theirishfox24's Full Review: Rio Cali Sport (128 MB) MP3 Player
I received the Rio Cali 128MB Digital Audio player for Christmas, and it seemed to work fine the first day. I simply connected the Rio to my laptop via the provided USB cable, and dropped and dragged the songs I wanted. All of this was pretty straight forward and easy, including figuring out the buttons on the player. I didn’t even need to consult the manual.
However, after sitting down to listen to some tunes, I started noticing audio problems. When listening to my music (which came from a CD at 192KBPS, and not off the Internet), I heard “audio glitches” (as described by the Rio support), which basically were little blips, cracks, scratches, whatever you want to call it. Bottom line was that I was hearing things on the player that I wasn’t hearing from my CD or my laptop, and these weren’t good things either.
Figuring it was a poor file transfer, I formatted the player and tried again, to no avail. That’s when I started consulting Rio’s support online. While nicely arranged, nothing on their site fixed my problem. Thinking that I had bugged system, I exchanged it for another, because I really liked the sporty design which is great for running. My second Rio did the exact same thing, and actually went a step further; freezing at one point during a file transfer. Thinking that maybe it was my computer and not two Rios, I decided to call their support. But after having to wait 20 minutes on the phone, I hung up and went back to Circuit City to exchange the Rio for a different MP3 player (to be named/reviewed later:))
To be fair, the Rio Cali 128 had many of features I liked. The design was nice and light, making it great to strap on my arm and run (armband included). The included earphones were nice fitting and comfortable. The display on the Rio was clear and was contrast adjustable. Menus were easy to navigate. Buttons were accessible, and files transferred easily.
Nevertheless, all the above pros didn’t amount to a hill of beans since the music being played sounded terrible. And the fact that two players did the same thing made me think that I had been very unlucky, my laptop didn’t like MP3 players, or that Rio makes junk. Needless to say, the new MP3 I have is working fine, which makes me believe that my laptop didn’t like Rio, or Rio didn’t like me.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 120 Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
128 MB of memory for over 2 hours of MP3 or 4 hours of WMA music Secure Digital card/MMC expansion slot provides up to 512 MB of additional memory 5-b...More at Amazon Marketplace
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