Rating: 
Summary: Lots of great features, what about audio quality?
Review: I purchased the SONICblue Rio 800 64 meg due to having their first MP3 portable, the PMP 300. The PMP 300 had it's problems
and customer support needed to take a class or two. The Audio quality was unquestionable. 96kbps..pretty good. 128kbps was CD
quality for the most part. Now...we have the 800. It's forte' is
feature based, not function. There are readouts for everything,a
nice belt clip and many internal sub-sub menus. Yes there are
problems with the initialization and battery charge. It is worth it because it's an internal re-chargeable. There are pre-set EQ curves that are fine. Buy some good phones with a mini plug. Spend (some money) on some decent Sony Walkman phones (not blasters)you will thank yourself. Bottom line: I am a musician/producer, and my ears work pretty well. What gets ripped and encoded plays back
slightly different. I replaced the unit for another reason and the sound is still noticably different. I strongly suggest you try listening to material you are familiar with before you buy this. I can live with it,and the features almost make it worthwhile. If you are an audio purist you will notice this problem that I believe is a phase-relationship problem. That is the best way to describe the audio, slightly out of phase-thin.
Other than that, Rio (sonic blue) seems to have gotten every thing right except a few bugs and the SONIC problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Work well when it's "working"
Review: I owned two of these units. The first one I got had battery problems and even after callibrating it a couple of times the things would play 2 or 3 songs and then die. Back to the store where I exchanged it for another.The next unit's battery worked but had the common discharge problem if its not used in a week. The volume control on the unit was a little finiky. If you didn't press on the control in the right place the sound just didn't change up or down. In general I wonder about the quality control Rio has because from reading othe sites and reviews they seem to have issues. I wrote them about getting the replacement charger, submitted my info and support never got back to me and never replaced the charger. So much for good support. Pros
-All my MP3s splayed perfectly on the unit.
-Random and Repeat worked fine.
-The weight and size was also acceptable.
-Comes with a belt clip Cons
-Throw out the headphones, absolutely useless and they hurt the head. -Software that came with it sucked. Windows media player worked OK but had the occasional crash where the media player would not longer recognize the unit.
-Overall poor quality.
-Crappy support. I gave the unit 2 starts out of 5 because over the two years I had it working I was sorta happy with it. Then recently this unit just stopped working. It's the battery the playback was messed up and all you could here was sound in MONO or something. So that's it for Rio. I can't recommend you get one. I'm moving to a mini-disc player and recommend you do the same.
Rating: 
Summary: Worked great for 2 months
Review: The Rio was easy to load and easy to use. After 2 months the fast forward button no longer worked which severly limited the ease of use. During the third month the play button stopped working turning it to garbage. I have not been able to find a number to talk to a company representative about my problem but have been able to email the company but still have a light weight, stylish and useless Rio.
Rating: 
Summary: awkward at first, but....
Review: I decided to get the Rio 800, because I was tired of my walkman and changing the batteries and tapes. At first I had no clue as to how to download the music and transfer it onto the player. I couldn't copy the tracks from the CD's onto my player. But with practice, I got it right. This thing is really cool. There are some downfalls; even though I keep charging it daily, the battery was full, but by the end of the day, there was 4 hours left. Another downfall is that certain headphones aren't compatible with the player, like Sony's headphones. And the customer service is poor. I called a couple of times, and they were not helpful at all. All and all, I love my MP3 player, and now I don't have to worry about extra batteries or changing tapes, etc., because I know what songs I want on the player, and I can change my playlists. And one more thing, it comes with a case for people like me who constantly drop things.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic sound and great performance.
Review: It was between the Nomad II MG, the Nike PSA 120 or souped up PSA60, and the Rio 800. I chose the Rio for the quality, the hipness, and the one time fee of having plenty of memory and a rechargeable battery. The downside is the price seems steep for a high end Walkman, and the additional unique memory packs make me feel like a sucker - until the price comes down. The battery charges very quickly and all the features work very well. The bass is strong and the sounds are crisp, especially with the best made MP3s off Napster. And the prices for used Rios on Ebay make me handle the longer term prospects of getting an upgrade. Please note that Intel has a 128mb player coming out soon for 299. It seems like it has everything, but it doesn't look nearly as cool as the Rio 800. The headphones say "Intel" largely on the sides. And I like a little more rebellion and to be cooler when I listen to music. The Rio 800 software has some bugs that make organizing MP3s a minor hassle. However, the USB transfer is fast. I do know that the software that Creative issues for the Nomad is far better. And if you want the Rio for jogging, buying a Nike PSA 60, with an additional 64mb of memory(making it 96MBs), and getting a rechargeable battery and charger will lead you to an equal price to a Rio 800. It is just not as simple as the Rio 800. For the newcomers like myself to MP3 players, I am very pleased with the Rio 800. It is a solid product that I know will have continual value for working out, jogging, and be a great companion for your music needs on the go.
Rating:
Summary: Watch out, nomad 2!
Review: Wow! That was all I could say when I first heard about the rio 800! It had all the features of the nomad 2 except for the fm radio feature, which wasn't such a big thing anyway. This has plenty of features. However, I only gave it 4 stars because it wasn't as great as I expected. Yes, it does have a recharger. On a 2.5 hour charge, it can last 11 hours without another recharge. I haven't confirmed this yet, but it sounds pretty decent. One warning about the rechargable battery - the first time charge program needs to be better implemented. It says "It will recharge for x more minutes." It starts at 300. But the first time I tried it, it stopped around 190 and said it was done. Then the battery ran out after 30 minutes. So I tried again. This time it was successful, except after about 150 it stopped displaying how much was left. It said "It will recharge for more minutes." Not too helpful. Well, enough about the batteries. The interface itself is pretty nice. It has a high-res backlit display. (I think the resolution is of that of a gameboy!) The menu system is pretty nice. Just keep in mind that it has a 10 second startup time once you turn it on. Also, from here you can record information. Although the record feature is usefull, it is not a unidirectional microphone, so it will only record what you say directly into it. Back to the interface, it contains about 10 eq presets, plus you can make a custom bass/treble setting if you prefer. It also supports multible playlists that are editable. (I use one for music, and another for comedy music.) The usb interface is simple, just plug it in to the rio and then to your computer. The rio software is slightly difficult, it takes a bit of getting used to. Finaly, the remote is a good feature, but not well implemented. The contacts on it are so that if you turn the headphones going into it a certain way, the sound gets messed up. (I don't know the reason for this.) It's a nice player for someone entering the portable mp3 market, but don't throw out your rio 500 just for the 800's extra features.
Rating:
Summary: Rio 800 is a pain in the butt
Review: I got this little guy for Christmas 2002 and I was so excited to have one. Well, after figuring out that you had to calibrate the battery, I thought I was good to go. You wouldn't know to calibrate the battery until you read the directions, which I think is horrible considering most (like me) just plug it in to charge w/o the directions. Well, the battery drains itself and I have never been able to keep it running for more than a few hours. I think the look, feel, sound, and even the amount of memory (mine has 128 mb) are great, but what good is any of that if you cannot keep power to it. The night before I wanted to use it I unplugged it after a full charge... by the time I went to workout the next day, the battery in it was dead. DO NOT BUY RIO -- their product stinks! I will never buy another!
Rating:
Summary: Beware - Deplorable Customer Service
Review: ...Because I enjoy listening to audio books and mp3 music, I purchased a ... Rio 800 128 MB that was under warranty. The unit unfortunately had a defective headphone jack, a problem with a simple solution. Obtain an RMA (return of merchandise authorization) number and send the unit back for repair.
...
Rating:
Summary: Persistance Pays
Review: I'm not a tech type, I bought the Rio 800 about 2 years ago, and found it incredibly difficult to use in conjunction with RealNewtworks. So it sat in a drawer until this week when I bought a new PC with XP. The Windows Media Player is a no brainer for downloading into the Rio - and my Rio is finally in action. I loaded a Rio 600 for a friend using WMP - same good results. Gripe - the Rio headphones stink. When you opt for a new pair made by a different manufacturer (sony, jvc,etc) you need to keep the plug slightly unplugged to get music on both sides of the headphones, and it's basically mono, not stereo. Fully insert the pin and you get only one side working. In terms of durability - it's a rugged little unit.
In terms of display - super small text on a wierd green bacground, I admit to having to use a magnifying glass to read it at times.
Battery life - no problems - the rechargeable gives me about 10 hours.
I share the annoyance of one of your previous reviewers that the backpack memory is treated like a seperate statistic, not combined with the basic memory. So persistance paid off - I refused to buy another MP3 player until I could get this one working - it took Wimdows Media Player XP to do the trick.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS POS
Review: THIS MP3 PLAYER IS ABOUT THE WORST PRODUCT I HAVE EVER OWNED. IT WORKS SPORADICALLY AND CUSTOMER SERIVCE FROM SONIC BLUE CHARGES YOU FROM DAY 91. THEY ARE AWFUL AND WILL NOT FOLLOW UP AS PROMISED. BY A COMPAQ NOMAD OR SAMSUNG MP3 PLAYER BUT TO BUY ANYTHING FROM RIO/SONIC BLUE YOU WILL BE SORRY. EXTREMELY SORRY.
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