Rio Volt SP100 Personal CD Player

Pros: Reasonable price, Firmware updated frequently
Cons: Cheap feeling, slow to start-up

The Rio Volt is a reasonably priced MP3/CD player with a good deal of features. The ability to play MP3’s and the 650 MB capacity of CD-R’s and CD-RW’s make it seem like an attractive alternative to a flash memory based player. But these benefits do...

Pros: works in the cold, reads all types of discs, ID3 display, seek, hold, resume, WMAs
Cons: firmware, construction, power plug, boot time, physical antiskip, display, documentation, battery door, earbuds

what it is
This is a low cost MP3 CD player (around $100 USD), $100 CDN cheaper than the SP100. I could justify the price of this, but not the SP100. I didn't want to spend more than $200 CDN limit.

Being a CD/MP3 player it...

Pros: Configurable, upgradeable, GREAT REMOTE, durable
Cons: Look to SP250 for FM tuner, 8 minute buffering of music

I've had this product since November 2001 and couldn't be happier with it. Some people may downgrade the rating because the RioVolt SP250 is out with a better feature set. If that model had been available when I bought mine that would have been my ...

Pros: Sturdy design, Sounds good, LONG battery life
Cons: Poor case, ear buds, Dancing woman

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...

Pros: infinite storage, decent sound quality, good remote.
Cons: Bulky, feels cheap, tiny LCD, confusing controls, bad earbuds, dancing man.

I once purchased a CD MP3 player. I can honestly say that it was the biggest piece of junk that ever came out of an assembly plant. So when I gave up on getting your normal mp3 player (can't get the Intel Pocket Concert where I live, and the rest suck...

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

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...

Pros: Supports mp3/wma on cd-r and cd-rw media, supports folders and ID3 tags, great anti-shock protection
Cons: Limited ID3 support, no built-in battery charger, included case/earbuds are somewhat worthless

The technology behind portable mp3 cd players is fairly new, the SONICBlue RioVolt being second or third generation in this line of techno-toys. While earlier players were plagued by problems ranging from poor construction to lacking features, the...

Pros: Cheap media for lots of music, upgradable firmware
Cons: Not enough space for enough music, not enough bass, stupid dancing persons

I love MP3s, but I don't like the high cost of storage on solid state MP3 players. Since I never take my MP3 player jogging, only on trips, I had two choices: MP3CD player or Harddrive-based MP3 player.

After much research, I found that the...

Pros: Good concept, fairly inexpensive.
Cons: Cheap support and average quality parts.

I just received my unit yesterday. Shipping was prompt and satisfactory. I am quite pleased with the player. The sound quality is fine for me but I am not a HI-FI enthusiast. Up till now I have either listened to AM radio or MP3 music generated by my...

Pros: Upgradeable firmware, price, use of CDs for file storage
Cons: Maybe a little sluggish but the upgradeability can remedy that

The prices of current model MP3 players have always scared me off. While their size and lack of moving parts are appealing I never felt I was getting a good deal for the amount of music I could store on them. The price of the removable media was an even...

Pros: Affordable, Flashable ROM, Inline remote, Battery life, Quick song load time.
Cons: Anti-shock could be better, No support for Winamp Playlists. Some wasted LCD space.

Let me first say that I love my Rio Volt. I consider it to be the best purchase of the year for me. Let me also say that I also used the TDK Mojo. I'll probably review it as well. My first reaction to the player was: It's really cool! Simply because a...

Pros: Plays MP3, WMA, and WAV (regular CD's), lightweight, comes with everything, low price
Cons: Poor manufacturing, cheap case, less than helpful display, silly digital dancer

*UPDATE* It's been about 6 months since I got the Rio Volt and wrote the review below. It is now malfunctioning and basically unable to play MP3 or WMA files. I've tried all the basics (different CDRs, different burns, etc.) but it doesn't work....

Pros: Good sound quality, does not skip a lot
Cons: I haven't found any yet

This past Friday I went on a weekend trip to another state. On Thursday I decided I wanted a portable MP3 player to take along. After consulting Epinions.com to find out about some of the models out there, I went to my local Best Buy to see what they...

Pros: good battery life, light weight, nice display
Cons: tech support, customer service, sonicblue in general is non-communicative.

In light of all the other reviews, precious little needs to be added with respect to opinions about the sp90 / 100.

they're both about the same, except for case materials and feature set. I'll just refer to them both as "the player" from this...

Pros: Good Price/performance matrix, decent folder navigation, good sound quality.
Cons: Poor quality control/multiple failures, cheap 'feeling' construction, lackluster email support.

I bought the Rio Volt from Amazon.com, and the purchase went well. Actually, I ended up ordering an extra unit via my own error, which was a good thing as my first Rio Volt was defective- It would boot up, but never spin up the CD. The second unit came...