Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed, but not a total loss.
Review: I wanted to like it, I really did. My girlfriend bought me one for my birthday, and I was thrilled - I like gadgets, and I like the feeling that I'm getting something that's bleeding edge. I primarily use it for listening while I work out at the gym. It makes a pretty good CD-audio player...anti-skip seems pretty reliable, more or less as good as my old CD-only player. Unfortunately, it places a pause between songs of about 1-3 seconds. This isn't as noticeable on most CDs, but since I listen to a number of live and DJ-mix CDs, it is blatantly obvious when an otherwise smooth mix is cut off then restarted between tracks. Additionally, it does tend to skip at odd times, and this isn't always a matter of vibrations or shaking of the unit. And when it skips, it skips big time...sometimes up to ten seconds.As an FM radio, it functions fine. Yay. For mp3s, it's the big deal - 8 minutes of anti-shock and all. This is where the big value lies. Unfortunately, it still insists on the pause between tracks as when playing straight-up CD audio. Skipping is much less noticeable...in fact, I don't recall it skipping once while playing back mp3s, no matter what circumstance. The backlit window is useful, and provides an interface which is easy to figure out in a short time. The remote on the wire is moderately useful, although I can't find more interest in it beyond the "hey, cool...I have a remote on the headphone jack." Complaints have been listed about the provided headphones, but they seem...ok. I'm not much of a critic of such things, so I defer to the experts/pickier people. The sound is great, as far as I can tell, including when I hook it up to my computer or stereo speakers. I guess it comes down to it being pretty damn pricey, and since my primary use is for CD-audio, then mp3s, I suppose it's disappointing that I'd rather be using my old Discman for the CDs.
Rating: 
Summary: Man I love This Thing!
Review: I must say that I have had this baby for 2 weeks and I Love It! I love it so much I had to get one for my girlfriend also. We are both avid music listeners and enjoy many types of music. With MP3 technology I can save from 170 up to 200+ songs(equal to about 14 discs!) on one CD @ 128kbps quality rate. At that rate most people can not tell the difference from the original CD.
I have read reviews on other sites that said they had skipping problems with their SP250. I don't see how the unit itself could skip, it stores almost 2 songs (8 minutes of MP3) in memory and plays them from there. If you watch after only a few seconds from starting a new track the CD stops turning. To that I say they need to try those MP3 files through another player such as their computer. The smallest scratch on a CD can record as a skip on an MP3. I have tired to make mine skip by shaking and rotating in all directions it totally failed to skip one bit! Thus the skipping may actually be recorded into the file. The MP3 technology is not perfect it is a compromise like everything else in our lives. However it is wonderful. Like having a 12 disc changer in the palm of your hand.
I purchased mine because I have been doing quite a bit of traveling in the last few months and I think that it will make great company on a plane. For a whole weekend away from home I will only need 2 discs to supply with loads of great sounding tunes.
The SP250 comes with ear bud phones, head phones, a wall plug/charger, a decent looking pleather cover, wired remote & two Nickel Hydride AA batteries. It has an FM digital tuner built in. 1) Batteries and Charger
The battery life is fare, I have tested it a few times they seems as though they may last the claimed 15 hours while play MP3 files. The downside is the scharger is half a wall pug transformer and half in the player, it has to sit idle (no music playing :( to charge. The cord will also power the unit for play as I said you can either play music or charge it. It will not do both at the same time. 2)Phones
I prefer the ear bud phones. They are much more comfortable, and the sound is richer. The head phones sound fare, and they fold into a neat little package for storage and easy carry. 3)The Pleather Cover
The Pleather cover looks nice, it is not too tacky, and provides protection from scratches.It also has a belt clip built on and a clip on shoulder strap. The best part about the cover is that it has outlines of the buttons so you can use them with ease right through it. 4)The Remote
It is quite well laid out, the button locations are easy to memorize. I only wish that the LCD remote could've been a choice in the package. I plan on purchaseing the LCD remote later, that will make the old one useless. Maybe a trade in program would be nice.
Rating:
Summary: The player you've been waiting for.
Review: After having gone thru several other MP3 players I was skeptical the RioVolt would be any better. Instead I was completely blown away. The skip protection is impressive; only when violently shaking the unit could I get it to skip. While jogging or in the car it has never skipped under normal circumstances. The interface is quite intuitive with only a few exceptions (the EQ is tough to figure out, and it could really use a battery level indicator). No problems supporting any bitrate that I've thrown at it (VBR up to 192kbp, and flat bit rates from 256kbp down to 32kbp). The ver 1.00 firmware that ships with it is very stable. This is easily one of the best purchases I've made all year. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Be careful!
Review: I got one of these a couple months ago, and it was great. Everything I could have wanted in an mp3 cd player, it was just plain cool. Then disaster struck. It broke and no one will replace it. Becareful, it isn't the sturdiest thing in the world, other than that, go for it.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome! Made My Messy Life A Little Less Cluttered.
Review: This is a great unit! At 128 kbps MP3 rate I get about 180 to 200 songs on one disc equal to about 14 regular CD's. The sound quality seems to be close to that of the original CD. The technology in this unit is amazing. The disc usually only spins for a few seconds then it has stored approx. two songs in a memory bank. I see no possible way for it to skip.The FM tuner does at least as good as any other unit of this kind(better than any other I have tried). The back-lighted display really comes through in low light and dark. The leather-like cover has outlines of the buttons so they can be used with ease right through the cover and it looks nice to boot. I am very pleased with the whole package. It comes with rechargable batteries which is great and will save you a bundle. The charger is a wall plug kind that charges the batteries in the unit. It will also power the player. Only unfortunate thing is it requires that it sits idle for charging.The unit comes with head phones and ear phones. I prefer the ear phones because the seem louder and the sound quality seems a tiny bit better. The head phones fold into a small size for easy carry and storage.
Rating:
Summary: This thing is fantastic
Review: I just got my new RioVolt SP250, and I'm already in love. The sound quality is excellent, and so many songs, just fill up that cd. There are so many things you can customize (all through the very easy to use menus), esp, lighting, sleep timer, contrast, equalizer, language (Korean, Japanese, or English), etc, etc. I had fun just setting all those things. The backlighting is really nice, it turns off quickly, but hey, that's to save batteries (you can also set it to always be on when it is plugged into the wall). I found that while any song is playing it shows you what sub-folder it is in, doesn't sound like much, but it is; This means that you can put all the songs from one band in a folder and just call the file by the song name itself. This is helpful if the band name is so long you can't see the song name until the name starts scrolling (there is an annoying wait for that to happen). The batteries definitely don't last for 15 hours, but long enough, depending on what settings you're on. It does work with regular AA batteries, in case you're desperate, but the rechargeables are quite cool, because the player is also the recharger. All in all this is a top of the line unit that will serve you well, hope this helped your decision.
Rating: 
Summary: DONT BUY RIO STUFF THEY BREAK
Review: i have had 2 things buy rio and both broke.. then when i called i had to send it in... and they would replace it but it took 5 months for me to get it back... NOT WORTH IT! DONT BUY ANYTHING RIO!
Rating:
Summary: Lots Of Accessories; Okay Player
Review: It true, a person gets a lot of accessories with this player but big deal, you buy a player primarily for the player. And this mp3 player is pretty good but nothing to write home about. Some Cons: 1) it does take a long time to load up, 2) the player is kind of big-ish, 3) the BIGGEST CON: the player wasn't able to read some of the cd's i burned (the player just didn't boot up; it never 'loaded' the disc), i think this had to do with the type of cd-r's i used (silver coated) but my other...mp3 player had no problems reading these discs. To me, mp3 players are maturing to the point of being almost like cd players. A less expensive player is just about as good as a more expensive one. If a person really needs an FM tuner then its a no-brainer(don't know of any others that offer it) but if not then considering a less expensive player should be in order.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't let the BRAND NAME fool you!
Review: Okay, so it's RIO VOLT.. must be excellent, right? This is a complete ... copy in hardware and software design of the iriver Slim X imp 350 model! RioVolt is good WHEN IT WORKS. When I bought this, it went for about 2 weeks of pure joy and fun when it suddenly stopped working. It skipped constantly despite the 8 minute protection and I was cool with that, until it stopped completely. I called customer service and waited 30 minutes on the line before they got the call and said, "we're sorry for the inconvenience but at this point there is nothing we can do. Please send your inquiry to this email address..."! When I sent the email they told me to ship the item so they can replace it for me. It's been OVER 8 weeks and I haven't gotten A WORD. So there goes [money] down the drain. I recently bought my iriver 350 and am in complete happiness. It has no problems at all. The iRiver Slim X is durable, doesn't skip, plays all files and has all the options and better quality customer service than this piece of junk can ever have. Don't let the brand name "RIO VOLT" fool you into thinking it's a good mp3 player. DO THE RESEARCH and you'll see JUST HOW MANY NEGATIVE qualities this MP3 player has! If it's truly a good player, then you shouldn't have that many negative reviews! ... SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT RIO VOLT!!!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This product was written up in a health magazine as being good for work outs. It fails that test and fails to function during jogging. Customer service siad the product should work fine if I put it on a flat table. That's obviously not what I bought it for.
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