Rating: 
Summary: A few flaws, but a good deal.
Review: Others have pointed out the bugs in the SP90: Gaps between songs, less than superb battery life... but the sound is pretty good, the display and menu functions are excellent, and it's easy to use.I bought mine for my evening walks of 4-5 miles. I like to use the 3" mini-CDROMs, since I can get 3 full albums on one even when recorded at 190HKz oversampled. It's much better than my old standard CD player for this purpose. One recommendation: Toss the earbuds and buy headphones with higher sensitivity- at least 104 dB- that will stay on your ears. I found a pair of Sonys with a behind-the-head band for around twenty bucks that fit the bill, but I'm sure there are others.
Rating: 
Summary: beware the gap!
Review: When playing standard audio CDs, there is an audible gap between tracks! So if you are listening to Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt. Pepper, Kid A, or virtually any live album, you'll be subjected to a dropout during what should be a smooth transition between tracks! Really irritating to say the least. I've never heard of a player having this problem, and as far as I'm concerned it is unacceptable and inexcusable. I thought maybe I had a defective unit, but upon contacting the manufacturer, I've been told that it is normal for the sp90, and nothing can be done about it. I returned mine immediately for a refund. I don't know if the other rio players have this flaw. And by the way, the 120 seconds of skip protection applies only to mp3s---standard audio cds have a maximum of 40 seconds. Buyer beware!
Rating:
Summary: Very good player
Review: For the money this is a very good player. Advertised battery life is accurate. Reasonable audio quality. On the down side, no AC adapter is included and the UI is a bit strange. I have noticed that the song title display shows non-sense sometimes, but that may be a quirk in my CD burner software (not really worth researching since I don't spend my time looking at the display). One feature that I would like is album skip/advance, similar to what the Philips EXP30317 eXpanium. But for ... [the] price difference, I can live without it.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT
Review: I bought this player about a week ago and used it with mp3's and cd's and they both sound great. If I could i would buy another because they are so good.
Rating:
Summary: The SP90 can be flash upgraded!
Review: If you want a blue SP100 without a remote and backlight, just flash upgrade your SP90 with the SP100 firmware. Just download the SP100 firmware and do the following: 1. Rename the IMP-100.HEX file to SP-90.HEX
2. With a Hex editor, open this firmware file and change the IMP-100 to SP-90 in the first line and resave the file.
3. Burn a cd with this new SP-90.HEX file in the root directory.
4. Place the cd in the player and turn it on. You now have a blue SP-100 that supports playlists, has shorter gaps between songs, user eq setting, faster load times, etc. And from now on, you can just flash this player with any SP-100 upgrade without having to edit the firmware as you had to do this one time. The SP-90 is a GREAT BUY now that you know it can be upgraded.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip, Skip and Skip!!!
Review: It felt better than it looked. I mean it looks like a kids toy, that would break easily. I was totally stoked to have a portable Mp3 player! 200+ songs on a disk? Great!! But... You can't see the display very well, it ate batteries like crazzzy, but the Skipping was what made me take it back. 120 seconds? NO WAY!! how about NO seconds!! Can't walk with it! Can't use it in the car! And there is absolutly No Way you can jog or run with it!!!
Useless!
Picked up a Phillips JogProof. Doesn't play mp3's but it Does play my CD-R's and I can Run and Jog and NO SKIPPING!!
If you want something to carry, Skip the RioVolt SP90.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Support
Review: I purchased this unit Sept 2001. Late October it ceased working - no power. I contacted RioVolt and was issued an RMA to return the unit (late November). More than 30 days later I still don't have a replacement. Try to get a live person at RioVolt to talk to - you can do e-mails or internet - nothing else. I'm just sitting and waiting.
Rating:
Summary: I BOUGHT IT AND I'LL TELL YOU WHY...
Review: I have been looking for a cd-based MP3 player for quite some time. I have a Sony Clie that has a 128 meg (swapable memory sticks) MP3 player, but it wasn't enough for me. WHY CD-BASED MP3s?
I wanted a separate device that could store hundreds of songs on cheap CD-Rs or RWs. Sure, it plays my CDs, but why not have 300 WMA songs on it. WMA? Sure... 1/2 the size of MP3 and plays beautifully. WHY NOT THE 100 OR 250 MODELS?
I purchased my player for [amt] at a local store (after [amt] mail-in rebate). The 100/250 are around [amt] more than that. If this one breaks... I'll buy another. If this one becomes outdated... I'll buy another. If I have a few more $, I'll buy my wife one. ;) CONS
No backlight. No firmware upgrades. No remote. No fake leather carrying case. PROS
Inexpensive. Plays CD-RWs. LONG battery life. Did I mention 300 songs on a single disc?
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This is a pretty good mp3 player, an excellent value for the price. Navigation is pretty easy, it doesn't skip unless you hit it repeatedly when it's reading (which is about 15% of the time for mp3s) and it's just plain swell. Battery time is even better than I expected (maybe 7-8 hours)
I don't know if it's the player or the headphones, but it seems like the basses are a bit too low on "normal". there's an equalizer that partially solves this problem.
Also, be sure to rename your filenames if you have many songs by the same artist. Otherwise, you'll need to wait to see the song titles scroll. Sometimes all I see is a bunch of "Red Hot Ch" and I don't know which song it is.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly worthless
Review: I typically don't review my purchases online unless I feel strongly about it in either a positive or a negative light.
In this case, I feel it my civic duty to warn you not to even consider the SP90. I bought this because of the relatively low price (the MOJO was [amt] more at the time), Rio's affiliation with Diamond Multimedia (which is a very good company) and the fairly decent reviews it has received on this site. After providing 3 solid hours of performance, it totally quit on me and did not work afterwards. The CD (both MP3 and audio) would spin but the player would not recognize tracks or files and thus no music was produced. Pros 1)Not many - even the case looks like a toy.
2)low cost
3)Headphones were fine although it felt like stuffing a jagged rock in your ears. Cons 1)Eats batteries alive
2)Skips continuously even when walking slowly
3)No tactile feel to buttons
4)Takes forever to find MP3 tracks
5)CD spindle motor seems to have trouble in cold weather (rendering player useless)
6)Stupid dancing men are a waste of batteries
7)Case design is ugly - looks like something from the line of "My First Sony" I returned this player and ordered the TDK Mojo. The verdict is still out since I have not gotten it yet. But I expect it to give me better performance considering all the positive reviews it has gotten.
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