Rating: 
Summary: My Final Pick
Review: After purchasing (and returning) a number of other mp3 players I decided to try out the Rio 500.First Impressions Very small and light, Buttons in convenient locations, Nice scrolling display, No AC Adapter, Headphone buds (Junk), Instructions (very bad), Included software (Not easy to use), Ok the first thing I did was to visit the Rioport.com site and download the firmware upgrade soft ware. The unit came with 1.04 firmware. I upgraded it to 2.12. One thing this upgrade gives you is access to the 64meg smart cards. This will take the unit up to 128meg. I installed the default management software but I prefer MusicMatch. I downloaded the Rio plug in for MusicMatch and was up and running. One down side of the plug in for MusicMatch is the fact that it defaults to rio300 and you must manually change it each time to upload to the player. The other mp3 players I tested used parallel ports and the Rio claims 5 times faster than parallel ports. They must be comparing results to some old ancient port as I saw no difference in upload speeds. However the USB is easier to install and did not have the hardware compatibility problems the parallel ports did. As far as sound quality goes the Rio was similar to the others with one difference. The built in EQ settings seem to be more noticeable. In other words there seem to be more noticeable results when selecting EQ setting of JAZZ or ROCK for instance. Other players did not seem to have much difference between the settings. The lack of a graphic equalizer did not seem to affect the quality. The volume is more than adequate. It has ha setting between 0 and 20 and I keep mine around 6-8. I have found the display quit acceptable. The name of the song is the file in which the mp3 file was saved. And it scrolls across the screen as it is being played. This enables quite long titles to be displayed with out truncating them The lack of a AC adapter port was a bit of a disappointment but is a little offset with the 13 hour play time. You do get this with alkaline batteries but expect about 4-5 hours playtime with rechargeable AA's Make sure you have a good charge on the batteries before uploading to the player. The unit died once when I was uploading. This totally corrupted the Rio. Could not even turn the unit off. The unit was totally locked up. I called the support line at the diamond site adn was promptly told to download a recovery program from there web site. After installing the software on the PC and following the instructions I was back up and running. Apparently this software talks to the USB port and resets the firmware in the unit. One of the best features on the Rio is the audio book feature. Here is what they are. Bookmark -> You can store up to 16 bookmarks on the Rio. These come in very handy when listening to a book in a public location such as a doctor's office waiting room. Variable speed rewind/fast forward -> If you have a recording that is over a few minutes in length it can be quite a pain fast-forwarding to say the 28:00 minute point. With the Rio you just hold down the FF and it starts out at about 10 times speed but it increases the longer you hold the button down. Browse feature -> By clicking the browse button once you can scroll between items in a folder. By clicking twice you can scroll between folders. By click a third time you can scroll between bookmarks. Audible support -> The main reason I purchased a mp3 player is for books on tape. And the above features are the best I have seen for a MP3 player but after signing up for audible (Rio is one of the players supported) I can listen to a 15 hour book in one sitting. This is a different format than my other mp3 files but I have found it very useable as well. Final thoughts -> I really like the Rio 500 and the ability to accept mp3 and audible file formats makes it a keeper in by book. As a mater of fact I ordered a second for my wife.
Rating:
Summary: great product
Review: The Rio 500 holds a decent amount of music, and the battery lasts longer than I expected. But best of all, it is Mac compatible and the tranfer speed via USB is FAST! If you use SoundJam on your Mac, the interface is right through that application.
Rating: 
Summary: This was a tough decision
Review: I don't know about the rest of you but I have been researching products to allow me to play music for about 2 months and I've had a hard time making a decision. I've looked a mp3, minidisc, and regular cd players. I finally chose to jump in and buy this mainly because I didn't want the mp3 craze to pass me by :^). Here's what I think: Styling: Look good. It is almost exactly the size of a cigarette box but the depth is about 3/4 less. The clippable pouch that comes with it is okay but you need to undo the velcro tie to turn it on and completely pull it out to vary the volume. The pouch is quite cushion-any and probably saved me when I dropped it. It does feel and look durable. The blue backlit screen looks attractive. The mp3 file names scroll across the screen rather slowly but, again, a minor point. Sound: Apart from the miserable headphones (my main problem was static as the headphone jack swiveled around the entry socket) the sound is good to great. I wasn't looking for "knock your socks off" sound anyway but I am quite happy with it. The highest volume setting is not as loud as I'd like it but it doesn't bother me to any great extent. Loading music: Loading is quick thru the USB port. I use RealJukebox Plus (the one that costs money) along with an add-on to manage music loading and I am very happy with it. I didn't like the Rio Audio Manager but it works fine. Setup was a piece of cake. Very intuitive and fast. Memory: 64MB allows me to place almost any CD I have in memory. I have a mixture of 128KBS and 192KBS sampling rates on my mp3s and at 192 a single CD is about all that fits on there. The expansion port for memory upgrades will come in handy. Overall: Nothing really to complain about. A nice little gadget that I'm very happy with.
Rating:
Summary: the best mp3 player for the price
Review: I got my rio 500 in june 2000, at first i was about ready to send it back(you will need to know something about computors) but after sending in my problems to rio they gave me a step by step answer on how to take care of my problem being i had no idea on how to put songs on the thing it took them a couple days to answer but it was complete now when i ask a question they answer it the next day i don't know what these people are tallking about when they say rioport is hard to use i'm 14 and its the easiest thing i've ever done in my life. the whole part abuot it being able to use a battery for 13 hours is bull i use it for about 2 and it sucks the thing dry (i'm pretty sure that it uses batterys when you dont even have it on.don't waste you're money on memory cards mine stoped working completely after a couple weeks whick ticked me off alot considering i payed .. dollars for it.the sound is great, just the same as cds and on rioport you can lower the kpbs's to fit even more songs onto it wich lowers the sound quality a little and is probaly the only reason why people say its only almost cd quality.the bottom lin eis its the best mp3 playerm out there(besides the nomad jukebox)that is easy to use with great sound and a great price so if you want an mp3 player without all of the radio station voice recording crap then i suggest you get the rio 500.
Rating:
Summary: Diamond Rio 500 Review Audio Books
Review: I just reviewed the Diamond Rio 500 in regards to Audible Books. Somehow the review only shows (3) stars. I meant for it to have (5)stars since I am so please with it. I highly recommend this product. Please read my other two reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Very Nifty Product
Review: Having waited around to see how the MP3 standard would evolve, I felt the time was right to jump on this bandwagon. I bought the device to include it as portion of a Harley Davidson motorcycle stereo system (helmet installed headphones, with amp). I was concerned about vibration, among other things. Completed the install yesterday, and works like a champ. Two comments. The documentation provided with the device is woefully inadequate. I did not install the Audio Manager software, as I prefer staying with Real Jukebox, which is compatible with the Rio 500. Thus, any documentation that would come with the software install was not useful. The "Guide" that comes with the device does not explain adequately how to set up the "Program" function. I also have a PC that is somewhat unreliable when using certain USB devices. Sometimes the Rio device mysteriously becomes unrecognized, which takes some tweaking to fix. The documentation does little to help the user out with this issue. Overall, and excellent addition to anyone's "gadget" collection.
Rating:
Summary: Diamond Rio 500 review.
Review: I bought the diamond rio player 500 in September 2000. I found it to be an execellent device. I had no problem using the software or getting it to play. I have a lot of mp3 songs. Everyone that I have downloaded to the rio player have worked. It is also easy to plug the rio player into your car stereo. All you need is a cassette adapter. Now I want to throw out my 10 disc cd changer. Too late!! The only negative I have is that the rio player is a battery hog, however rechargable batteries will take care of that!
Rating: 
Summary: Diamond Rio 500 Great For Music And Audio Books
Review: I have already written a review giving my first impressions of the Diamond Rio 500. After several months I still feel that "If you are looking for a MP3 player that can be upgraded to 128mb of memory, is easy to operate, sounds great, ultra compact and light weight buy the Diamond Rio 500 you won't regret it". I would like now to address the ability of the player to play audio books. I have 64MB of built in memory and 64MB of external smart media. Unfortunately the Audible's program only allow the transferring of books to the internal memory. It would be nice to be able to transfer to books to external memory. You could then buy a 16MB or 32MB card just for books. I talked to Audible about this and they said they may incorporate using external memory in future releases of the program. Music files are stored in folders, which you name in both memory areas. Audible files create their own directory in the space you allow. I found that by deleting two songs I am able to store five hours of audible books in auidi format one. Narration sounds great with the exception of the occasional music accompaniment, which does not play well at the reduced bit rate. What works out great is the ability for audio books and MP3 music files to share the same memory? The music files play normally and you can switch to audio books whenever you desire. While listening to audio books the player will retain the place if you pause the player and than press the stop button on the front. After this is done you can use the slider switch on top to turn the player off completely to save batteries. When you restart the player it will begin the book where it left off. If you want to switch back and forth between the book and music there is a bookmark button on the side, which allows you to mark your spot. You can then return to a book marked spot at any time. The player also allows you to created multiple bookmarks. I think it is a good idea to use the bookmark feature whenever you turn the player off. Another thing I noticed is that you have to use care with the forward and back controls. To move back or forth you must hold the button down firmly until you find the spot where you want to continue. If you press either the back or forward button quickly you will end up either at the beginning of the track you are listening to or the next track. Some tracks can be 300 minutes or longer. That's why I like to bookmark my place occasionally or at least when I turn it off. The Audible program allows you to move books into a storage area before transferring them to your player. By moving a slider and can predetermine how much space you want to allow for books on your player. If you want three hours it will transfer the first three hours to your player. When you are finished reading this material just connect the player with the USB, with fresh batteries, and the program will automatically transfer the next three hours to your player. The transfer process only takes a few minutes. I have a Casio Pocket PC E115 and the Rio 500. In my opinion the Rio is lighter, more compact and has better sound. I am very please with the over all operation the Rio 500. I recommend it highly for Audio Books and Music. I hope this has been helpful.
Rating:
Summary: You Will Be Happy!!!
Review: I bought this a couple days ago, and boy am I happy, I give this product 5 stars because it is awesome. I am really happy with the fast usb connection ,and the price.
Rating:
Summary: Great But....
Review: I personaly own a Rio 500. It works GREAT! I love it, I love it, I love it! It is EXTREEMLY durable. I was running with it on my treadmill and I droped it! It went under and back out. I even KICKED IT! It sufferd nothing more then a small scratch. I highly recomend this product to anyone...After using the Rio for a long enough time I think that you will also feel as I do. The need for disks! you want to be able to take like 20 songs on a disk and just keep em in your pocket. Although the rio hold alot, you will find that you may want another song that you have, but not on there. With minidisks it is solved, just pop in the other disk... It is really up to your preference, getting up in the morning and loading the songs you want for the day on your Rio or just poping the disks in to a MiniDisk when you want. ITHER ONE IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE! Its all preference.
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