
Pros: * Incredible sound
* Great experience thanks to the several lines color display
* Album arts available for Rhapsody and UPnP as well as internet radios logos
* Can play Itunes track tks to Twonky SW bypacked
* Strong WiFi streaming performancesCons: * NP1100's useful quick jump function not available
Summary: Set-up :
As the NP1100, set-up is more than easy and it takes around 2min from scratch to start playing your favourite internet radio station. At the opposite of the Logitech ...Summary: Set-up :
One additional black spot is the factthat Last FM, Pandora and Napster are not supported.
As the NP1100, set-up is more than easy and it takes around 2min from scratch to start playing your favourite internet radio station. At the opposite of the Logitech devices like the Boom or the Duet, you don't need any computer to set-up your NP2900 and to access internet radio and Rhapsody.
Philips also bypacked with that device Twonky media server which allows you to access all your Itunes DRM free library from either a MAC or a PC running with Windows.
If you have Vista, installation is even simpler as device is recognized as a UPnP media player automaticaly. Just need to allow it and you can access all tracks located on your HDD.
Rhapsody :
Once entered your account credentials (if you don't have, you can still enjoy a 30 days full access for free) you can access your complete favorite tracks/albums/channels. All major Rhapsody functions (search, channels, top tracks, ....) are also available like you would have on a PC.
The multiple line display enhances greatly the navigation. On top of that, album arts are displayed, which makes the NP2900 a must have for all Rhapsody members.
Internet radio :
Immediatly accessible once device is connected to your WiFi router. No need extra set-up or registration / payment.
A huge amount of internet radio stations is available and most important they are playable and your nasty FM radio noise is gone.
Buffer is correctly managed, as well as the WiFi performance ? it makes NP2900 hick-up free compared to most of the cheap internet radio devices. One feature Philips should look at is the sizeable buffer like on the Logitech Boom.
An intuitive interface in order to find easily your favourite broadcast. Once started, stations artwork/banner is displayed.
Philips is working here with Vtuner in order to keep links updated. You can go on Vtuner site to check if your favourite stations will be available.
You can also connect the Club Philips website in order to choose your favourites in a more easy way.
UpnP :
Philips apparently hired a marketing genious as they have understood that iTunes users (a rather big population) would not change their media manager SW. They have consequently bypacked Twonky Media server (running on MAC and Windows OS) which makes all your DRM free tunes available.
For WMP11, once you have shared your library (no need to install any other piece of SW), everything can be played on your NP2900 as well as artworks.
Philips also learnt from NP1100 and increased the list of format supported. NP2900 is now supporting : MP3 ? M4A ? AAC - WMA (including MSFT DRM protected) ? FLAC lossless ? OGG ? WAV lossless ? PCM lossless .
Only black spot is the fact that Philips forgot to port the quick jump function from the NP1100 to the NP2900 in order to navigate more easily in the long list. Only basic search function is available.
Sound :
Philips bring here a special attention to the sound which makes that device more sexy and aligned with the expectations we have towards this historical sound machine designer.
A new sound processing called ?Living sound? has been added and gives you a good listenning experience wherever you are in your room.
On top of that, the four speakers implemented (2x10W + 2x5W) enable a lot of bass for such a small device and clarity of voices is not compromized.
Rest of the design is well executed as NP2900 is free from standard issues found on other devices (WiFi background noise, pop sound, rattling,?.).
Other features :
An alarm clock function has been ported. You can then wake up with your favourite radio station wherever you are in the world.
A bracket is provided in order to hang it on the wall.
Remote control is quite messy but after a while you can find your way and then access quicker the core functions.
Updated on Dec 17, 2008
Updated on Dec 18, 2008I have just posted a video in order for everyone to get a first view on the NP2900 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLW01FZTMgE1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Nice but don't lose the remote
by minitheron on October 16, 2009
Pros: Wifi capability. Can allow user to have Internet radio and MP3 player without having to hassle with hooking up a bulky system.
Cons: Like my old DVD player, it's almost useless without the remote. You can't detach the speakers and aim the sound in the direction you want.
Lacks Bluetooth so I can't sync it with the playlist on my G1 phone.Summary: It's good enough to make me go out and buy but I think it needs improvement, particularly with the controls. On the other hand, it's a Philips and ...
Summary: It's good enough to make me go out and buy but I think it needs improvement, particularly with the controls. On the other hand, it's a Philips and I've always had good experiences with their products so it's not that bad.
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spectacular
by Bibicel on June 23, 2009
Pros: buildt quality, sound, ease of use, big colour display, design, almost no buffering delays, no buffering pause when listening to radio, wall mounting possibility
Cons: no battery, no usb host
Summary: Ten minutes after opening the box I managed to listen to whatever radio station, even without opening the instructions for use. As I do not have the quickest net connection ...
Summary: Ten minutes after opening the box I managed to listen to whatever radio station, even without opening the instructions for use. As I do not have the quickest net connection I was expecting some buffering or even pause, but this was not the case. It connects smoothly to the desired station, the colourfull banner appears almost immediately and the sound is everithing that such a small device wouldn`t let one guess: spacious, clean and detailed (with activated Full Sound). I wouldn`t advice DBB activation though, nor the other EQ presets. It became practically a non-stop runner for me.
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Great sound and good artwork.I am really enjoying it !!
by sampeterus on June 15, 2009
Pros: I am overwhelmed by the LivingSound audio - that surrrrrrrrrrround effect is heavenly. Nice color LCD. Can see my favorite artwork. I recently bought a NAS and was a bit worried whether this thing will work with it but i am wrong :) Happy guy here ;)
Cons: Toooooo costly for these less features. No lastfm, no napster, no flicker. What is the use of a color lcd without streaming from Youtube? Many devices supports it, you know
Summary: Sound quality is amazing especially with Living Sound. It gives me a sense of fullfillment in my living room. Other EQ stuff has effect but not like LivingSound. Nice, cool ...
Summary: Sound quality is amazing especially with Living Sound. It gives me a sense of fullfillment in my living room. Other EQ stuff has effect but not like LivingSound. Nice, cool artwork though I do not see the artwork completely as its cut in the bottom. I am having different kinds of songs that I have collected over many years and I am surprised that all of them play fine on this piece through the NAS. I have songs that are recorded / converted from other softwares. They too play well. I have never faced a problem with internet radio. Select any station and it plays back lovely. I have my friends complaining that some do not play in other products that they are using. Me, lucky fella :))) By now, you should understand that I am crazy about artworks. Artwork in rhapsody, mannn, thats awesome. There are so many nice lil things that are taken care. Impressed a lot. I felt pain when it comes to cost. It should have been atleast 50 bucks less. Or give me more features like flicker, napster, lastfm. They are great features but not available. Color lcd not effectively utilized. Yeah, slideshow is good but who would watch in this 3" odd display. I am better off watching this on PC or photo frame. This box should have given me Youtube, that puts lcd to good use. There are so many devices that supports this hot service from google. Why not 2900? Am a big fan of Youtube. Nevertheless, this box is excellent and am delighted to have it.
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The NP2900 is a fantastic device.
by elings on February 4, 2009
Pros: The NP2900 made me to enjoy my music collection in a different much better way. I bought this unit to play my PC Music collection but when I started using this device I was overwelmed by the numer of good internet radio stations.
Cons: Non, it is a fantasic device and the best I have seen it realy works wel
Summary: The NP2900 has great sound, easy to set-up and easy to use.
Summary: The NP2900 has great sound, easy to set-up and easy to use.
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It finally replaced my old FM-radio ...
by Blechtrottel on December 17, 2008
Pros: NP2900 has everything in one box - Speakers, amplifier, digital receiver. No wires required to your PC or Radio/Music provider. Finally my strange noises, hiss sound is gone - the Internet radio makes the difference. This is the HD of the Radio.
Cons: Remote has many buttons - should consider to separate groups by colors.
Album art based browsing not yet fully there ...Summary: The TwonkyMedia UPnP server SW is great. Easy to install and you kind find all your music on the NP2900 (no blocking of less common compression formats, like WMP does). ...
Summary: The TwonkyMedia UPnP server SW is great. Easy to install and you kind find all your music on the NP2900 (no blocking of less common compression formats, like WMP does). This Twonky is very stable and faster discovered by NP2900 than any other UPnP server (like WMP or even my NAS). That color display is so sexy and it keeps on showing pictures / artwork / banners for everything, even my Internet Radio. I've compared this set with the Sony NASC5 and Logitech's Boom ... Philips is clearly the better choice ! No PC required to setup Rhapsody, very nice design, very good sound quality (and an outstanding stereo experience anywhere in the room).
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Philips Consumer Electronics
- Part number: NP2900/37
- Description: Philips Streamium network music player with its built-in speakers gives you wireless access to your PC music, Internet radio and Rhapsody online music service - all delivered by the immersive LivingSound and superb FullSound technologies.
General
- Product Type Network audio player
- Width 13.7 in
- Depth 2.7 in
- Height 3.9 in
- Weight 3.3 lbs
Audio System
- Sound Output Mode Stereo
- Sound Effects Dynamic Bass Boost (DBB)
- Equalizer Yes
- Output Power / Total 30 Watt
- Built-in Clock Timer, Digital clock
- Timer Wake, Sleep
- Built-in Display LCD
- Display Illumination Yes
- Display Dimmer Yes
- Additional Features ID3 tags support, Upgradeable firmware
Connectors
- Headphone Jack Yes
- Coaxial Digital Output Yes
Equalizer
- Equalizer factory preset qty 4
Speaker System
- Speaker(s) 4 x Speaker - Built-in
Network Player
- Network player type Network audio player
- Network player functionality Digital audio playback, Internet radio playback
- Supported digital audio standards AAC, PCM, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis
- Supported bit rate 8 - 320Kbps
- Connectivity Wireless / wired
- Connectivity protocols IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet), IEEE 802.3u (Fast Ethernet)
Display
- Display Type LCD display - TFT active matrix 3.5 in - Color
Microphone
- Type None
Remote Control
- Remote Control Remote control
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x Headphones ( Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm ), 1 x SPDIF output ( RCA phono ), 1 x Ethernet ( RJ-45 ), 1 x Audio line-in ( RCA phono x 2 )
Power
- Power Device Power adapter - External
Miscellaneous
- Cables Included Audio cable
Manufacturer info
- Philips Consumer Electronics
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Philips Consumer Electronics products on Shopper.com
-
- Website: http://www.philipsusa.com/
- Address:
100 E. 42nd St., New York, NY - Phone: 800/223-1828
- Email: us.ce.webmaster@philips.com
- Fax: 423/475-0411
