Rating: Summary: Great Product for playing MP3's Review: This is a great product, just got it today and the MP3 music sounds great of my CD-RW... I have not notice any skips while playing any of my MP3s. Downloaded firmware and installed without a hitch. So why do I give it four stars instead of 5. Sometimes when you insert the CD with MP3 files in it, it does not recognizes the disc, I have to open the case and close it and the second time around it works... don't know why this happens, but I think I can live with it. I think it is a great product for its price....It comes with a carrying case, batteries, remote control, it navigates greatly through the directories and I think one of the coolest options is the ability to upgrade its capabilities through software upgrades. If you have the cash, get it...
Rating: Summary: WOW! (I'm not a SonicBLUE insider) Review: I just got this thing last night. Wow. I have had 2 MP3 CD players before this, and this one by far outdoes both of them. I don't care what anyone says, THIS THING WILL NOT SKIP! Here's some things I like about it: *It supports ID3 tags on a nice big LCD screen. Very handy for night time car rides. *It sounds AWESOME. I heard some people say that it had bad background noise. I dunno if theirs is defective, or if mine is defective to make it better or what, but there is NO background noise. The 5 equalizer settings are nice too. *Upgradable firmware. VERY nice and easy. Just put the file on a CD, pop that sucker in the Rio Volt and it updates itself. *As I said before. This thing WILL NOT SKIP. *And, once the buffer on it is filled up, the CD actually stops spinning to save batteries. Along with saving the batteries, it makes it impossible for it to skip. *And finally, battery life. It's great. I got this thing yesterday evening, and listened and played around with it for a good 3 hours or so. Then I went to bed. I woke up at 9 the next morning to find that the poor thing had been playing all night. But the batteries were still fine! So this thing has been chugging on for a good 12-13 hours on the same batteries. Well that's it. I think it's awesome, no matter what people say (And I really don't mind the little dancing guy at the bottom of the screen. BUY IT!
Rating: Summary: Get one......NOW!!! Review: WOW...I have been buying mp3 player after mp3 player over the past year trying to find the one that suits my needs. I believe I found it. I wanted to buy a mp3 cd player for a while now but I wanted to wait till it was perfect, one with the bugs worked out. This player is without a doubt the best one out there. It has all the features you will need and more. I was kind of uncertain of buying after reading a lot of people having skipping problems when they received theirs but it really isn't that bad. It takes a good jolt to make this player skip, and after the first 20 seconds it is impossible to make the player skip because the cd stops spinning to conserve battery and prevent skipping. I want to urge everyone of you people interested in a mp3 player to give this one a try. I have had a rio 500, nomad, rca lyra 128 mb, and now this and it is near perfect.
Rating: Summary: Simply the best for MP3's! Review: I love this player! I bought it a couple weeks ago - yes, it is not the best with store bought CD's - but that is not what I bought it for. I put 172 songs on a CD, and I've been playing it on the Rio constantly, with no problems. I even took a car kit that I had from a previous MP3 player purchase, and used it in a drive to Captiva Island - 3 hours each way, 80+ MPH - not a problem. I even took it over speed bumps - perfect! I love this player - especially since with the latest firmware, I can use the resume function!
Rating: Summary: The Most Amazing Music Machine EVER! Review: After I read some reviews on this site I was kind of scared to buy the product. I live in NYC and would be doing a lot of walking and what not with it and skipping would be a big problem. I bought it anyway and am definately not sorry. I walk all over New York and up and down the subway and it has never skipped once i don't even have the ESP on. I keep the player vertical in my jacket pocket and walk freely with it even if it is jarred it won't skip. I updated to firmware version 1.12 and really enjoy the new features such as directory hierarchy and resume. It has always read every file i have put on disc and has read every id3 tag. I am VERY VERY happy with this product and am looking at buying one for my spouse as well. Buy this and you won't be sorry.
Rating: Summary: Best MP3 player ever Review: This would have to be the best digital audio player I have ever used. As soon as I got it I upgraded to the most recent firmware version (1.13) which has many new features. Pros: 1. MP3 and standard audio CDs supported 2. Full versions of Adaptec EZCD Creator 4 and DirectCD included. 3. Supports DirectCD enabled disks (see below) 4. In-line remote 5. No skipping 6. No data cables.
Con: 1. 25 sec before song is played during startup. (This is normal for all MP3 CD players) I have always had all my MP3 songs stored on a DirectCD enabled disk and now I can listen to them anywhere. DirectCD support is not included in most players and I have not even noticed it in the RioVolt manual. All the user needs to do is enable standard CR-ROM compatibility before using it in the RioVolt. When you want to add more songs just re-enable DirectCD on you computer. Don't forget to upgrade to the most recent firmware version. The version that comes pre-installed on the RioVolt only supports 48 songs and does not have a resume mode. The most recent version supports up to 999 songs plus it includes many other options. BEST PLAYER EVER -Scott ziffbam@yahoo.com
Rating: Summary: Great Product Review: The Rio Volt has lived up to expectation in just about all ways. The first thing I did was install the firmware upgrade, which was a piece of cake. Then I experimented with various burned formats: CDR, CDRW, with/without sub-directories. So far it has behaved flawlessly. My only real complaint thus far is that the Headphones are kind of weenie (they sound ok but I'm not an earbud fan). Compared to the "download to mp3 player via USB" approach, I much prefer the Rio Volt's cd-burner approach for 2 reasons: 1) a reusable 650mb CDRW holds a LOT of music and 2) all five members of my family have become quite proficient at burning CD's. I would recommend the Rio Volt to anyone who is into MP3 listening. Next step: Get this functionality into my car...
Rating: Summary: Okay, this unit skips too much Review: Okay, so I actually went out and bought one of these. When I opened the carton, I noticed those really small cheap headphones. Actually, headphones isn't the proper term. Budphones is more like it. Little buds that you have to shove so far into your ear lest they fall out, and then you get to suffer from those little buds in your ear. The carrying case. What the....? I shouldn't have to take off my belt to loop it through the case. A clip-on or shoulder case would have been nicer. The skipness factor. As a test, I started walking around our local lake (Greenlake in Seattle). Before I got 25 yards, it started skipping. Skip, skip, skip. In some occurrences, so bad that the player lost track of where it was on the CD and went to the next song. Through trial and experiment, it was the fact that the carrying case was jostling against my hip. If I held the Rio in my hand, it was less prone to skip. Do all CD players, MP3 or not, suffer this skipness? This Rio Volt is literally unusable. I can't go 10 seconds without it skipping. And considering I'd be using it while walking, it's not an option to only use the Rio Volt while at a desk.
Rating: Summary: First time's the charm! Review: I have read reviews where consumers purchased many other players before getting the Rio Volt and it's understandable. I almost couldn't wait to get my hands on one of the first generation models like MyTrip and the Philips Expanium. I'm glad I held out because I really enjoy the Rio. Recording music files with .wma at 96kbps, I've put over 15 full-length cd's on one CD-R (coming out to be between 190-230 tracks). Now I don't worry about changing discs when walking to and from work. Battery life is excellent. My favorite EQ is rock- the others aren't really that distinctive to my ears. Some people complain about the dancing icon on the bottom of the screen but I like it. I rarely look at the LCD screen because I already know what I recorded on my disc and I don't have a desire to look for one track in particular to listen to. I know i'll come to it eventually. I like to shuffle tracks and rarely even listen to audio cds in standard track order. I guess it's the element of surprise. The next track I listen could be from another artist and a completely different genre and the suits me fine. However, I do think the case that came with the unit should have had cutouts for the LCD and the compass with the play/pause forward/etc. buttons. Other than that, I can't complain. I would also like to recommend Click n' Burn as a good utility to burn cd's with.
Rating: Summary: get this one Review: this is the one to buy. i'm an avid mp3 collector (with over 7000 songs and still growing). it works great in the car with the 'fake-tape-looking-thing' hook-up set. it works great in the home with the correct cable (1/8 to 2 stereo - available at any radio shack). i haven't taken it jogging yet, but have done the 'i will move it around with my hands for a while, tip it upside down and tap on it for a good solid 30 seconds' and had no problems. it understands my cdrw's made with direct cd 3.5c. it understands my cdrs made with easy cd 3.5c. it plays audio cds well. it has id3, directory browsing, etc etc. it's good, trust me. - notes (devil's advocate): i had one cdrw where it wouldn't play the tracks in the 90's and higher. i had to do a full format on the cdrw (an hour) and put the songs back on, but now it works perfectly. probably just the cd. - the remote is not wireless - on the display it has an annoying useless lcd display of stick figures dancing around and it bugs the hell out of me. hopefully in a future firmware upgrade, i'll be able to shut it off. if not, i'm putting a piece of (not-invisible) duct tape over it. - you have to upgrade the firmware from the website if you want resume, and you will want it most likely. - it's the one to get, what else can i say.
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