Portable music, great sound!
Written: Jul 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great sound, easy use, easy transfer from your PC
Cons: Poor earphones and case design
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| djcruella's Full Review: Rio PMP-500 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
I had been downloading MP3 files for the last couple of years to play on my home PC while I worked. It finally occurred to me that it would be great to have some of that music available when working out at the gym or rollerblading. Compounded by the fact that I was becoming increasingly frustrated by my portable tape player at the gym - (my Walkman was too heavy & bulky to clip to my workout shorts, plus the music stuttered if I ran on the treadmill) I decided to try the Diamond Rio 500. This was a pretty pricey playback device at $249, but music is very motivating to my workouts, so I thought I would give it a try.
The Rio is light and a bit smaller than a deck of cards. The size might be small but the audio is BIG! MP3's recorded at 128Kbs and above sound great on this unit! The Diamond Rio 500 comes with 64MB of internal memory to store your music with a port to add a 32MB memory card for additional music storage. While the unit claims to store up to 2 hours of digital quality music, at 128kbs I've only been able to store about 67 minutes. Lowering the sampling rate allows you to store more music on the Rio, but you lose noticeable quality in the audio.
The Diamond Rio 500 reproduces audio smoothly without disturbances by jiggling the unit because Hurray! No moving parts! So you can jog to your hearts content without disruption to the music. Although the sound from the Rio is great, you would never know it with the lousy ear bud headphones that come with the unit. In addition to their poor audio reproduction quality, they were impossible to keep in my ears if I made any movements more jarring than sitting in a chair. Purchase a headband type earphone with good bass quality to truly enjoy the Rio during physical activity. You won't be disappointed.
Also, the clip-on case that comes with the unit is poor in design. A vinyl and mesh case makes viewing the display and accessing volume and selection controls nearly impossible. Too bad a clip couldn't have been built right into the unit.
Overall, a worthwhile purchase for portable audio.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
djcruella
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Gizmo addict, disco maven and all around guy next door!
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