Rating: 
Summary: Great Player - Not Good for Jogging
Review: I was looking for an MP3-CD that I could use for working out, jogging, etc. Over a period of two months, I tried out a Compaq iPaq, RioVolt, Philips Expanium, and Rio 600. The iPaq and Rio 600 obviously didn't have any skipping problems, but they also didn't have the storage capacity that a CD-RW player gives you. In the end, both the RioVolt and the Expanium had problems with skipping. Although both claim to have skip protection between 45 - 120 seconds, I found that neither could actually sustain skip free performance while jogging. Most frustrating is that when it does skip, you need to stop what you're doing so it can catch up and cache the next couple seconds of data. Needless to say this is completely frustrating and disruptive to a workout. I tried two different units for each model in case I had a defective unit. The problem still persisted. All of that is to say that if you are active and looking for a player, stick with one of the flash card ones or wait until newer MP3-CD players come out with better skip protection. With that said, the Volt is a great player. Firmware upgrades can be installed easily to allow the player to read new music formats. The remote that attaches to the headphones is very useful, particularly if you keep your player in a backback, briefcase, or waist belt. The system has excellent sound and navigation controls. On the down side, the case that comes with the unit is hardly functional particularly in that it doesn't provide a front window to see the display. You will benefit by buying a better pair of headphones given that the "ear bud" headphones are barely adequate. The little characters at the bottom of the screen are really not necessary - it reminded me of an old Burger Time game. I can't figure out while Rio would take such a nice looking unit and cheapen the look by adding them. Overall the unit is great if you're not going to use it while being active. Look for Rio to be a definite player in this market with newer versions in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Sound, But Batteries Don't Last
Review: I've had the RioVolt MP3-CD player for 2 months. I like the idea of having a CD player that can play MP3 songs as well. The RioVolt MP3-CD player produces good sound, but the batteries don't last long. It can't finish playing a CD of 122 MP3 songs with two fresh Duracell batteries. Upgrading the fireware does not help.
Rating: 
Summary: Value, Value, Value
Review: I've only just bought my RioVolt, so I may not have run into any longer term problems it may have, but initial impressions are fantastic. It handles my CDs with many levels of directories, it handles multiple bitrate MP3s... and I love that it spins down and reads from memory, what a great battery saver!
The navigation is easy enough, and I've just downloaded the latest firmware (Although haven't installed it yet), and the extra feature list sounds great.
.... The dancing figures are extremely stupid though.
Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: This MP3/CD player really is the best one out there. It plays both normal store-bought CDs and MP3 CDs. It's the only one that reads ID3 info, and the only one that offers firmware updates. Unlike my old Kenwood, this one reads CD-R/RW cds. It is very light, and the skip protection is good, making it perfect for walking. I don't recommend buying it for jogging though - I tried running with it, and it just started skipping like crazy. But once again, if you're just gonna walk with it or use it as a table-top player, this is the PERFECT one. You can also be sure that it will be a long time until it becomes obsolete because of the firmware updates. If someone out there comes up with MP4 or something, you will be able to play MP4s after a 30-second firmware update.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent sounding, upgradeable, quality player.
Review: I did not have a chance to play with all the ... CD-R/MP3 players on the market, but I tried many of the lower priced players and there is no comparison. First, the player is, in my opinion, the most attractive. Second, it has a really useful display and an intuitive jog button to scroll through a disks subdirectories and contents. Third, the player has gold plated phone jacks and has as much an audiophile quality as you are going to find in a portable player. The first thing I did was to upgrade the firmware using the latest version that was downloadable from the web. Follow the simple instructions and you will have a tremendous expansion in functionality, including a resume function, customizeable EQ function, and more. .... One thing that is not advertised (in fact, the manual incorrectly states you cannot play it) is this players ability to hand disks with BOTH MP3 (data) and CD Audio on them, even with the original shipping firmware. Other players would play one or the other or not at all! You can play them both easily from the same disk! The two weak areas for this player: while the earphones are great quality, I would like to find a person that can keep these in their ears! They keep falling out of mine. Second, the software is lame. You can get it free elsewhere...so what's to say thanks for, Diamond?? If you buy a burner, you already get Adaptec's standard CD creator and DirectCD (ver 4). Also, Diamond only provides the standard version of RealJukeBox 2.0 which you can download from the web for free and it limits you to creating no better than 96kbps MP3s from Audio CD's. (The full version will run you ...!) You will want better than that for this player. WMA's sound excellent on this player and can be created best by Windows Media Player 7.1. RealJukeBox seems to lock/secure any WMA's I create, whether I turn the option off or not, so I cannot (or have not found a way) to play protected WMA's on the RioVolt. Shock protection is fantastic for this unit. It has so much memory, you will notice the disk is often sitting still! Oh, and the remote is really convenient for operating the unit in the provided vinyl case...although the remote feels like a cheap piece of plastic and is so covered with buttons I find it hard to handle the remote without pushing a button accidentally. Overall, excellent player folks! You need to get one. Upgrade the player immediately! This is one of the units strongest features! I am very satisfied with it.
Rating:
Summary: Really cool, but display needs work
Review: I've only had mine for about 3 days, but I'm already hooked. I created an MP3 CD-R disk with 128 random tunes ripped at 128 kbps and they all sounded great. In most cases, I couldn't tell the difference between the mp3 tracks and the original audio CD tracks. A couple of things. 1) I've read complaints about it returning to the beginning of the disk when you stop it, but mine will stay where I stopped it as long as I don't hold down the stop button. 2) When trying to navigate through the display, I couldn't get past song 56. I had to select song 56 and then go back into nav mode from there. ?? It could be that my disk was funky. 3) The dancing man has to go. 4) Most of what's on the display is unintuitive and I had to read the online docs to find out what it was trying to tell me. In general, the display could be improved, hence my not giving it 5 stars. I would like to see future versions implement a 2-line or 3-line display with slightly smaller characters (so you could fit more text on the screen at a time) for which users could choose what is displayed on each line. It's a pretty cool toy though.
Rating: 
Summary: junk
Review: it sounds good, but its hardly barable to listen to because it skips constantly. you cant even walk 5 feet with it in ur pocket with out it skipping, so dont get this if ur goin to use it for jogging or even walking around. but it isnt that bad for a car, because then the anti skip well actually work( the music has a chance to load when u stop or on a smoother road) the battery life [stinks] too it really only about 6 hours, and for a discman thats horrible...
Rating:
Summary: The Smart Man's Review
Review: For all of you in search of the best Mp3 CD player this is it. This item is one of the easiest and best items that exist. When I first started reading the reviews I was worried, but when I bought it I was amazed. First off all people are wrong about shock protection. The player was put through my special test and was able to withstand 1 minute of the most violent shaking that can be given without destroying the player. Secondly the list is easy to understand because it works in alphabetical order by file names, and directory level. Thirdly the updates are not dangerous as long as the file is on its own CD and the player is plugged into the outlet using the given ac adapter. The only problem I found was the headphones due to the fact that they are uncomfortable. Still the headphones give a good quality. Please don't listen to reviews that put this player as bad, because most people that give those reviews don't understand how to use a light switch and criticize a CD player.
Rating:
Summary: great product
Review: I just purchased the RIOvolt yesterday but ive already fallen in love with it. the product is amaxingly easy to use and meets all of my expectations. great buy!
Rating:
Summary: Every Bit What I Expected And More
Review: When I bought this, I was a little weary of spending so much money on new technology. This mp3 player RULES! You can have up to 20 hrs of music on a CD, which is 5 hours longer than the expected battery life. If you're into mp3's and know how to burn CD's... YOU MUST GET THIS ITEM. One thing the player did that I didn't expect it to was read my Adaptec Formatted DirectCD. The earplug headphones you get with the player suck though, get some good headphones to go with it. The player comes with some software CD's you don't need if you can already burn CD's, a good pair of batteries, and an Instruction Manual you won't need (The player is easy to function) Has anyone noticed that the mp3 player will load a song, then stop spinning the CD to conserve battery life =) Very Smart Rio.
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