My first MP3 player, and I'm not disappointed.
Written: Oct 22 '01
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Pros: Nice sound, doubles as a portable Clik drive, upgradeable firmware.
Cons: Bigger and heavier than most MP3 players, the disk whirr is kind of annoying.
The Bottom Line: It's a good player, doesn't cost a lot, and has very few annoyances. Clik isn't perfect, but for the price range, it's a good buy.
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| therevolution's Full Review: Rio Rave MP2300 (40 MB) MP3 Player |
This player has much better sound than I expected. It has surprisingly good bass. I don't notice any background hissing, which is very nice.
The Clik drive is definitely a cool way to handle memory, since it's cheaper (though not by much anymore...) than smartmedia cards per megabyte. The player essentially doubles as a USB Clik drive for your computer, so you can store any type of computer file onto the 40MB disks, not just mp3s. I doubt this will really benefit most people though. I personally don't know anyone who uses Cliks, and if it's archiving you want to do, just get a CD-R/RW. You'll save yourself a bundle. But hey, if you do use Clik disks, this is definitely a bonus.
The voice recorder feature is also nice. I'm secretary for a club at school, and I plan on using this to help me take minutes at the meetings. Voice playback quality is good. However, when the player writes to the disk during recording, as it must do every so often, you hear it in the playback. It only lasts a second or two, and it's not that loud, but it's there.
While not huge, it's a bit bigger than most mp3 players; it is comparable in size to a typical PDA. But that doesn't really bother me. You can't edit playlists, but that doesn't bother me either (you can set it to play songs in random order, which is better than a playlist anyway, I think).
The only fingernail on the chalkboard for me is the sound the player makes when reading or writing to the disk. It's not loud, but it's audible. It reads from the disk fairly often, about once a minute when listening to mp3s. I would be in LOVE with this player if it didn't do that. The Clik drive brings some advantages, but this is the price you pay for them. If you want your player to be perfectly silent, don't get this one.
If I had paid the list price of $300 for this player, I probably would say it's not worth it - players that hold several GB (1 GB = 1,024 MB, mind you) are in the same price range. But I got it for just $99 ($129-$30 mail-in rebate) at Best Buy. That's $100 for an 80MB player right off that bat with modestly priced media and upgradeable firmware, meaning it will support future audio standards. That's a pretty good deal, I think. If an occasional disk whirr doesn't bother you, and you find a good price, get it! I'm happy with mine so far. If anything goes wrong, I'll be back.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 129
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Epinions.com ID:
therevolution
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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