Rating: Summary: Wonderful little player! Review: The Rio600 certainly is an impressive player. Small and sexy, it holds a load of music at an amazingly high quality. The difference between storing in WMA format at 64k or 128k is almost undetectable, giving virtual CD quality on the move.The LCD display gives plenty of track info, and there are lots of customisable options too, such as many different tonal balances to suit different tastes etc. On the subject of tone, dump the supplied earphones, which amazingly are far too poor for the player. With a half decent pair and the right tone settings, you'll get it sounding just how you want. The underlying source sound quality is astonishingly good. Apart from the supplied earphones, the only other down sides worth mentioning are the battery life indicator (the batteries will die suddenly with the indicator still showing 50% life!) and a slight software "sting in the tail". Don't get me wrong, the CD copying/transfer software is a joy to use, doing its' job in minutes, and it even collects all the track info from the Internet in seconds. But why does it appear to be limited to copying only 50 CDs? After that, you have to pay for an "unlimited" update version, for a few dollars. A cheap trick, I thought. But all in all, a hell of an impressive player which will soon become the only way you listen to your albums on the move.
Rating: Summary: So so Review: I bought this product last year. I was very satisfied with it for a while. But, I must tell you, you can only put 30 minutes or less music. If you exercise and want to listen the music, it is not enough. (at least for me). In addition to it, a battery goes deat so quickly. I have constantly changing batteries all the time. If you want to buy this product, I would recommend that you buy additional back memory and battery.
Rating: Summary: Definetly Not Worth $150.... Review: To put it simply, the Rio 600 has many benefits, but there are of course many flaws. Pros: Great sound quality, WMA support, Fast transfers from computer to device, Skip-free, Very sleek and tiny for easy portibility, Nice battery life compared to skip-free CD players Cons: Low storage, Software is way too confusing, Often has problems associated with it My personal expireience with it was overall pretty bad. Even though Rio says it can hold up to an hour of music, they neglect to say what that really means. 32MB can only carry about 20 or so minutes worth of MP3s. Even if you downsize it to WMA files, I've only been able to get about 40 minutes worth. You'd have to lower the quality a lot in order to get an entire hour. Also, the software will often give you a headache when you attempt to load music on to it. It forces you to first make a playlist (which is more complicated than one may assume) and then load the playlist at a different section and drag the files over to a device. The people who created the software obviously didn't create it for people on the go. However, the biggest problem is how faulty the thing is. I had mine for about two weeks when I decided to do some yardwork with it in my pocket. Although I didn't even touch while raking up frozen leaves, I suddenly felt a shcok in my right ear and I yanked the headphones off. The player said it was still playing, so I figured the provided headphones broke. I tried a new pair, and they didn't let me hear anything either. About a day or two later, the on/off switch jammed, so even if it was working I couldn't hear music anyway. Being that these are common problems, I'd steer clear of the Rio 600. Besides, there are skip-free CD Players out there, and not only are they $100 cheaper, they let you hold a lot more music and they don't break ridiculously like the player.
Rating: Summary: whats everybody talking about!? Review: i bought a rio 600 a few months ago and its great. i am having the time of my life with it. i was so excited with it untill i saw all the bad reviews. everyone was Saying it broke in a day or the software was frustrating.i haven't had a single problem with mine at all. the software can be a little confusing but THATS WHAT INSTUCTIONS ARE FOR! the only reason i didn't give it 5 stars was the battery lid. its really fragile and easy to break. if you've been feeling doubtfull about buying this becuase of all the bad reviews, don't totally believe them. if your careful and take good care of it, your gonna have it for A LONG TIME! buy it if YOU want, don't let the reviews tell you down.
Rating: Summary: Rio 600 - Average Life Span = 20 mins Review: I am on my fifth Rio 600. They are lovely, for the 20 minutes that they work. The on/off switch broke on the first one - like so many others have stated. The sound went after 20 mins - 2 weeks on the next four - you get a loud pop, followed by nothing but static. Rio has replaced my unit each time, and claim that they've never heard of the problem. But from the reviews here it appears that many have encountered the same problem. I will not be replacing my Rio until I hear some more favorable reviews. . .It's not worth the phone time!!
Rating: Summary: Good product so far, extra memory too expensive Review: I just purchased the RIO 600 yesterday, and it works like it'ssupposed to--sounds great, gets about 55 min. of WMA audio at64kb/s. The 'joypad' which selects FF/play/pause and stop is a littlehard to use--you have to touch in just the right spot or you will skipto the next or previous track instead of playing or pausing. Mybiggest complaint is that the extra memory 'backpacks' are sopricey. $... for another 32MB!! 64MB costs as much as the playeritself. It's scary to contemplate what the 340 MB backpack might cost,if it ever is released. If you can get by with 45-55 minutes of musicto take with you, it's a good buy. If you need more memory, buy aplayer that uses smart media cards--they're about a dollar a megabyte
Rating: Summary: Good Performance, Buy MANY batteries! Review: I got the Rio 600 through the Pepsi Points promotion last year (2000). The audio is great, the menu structure is very understandable, the screen has a light function that's very similar to Indiglo, and the casing fits your hand well enough that you can operate it with one hand. Unfortunately, the Rio 600 has some flaws. First, the Rio says it can run off one AA battery for 11 hours. That's true in more than one sense of the word. The clock inside runs off the battery, greatly reducing playtime. Unless you use the Rio constantly, you're going to be changing batteries every two weeks. Second, 32 Mb of memory is not a lot unless you convert your mp3s to Windows Media Audio (WMA). To do this, you will need to download the powertoys package for the Windows Media Player, it does not ship with the Rio (at least when I got mine). Finally, the control program you install on your computer to transfer songs is very cumbersome. I have a part-time job as a computer lab consultant and even I have to look around in order to make the program work. I don't even use it anymore, I just use the "Portable Device function" in Windows Media Player--which is a lot easier to use. In short, the Rio 600 has a short battery life and a complicated control program, but makes up for it with an affordable price and excellent sound quality. If you get it, I recommend getting the rechargeable battery.
Rating: Summary: The Good, The Bad,& The Ugly Review: The good: The Price! I found it on sale brand new for 100.00 Also good is the player itself. The sound quality is on par with digital cd sound. The Bad: 32mb of storage makes it inconvenient for some one who likes to hear a variety of music daily. Formating and making a new playlist every day is too much hassle. Also bad is the expensive backpacks that can upgrade your storage to as much as 340mb. The Ugly: The software. Many have reported having no problem using it. So I thought I would give it a chance. After three days of frustration I am going to take back this player solely because the program is riddled with bugs that I could not iron out. Customer support is basically non-existant.
Rating: Summary: RIO 600 IS JUNK Review: I got a Rio 600 and I have not had it for more than one month. Why??? It keeps breaking, first the light, than the firmware. I cannot stand it. THEN THE SOFTWARE AND HEADPHONES BROKE!!! I would never by this product again. However I do like the player size and function but it is junk. THINK ELSEWARE!!!
Rating: Summary: Broke in One Day Review: The item worked for the first day and no longer. I wrote email to SonicBlue and get no response. Earphones worked on other MP3 player. Recorded songs, but playback had nothing but static. Burns you up when a company won't support it's products.
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