Rating: 
Summary: Diamond Rio 500 One Of The Best August 30, 2000
Review: I just purchased the Diamond Rio 500 and am very pleased with it. I have read several of the reviews and would like to comment on some of the features. I have heard that the volume is very low. This is true when you use the included earphones. When the Rio arrived I did not open the stock phones. I connected a set that came with my minidisc player. The volume is so loud that I have to keep it set to less than half way 10 out of 20 to keep it from blasting. With the stock earphones the 20 setting sometimes is to low. Some say that it eats batteries. Well I thought so too. In a very shot time the battery meter goes down to one bar and you want to replace it before it stops working. Well I left mine in and it died 7 or 8 hours later. I kept waiting for the player to stop but it just went on and on. I found out later that if I used the on and off switch instead of sleep mode the batteries lasted even longer. Playing the Rio at full power with the included earphones will also shorten the batteries life. I upgrade the firmware to v2.12, which was very straight forward, and installed a 64mb smartmedia card. The unit functions perfectly with this card and I now get two hours of different music. There is a menu selection that allows you to play songs from factory memory and smartmedia seamlessly. You can also select random and it will play randomly all songs in one memory area and than switch to the other and play all the song randomly there. There is basically is no manual except for a getting started card. The player itself is very simple to use and intuitive. The help card tells you the secretes and the rest of the features can be figured out easily. Diamond Tech support is easy to reach and will answer any question you may have also. The software has complete online documentation. The sound is awesome. It is much better than even the best earphones can produce. Some of the presets on the equalizer work pretty well. You can also user select the bass and treble and this works great. Would I recommend the Diamond Rio 500, you bet. It is very small and lightweight. The controls are nicely placed and simple to operate. I especially like the jog shuttle, which controls the volume, and if you push on the wheel allows you to access menus and adjust most of the features. The bookmark feature makes it possible to listen to audio books by saving your place so you can go back to where you left off without having to do a search. The USB interface works great and allows you to transfer two hours of music in about (10) minutes. 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. PS Diamond has addressed a lot of the earlier issues with the player and they no longer exist. I hope you have found this review useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Broke on me within 2 days
Review: I have 2 complaints about this MP3 player: 1) the earphone covers fall off too easily, thus they are really easy to lose. I lost 1 the first day I bought the player while I was sitting in my car2) the player stopped playing music on the 2nd day after I received it. However, in Amazon's defense they sent me another player by 2 day air--they sent it even without me first returning the broken player. I have decided to stick witht this player. I like its expandable memory. 64 megs is just not enough (fits about 16 songs) so I've already purchased another 64 megs for $105.00 (discounted price from Amazon). I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that it doesn't break again. When it worked the music sounded great. I like the USB attachment, and the Rio Software is easy to understand, which makes it easy to transfer music. Everyone says the Nomad II is better than the Rio. However, the Nomad does not have expandable memory so I've decided to stick with the Rio. I hope this helps any future Rio owners.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good... Although, it takes quite a little bit!
Review: I origionally wanted the Diamond Rio 500 because it looked SO cool, but when I found out that it had 64 mb of memory (over 90 minutes playtime) instead of the standard 32, not to mention you can upgrade it to 96 MB, which is like, the BEST on the market, I was SO sold! It hasn't arrived yet, but by the time this is posted, it will have. I'll write another review then. But anyway, If a stylin' stereo with a Mega Memory is what you are looking for..... THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT!! C Ya All L8R! Tune in 4 my next review next week! A happy Customer!
Rating:
Summary: VERY good
Review: I am very glad i got this Mp3 player, it is the best. Firstly, i think the music quality is great. When you read adds and stuff they always say 'near cd-quality' but I think its better. Also, you can store a lot of things on it. Depending on how big the songs are, you store from 9 to 15 [or that's what i can get]. Also i've dropped it way too many times but, it's fine. It just won't break. Lastly, it looks cool too. Even IF it was bad, what it looks like makes want to buy it. I deffinitly recomend you get it, its a bit pricy but deffinitly worth it.
Rating:
Summary: great way to bring your music with you
Review: I think that this is one of the most used toys I own. Great for taking in my car to have a fresh sound every week. Great for taking for a jog or working out in the gym (no skipping). I only wish they included a ac adapter plug. Plays music smooth and loud, great mp3 player!
Rating:
Summary: The Product is Not That Special
Review: The best thing about this product is the 64 MB of flash memory which for the price is pretty good. However the sound quality is very poor and it is not just because of MP3 compression technology. I started with the Rave MP Player which was excellent for a first generation player and then I upgraded to the 64 MB Diamond 500, two things were better on the Diamond 500, memory and battery consumption. After the Diamond 500, I bought the Nomad II from Creative which blew the sound quality on the Rave MP and Diamond 500 away. Bottom line: if you are looking for sound quality this is not your player.
Rating:
Summary: This thing is great
Review: I got this as a birthday gift and have been nothing but happy with it. The device is small and so easy to use. The all in one volume control may confuse some, but it works exactly like the casiopea, you can both select and scroll with one knob. I agree with other reviews the software that comes with the rio is not very good, just get download musicmatch and it is cake. The sound quality is perfect, just get good headphones. Good: easy to use, great sound, small, never, never skips. Bad: the headphones, the supplied software.
Rating: 
Summary: IF it only worked....
Review: I bought one for a friend since I was very happy with my Rio 300. However the new Rio500 didn't work at all. It ate batteries at the rate of one per hour and skipped around through songs randomly. My replacement is one the way. To be continued....
Rating: 
Summary: neat technology, but immature product
Review: Wow, what a frustrating product. The technology is so tantalizing, but the realization through the Rio 500 is so bug-ridden that it drove me crazy. I am returning the product. Some of the problems: o The software from Diamond or from Audible to program the Rio is truly horrid, the worst software I've seen in many years. It crashes so frequently that you will be pulling your hair out. o The documentation is a joke! The "manual" is two pages long. And no, the product isn't intuitive so you don't need a manual. Look forward to lots of trial and error as you learn it yourself. Actually, the hardware part is OK and the sound is joyous on those rare occasions when you can get it programmed. But for me, the trouble overwhelms the joy. I'll be returning mine and looking at a Creative Nomad or some next-generation MP3 player.
Rating: 
Summary: Great MP3 player...but buy a Minidisc player.
Review: Although this MP3 player is a great product, with a lot of great features...it is only an MP3 player. On a basic cost-basis/audio quality/compatability scale, it would behoof you to look at a Minidsic player rather than any MP3 player out there. With a Minidisc player/recorder, you can get (for approximately the same price) a machine with a cheaper recordable medium (A SmartMedia card costs $80 for a 32MB card...whereas a 74 minute Minidisc is $2) a higher audio quality, and you can record from not only your computer but also any digital/analog source. Who can beat that?
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