Rating: 
Summary: I tried so hard to like the Rio 600, I really did.
Review: When I went out and bought the Rio 600, I was so happy with my purchase- I was going to listen to music everywhere, jog with it, do everything. I was even amazed that it got up to 10 hours on one AA battery. And that's how it happily went... for the first five days.On the fifth day, I accidentally left it on overnight and ran the battery down - "Oh well." I thought, and put in a new battery. But then when I turned it on, I found it worked fine, except no music came out. The display said it played but no sound at all. It fell mute. I e-mailed SONICblue (formerly Diamond) and they told me to return it to the store. I did. The next one I got lasted about 5 minutes before it broke too. Same symptoms exactly - it plays, but with no sound. I e-mailed the company again and told them I wanted a replacement from them directly. It was on back-order so I waited 2 weeks. I got my 3rd one and this time it lasted 4 days before it did the same thing. So, after 3 tries, I honestly cannot recommend the Rio unless you don't plan to move while using it. It's got serious durability issues. In short, a good idea, but poor execution.
Rating: 
Summary: A Nice Product
Review: This is a good mp3 player. One of the best that I own. With the 32 MB, I can fit about 10 songs on it. Pros: Very small and lightweight, comes with nice earplugs, good volume controll, excellent and original design Cons: Software is hard to use, and 32 MB just isn't enough these days. Overall, this is a good portable mp3 player, one of the best ones I've seen. I recommend it for anyone and everyone, Diamond puts out another great product.
Rating:
Summary: Likeable, but has its problems...
Review: I got my Rio 600 from Microsoft - I won it in a sweepstakes. At first, I really liked it. It had limited space, but since the box promised expanable "backpacks", I figured I would order one later. The USB connection is nice and speedy, uploads music to the player in a snap. The included software is, well to put it in one word, crappy. It's unstable, doesn't reconize the player at times, and is really shareware junk. I'd suggest buying MusicMatch Jukebox or using Microsoft's Windows Media Player to do your uploading. Also, like other people, I've experienced sudden "black outs" when the audio just stops and restarts on its own. SONICblue (formely S3) really needs to release a newer version of their "firmware", the software that runs the Rio. While it does most things a Mp3 player should do, it heavily lacks expansion, extra features, and good included software.
Rating: 
Summary: HOLD THAT ORDER
Review: Well I owned the Rio600 for about 3 months and the software is locked with no way to unlock it Yes even following there directions with credit card in hand. I've tried to e-mail custmor support a couple times no reply from them Its beem about a month. It does freeze up at times while playing. If the software was not locked it would be okay but for 169.99 look elsewere.
Rating:
Summary: 32 megs is too little, the software hangs Windows 2000
Review: It's a great player, light but the batteries don't last long. 32 megs of memory is not enough, I am waiting for the 300+ megs coming in january. The soft to rip the CDs is not bad, but has no shuffle for listening to music on the PC. The USB port to copy the music on the 600 works... when it does not shut down the portable altogether (happens only with Mp3!) I don't like the btn for HOLD. When I try to get on everything setup and put it on hold, I misfire and shut the player down. The shound is good except for the tremble. Temble is lousy... too bad. So I am waiting for: Update of the soft for the PC, more memory and update of the soft for the Rio to correct the tremble. After that I will be a happy customer.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Product marred by poor quality control
Review: Ok, I had some savings in my pocket and I thought "Hmmm...what should I buy?" Voila! I decided to get an MP3 player...Rio600. Let's see what problems I've encountered with this nifty device: Battery Pack: On my first night with Rio, we started having problems. I had to figure out how to remove the battery/memory pack at the back of the unit. There was this little button that you press but nothing happens. To remove the battery pack, you got to pry and clamp your nails around the edges to slide off the cover. Taking it off was difficult, putting it back was almost impossible. You have to align the connector pins between the pack and the unit and at the same time putting it at an angle so you can slide the cover back on. Too cumbersome!!! Requires getting to used to. Power Guzzler: This baby drains your batteries like hot milk. My suggestion is you buy rechargeable batteries- Alkaline Rechargeables or Nickel Metal Hydride batteries. If you dont invest on rechargeables, you'll be making frequent trips to the corner store for batteries. Now it's on, now it's off: By some weird phenomenon, my Rio600 kept shutting itself off. One minute it's playing, the next minute the system just shuts down. I reboot the unit and nothing happens. I reboot it twice, three times, and then it boots itself. Hmmmm... Off I went to the store and had it replaced with a new one. Now I got a new but the assembly was not done properly on the unit. A small opening can be seen on the sides. Somehow, somebody from Diamond Rio fell asleep while putting my unit together. Off I went again and had it replaced. Now everything's working normally. The Software, oh the humanity: DiamondRio needs to release a more stable software. It's a bit too buggy. Most of the time, the software can't detect your USB connection to the unit. THe workaround is to go to the Options screen manually select the device connected to the USB. Also, there's a bug whereby if you delete some songs in your database, it still leaves the files in your hard drive. Weird really... Now the good points: WMA Files: It takes WMA files. Since it's only 32 mb, WMA can squeeze in more music into your player than mp3 at the expense of sound quality. WMA is Windows's answer to MP3. WMA usues 64kb as opposed to MP3's 128 kb. Sound Quality: Sound is pretty decent when you listen to WMA or MP3. However, with the WMA, the cymbals and high hats sound a bit wavy rather than a consistent hissing sound of a cymbal. Volume: This player packs a LOUD PUNCH. This is really loud. I'm using a Sony WEAR headphones and RIO600 just knocks your ear drums off. Not advisable to listen to full volume on extended periods. Too risky. Overall, the device is good except for a few quality control issues. It's a shame because on the memory pack, there's a label that says ASSEMBLED IN THE USA. If you're planning to get this unit, be prepared for some surprises like returning it and getting a new one. People have already complained about the poor quality control on this device. But that doesnt mean all the units are duds. Who knows, you might be lucky enough to pick a solid one. ANyways, the device is worth the money. It's light, it's cheap, it's a got a solid sound quality.
Rating:
Summary: very good mp3 player
Review: This is an excellent Mp3 player. Especially for its price, its better then the other ones, I could care less about the "radio" or the "voice recorder" on the creative labs model, I want portable music, not a whole kitchen worth of appliances. If you buy this, I strongly urge you to use the much smaller but equivalent sounding WMA files instead of Mp3s, and you will be able to fit approximately 67 minutes of music on this player. It also has excellent battery life. (make sure to keep the backlight feature off and you will get more battery life). The buttons are pretty easy to use, and the screen is easy to read. One thing I didn't like is that somehow a tiny piece of dirt got inside the plastic screen thingy. Other then that, its a very solid player, that hardly weighs a thing and fits easily into a pocket.
Rating: 
Summary: Inginuity pays off
Review: I don't own one but by the time you read this i will. the problems i seen in this product are ethier a faulty one that got out or a complaint of the 23mb memory. my story is that i had a rio 300 32mb device well i must say it was good while it lasted (i won't go into details) but the problems i have read about the 32mb memory i can solve. 1. this is a portable device quality to me means that i can hear it well and not the breathtaking concert hall sound wile walking on main st. after saying that the other info will make you capable of holding 16-22 songs on the mear 32mb 2. get winamp it features a wma writer(a 3.5 min. song sounding good will be about 400kb0 3. if you don't want wma then a mp3 output plugin is available with instructions on the websight These are some tips i used for my 300 any other problems you have i wold say take it back. mp3 is relitivey new im getting one because i know this and i don't like lugging cds with me, or shoveling 0ver $200 For a bigger memory or a MD Hope this helped you.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed Design - Beware!
Review: I've been through three of these little suckers in six weeks! All broke in exactly the same way: the on/off switch drops out, and eventually the unit won't power up. Despite the fact that Amazon and Rio have been great about shipping replacements, this is an essentially flawed product (as corroborated by Rio's customer support - who today offered to ship me unit #4). Look elsewhere!
Rating:
Summary: awesome!
Review: You would think that being a full blown technophile would cause me to grab the latest gadgets, but I am actually more skeptical of newer technology than most. None-the-less I eventually succumbed to my urges and bought a Rio 600, somewhat prepared to be disappointed. First, I was very surprised by its size, smaller than a cell phone. The first thing I did when I unpacked it was put the headphones on, press play and shake the hell out of it. Absolutely skip proof! The software is easy to install and use, and in no time I had downloaded songs both from CDs and from the Internet. The 32MB standard memory pack easily holds over 1/2 an hour of music in WMA format (half the size of MP3s). It's compact size, skip proof technology make it an ideal replacement for bulky Walkmans. Perfect for music aficionado on the go.
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