# review of  Philips Go Gear Mix, model no. sa5mxx04wf/97



## Knight2A4 (Nov 20, 2013)

*Hello Reader & Welcome to my review of  Philips GoGear Mix, model no. sa5mxx04wf/97*

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Prologue

For a good 3 years HTC explorer was my communication/media device, Allowing me to make calls & doubling up as my mp3 player until recently Basic stuff as calling & listing to music was my sole purpose from this device. Made by HTC “explorer” is smart phone with android v2.3 ginger bread as stock rom. The music player is also good with features that resembles any music player from play store with the exception of SRS sound enhancement. Recently While I anciently dropped my phone in water I was quick to pick it up & clean it lastly putting it under the sun. In hopes to evaporate the moisture which was left in. But the damage was done. Unresponsive touch screen, Low ringtone volume & sudden restart forced me to quickly take the mobile to repair shop. The price they quoted for repair made me think should I repair it or buy a new phone altogether the conclusion came out to be different from both of them. It was Sunday evening while I sat at my PC listening to John Mayer's I was thinking about the events that had unfolded & how should I proceed & so first I listed down all the things I did with htc explorer calling & listen to music topped the charts. This time around it’s also came to my notice that battery ran pretty low I had to carry my phone charger around very where, too home to company to every where I went & if even I miss one night of charging then it’s game over. Charging also took 3-3.5 hours and stayed only for 6 hours straight with regular usage. So what ever I do next it should get me rid of this difficultly also. Mobile with good capability to reproduce audio file with acceptable amount of distortion with huge battery life where above 10k Rs (at the time of writing this review) & my budget was straight half. I was relying on saving enough to buy/upgrade my mobile but what in b/w using the explorer was getting me frustrated as the unresponsive screen would not allow me to pick up calls when they came. I just felt to throw it away. Finally I shifted back to my Samsung s3600 It’s a flip phone from 2008 this did solve my calls and battery problem but music still remained so then after I started an extensive search for a dap within my budget I was not able to find Sansa clip or Nationite N2 on net in India. Sansa had to be imported from USA which kills any warranty if any thing when wrong. Other option included Sony Walkman & apple shuffle which in my opinion offer less functionality when compared to Sansa clip or N2 and so when I thought going up the ladder was not working going down might and so the search began for the most budgeted branded mp3 player that would offer most features a week of searching  the net let me to Philips go gear mix 4gb model no. sa5mxx04wf/97. An mp3 player similar to sony's Walkman series but at a throw away 1500 rs. I was not able to find any good reviews about it on net n hence decided to do one by myself. In this review I will try to cover all aspects of the portable device.    

Introduction      

In the price margin of what the Philips go gear mix model no. sa5mxx04wf/97 is filled with portable mp3 players many are from Philips only with n without screen. To start there is sound dot , mini dot without screen with 2 gb of space & other models which resembles to the reviewed model but with 2 gb of memory only. Transcend & Zebronics remaining as the other’s that have offering in this price range but the philips sa5mxx04wf/97 offer the best features for the price.  

Out of the Box

I had ordered them thought flip kart they did arrive on the last date of delivery. Covered in bubble sheet the MP3 player was inside a hard plastic casing. I had to use scissor to cut through the plastic cover. Inside where 2 booklets warranty & location of Philips service center & a huge paper with step folding which showed how every thing worked. With the mp3 player was a very simple looking headphone. & that was all physical stuff that came along. In side the mp3 player when I first connect it to the PC I found  2 songs, Thick Black Mark by Andrew Paul woodworth & Car crash by Matt Nathanson. Both of the songs are beautiful composed & edited I did not heard them before but hearing them on this mp3 player was good to start it from. Both songs had 192 kbps bit rate. With it was Philips frame wire software I was happy to know when I installed it that there was an update available for the mp3 player allowed it to be installed but was a rick b/c I did not know what is the update do or what changes are there going to be after the update but every thing is still working great. 


Form Factor

First look and resemble sony b series dap’s it is also a pen drive styled with one end that has a cap which is designed with a hook or clip that which is similar a cap of a pen which in turn can be put on to your shirt or slide to hook on your jeans edge. Although this is better from sony in terms that the sony mp3 player has a clip which press's it claws against each other to form a grip onto your cloth by the use of a spring. If this spring is damaged or accidentally breaks free then it renders the clip useless. The clip on Philips is solid single unit that forms the cap of the dap. Along with Pros, Cons are also there with this design the cap is not attached to the body same as sony n hence if you loose the cap then not only the external & sensitive part of the mp3 player is exposed but any damage taken by the USB port will render the mp3 player useless. Moving on the 3.5mm audio jack along with the microphone used to record voice & a small hole for resetting the player is at the back. On the side’s is the volume rocker & menu/back button. On the top is a  humble 1” oled screen which displays the currently playing song, time, battery & progress  shears it’s place with the curved play/pause button along with the next & previous buttons. The Play/Pause button is curve which is good in terms that you would not be searching for it in the dark. the next button has a dot where as the previous button has two dots on it. I would list them as pros by design as there is not back light so they would not be visible in dark. These simple design could help you be less frustrated by accidentally hitting previous next or play button in stead of the intended one especially at the time of power cut. The button’s have good tactile feed back to them & every click gets a fast response. The outer shell is made of plastic which is flashy & attracts finger prints & duct easily & it just been a month n there are already scratches on the body. The go gear mix is printed on the back which can get eased with time but the Philips embossed on the side shall remain there.    

Features 

A Short press to the Play/Pause button wakes the player up on screen would be your last played song. The menu consist of music, Radio, recording, folder view, setting & last played song. Music is sorted in all songs, artist & albums the radio can save up to 30 stations it has Manual tuning Auto tuning & record radio options while the reception was good at my home when I traveled to company it got week as soon as we left the city parameters. The addition of the folder view is my favorite b/c of what it allows me to do. Take the folder from my music collection n just throw them there not much buzz just ease as pie. Setting include sound, play mode, display settings, language, information, legal, factory setting. Sound had Philips full sound setting which is similar to S.R.S or beats audio n enhances particular range of the entire frequency spectrum which in terms would enhance particular gene of music. When I first started to listen to this mp3 player I found the volume level to be quit low to my liking it was them when I found out that the Philips full sound was on. I switched it off & the player got a lot louder with which I was comfortable the max volume level is 16. Other Equalizer present include Balance, Powerful, Bright, Warm & Clear . There is also a volume limiter if you would hand it over to someone young & do not want him or her to listen at max volume. Play Mode include Shuffle & repeat, Finally the last played option as by name shows last played song, Though there is no play list here you would not be able to crate one & there is no gapless music play back also so if there is silence towards the ending of the track & the next track also has some delay on start then would certainly push you out of the music listening experience. Going by the specification listed by Philips on it sites the mp3 player has a Signal to noise ratio: > 80 dB ,Frequency response: 40 - 18k Hz & Channel separation: 45 dB. Its capable of playback of MP3, WMA, WAV with compressed format MP3 bit rates: 8-320 kbps and VBR & Lossless format WMA bit rates: 5-192 kbps and VBR. WAV is just there b/c it records in that format. Testing the mp3 claim of playback of 320 kbps  was easy as most of my library is only with 320 Kbps  To test WMA I had to rip a audio cd from my old collection using Windows media player n try the play back both worked great without any issues. The battery life suggested by Philips is around 12 hrs but I soo it to perform about 8 hours on playback of 320 Kbps mp3 files.

Voice & F.M Recording

The portable also has a built-in microphone for voice recording. When I tested it for recording voice my main focus was how clearly its able to record. Second how far a subject can be from the portable to record his/her voice clearly. During my test it became clear that a person need to be at least within 1 foot of the portable to get his/her voice recorded clearly. That means this is good for those who practice singing They can hold this in there hands for recording but student who would like to record lecture sitting in a class room will get disappointed. Lastly FM recording is also available depending on the coverage of the signal the recording get affected. If you are in good coverage area than the recording is good.     

Sync Vs Drag n Drop 

Philips offer Philips Sound bird as that does not come with the mp3 player you would have to go to the site to download it. At first I just gave a search on the net about the word sound bird which let me to a music player around 10 mb of size. I downloaded it & installed it but was not able to sync my music to mp3 player using it . So went back to Philips sites n downloaded it from there the download there was of 100 mb. Once finished I started the installation process but as soon as it started my anti-virus & firewall started to cry. An application wants to access the internet & connect to some IP’s said the firewall. Some miscellaneous code have been identified cried the antivirus. That was good enough reason for me to kick it out. As soon as it finished I uninstalled it from PC & gave a full scan of my PC. Windows Media player is another player which can easily used to sync music & I did used it to sync my music which worked better than the Philips solution But the windows media player arranged it differently in as per artist & album in different folder. This did not worked with me as there is no playlist option I had to arrange all of my songs in a folder such as slow songs & fast tracks which I listen to as per my mood. Finally drag n drop came into play as it still was better than any sync suits. The data transfer speed suggested a  class 4 memory chip as it  used to transfer files with a speed of 3.5 mbps which was attached to a USB 2 Port on my pc cabinet.


Sound Quality

Declaration : I am not an audiophile neither I have any high end equipment. This review was done with the equipment I own. & it represents my personal opinion   

Every thing till this point would go to waste if the S.Q was not up to mark and before I list how I went with testing it I will list the equipment used & songs I selected.

IEM Used – Stock Earphones, Philips she 3590, Cowon Em1
Amp used – Fiio E6
Cable used – Fiio two sided 3.5 mm gold plated audio jack (included with amp.)
Reference Source – Asus Xonar DG PC sound card.
Reference Songs – 1. Album Ray of light
                                2. Album Enya. A Day Without Rain
                                3. Album Sarah Chang - Sweet Sorrow 
                                4. Album Brokeback Mountain (OST)

 I will break this section into two sub – sections, General & With amp.

General – Will start this section with my experience with the stock earphone. When one purchase a budget DAP can not hope for a good set of earphones. But my greatest problem with the stock earphone where the design. The design of the earphone made them awkward to insert them in ear’s. Even at highest volume I could easily listen surrounding things there was a tremendous leakage of sound. I had to wait till late night to see how they performed. After I listing session of 30 min. I could say that they lacked lows mids where fair and the earphone seems to be kneeing towards highs but it could not hold them. They would get sharp and it was like my ear’s where getting pieced with small needles. This was the point when I thought I had enough of the earphone n Finally started the real testing using Philips she 3590 & cowon em1.

Philips she 3590 has a v-shaped sound signature with mild enhancement in bass n treble with 8 mm driver & 16 ohms impendence. The first song I listen with these on I wanted to see if there was any shss. Or any back ground interference that came with the music or if increasing the volume introduced to any. To my pleasing there was no interference and the audio was reproduced just as I had listen to my reference source asus xonar dg. The next test was for frequency response b/c I did not have neutral or studio monitors gear with me. so took me a while to listen carefully to the  go gear & asus in the end frequency response what I believe should be close to neutral but it was not totally diverted from its paths to unbalance the iem from producing the audio signature they where design to produce. The mild bass & treble enhancement of Philips she 3590 seems to be working just as it was with the dx there where not over powering the mids or the treble was not  going out of reach they where as they where with dg sound good n did what they where designed to do. 

Cowon Em1 has a smooth warm sound signature with empathy on mid bass which is also my preferred sound signature with 10 mm drivers & 16 ohms impedance. The first time I used cowon I was totally disappointed when using Philips 3590 a volume of 8 was comfortable for me and the iem also did very well but cowon was like a fat lazy horse I hooked up with my kart to drive them.The bass was floppy the treble was week the mid just crawling in time behind bass and when I raised the volume to full it began to hart me in my ear b/c the treble did not got smooth but more sharp the bass was still floppy. All n all I survived this experience only for 15 min. this was not the case with asus dg. An amp was required.

With amp. – Fiio E6 when I first came across with portable amp reading the reviews I firstly thought that amp are used to increase the audio quality n so bought one from proaudio home only to realize the harsh relative it was kept in my drawer since then waiting I guess. N when EM1 did not performed with the go gear mix I decided to put the fiio e6 in between them. The result was explosive. It was like the lazy horse was replaced with some kind of beast & I was holding onto the kart for my dear life. Its this sense of danger that bring a sense of adventure also. You see I knew that I was a bit far from my safe listening practice that  I followed during my listening sessions but this sounded so good that I was well willing to take the risk. It was like I was going around with my asus dg in my hand. The bass became fast went deep & decayed fast so it have more room for the mids to show off them self unlike before where they where behind bass n get over power but it. Treble did not had that sprinkle to them but they where smooth & warm over all tolerable. 

Conclusion

Philips Go Gear Mix, sa5mxx04wf/97 has many things working in favor of it the price at which it come the feature offered far out weights other even Philips other offering. The oled screen & 4gb storage is a plus. Sound quality is acceptable. FM recording functionality is another  thing that you could like it can used to record some old song or unknown songs which you like. Playing over a FM station which after ward can be used to identify the song. But its not with cons the inability of go gear mix to drive large driver earphone makes it unsuitable for them who own cowon em1 or sound magic e10 these two being two popular earphones. Along with inability gapless music playback & the absence of play list adds to the cons only. But if you can just want an mp3 player on an extreme tight budget n thinking for going for shuffle of sony b series I would certainly recommend you Philips Go Gear Mix, sa5mxx04wf/97


Philips GoGEAR SA5MXX04AF/97 - MP3 player


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## dummydave (Nov 21, 2013)

thats a really nice review....even i own one...but i found its too loud even with lowest volume...so i had to purchase earphn wid volume control...

I face a problem...while changing songs sumtimes instead of changing song it up/down the volume

So was curious to know if u faced any such problem


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## Knight2A4 (Nov 21, 2013)

dummydave said:


> thats a really nice review....even i own one...but i found its too loud even with lowest volume...so i had to purchase earphn wid volume control...
> 
> I face a problem...while changing songs sumtimes instead of changing song it up/down the volume
> 
> So was curious to know if u faced any such problem



If you mean that the volume level changes while charging. No i do not face such problem from my philips. Try going to setting sound & changing equalizer setting to balance and turning off full sound ...


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## dummydave (Nov 21, 2013)

no no..i meant while changing track it changes volumes instead of changing the song

though it occurs very rarely so jus wanted to knw...although it works fine totally


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## Knight2A4 (Nov 21, 2013)

No there are no volume hick ups while i change tracks ........



dummydave said:


> no no..i meant while changing track it changes volumes instead of changing the song
> 
> though it occurs very rarely so jus wanted to knw...although it works fine totally




No there are no volume hick ups while i change tracks ........ May you accidentally push it. the next button is near volume rocker


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## sksundram (Nov 21, 2013)

Dude! I just read half the prologue and it was an unpleasant experience coz of so many grammatical as well as punctuation mistakes. Though it's not a must but still you should take care of it to make your review a better one. (should be taken in a positive spirit)


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## Knight2A4 (Nov 21, 2013)

sksundram said:


> Dude! I just read half the prologue and it was an unpleasant experience coz of so many grammatical as well as punctuation mistakes. Though it's not a must but still you should take care of it to make your review a better one. (should be taken in a positive spirit)


 ......... I was in a hurry to complete joggling in b/w my daily work & writing I wanted to add as much as detail as i can so there may be some grammatical as well as punctuation mistakes I will try to rectify that as i get time .....

Edit:

O.k Did a little editing added Voice & F.M Recording ..... Also did rectification this should complete the review .... If any thing is left unexplained or want to know more do ask ....


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## The Incinerator (Nov 25, 2013)

Excellent review.....It was great to know about the partnering equipment's contribution too,which is paramount to the final sound. Not many do it this way.Excellent.


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## Zangetsu (Nov 25, 2013)

Hey Congrats how much?
I also bought the same for my mother


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## Knight2A4 (Nov 26, 2013)

@The Incinerator ...... Nice to know you liked my review. I tried to put as much as detail as i can.

@ Zangetsu ........... Its costed me 1538 Rs. Yes its a good gift for your loved one's .....


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## Brinda (Mar 3, 2015)

Hi , this a very good and detailed review , appreciate it very much

I had a question though

When i purchased my GoGear and tried to open it from "my computer" it connected to a philips link that did not open .... and now now without songbrid i dont know how to add songs to this mp3 ... please suggest


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