A tough unit with great sound; gym-ready!
Written: Dec 16 '02 (Updated Apr 09 '03)
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Pros: Nice lcd, FM radio & stopwatch, sturdy, great sound, intuitive menu.
Cons: FM reception, headphones.
The Bottom Line: I'd confidently recommend the S35S to anyone looking for a sport-friendly MP3 unit; you won't find better for the price.
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| funkbuddy's Full Review: Sonic Blue Rio S35 128MB MP3 Player |
I traded in my Creative Nomad MuVo for the Rio S35S, with no regrets - and I'm one tough customer to please. Sonicblue may have had trouble with a few players in the past but this doesn't make all their products bad.
THE GOOD: Full-featured backlit lcd display (you can turn the backlight off as well as adjust many other options in an intuitive menu system); the lcd shows ID3 tag information for artist name, track name (which automatically scrolls left), and album name, as well as track number, and elapsed track time or remaining track time. There is a built in FM tuner & stopwatch (great for running/laps), a beltclip and stretchy, adjustable armband are included. Construction is very sturdy, with well-placed controls on a rubbery exterior (for moisture protection and no fear of scratches!). There is an equalizer (bass and treble) with either 5 presets or custom levels. The design is stylish, small & light, and the sound quality is great - and I'm fussy!
THE BAD: The FM tuner doesn't have the greatest reception, but who is buying this unit for the radio anyway? WMA files couldn't be scanned through either forward or backward UNTIL I installed the lastest firmware patch from Sonicblue - available on their website for free. This is an important fix for the unit because WMAs sound just as good as MP3s AND are only 1/3 the size, effectively tripling the amount of music the player can hold. The included headphones look good but sound crappy (as are most packaged headphones) so prepare to buy a better set to really appreciate your new toy. For some inexplicable reason, the Rio Music Manager software (required to transfer music to the unit) at first slowedmy XP system down to a crawl; after uninstalling, restarting and reinstalling it, everything worked fine, with no problems to report even months later.
SUMMARY: My partner also takes his Rio S35S to the gym and swears by it's durability and sound quality. Readily available at BestBuy.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150.00
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Epinions.com ID:
funkbuddy
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
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