I love my MP3!
Written: Apr 27 '01
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Pros: I'll never have to listen to annoying DJ's or radio commercials again!
Cons: LCD screen should show more text, and it should include car kit
The Bottom Line: The RIO Volt allows YOU to be the DJ and permits many hours of uninterrupted listening pleasure at a reasonable, if not cheap, price. What more could you ask for?
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| radway's Full Review: Rio Volt SP100 Personal CD Player |
While there are a few minor changes I would like, I love my new Rio Volt CD/MP3 player.
It holds up to 256 MP3's on a single CD-R or CD-RW, which is enough music to keep you going for up to 10 hours. I use mine on long airplane trips, in the car and at the beach. I'll never have to listen to annoying DJs or commercials on the radio again. And best of all, I get to pick the music I like to listen to. I've made up one CD with my "all time favorites" and others with just rock, folk, classical, showtunes, comedy etc. Since I usually only take 3-4 songs off of a typical CD, I can really fit a lot onto a single CD-R.
A side benefit is that since the CD-Rs were all made from my own (i.e. legal) CD's, I don't have to worry about a few CD's being stolen because I could recreate them in a few minutes. The package also includes software for both PCs and Macs that allows you to rip music from CDs into MP3 format and put it on CD-Rs or CD-RWs.
The Rio Volt allows you to organize the songs into directories (although each directory you create reduces the number of songs you can put on a CD by 1), and it allows you to play a song, a directory, or the entire CD, either in order or via a random shuffle (either of the whole CD or just the one directory). Some of the other products on the market only allow a random shuffle of each directory. This is better because you can choose to play your music either by directory (usually albums or artists) or totally randomly.
Also, unlike some other products on the market, the Rio Volt can read and display ID-3 tags (if they have been recorded with the music on the MP3 CD). This means you can see the full name of the song and the artist, and not some absurd 8 character or 32 character abbreviation of it that some machines use (ever try to find a specific song on a CD with 200+ songs when all you can see is the first eight letters of the songs' names?). The one drawback is that the LCD screen is too small and thus you can't see very many characters of the ID3 tag at once, they scroll across the screen until they have all been displayed.
Like most such machines, when you put a CD with MP3's into the Rio Volt, it takes 15 to 20 seconds to warm up and start playing the first song, but after that subsequent songs are loaded pretty fast. Because the machine "reads ahead" you get great anti-skip protection. Mine has never skipped. Sound quality is just fine.
The machine comes with a cute little wired remote (which the headphones plug into) that allows you to adjust most of the features of the machine (volume, the equalizer, and what song is playing. You can also use the machine without the remote, but it is handy if you are moving. The soft case has a hole that allows you to plug the remote in and use the machine while the case is on.
The machine runs on only 2 AA batteries, and I've been getting a fair amount of play out of it because when you are using a CD with MP-3's the machine only spins when it needs to download the next song into memory. Thus you get longer play with an MP-3 CD than with a conventional audio CD. I do wish there was a separate "on/off" switch on the machine. It is supposed to turn itself off after a certain period of non-use, but if you are not careful you can accidentally set it to running and run out the batteries.
While the machine includes an AC adapter, it does not include a 12-volt to 4.5 volt adapter for car use, or one of those cassette type adapters that allows you to plug it into a car radio that has a cassette deck. I went out and paid $29 for a Sony car kit that had both the 12 volt to 4.5 volt adapter and the cassette type adapter to plug it into my car radio/cassette deck. Word to the wise, while the cassette type adapter worked flawlessly, the 12 volt to 4.5 volt power adapter has a plug that doesn't fit into my Rio Volt, so Rio may have used a non-standard plug and you may have to buy their proprietary plug.
My only other gripes are that the soft case is a little tight and doesn't have room in it to store either the earphones or the remote control. Oh yes, and the earphones are not very good bud earphones. You'll want to replace them immediately.
Finally, on the plus side, there is a separate output socket for "line out" (to an amp or a car stereo), and the machine is very light and compact.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 169
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Epinions.com ID:
radway
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Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 1 member
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