Costco sells this unit and it's a solid buy!!!
Written: May 09 '04 (Updated Jul 30 '04)
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Pros: Relatively inexpensive quality sound for those fitness types! Ease of use! Costco sells it!
Cons: No auto off feature, case could be easier to use
The Bottom Line: As mentioned above I think I got a good product at a good price. Easy to use and sounds good, durable enough for workouts and running!
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| oman9's Full Review: Sonic Blue Rio S35 128MB MP3 Player |
I was looking for something to use at the gym and ended up with this player. If you are looking for something you may drop, bang around or just go working out/running with, you should probably stick with a flash memory player (no moving parts) vs. a higher storage capacity player with a disk drive/buffer type unit.
The higher storage units with a separate disk drive (built inside of course, just means the unit has to read from a separate storage unit and then read into a memory buffer) are enticing because the prices don't seem that far outside of these flash memory units. The problem is that they are more sensitive to skipping and are also not as durable as these flash players.
I buy a fair amount of product at Costco, especially if I can get electronics I'm looking for there because no retailer stands behind their products better than Costco. I figured this would come in particularly handy because I've read a fair amount about these MP3 players and how fickle they can be.
I bought my Rio S35S at Costco about a month ago. I paid $89 for the unit and decided to buy 256MB of additional memory with an SM card also sold at Costco for $65. The S35S has 128MB of memory so I raised the total available to 384MB and that seems plenty enough. Depending on the bit rate your MP3 songs are recorded at, you can hold a fair amount of music. Much of what I have is ripped from my CDs at 320 bits but I also have some purchased music at 160. I have almost 60 songs I can hold on my player and transferring music is as simple as drag and drop. I didn't use the software included since I use Music Match Jukebox and the Rio player is compatible with that software.
Here is an update based on a question I received...
This player plays MP3 and WMA files. It was important to me that the downloaded music I purchased not be proprietary to a single player. I tested a few sites including Real (which has very good sound quality from the downloaded music at 320 bits) and Music Match. Music purchased from Real is in a proprietary format such that Windows Media Player couldn't play the song. Music purchased from Music Match, although not 320 bits, was playable on the Windows Media Player. The benefit of the lesser bit rate is that more music will fit on your MP3 player (lesser file sizes) and I don't find much in the sacrificing of listening quality on my Rio S35S between 320 and 160 bits/second. That lack of "control" by Music Match leaned me that way and that's the system I use. There are many cool features to Music Match although that would be a different review. Some people have had problems with using Music Match including disabling CD burner drives when they had other previously existing CD burning software resident on their computers so do your homework before using. As always, Epinions is a good place to start doing that.
Also, this MP3 player does have a stop watch with lap timers (can keep track of multiple laps, i.e. Lap 1, Lap 2, Lap 3, simultaneously). That's a nice feature provided you can place your player where you can see it as you complete a lap.
I've brought it to the gym several times and my wife has also used it a few times. She was unsure exactly what an MP3 player even was but now thinks it's a really cool gadget! At the gym I have dropped it a few times, no problem. One time the date/time reset to factory settings, all I did was fix it and it was fine again. No music skipping as anticipated, sound quality of the music is good.
The unit is extremely lightweight but is durable as noted above. I'm amazed at how much technology can fit into such a small, lightweight package! Barely notice it's there while banging on the weights at the gym. I keep it clipped (except for the few drops!) on the side of my shorts.
I think the supplied ear buds are actually quite good. They are a soft foam that tuck around your ears and will not fall off while running, etc. Sound quality with them is more than acceptable therefore I do not plan on upgrading. I have read in a number of places that upgrading the earphones will enhance sound quality for the discerning stereophiles. Like I said, the supplied ear buds are comfortable and produce a quality sound. In fact when you put them in your ears, the rest of the world seems to disappear some. You should probably be careful if you are running around town since a fair amount of ambient noise is eliminated. That's another sign these earbuds are pretty decent quality!
The menu is simple to use and navigate and there is a button lock function to prevent accidental hits on the buttons on the outside of the unit. I have not needed to use this function since I'm not accidentally hitting buttons (lucky for now I guess) but it's good to know it's there as I've read about a lot of people wishing their players had that function. In fact I read about one person with this unit complaining about hitting buttons...obvious he/she was unaware of this function.
The FM tuner is OK. I live in a tough reception area and I am able to get about 6 stations. I haven't used the tuner function enough to give it a fair test/review at this time. I didn't buy the player for the FM tuner anyway but it's nice to know it seems to function reasonably well in limited testing around my home. With 60 songs on the player I'm not wanting for music.
UPDATE ON TUNER....I would not buy this MP3 player because of the tuner. Not real good around town, probably more of a "hope it works for some" feature and gravy if it does work. I don't use it at all for the tuner...this is July 30, 2004 and I continue to be real happy with this product!!!
This player comes with a plastic case which acts sort of like a hand holding it. The back of the case has a clip you can attach to your shorts/belt, etc. It also has an armband which I haven't used. The case is pretty good, only complaints are it is hard to get the player out once you put it in and the buttons don't always exactly line up with the holes. You have to play around with it a little bit to get it to line up well. You also have to pull one part of the case out where the ear bud jack goes into the player. It's not a big deal, just some minor nuisances in my book.
Battery life is reasonably good. I get to use the player several times and the battery held up well. I had to replace it today because I left the player on. Although the device has a "power saver" feature, the battery will eventually drain dead if you leave it on. I wish Rio would have built in an "auto off" feature. The player takes one AAA battery and based on my use the reported 15 hours of play time seems accurate.
The bottom line is that with all the research I did, talking with friends, reading different tech and retail sites, etc. I'm glad I purchased the S35S and would do so again. Bonus for me is that Costco had it and I can feel confident if anything goes wrong in the next few months I have them to back me up.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 89
Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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Epinions.com ID:
oman9
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 2 members
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