Rating: 
Summary: Good overall, except ear pieces
Review: I just got my Rio and I must say, it's easy to use and sounds good. I took it out running and I live in a busy area. I only had the volume up to ~20 and had no problems--I thought it was plenty loud and had no desire to take it up to the max of 30. My only complaint is that the ear pieces are very uncomfortable to me and I had a hard time getting them to stay in place, on top of it. I ended up walking the rest of the way. Once I get new ear buds, I'll be happy. I was a little worried when I ordered it that the belt clip wouldn't be adequate to run--I'm no longer concerned. It didn't budge--felt very secure. And I LOVE the FM radio feature!!! It came in perfectly clear and, being that I haven't transferred many songs to it yet, let me test it out without boredom.
Rating: 
Summary: Great little player!
Review: I just got this player yesterday and I can't put it down. It has GREAT sound for such a small lightweight device...10 times better than those heavy a.. iPods (more like iPound!), trust me I listened to an iPod at the store before I bought this. I got the player from Walmart Online for $149 plus $5 for a 1yr extended warranty ($5! BestBuy wanted $20 for the same warranty!)
5 band user customizable EQ is nice, other flash players either don't offer one or they come with 5 or 6 crappy presets.Memory is expandable up to 1GB SD card now! If you are going to use an mp3 player for anything active get a flash based player specifically this one, you won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: few annoyances but overall pretty good
Review: I just purchased this mp3 today and overall, its a nice player with plenty of standard features. For those of you with customized playlists (My Playlist) on Windows Media Players, be prepaired to MANUALLY create new playlists using the rio software that comes with the mp3 player. I was hoping for a quick transfer of songs organized by my own personal playlists using windows media player. However, i guess in order to use the playlist feature on the mp3 player, you have to create them using the rio software. So after a few HOURS of assigning ALL my mp3's to their rio playlists, everything seems to be in good working order. The other thing many people have talked about is the battery cover. Its really irritating since its never securly tightened and comes off too easily. It does however come with a plastic belt clip that completely covers the battery cover. So if you leave the belt clip on, the battery cover is no longer an issue. However the belt clip makes it a bit bulkier to carry around. So if you don't mind having a piece of tape to fasten the cover on your new player, which is what I did, it shouldn't be a problem. The volume control is another issue if you want to get nit pickey. On max volume (denoted as the number 30), it is very loud, but not as loud as you would expect compaired to the max volume on a sony cd player or tape player. Since I listen to my music pretty loud, this is a minor issue. Overall, good sound quality and all the buttons are in reach of a single hand. I will say that since I ended up paying drastically less than the list price ($199.00) it was a great buy! I would however NOT pay $199.00 for this player.
Rating:
Summary: Great alternative for MAC users
Review: I originally tried the iRiver iFP-190T. The biggest feature the iRiver had was that it was LOUD. However, the majority of the flash players out there seem to ignore MAC users. That's too bad, because there are a lot of us out there who think shelling out the big dough for an iPod is out of hand. Especially with the battery situation. I'll take cheap rechargeable AAA batteries that last twice as long anyday. Yes the iRiver sounded great, but was pretty much DOA when hooking up to OS X on my G4. MACWorld magazine did the honest thing and reviewed some popular flash players. The Rio Chiba, Cali, and Fuse were given the highest honors. They were true to their word, I've had the Chiba a little over 24 hours and has been working seemlessly with iTunes. In fact, if you already have iTunes, you don't need to load any software! The Chiba display has 3 lines of text - very large. The controls are solid and easy to use. The menus are also straightforward. MAC users don't seem to have the option of creating multiple playlists (Correct me if I'm wrong - please). The transfer rate was 20 minutes for around 60 songs, about the amount of time it takes me to shower in the morning. The belt clip looks deceptively cheap. It works ok (the headphone connection is the key to locking it in place). You may prefer something a little more rugged and weatherproof. So I am quite happy with the Chiba, although I have a sentimental attachment to the name since I have been to Chiba, Japan. EXCEPT for the low headphone volume. This is too bad, because it was a big compromise to find a MP3 player that really DID work well on a MAC, and was well rated. The price was $100 less than the mini iPod. I purchased an extended warranty plan, since the manufacturers warranties on these things are about 120 days, and they are still a little buggy. But I have a reliable and cheaper alternative for the iPOD, and it even has an expandable memory slot. 4 out of 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Good Buy!
Review: I recently purchased my Chiba 256 player off of Amazon.com for $108 and it is the best bargain I've had all year. The sound quality is excellent if you don't use the supplied earbuds. I recommend Sony MDR-828L's which you can buy for around 10 bucks. They fit my ears better. The belt clip holder is fine for my use. I never worry about my player coming off even when I exercise. I have had some problems with the included software, it doesn't synch all the tracks to the player. I mostly use Windows Media Player 10 as a work around.
Rating:
Summary: Seems okay to me.
Review: I should start out by saying that the Rio Chiba is the first MP3 player I've ever seen in person. I won it in a radio station contest. As others have stated they have a problem with the battery door coming off, I have not had that problem, mine snaps into place securely. Regarding the software, I was able to use it pretty easily without reading hardly any of the instructions. I'm moderately computer savvy so I think that says a lot. I think the sound is great although I agree it could be a little louder. The tuner doesn't get the best reception but I don't use it much for that anyway. I think it's a good little player but again, it's the only one I've had any experience with.
Rating:
Summary: decent mp3 player. great for the gym.
Review: i used to have the rio s35s which was a nice little sporty player, so when i upgraded i tried another rio since i had a good experience. don't regret it at all. pros: black, key lock feature (to prevent hitting buttons accidentally), small versatile structure, plastic container and belt clip possible negative: no armband, cheap earphones
(i bought my own earphones that go around the head - work really well for running) otherwise, i have no real complaints. it does the job its expected to do - holds plenty of songs for a 2 hour workout at least, software is very usable (if you can't understand it, you must be very computer illiterate), and i never had problem with the construction - i always keep the case on. and if you complain about how cheap the rubber is, come on, what do you expect? gold-plated and diamond-encrusted players? i prefer this to the ipod (which supposedly skips) per se, because i've dropped it countless times, crammed it into small lockers, and stepped on it, and it still goes strong. a good buy for a small relatively decent priced mp3 player. esp for running or the gym.
Rating:
Summary: Stellar music player good for all activities
Review: I was a lately arrival to the world of downloading music off the internet and ripping songs from my CD collection. Once I finally joined the revolution, I was confronted with needing to find the best method for transporting and playing my music. The place I needed it most was while working out. Nothing makes a long run on the treadmill or the track go by more quickly than listening to some good, energizing music. Unfortunately, I only had a CD player. I had to burn songs onto a CD and put them in the CD player, which would skip and stop playing with the slightest vibrations. I upgraded and got an inexpensive MP3 player to help, but its quality was poor and its interface for uploading songs was very cumbersome. Eventually, it broke down, as well. So, I finally decided to go big time and get a Rio Chiba 256 MB player. Without a doubt, it was the right choice.
The Rio line of MP3 players is one of the longest standing and highest quality brands. From the tiniest portable carriers to the multi-gigabyte jukeboxes, Rio provides top quality sound and performance. The Rio Chiba (which also has a 128 MB version) is the perfect middle ground for people who don't want to put their entire CD collection on one machine, but also still wish to have a healthy variety of songs to choose from. Operating on solid memory technology, it also is not hampered by the vibrations caused by extreme movements of running or other activities. The 256 MB Chiba can contain between 42-48 songs (depending on size) to start. That's more than 3 hours of music right there. In addition, the Chiba is expandable. Using as Multi-Media Card or Secure Digital Card, the Chiba's memory capacity can be doubled to 512 MB. Furthermore, it only needs a single AAA battery to power it, so its power source runs for a long time before needing to be replaced. I am hard pressed to come up with negatives about this player. It has met all of my needs and I can't recommend one better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Great features, cheaply made
Review: I was about to purchase the iAUDIO CW200 when I came across this one locally which had similiar features, but also supported up to a 512MB SD card for memory expansion. It was new and nobody had reviewed it, so I took a chance. My first impression was that it was not well made. The case did not seem put together too well, and the battery cover comes off really easily. I actually had to snap it together a little bit better when I first opened it because one of the buttons wasn't working right. It comes with a separate little case with a belt clip, when in the case it is solid and won't come apart but it is also a lot bigger that way. The headphones seem ok and the sound is good, at least as good as my old Intel. Feature wise, it does everything I wanted but menus/navigation are not as good as the Intel was. The one big joystick-like button to go forward, backward, stop, etc. is also prone to error and I hit the wrong function alot like when in my jacket pocket. The display is small and can be hard to read. The Rio software that comes with the unit is terrible and I switched to Real Player right away for downloading music to the device (which also comes on the CD). Given the features, I guess I am happy with it, and it seems to be the only choice with this much expansion memory in this price range. If it was put together better I would give it 4 stars and if easier to use and ship with good software it would get 5.
Rating:
Summary: A great deal for the right person
Review: I'll try to add a little to what has already been written in other reviews. I've been holding out for quite sometime to make a decision between small, lightweight, long battery life MP3 players with limited memory, or ones that are a bit larger, heavier, and have hard-drives big enough to hold my own CD collection. In the end, I chose "small" because my PC is the better place to hold my library, that's where I make the MP3s anyway, and I use the PC like a stereo these days. This Chiba is super small and lightweight, no bigger than the Palm of my hand, fits easily in a pocket, and AAA battery life is great. 256MB + optional 512MB expansion is plenty for my listening habits (on the train to/from work, or exercising <-ha). The built in FM tuner with presets is a big plus too, and WMA support means it's supporting a great deal of online music you can buy. I find the controls and display very easy to use. Another review complained that they were prone to error, but there is a lock button to prevent that! Read the manual, it's short and useful. The Rio Chiba software does, in fact, suck. I use MusicMatch, and it is compatible "out of the box" with the Chiba, but I find their playlists somewhat incompatible, and I still choose to use the Rio software to upload my playlists to the Chiba because it has a size calculator. Other than that, the software is really, really miserable (though it did read and find my library correctly). It's the weakest link, goodbye. I don't find the construction to be as weak as others have indicated, though I agree that the battery lid does not *seem* secure (but I think it is). The belt clip must have been made with people who wear belts made of tissue in mind. But the little clip case itself should provide enough protection to ease your mind about shock. I found the headphones great, and the volume impressive. Ultimately, I may try to find more comfortable earbud-type headphones than the Sennheisers. Audio quality is excellent, the equalizer is a nice touch. I would encourage Digital Networks (and any purchaser of the Chiba) to get some better software. But failing that, I think that most users who favor lightweight portability, an FM tuner, and the minimum acceptable onboard memory (to me, anything less than 256 is useless) will find the Chiba a great deal if you can get it for $150 - 160, especially if you already have your own software and music subscription.
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