Rating: 
Summary: The perfect portable music player for commuters or students
Review: Unlike the other reviewers, I've had no problems with the battery life, ~11 hours on 2 AA batts. Encoding at WMA-64k lets you dump some 250 songs onto one CDRW (about 300 songs onto a CDR), which is perfect for those of you with long commutes, extended road trips, or countless nights in the library. I haven't had any problems with skipping, but if you're a commuter or a student, you'll likely be stationary anyway so this shouldn't be too big a deal. The SP-90 does not come with an AC adapter or a car kit, but what do you expect for $99?-a.
Rating:
Summary: Works perfect if you're not a beginner
Review: Hi, Bought mine few months ago and was a little dissappointed with the constant skipping. However thanks to these upgrade instructions this gadget is now pretty much all I ever wanted. Thanks guys for posting the instructions. =) It doesnt skip, there is no gap between tracks, customisable menus etc. So bottom line: If you dont feel like fidling with the player or dont have the nerves to do the hex-editor trick buy the SP-100 one. SP-90 skips all the time & that's a fact. It doesnt skip on the table or if you carry it on a feather box but it skips in the pocket. It's not really a portable and that was the reply from Rio support, too. "Doesnt skip on table - it's ok" is what they said. But if you know what a hex-editor is and feel like playing with it for 10 seconds this is your choise. Really affordable, upgradable (SP-100 upgrades work for this) and has everything you ever wanted to make those "backup" mp3-cds some use instead of lying on the floors.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice toy for a geek, not a player.
Review: Well, I've got an SP90 and have returned it in two days. Why? Pros. Really nice gadget. Lots of tweaks. Really powerfull stuff. Cons. It skips. In fact, it skips a lot. I was unable to use it in the car... This unit lacks a car power adapter - in fact, it was not designed for a car use. Unlike Philips Expaniums, it turns off immediately when you plug out the power cord while Expanium just switches to the batteries. Well, my old Expanium EXP103 sounded much better. Now I'm with Expanium EXP503...
Rating:
Summary: Tanks a lot!!!
Review: The upgrade hack listed here for the SP-90 to version 2.10 worked like a charm. Get the SP-90 instead of the SP-100, save some cash while enjoying all the added benefits (playlists! fast load time!).... Any line-out to cassette adapter that I know of will work fine too. Glad you all had the courage to attempt the upgrade (no point of return and I would have been scared to try it first) and the generosity to post the hack here! ;) BTW, the packaged earphones are the best that I've used compared to anything I've bought in the past. Back to blasting my eardrums...
Rating: 
Summary: The SP-90 is actually an SP-100
Review: I got tired of those silly dancing people on the LCD (I don't know why they put them there), so I decided to open up my SP-90 and put some black electrical tape over part of the LCD to hide those little boogers. well, I removed the screws and pulled out the ciruit board and guess what I discovered. Printed on the Board was "IMP-100". Not only is it firmware upgradable, but it actually is a "100". go figure!
By the way, my surgery went fine! it looks good and I know longer have to look at those silly dancing people!
Rating:
Summary: It works!!
Review: I tried the flashing procedure explained by another reviewer and it truly does work!! The SP-90 excepted the edited firmware without a hitch. The sound quality is very good, but the look and feel is rather cheapish. I also find the door on the battery compartment to be bothersome, it seems to constantly pop open when ever it is lightly bumped or touched (might just be a defect in mine). All in all it's worth the price...Now it's even a better deal since it's firmware is upgradable.
Rating: 
Summary: It won't play an entire CD without failing
Review: I listen to music every day in my office so I thought that having an mp3/cd player would be ideal. The product worked great for about a month. Then it started having problems where it would be in the middle of a song and it would just shut off, but it didn't happen that often. I've had it for two months now and I can't get it to play an entire CD without shutting it's self down. Usually it just plays a song or two before it stops working. I wanted to return it when it first started having problems but like I said it worked great for a month. This is the worst product I have ever purchased.
Rating:
Summary: mUcHoS gRaCiAs
Review: i wanted to drop a quick note and thank the couple people that posted the "review" explaining how to upgrade your SP-90 [even though it supposedly isnt upgradable]. i was very excited to find out that i had pretty much bought an sp100, minus the backlite and remote [that aint too important!]. the only thing i need to add is that when you open the file in the hex editor and change imp-100 to sp-90, you also need to add two periods [..] after the sp-90 to compensate for the two less letters/digits in the name. maybe its obvious to most, but i didnt think of that the first time. anyway, thats about it. thanks to yall who informed us of this trick, its well appreciated! and if you discover anything else, post another review because ill be stopping in once in a while from now on.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE! BEWARE!
Review: I wish I had read the other reviews on this product before I bought it! Everything negative about this horrible product is true. those who praise this product must be employees of the company or soemthing. This thing is JUNK, absolute JUNK! It skips at the slightest movement. There is a horrible "transition" between songs where every song ending (I MEAN EVERY STINKING ONE!) skips!! And you will be buying batteries about once a week (as opposed to my previous portable CD player where the batteries lasted for 2-3 months. And I listened to it all the time!). The "joypad" button design makes it impossible to control the player without holding the thing in front of your face to see at close range what you are doing. Not good for listening in the car as you can't control the player without looking at it! Its made out of plastic that makes it feel like one of those little kiddie CD players you'd buy for your 5 year old at TOYS R US.
BEWARE !
Do NOT buy this product! I cannot stress this enough!!
Rating:
Summary: YOU WONT BELEIVE THIS PRODUCT
Review: hi
I bought this product a week ago
I was little disappointed that it couldnt be upgraded first
BUT!!
you can!!!!!!!!!!!
Before i upgrade this product with new firmware
It skipped like every 2 seconds
But it doesnt now -+-+-+ THAT MEANS YOU WILL HAVE SP100 WITHOUT BACKLIT AND REMOTE-+-+-+-+ ISNT IT GREAT? HERE'S HOW~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EVERYONE~~~ YOU DOWNLOAD NEW FIRMWARE FROM www.riohome.com AND YOU WILL SEE IMP-100.HEX FILE CHANGE THE FILE NAME TO SP-90.HEX WITH A HEX EDITER(RECOMMEND ULTRAEDIT), OPEN THE SP-90.HEX AND YOU WILL SEE - - - - > IMP-100.............. IN FIRST LINE YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THAT TO - - - > SP-90............ SAVE IT AND BURN A CD WITH IT(SP-90.HEX) PUT THE CD IN, YOU WILL SEE ***UPGRADE*** SIGN ON THE LCD HAHA Was this review helpful to you? OF COURSE IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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