Rating: 
Summary: Simply The best - flaws don't hurt it!
Review: This is the best mp3-cd player. It plays right out of the box and has the best sound quality ever. The remote is very useful and so is the navigation button and 5 equalizer. presets. Backlit Lcd is top notch. The sound produced by the earbuds are very good and would even be better with another more expensive pair. this think wouldn't skip if you threw it against a wall.The bad (everything passable and fixable) -The case is just a waste of rio's money but who needs a case? -The song and artist info. could be smaller for more info. and it scrolls kinda slow (BUt it still informs you and no other player does) Remote could have been wireless ( once again what other player has a remote yet)
Rating: 
Summary: Great but for the inadequate shock protection
Review: This player is everything everyone says... it's great, it works, everything but toast bread for you. However, I am not at all impressed with the shock protection. I had the unit just sitting on a mildly vibrating stationary bicycle that I was peddling. While playing WMA files (not sure if it happens for MP3's) it did skip a few times. I've had better skip protection on audio CD players with 3 second buffers. However, if you can guarantee no movement for the first couple seconds of a song, then the skip protection works fine. Also, tried jogging with it... that was a real bad idea... absolutely inappropriate for those who jog. Expect nothing but skip skip skip if you jog with it. Otherwise, you can't beat being able to play WMA files, long battery life, upgradable firmware and nothing awful (or even minorly annoying) going wrong with the device. Well, except when the batteries ran out and it just shuts down abruptly... some warning or a better indicator would be nice.
Rating:
Summary: The portable music solution.
Review: I got my rio volt today. The first thing i did was upgrade the firmare to the latest version (112fr) which is available at ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/rio/riovolt/ With the ability to play 150 songs on one cd and possibly more (will recognize up to 999 with firmware update), this player blows any other portable music device out of the water. I am very impressed with this unit. The major questions i had were sound quality and directCd compatability. The sound is enhanced by the EQ funtion which allows for five presets. The unit WILL READ DIRECTCD CDS, which really surprised me (the gap between tracks is longer though). As for other features... the navigation is very easy and the backlit display is great (except for the annoying dancer). 15 hour battery life (mp3 mode) allows you to actually play an entire cd of mp3s which, compared to 3 hours on previous mp3 cd players, is awesome. It displays artist and song title too! This unit will also recognize WMA files. The unit plays the tracks alphabetically unless you number the file with the number first. All in all this unit has very few, minor flaws. BUY IT, YOU'LL LOVE IT!
Rating:
Summary: The future of music
Review: I received a Philips expanium MP3-CD player for christmas. It worked alright, but was often unreliable, and was tricky in its operation. My dissatisfaction with the expanium forced me to explore my options. I purchased the Volt mainly because of its WMA capability and its ID3 compatibility. After using it though, I've found that there are many more pluses to the Volt over the others on the market. For one, it includes a software bundle, something that is noticeably missing with the expanium. The display is far better than the expanium, including a backlight and a scrolling title display, making 100+ song navigation easier. The navi key is also a great feature. I really, really like that it's upgradeable, too. I upgraded mine the day I got it (look for the FTP site that another reviewer has posted here), and it was a cinch--it assures that this little gadget will be useful for at least another few years. There's a resume function, random function, etc., and it all works swimmingly. And the Volt doesn't have the steel-brick qualities of the expanium. Having used them both, I strongly reccomend the Rio Volt over the Philips Expanium.
Rating:
Summary: Minor details keeps this item short of 5 stars
Review: This is definitely a great portable CD player. It supports Mp3-encoded CD-R's and CD-RW's but is somewhat slow, when loading. It has great sound quality, the buttons are easy to use, and the remote control is pretty neat. A downside is the headphones, so use your own, if you have a good pair. I would also have preferred an LCD display on the remote control to see what I'm actually doing when the Cd player is inside it's case or somewhere else. Otherwise, this player is all that you could ask for, better than that Memorex, which I actually considered buying, before I went and bought the RIOvolt. So, please, don't buy any other item, the RIOvolt is the best, believe me. Don't waste your money on something else.
Rating:
Summary: So far, so good....!
Review: I have had this player for about a week now, and all is well. I love the fact I can get almost a 'cross-country trips' worth of music on one disc. Very sweet!! And who says you have to 'waste' discs every time you get a hot new track? I just use a CD-RW and a simple(and free) UDF packet writing software program. Drag and drop! With my TDK VeloCD 16x its fast to erase and add with a few clicks. I have had no problems reading these discs either. Sure you lose a few MB of space for the UDF formatting, but the ease of use is well worth it. The firmware update is an awesome feature IMHO. Go to ftp.sonicblue.com/pub/rio/riovolt to get the latest(currently 1.12fr). It adds RESUME(yessss), and a few other features not really as exciting. All in all a great player. Four stars just for the build(cheap plastic).
Rating:
Summary: RE-Review--RioVolt is THE BEST on the PLANET 10 stars!
Review: Buy this unit, then go to their FTP site (not the website!) and download the latest firmware upgrade (as of this writing v112f). ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/multimedia/rio/riovolt/. You will then have the very best mp3 player money can buy! You'll have a RESUME function that returns you to the exact spot where you turned off the unit as long as you don't switch out the CD. The FF/REW fuction has 2x, 4x and 6x speeds. It's pretty fast at 6x. You also get to choose if you want the backlight to stay on all the time or only a few seconds (choice is available only with AC adapter connected, when using battery power, it only stays on a few seconds). My one and only complaint is that whenever I connect or disconnect the AC adapter, the unit shuts itself off. If I'm in the middle of a tune, it's VERY annoying, but I'm hoping they'll fix that problem with the next firmware update. RioVolt email tech support is fairly responsive. They got back to me with the FTP site within 2 days. I am so impressed with this little unit, I could sing it's praises all day. But this is my second "updated" review already, so I'll stop here. Buy this baby, you won't be sorry!!
Rating:
Summary: Rio Volt joypad is the only issue...
Review: Like the Volt a lot. But, I have a joypad that sometimes turns on the unit. Other times, it does not work. Hold button is not the problem. I always check it. The lid is closed. That's not the hinderance either. Does anyone have joypad problems? It's the only problem I can find. Love the firmware upgrades, skip protection, long life on batteries, ID3 text, etc. Would have preferred a separate ON/OFF toggle. E-mail me at marklasserre@hotmail.com if you have a joypad issue or comment or solution. I have a RMA and will return otherwise for replacement.
Rating:
Summary: New Firmware Upgrade Ends most of the Negative Reviews
Review: The product gets 4 Stars for not making this website more accesible to its users: ftp://ftp.sonicblue.com/pub/rio/riovolt/ This is where you get the new firmware upgrades, and the only place I found out about is through an Amazon.com reviewer because they (the company) is still listing their newest version as 1.08. So, if you all had this before, you'd see almost no negative reviews (besides the fact that the stick figures continue to be annoying). Here's what I copied and pasted that the new firmware upgrade does (I installed it on my player, am listening to a CD as I type, and can testify that the upgrade works perfectly): [by the way, i have only one beef with it now: the plastic really is flimsy and cheap. Are you an optimist? then, this makes it lightweight, at least. Seriously, though, it's good enough. Don't worry.] -Directory tree hierarchy supported on Navigation. -Recognizes up to 999 tracks. The following six items can be toggled by holding down the EQ button for more than 1.5 seconds. Select different menu items by pressing the FF and RW buttons on joypad, and select options using the Play/Pause Button. Also, the EQ button can be used to select the different features, by holding this button down for more than 1.5 seconds between choices. -RESUME. With Resume enabled, the unit will return to the same file and time after stopping or powering down the unit. All settings are returned with Resume set to ON when the RioVolt is powered back up, and using the same CD. **Shuffle settings are saved when powering down unit, NOT when Stopping a track.** -SPEED SCAN. 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x. This controls the speed when scanning through a track in forward or reverse. -BEEP control. With Beep turned ON, you will be prompted with an audible beep when certain buttons are pressed. By default this will remain off, unless turned on. -LIGHT control. When ON, light will always remain on when external power adapter is used. When OFF, light will behave the same as when using batteries. -EXT control. When ON, [MP3], [WMA], [CD], and [ASF] are displayed. When OFF, these are not displayed. -TAG control. When ON, ID3 tag information is displayed. When OFF, the file name is displayed.
Rating: 
Summary: no resume? how fast is the seek forward?
Review: I was thinkin of getting the rio volt, but I was wondering about a resume function, but then I heard it doesn't have one, then I hear it does in the new firmware. Well if it doesn't have that how fast is the seek forward button, 'cause see I have mp3 files that are 4 hours long each, and I was thinking it would take forever to just hold down the seek forward button unless it is real fast. Some one please let me know thanx
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