You won't regret this one.
Written: Apr 25 '01
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Pros: Sturdy design, Sounds good, LONG battery life
Cons: Poor case, ear buds, Dancing woman
The Bottom Line: The best player that is on the market now, and with the firmware upgrades that likely won't change for a long time.
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| freegoo's Full Review: Rio Volt SP100 Personal CD Player |
I've been interested in purchasing a MP3/CD Player even before I purchased my CD Burner. Unfortunately most the early models were of poor quality, lacked many features, and had an old interface which did not handle a large number of songs very well (picture pressing forward 70 songs to find a song). Good things come to those who wait. Out of the box the Rio Volt is an almost perfect experience. A mere trip to Rio's web site turns that "almost" into a mere asterisk - the Rio Volt is easily upgraded by going to Rio's web site ensuring that your purchase doesn't become obsolete in a year (when the 3rd generation players start popping up).
The Out of the Box Experience
First impressions are everything right? Well the Rio makes a good one, but we may as well get the bad out of the way. The case that comes with the Rio is hideous looking and looks to be made of real cheap imitation leather. Putting it on covers your screen and buttons making its usefulness questionable anyway. A remote is included, unfortunately it is extremely small making using it pretty awkward.
My first MP3 CD I used to test the Rio Volt had 140 songs on it spread throughout about 6 directories. The player took quite a long time to scan all the folders before it started playing (I didn't time the scan, but I would guess it took about a minute). This is one of the things that gets fixed with a patch - but more on that later. The music sounded very good despite the cheap ear buds that they include with the player. The layout of the portable is well thought out. I found it easy to operate in the dark or in my coat pocket. You can quickly find your song by using the 10+ key or the navigate button. Pressing the navigate brings up a menu letting you traverse your directories and song files. Again, using the Rio in the dark is no problem since the screen is back lit and easy to read.
The Rio sports a 15 hour battery life thanks to clever design that allows the Rio to spin the CD only when more data is needed. Another benefit is that the CD cannot be jarred when it is not spinning.
The Evolution of the Rio
Perhaps the best thing about the Rio is its expandability. If a feature isn't supported, at least it can be added in the future. Some things that were fixed and added in firmware patches available on http://www.riohome.com:
* Resume feature wasn't available when released, this was added on version 1.12
* Some people found that the Rio skipped with their MP3's. One of the fixes addressed this. (I was never able to make mine skip - even when I intentionally shook it like mad)
* scan speed can be changed now.
* beep sound can be enabled when you press buttons.
* a 2 second gap between songs was removed, (I think you can reactivate this in options)
* Scanning the CD could take a REAL long time if you had a lot of directories on your CD. This was fixed in one of their patches. The CD I had that took a minute to scan before was recognized in about five seconds after I applied the patch.
(and many more)
A future update that I am looking for adds support for playlists. Instructions for installing the patch are included on the web site, and a pretty straightforward process. This is a great feature that ensures that your MP3 player doesn't become obsolete any time soon.
In conclusion, the Rio Volt is a VERY nice player that provides more bang for the buck than any of the other players currently on the market. Expandability via firmware updates ensure that you will not outgrow the player anytime soon and more than justifies the $160 price tag on it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $160
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Epinions.com ID:
freegoo
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
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