Rating: 
Summary: MP3 player not reliable
Review: I had this unit for a month. This CD player does not seem compatible with multisession CDs containing MP3s. I had less problems with single session, closed CDs. However, I have some particular CDs where the player would start playing well the MP3 songs, and then would stop at a particular time, and would do the same thing for each and every one of the MP3 files in the CD (all of them would stop at more or less the same time). I could never figure out what was the problem.All my CDs were recorded as single-session and closed, all of the MP3s were recorded at a constant bit rate of 128 kbps. Some CDs would play just fine, and some others would have that annoying problem of all of the songs stopping at a particular time. My guess is that the problem is in the anti-skip mechanism. I am puzzled however that the problem was presented only on particular CDs.
It was much of a burden for me to figure out what is wrong, so I took the unit back to [retail store]. I can accept that sometimes MP3 files do not show up well because of the recording, but not all of them. Anyway, I just got a Memorex MP3 player (MPD8610) for less money, with more sophisticated controls. I tried the problematic CDs in the new Memorex, and bingo! they play just fine. The problem was in the RioVolt, not in the CDs. By the way, my new Memorex is compatible with multiple session CDs. I do not have to close the CDs, which means that I can add more songs at a later time if I want. The battery consumption is as efficient as of the RioVolt. The Memorex MPD8610 can read multiple subdirectory structure, which is quite impressive. It is not as elegant looking as the RioVolt, but who cares. With the Memorex I spend more time listening to the music than worrying about how the CD was recorded. In summary, I do not recommend buying the RioVolt SP50. Check on the other smaller brand names instead, such as Memorex. You will be surprised of what they offer. The SonicBlue fellows should definitely improve this RioVolt product, pack it with better headphones (the included ones are so [less costly] and poorly sounding, that you must upgrade immediately if you insist in keeping this product), if they plan on keeping costumers.
Rating:
Summary: I took it back.....
Review: The most striking thing about this MP3 player is the cheap construction. The top and bottom of the case didn't line up as well as they should have. In the few days I had it I discovered that it wouldn't play all of my normal CD's, or would not be able to find tracks on them. I returned it to the store.....
Rating: 
Summary: Good Value for the Price
Review: When I first bought this player, I though for certain
I was going to return it. Whenever the shock protection
was turned on, CDs would have blips in them; the buttons
were totally confusing and oriented in such a way that
whenever you put the player in a backpack or carrying case,
they would get pushed and the player would turn off or switch tracks. Well, the blipping noise went away after a few hours of
play (even with the exact same CDs and batteries!) and
I found a "lock" switch to disable the buttons so I can
throw it in my backpack while it is playing. It still doesn't play scratched disks very well, and it
eats batteries, but everything else is fine considering
the price--around $[money]. Plan to read the instruction
manual at least three times if you want to play MP3
disks. The text screen is very cool, but the buttons
are still pretty arcane.
Rating:
Summary: Poor performance on MP3s, and also not as advertised
Review: I was very disapppointed in the RioVolt SP50. It simply does not work correctly (at least the unit I got) with MP3 CDs. It puts extraneous thumps and other noises on top of the music. A different reviewer said that this didn't happen with bitrates of 160 kpbs or lower, but it happened frequently for me at 160 kpbs. Also, it has trouble with long tracks; it mysteriously stopped, and would not restart, at about 57 minutes into a 5 hour track. (The same CD plays fine on another brand player and on my computer, to answer the question you might be about to ask.) So it's going back. Also, the web site claims that "you'll find an AC/DC adapter in the box", and that the unit includes a remote and is "bundled with RealNetworks music management software and Adaptec CD-burning software". Surprisingly, mine was shipped with none of these items. I would not have purchased it had I known that.
Rating:
Summary: It does support VBR!
Review: This is an ammendment to my earlier review. I found out that the SP50 does support variable bitrate MP3 files. I don't know what I did wrong the first time, but I ripped a few CDs using LAME's 192 kbps VBR setting (which uses bitrates from 192 to 320 kbps as necessary) and this time the SP50 recognized the files and played them. Unfortunately, I still heard the same "blips" that I mentioned in my earlier review. Not all songs had the problem, but when it did happen it was bad enough to annoy me. I ended up returning the unit and getting the SP90 instead. So far, the SP90 has had no trouble with any files I've thrown at it - VBR, 256 kbps constant rate, etc. Navigating the files is better than the SP50 (the joypad is much better than the SP50's buttons), but I liked the SP50's display better. The SP50 would tell you the bitrate, but the SP90 doesn't seem to do that. So, I'm going to up my rating to 3.5/5. My last review gave it 3/5, so I'll rate it 4/5 to average it at 3.5.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I'd hoped
Review: I've been looking for an MP3-CD player for a while now, and I finally decided to try out the Rio SP50 since it was pretty cheap. I had a bunch of MP3 files at 256 kbps that I'd ripped from my CD collection, so I burned them on to a CD-RW to see how the SP50 would do with them. It played them, but it had problems - there were strange "blips" in the sound every once in a while. The same file from the same CD-RW when played on my PC. I tried 192 kbps, 160 kbps and 128 kbps. The lower the bitrate, the less often the "blips" would occur. I settled on 160 kbps since that seemed to be the highest blip-free bitrate. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to re-rip all of my CDs. The user interface is OK. There's only a two line display and a limited number of buttons. It's not easy to find the one song you want on a CD with dozens of songs, but at least you can sort them into directories and browse through them, even if it is kind of difficult. I still haven't decided if I'm going to keep it or return it. The sound quality is OK - not the best I've heard, but acceptable for a portable. If it could handle variable bit rate MP3 files or play 256 kbps MP3 files without artifacts, I'd definitely keep it, but I may exchange it for a more expensive unit - maybe one that has upgradeable firmware.
Rating: 
Summary: Ok but you have to work with it
Review: Ok but one you work with it for some time its awsome!
Rating:
Summary: The cheapest mp3/cd player with great functions
Review: With the new riovolt sp50 you get the same functions as the sp90 and sp100, but cheaper, you get the lcd for displaying song titles, 120 seconds anti-shock, and only at 69.99 what else can you ask for such a great price, there are other mp3/cd players that aren't as good as this and cost even more. this is great for trips and for school.
Rating:
Summary: Reliable basic player
Review: I have used this player for more than a year. The only thing that has broken is the little window showing the disk turning. This can be pushed in relatively easily, so I had to super glue it in. Other than that, everything still works properly.
I only play Mp3 CDs on this. Sound is good. I got a car kit to play in cassette players and in the car. The bass boost needs to be turned off to do this or it will distort. No equalizer, but my experiences with other players are that the preset equalizers are pretty much useless- they only degrade the sound in slightly different ways. The bass boost really makes a difference.
I almost always use the random play mode only, which works well (a truly random mix that doesn't repeat the same songs). Otherwise, navigation is confusing- I can never remember what sequence to punch the buttons, which aren't labeled very well for this. I just memorized the sequence for random play. The ID3 tag information scrolls as the song plays.
It will sometimes skip when bumped hard, but does not skip when just sitting still, which I've found some other players do. That's a plus for this player.
It has a hold switch (called Lock), no resume feature. No backlight, which is a drawback if you listen in the dark and punch in songs a lot. It has no belt clip- why don't they put removable belt clips on any of these things? They're supposed to be "portable," right?
All in all, a good player but a bit difficult to navigate.
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