RioVolt...THE GOOD AND THE BAD FROM AN EXPERIENCED OWNER
Written: Apr 11 '01 (Updated Nov 18 '01)
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Pros: Feature rich, so far error free playback, upgradeable firmware.
Cons: Volume, quirky controls, carrying case sucks, ear buds, not for active lifestyles.
The Bottom Line: SONICblue really needs to improve on the 'use while walking' and volume issues. However, the RioVolt is probably the standard by which future players will try to measure up to.
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| DENGNY's Full Review: Rio Volt SP100 Personal CD Player |
As I'm sitting here writing this, my two-month old RioVolt is in shuffle mode, playing a CD that I created with exactly 190 songs on it. For four hours now, I haven't heard one song repeat...WOW!
Even with it's shortcomings, this is an excellent player and here's why...
Why a CD/MP3 player...
The strongest selling point of this player is the fact that you can store up to 999 MP3 files on one CD-R or CD-RW. The CD-R that I'm playing cost me exactly fifty-cents. When I get sick and tired of this set of songs, I'll just pop in another fifty-cent CD-R with a totally different set of music. Try doing that with a RAM based player at the same cost.
Why a RAM based player...
The first time I saw a RAM based MP3 player I thought to myself, "Why". Why spend the money for a player with limited and relatively expensive storage medium. Here's the biggest, "Why"...no vibration or movement hassles. RAM based players don't suffer from the problems of this alternative.
Appearances can be deceiving. Although RioVolt looks as though you can strap it on your person and take it for a walk, you cant. Believe me...I tried! Just the vibration and jarring of normal walking with the player in a coat pocket, sends the read mechanism into a tizzy. You'll fair better if you hold it as you go, but who wants to do that. Sorry, but if you want to hear tunes as you're hoofing it to the store on a nice fall day, you'll have to keep the jarring to a minimum. Once the player buffers enough info into memory then there's no problem, but while the player is trying to read off the disk...keep it as steady as you can.
More on the RioVolt...
Anyway, enough about that. Time to get into the player itself. On the surface, it looks almost like your standard CD player. As a matter of fact, it's exactly the same size and weight. Not at all a hassle to take on vacation. The case that comes with the player well...sucks. There's no room for extra batteries, CD's, or even the ear-buds & remote control that are supplied with the unit. There's not even a clip for your belt. The only way to fasten it to your person for portability is to remove your belt (that is if you're wearing one), and slip it through the slit in the back of the case.
Pop in a CD-R or CD-RW loaded with up to 999 MP3 or WMA files and power it up. To turn the RioVolt on you have to press the 'play' button on the front of the player. For some odd reason, it's sometimes necessary to press 'play' more than once to get the unit to power up. This is also the case for the other controls on the player. Perhaps this is a way for the player to ignore the occasional pressure that may be applied to the buttons while carrying it around. The weirdest thing about this situation is that it is only like this sometimes. Other times the player's functions work on first-press. Plus, there's no way of telling whether or not one press will do it. I just think it's an annoyance to have to sometimes press buttons more than once to get functions to work.
So what happens when you put more than 999 songs on a CD-R? I'm glad you asked. Thankfully, the RioVolt won’t burst into flames. But, the player will not recognize that any more than 999 songs exist. I realize that limitations stink, but you would be hard pressed to put more than 200 MP-3 files on one CD-R anyway. Therefore 999 should be way more than adequate.
Okay, so we're playing songs now. The first thing you'll notice is that the CD will spin for about 20 seconds and stop and the unit will continue to play. This is another nifty feature of this player...about two minutes of the MP3 or WMA file (10 or 40 seconds for regular CDs) is loaded into a memory buffer. While the RioVolt is playing from it's buffer, there's no skipping at all. This is an excellent feature for any CD player. The buffer lasts for 2 minutes before it needs to spin the CD again.
The memory buffering is how the player is capable of 10+ hours playback from two batteries. In the real world however, since songs are generally more than two minutes long the player will have to spin the CD twice or even three times for every song. So far, I’ve gotten only seven hours of continuous playback from one set of batteries. This is probably due to the fact that I'm using inexpensive rechargeable alkaline batteries. Still, this is respectable for a portable CD player. By the way, rechargeable batteries are an absolute necessity if you're not going go bankrupt and of course poison our fragile ecosystem.
The RioVolt is compatible with ID3 tags and recognizes folders. As far as ID3 tags go, any good ripping program will allow you to create and/or edit the tags that are embedded into MP3 and WMA files. This way, the player can display the information you typed in. Further, instead of dumping all the files into the 'root' of the CD, it makes much more sense to organize your files into folders. I usually do it by artist. The RioVolt has a decent system for navigating through folders to get you to the song, or songs you want to hear. The display also recognizes and displays the folder names you assign when you create the CD.
Sound quality is good but not great. The sound quality is probably as good as most portable CD players. You'll get more out of the frequency range of the player with a headset that operates within that range. To make up for the shortcomings of the supplied ear-buds, there are five preset EQ selections on the player that should take care of most applications. However, more control of individual positions via a custom setting would have been a nice addition.
Along those lines, the sound quality of the included ear buds are less than adequate...shock of shocks! They are overly trebly and underpowered in the bass department. Even a mediocre pair of headphones sounds a lot better.
The volume is from 1-20, although 20 on certain songs and in certain circumstances is not high enough. This may sometimes present a problem if you're using powered external speakers or in a noisy environment. If the output wattage of the powered external speakers is not that high, you may end up putting the volume up full blast only to be sorely disappointed. Recently, I was on an airplane using the player wishing to be able to up the volume of the ear buds a little more to drown out the surrounding noise. If you're using headphones however, you shouldn't have this problem because the headphones will mask out surrounding noise.
Preferred media for burning CD's...
So far, I've played CD, CD-R, and CD-RW in the RioVolt and have not had a problem playing any media. I've used both MP3 and WMA file formats without a hitch as well. So, in that regard I suppose it's a matter of personal preference. However, as far as media goes, I prefer CD-RW. The reason for this is simple...if there's a file or files that get corrupted during a writing session, you can easily rewrite them. Also, you can edit ID3 tags or even remove and replace songs.
Overall...
This is the first and only MP3 player that I've owned so I'm not in a position to tell you that one is better over another. However, I will tell you that other than the volume and sometimes, quirky controls I'm very pleased with this player. I have had no problems whatsoever playing any media or file formats on the RioVolt while the unit is still. Taking it with you on a walk is another story.
As far as value goes, I think that a CD/MP3 player is the best value for the money right now. You'll spend anywhere from $125-$250 for a RAM based player which only has 1/10 the storage capacity of any CD-R. It's hard for me to see the appeal of one of these devices over the RioVolt especially considering that CD-R and CD-RW media is dirt-cheap. Further, the Creative's Nomad MP3 player with it's oodles of hard disk storage space has a ridiculous $499 price...way more than I would be willing to spend.
UPDATE...
Call me lazy, but instead of rewriting this opinion, I've decided to add this little paragraph. You may have read in other reviews that the RioVolt is only capable of recognizing the first 255 files on a CD. That 255 file limit in the RioVolt player has been taken care of with a firmware update.
Which reminds me...I failed to mention that just by downloading a file and burning it onto the root of a CD-R, you can update the firmware of the RioVolt. Put the CD-R in the RioVolt and press 'play'. The RioVolt will automatically update itself. Yet, another reason to buy this player...COOL!
DENNIS
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 169.99
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Epinions.com ID:
DENGNY
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Member: Dennis G
Location: Morris County, NJ
Reviews written: 85
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