Rating: Summary: Excellent for exercise and around the home Review: The Rio Cali is an excellent, hardy little music player. The accompanying music transfer program is actually unnecessary, as people with PCs can use Windows Media. I would recommend this, as WMA files are much smaller than MP3s with the same sound quality. You can fit several hundred songs on the 256 megabytes of space, which is expandable if you need more. The player itself is very simple to use. I accidentally dropped it onto a hardwood floor, but it hasn't skipped a beat. For exercise, it is brilliant. The shock protection is rock-solid. The earbuds are very comfortable. The case clips onto your shirt or waist for added convenience. Not only this, but it can run for nine hours on a single AAA battery. So, unless you have a few thousand songs to play every time you exercise (and by that time, you'd be at severe risk of heart disease anyway), buy this player. You won't regret it.
Rating: Summary: Fine little unit Review: I was a little leery of getting this versus a CD player because I knew I would have to learn how to download music to it, etc. Plus it's more money. But the fancy-schmancy Sony CD player skipped when I ran, so I fell back on one of these. I'm happy I did. It's very light, almost negligible, and the sound is surprisingly good, with preset equalizers for a variety of music types and a manual eq too. The software can be troublesome -- I couldn't get the provided ripper to recognize all the tracks on a classical CD, even after reripping several time. But I downloaded FreeRIP and that works great. It doesn't hold 256 meg, btw, more like 248. I assume the unit's firmware uses the rest. Once I got used to its tiny controls, it's a pleasure to use, and it puts out plenty of sound, even with Sennheiser earbuds. Using the close-to-CD quality MP3 of 160 kbs it holds about 4 CDs. Again, it takes a little while to get the hang of the playlists, ripping music, and downloading to the unit, but once that learning curve's past, it's a pretty fun little thing to have. BTW, mine wouldn't work with OGG, and my provided software only does WMA.
Rating: Summary: Good player, excellent for workouts. Review: This player provides great sound and a good interface. Holds up to about 60 songs. You have a number of menu options but the one I value most, random play, is absent. You can shuffle songs after they're loaded however. The computer interface is simple and worked perfectly out of the box. The earbud type headphones are fair at best. I replaced them with Sony MDR-G72LP Street Style headphones and that's a much better combo. The clip holder that you use for jogging or whatever is very good and holds it well, no worrying about the player coming off during a workout. Overall a very solid MP3 player.
Rating: Summary: Great player for jogging or working out. Review: I was in the market for an MP3 player I could use while working out. I was originally looking for a player with a large capacity, but I've heard that they aren't so good for jogging, etc. since they have moving parts for the hard drive. So, I decided to try a sports specific model.I decided on the Rio Cali after reading several reviews about it. The software is simple and I haven't had any issues with the player at all. The sound is great and I love the ability to adjust the equalizer. I rate this player 4.5 stars. It would be a perfect 5 if it had a larger memory, but at least it is expandable.
Rating: Summary: Excellent Alternative To iPod Review: One of the main reasons why I picked up the cli is because it comes standard with 128MB of flash and its upgradeable to 768MB. Its super tiny and comes with a really comfortable arm band. The sound is great and the buttons couldn't be placed more perfectly. The backlit screen is also a nice feature. The FM tuner worked great for me, but you still have to realize that the unit is tiny and there is no antenna...so you could get spotty reception in some areas. I've been wanting an mp3 player for quite some time and I had been contemplating the iPod. I just couldn't justify the price for it though. I wanted a player that could withstand my cardio sessions, and I also wanted something really small. I know the iPods are tough but I read on several different occasions where the drive could get damaged if it took a nice jarring. The Cali holds about 32 songs for me on its 128MB cars (plenty long for my cardio sessions) I'll be definitely picking up the 768MB flash upgrade. I forgot to mention that is has a really long battery life even though its on a triple A batter. I payed $125 for it at circuit city and its worth every penny.
Rating: Summary: I take it everywhere Review: This is a great device. From beginning to end it was a cinch to work with. I first bought the RCA MP3 player and spent 6 hrs just trying to get the songs to download. When I purchased the Rio it took 10 minutes to load onto my computer (disk included) and I was downloading songs. I love this MP3 player!! I take it to the gym, while working in the yard, and more recently used it while i was at the dentist. It's like American Express, "Don't leave home without it"!
Rating: Summary: Good while it lasted Review: It was great at first. I liked the sound and the software was easy to use. My Rio Sport on/off button stopped working after 2 months of use. My fault I didn't buy the extended warranty. So now it's useless. What a waste of money.
Rating: Summary: Dissapointment Review: I bought the Rio Cali to use when I went running or worked out in the gym. I didn't want to worry about breaking an IPOD and I didn't need thousands of songs, so I thought this would be a good alternative. I was wrong. This MP3 player is very poorly made. 1. The armband kept sliding down my arm as I used the treadmill. 2. The earphones are cheap and don't get nearly loud enough. 3. My particular player came broken and sound only came out of 1 earphone. 4. The radio barely gets any type of signal. My gym is only a few miles from a major radio station in NYC and it didn't even come in. 5. The player itself feels flimsy and cheap. I don't think it could withstand a few drops despite have some rubber on it. Other people complained about the software, I personally didn't have any problems with it. But then again I returned it after a week. When you spend $150-200 on something, you expect to get a quality product and this definitly isn't it. Of all the flash based MP3 players, this one was rated as one of the best. How is this possible? I would hate to see how the low end models perform. I'll stick with my old Sony Sports Discman that I've had for 3 years and is still going strong...who cares if its a little bigger. Save your money and don't buy this product.
Rating: Summary: best to workout with Review: light weight, good sound 4hrs of music + a fm tuner
Rating: Summary: DO NOT Buy this Player.... Review: I had it for 3 months, very good sound, good player, until I drop it on the floor, now it will turn off itself when connect to the computer. I can no_longer download new music to it. Useless now. ....Dont buy it.....
|