Rating: 
Summary: Great while it worked
Review: I thought this was the best thing since sliced bread. No skips, lightweight, and great for taking with me on bike rides. Then one night while loading songs into it I could no longer communicate with it but I could play the songs that were still in it. I put in a fresh battery, and it still didn't communicate. After a long talk with tech support they advised me to send it back for exchange. I got another one. About 4 days later the exact same thing happened. I sent it back for a refund.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: The Rio is overall a great product. The buttons and "interface" on the player itself are for the most part intuitive (though it took me some time to figure out the more "advanced" features) and are easy to use, even when you're fumbling around in your pocket to change a song.The fact that the player is unskipable (it's not like MiniDisc where they SAY it doesn't skip and it really does) and extremely lightweight makes the Rio the perfect exercise companion; I take it on every run. For 99% of purposes, 64 megabytes memory is enough (unless you're a fan of 256 kb encoding). I can almost always fit ten or more songs on the player, and changing them is easy enough. So don't worry about the memory size-it's enough. The software (I use a Macintosh) is well done and makes it very easy to transfer songs to the player itself. The only thing I was less than perfectly happy with was the wait while the songs copy (in the scheme of things, a very small flaw). The USB interface was no problem at all, even on an older, less compatible iMac (Revision A). The headphones included with the player are neat looking, but not great sounding. The fidelity is low, with barely any low and low-mid-range sound. Assume you will have to spend at least another $25 for decent ear-buds. The only feature I feel the Rio lacks is recording capabilities like the Nomad. But again, no big deal. Overall, a great product. I'd buy one for a friend.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't have auto reverse, or dolby noise reduction.
Review: I used my diamond rio, but was upset that it is not compatable with all my old cassette tapes. This is a major flaw, because I have some really nice tapes that I was unable to listen to. There are ways to get around this problem though. I highly reccomend that you duct tape the rio to a good old sony walkman, and groove out that way. This also allows you to look more down to earth, rather than have people get MP3envy over your compact MP3equipment. (Don't try sticking the rio inside of your walkman and closing the walkman's door- it will break the tape spindles of your walkman). 64 megs is better than a 60 minutes tape, but you can't flip the chip.
Rating: 
Summary: Player excellent, customer service very poor.
Review: Okay, the player is excellent, and I have no problems with it. But customer support for it's software is very very bad. I was forced to register the software it came with for a $10 fee. I then upgraded my system to Windows98 (from Win95) in order download music to the player, but when I re-installed the software, it wanted me to register again. I emailed Diamond and asked if I'd be charged $10 again, and their response (after 3 days) was for me to "upgrade", but they never even answer my one question. Not only that, but they didn't specify for me to upgrade what! It was only one sentence. I've replied back to them and they still haven't gotten back to me after 5 days! The software is clunky, not very intuitive. The player is a fun gadget, and I like it, but service is very, very poor. If you buy one, assume you're on your own.
Rating: 
Summary: Great sound, Fantastic looks
Review: The Diamond Rio 500 is an excellent musical device. The sound is great, better-than-CD quality, and the Rio is much smaller than those clunky portable CD players. The Rio is also very easy to set up, and the software loads on your computer and you are ready to ge within 10 minutes of opening the box.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Product, worth purchasing
Review: ... The RIO 500 performs flawlessly, in every aspect. It'ssoftware is great, and the size and sound quality are superb also. Toanyone contemplating waiting for the new players, I wouldn't recommend it. They will be just like MiniDisc players... a big joke. Thank You.
Rating:
Summary: Fast bout could be better
Review: I had a Rio 300 and the 500 is at least 10 times as fast at downloading, which really bugged me about the Rio 300. Diamond could do a much better job. The first Rio 500 I bought didn't work, so as stated before, there are alot of defective Rio 500's out there! It would eat the battery up even when turned off. I got another one without any problem. You can get the Rio 500 for under $200 now, so the price is coming down, but not fast enough. I finally got it to work with Audible, which Audible's chat service is great! They even helped me figure out the Rio and it's not their product. I really wish there was a ac converter so I could use it in my car without using the batteries. I wish it was louder , I heard the Ijam mp3 player was alot louder due to the more wattage. The Nomad 64 looks like a good buy for $150 and it has a digital Fm tuner and voice recorder, but it's alot slower downloading. The Mp3 player is a great concept! Download tons of songs off the internet and have them in your Rio in a minute or two. You can record RealPlayer broadcasts (with Total Recorder, a must have shareware program) and put them on the Rio, or download books, like the Brethren I just bought off of Audible.com. The batteries last 8 to 12 hours, it seems. Alot of people are touting the advantages of minidisc recorders. I don't know much about them but they seem bigger and they probably still skip, and are more fragile. I guess if you could transfer mp3 files digitally as quickly as an mp3 player they would be ok unless you want to go jogging or some athletic activity. I figure Mp3 players will come down radically in price in the next year or so. They have to be cheap to make and as memory comes down, they will too. Right now they are the "thing to have" and you pay for that. Diamond is milking the popularity for all it's worth, paying for all those sound and video cards that they lost money on with the mp3 cash cow. I predict within a year 32 mb mp3 players will be under $50 and 64 mb players under $100. But they are a really nice invention, especially if you like to listen to books, sermons, instructional tapes, etc. If you are a serious audiophile you probably want to stick to CD players for most applications. But for me, I don't get less enjoyment from an mp3 player than a top of the line CD player. I can't even hear the difference, to tell you the truth! I use my Rio 500 mostly at work to listen to books, and the Wall Street Journal interactiveedition, and sometimes music. You've probably read the other complaints such as cheap earbuds, bad case, bad support and instructions. I had to wing it as far as figuring out how to run the 500, but I finally got it working great. The software that comes with it does suck. I think if you do buy an Rio player you will be satisfied with it's versatility, ruggedness, sound quality, compact size, transfer speed, and looks. I think you'll think the software and the case suck, and it could have more wattage for loudness and an ac adapter for the car and home to save on batteries. Also, the cost is high, only because of it's popularity. In fact, I think some mp3 players are going up in price. I bought an Ijam for my brother in law for $79 last Christmas, and now they want $150+. I bought a Rio 300 for $50 a year and a half ago and now they want $150! They'll be $50 before you know it!
Rating:
Summary: Sulaiman Al Abdul Jaleel bufaris13@hotmail.com electeric fan
Review: The Rio 500 is the most fantastic piece of electronics ever. Now I dont need to spend most of time my going to a music store to buy a Cd I can use the internet to record the music on to my Rio. I highly recommend that all music fans or electronics fans get this (exellent) piece of equipment. (I'm positive that all buyers will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Managing Expectations
Review: I was a little less sure-footed about stepping up and buying the RIO than I had hoped to be after reading a couple of "engineering-type" reviews in this column. I eventually closed my eyes, held my nose, and clicked on to buy it for my son's 12th bday. I'm at a loss for understanding the concerns I've seen articulated by number of "in the know" types in these reviews. The device was immediately recognized by my box, the software installation was effortless, and the device was functioning perfectly in a number of MINUTES after a re-boot post software installation. The device is perfect for what it is, a neat, highly mobile and flexible music player with acceptable audio output. It ain't Lincoln Center, but so what, it was never meant to be. As an aside, the gift was terriffically well received by my 12 year old. A suggestion, make sure you gate-keep the songs that get downloaded. Enjoy. I am ordering one for myself after finishing this review!
Rating:
Summary: IT SUCKS!
Review: I just bought what I heard was an awesome mp3 player, what a crock! I had to flash the bios, download the latest file manager..............The sound quality is so bad I can barely hear anything! I am going to try and send it back. Don't waste your time.
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