Rating: 
Summary: Diamond Rio 500 is great but software is so so
Review: The Diamond Rio is fantastic in that it is easy to use, extremely small, and has tons of memory. The player itself is as great as all the reviews have said. The buttons on the player are simple...the player isn't jammed with a ton of buttons and options you don't need. When you press anything, an indiglo light illuminates the display so you can see. There is also a power bar on the display which lets you know how much battery power you have left.The Koss headphones it comes with though are not very good...not the most comfortable things to loop around your ears. The player is great but the software is not the best...it took me some time to figure out that you had to (within the Rio program) manually choose the device and set the software to work with the Rio Diamond 500 before you could send music from the USB port to the player. But now that I have figured out how to work the software correctly, I love the player. For the price, it is definitely worth it compared to the competition.
Rating: 
Summary: The MP3 Player for the smart consumer
Review: After 3 weeks with my Diamond Rio 500, all I can say is "Wow!" Diamond is known for their fabulous multimedia products, and this is just one more example of this. After trying a few different players, including the Rio 600, the 500 is the crown jewel of portable MP3 technology. There are only a few very minute downsides, all of which are fairly inconsequential. First, the price is very comparable to other MP3 players.... The Rio comes with great software that is very easy to use. Basically, you can just drag playlist files into the playlist window and send them to your Rio. With the USB connection, they transfer FAST as well. The battery life is very good also. I got about 10 hours out of a normal alkaline battery, and about 13 out of an ultra alkaline. This is assuming you don't change the songs on your Rio during this time, as this seems to drain the battery life much faster. But if you take it on trips like I do, this isn't an issue. The durability is better than most all other units in this category, and light years ahead of the Rio 600. I have admittedly dropped the unit about 4 times, with no results. My original purchase of the Rio 600 broke after one drop. The unit just seems a lot more sturdy than other units in this range. The case is handy, and you will use it often while walking or running. This is assuming you don't want to have to fiddle with the buttons or change songs or volume, as this is virtually impossible with the Rio in the case. You would usually have the Rio on hold during a situation like this, so this is very inconsequential. The headphones that come with the Rio are horrible. They are the trendy over-the-ear style and rediculously uncomfortable. They also sound horrible. I added a cheap pair of Sony MDR-W08's, and the sound quality jumped about 200%. The firmware upgrade will also improve the unit's sound, and increase general volume. The programmable functions are more robust that most portables, and certainly better than almost all portable cd players. The browse and bookmark functions are nice, but icing. You might use browse every now and then, but the bookmark is farily useless. The memory is very good, with up to 128 megs able to be used immediately with a firmware upgrade. This is usually MORE than enough for anyone. If you're looking for a great MP3 player, and even if you're not on a budget, buy this one, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Overall a Great Product
Review: Great product for the slightly-higher-than-entry-level set. Perfect amount of memory for those people who would like to take music along to the gym. Lightweight, comes with a soft case that clips onto a belt, and has great sound quality and volume control. Downsides: 1. The ear phones that come with this thing are not the greatest and don't really stay on while jogging. I switched back to a 'traditional' set, and no problems. 2. If you are working out and need to change the volume or skip songs, you have to fumble with the unit in the middle of your workout. (although, I hear they make earphones that have volume and song controls along the wire) 3. I can't stand the software that comes with it. It searched my entire hard drive for mp3s and found half-downloaded files that were abandoned, as well as their completed counterparts (frustration occurs when the names are the same). Also, I wish I could just 'drag and drop' my files directly into the player. 4. Battery H-O-G. Invest in some double A's that you can recharge. One important note: this is USB interface, and I've found that you really need to let it have a dedicated USB port (can't use a hub). With a hub it freezes up-- software, everything-- and you have to restart. After taking it off the hub and using it in the dedicated port (by itself)-- no problems. :) All in all, I recommend it to the new MP3 user, or the jogger that wants to upgrade to something nicer and lighter.
Rating:
Summary: Top Quality sound.
Review: This is a great little player. If you have a fast internet connection like a DSL or cable modem and can download good quailty mp3's then this player produces great sound. I get a lot of my tracks from [top20mp3] as they have high quality stuff, some of the other places have skips or fuzzy bits in the files. This player is great. I wish they made a waterproof version though.
Rating:
Summary: even better player with firmware update
Review: When I first played songs on the Rio 500, I thought it was a quiet player compared to a D-Link DMP-100 player. The first thing to is get rid of the included Koss headphones. They have poor sensitivity and a low max power handling rating. You'll see the difference once you plug in something like a pair of Sony MDR-A34, which has a better freq. range and a max power rating of 100 mW. The next thing is to download the firmware update. I could, for example, play the Rio at full blast under version 1.04 and still hear the t.v. in the background. Once you update to the current version (2.12), your ears start hurting at a volume of 10. After doing these two things, I started enjoying my Rio tremendously. Songs sound wonderful even at 96 kbps, and it is clear enough to hear soft classical sounds and even harmonies within your favorite rock songs. Mac software and the Rio controls are fairly intuitive to use. The only complaints are the sliding OFF/HOLD/ON switch and the volume dial. The lock positions in the switch are so close to each other that you can accidently turn the player off when you're trying to put it in hold. The volume dial is hard to get to when the player is in its included neoprene case.
Rating:
Summary: Great Mp3 Player
Review: This is a great mp3 player. The best that I own. With the 64 MB, I can fit about 20 songs on it. Pros: Very small and lightweight, comes with nice earplugs, good volume controll, longlasting batteries. Cons: There aren't many, just that the software is pretty hard to use and you have to know something about it to make it work. Overall, this is a great portable mp3 player, best one I've seen. I recommend it for anyone and everyone, Diamond puts out another amazing product.
Rating:
Summary: I AM IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!
Review: I have only owned this little piece of heaven for a few hours and already I can't live without it. The sound quality blows me away, I can't believe how great it is. It may as well be CD's playing - to my ears anyway. It took me TWELVE MINUTES to load up the cd and then download 64 Megs of beautiful music. I had absolutely no problems with the connection or the software. The headphones are not the greatest so I use my own. I could not be happier. I just can't wait until the larger memory cards come out. I will write another review when I've owned this thingie more than four hours!! :)
Rating:
Summary: Delivers the Goods...
Review: The Diamond Rio 500 doesnt have any fancy features like voice recording or digital address books - but seriously do you really need these? As an mp3 player it delivers the goods though - the additional expandability is priceless and after a few days of using it you will be very glad to have this feature. The controls are intuitive once you get the hang of what each button does - especially the bookmark key which is VERY handy for transcribing music and the cool blue backlighting. I have deducted a star due to the non-existant manual which makes getting up and running with the machine a little harder and the poor quality headphones. I am listening at home on a Sennheisser 570 and it is like night and day compared to the factory Koss headphones. Overall i think you will be pleased with this player.
Rating:
Summary: Great player for music or audio books.
Review: Simple to use, compact, one rechargable AA battery lasts more than 12 hours, great quality. Great value. I enjoy it everyday.
Rating:
Summary: Like most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Review: On balance, my experience has been much more positive than negative. I have used RealJukebox from the beginning, which has eliminated the issues with Audible. I have also found the headphones (a common source of complaint) to be fine. Sound quality is not true audiophile standard, but when you're running or biking, that is of little importance. It sounds fine in 99% of the situations in which you would likely be using it. I agree, however, that there seems to be a slight quality control problem. When my arrived, the play, stop and pause buttons all did the same thing (paused the music). I didn't think it was a sufficient problem to return it, but it has been a minor annoyance. The volume is also not particularly loud when you're outside. Other than some minor quibbles, I would recommend it pretty strongly.
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