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RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with 120 Second Anti-Shock

RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with 120 Second Anti-Shock

List Price: $169.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: It's good, depending on how you use it
Review: I bought this product a while ago because im the type of person who doesnt like to carry a lot of cds with me and I thought this was a great idea. At first it was great, the idea of having 150+ songs on was cd was great. Altough there are people who say the anti-skip works, it really doesnt. I used it when I walked or when i rode my bike, but it skipped a lot. I know about the buffer thing, your suppose to wait a while so that the songs starts playing again, but it doesnt solve the problem, it still skips. In my opinion, get this produclt ONLY if you are the type of person who is gonna have it somewhere where its still, if you walk or jog, look for a different product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Completely satisfied
Review: I have been reading some of the reviews about this product and was slightly hesitant to order but the price was so right and there did seem to be some satisfied customers. I received the player in the morning and immediately got a MP3 encoded CD out so I could go do a nice long training ride in the mountains. I found the remote to be quite good and the case is just that, a carrying case. I did find it to be protective and the player fit nicely in the back of my cycling jersey. The ear phones were not so good but when I got back home to look at the stuff in the box in more depth, I found the little black foam pieces that slip over the ear pieces and they work great now. They are similar to the ear buds on my team's two way radios and we do some hardcore riding with those in our ears, so I don't see why people find them not to work for them. Put those little black slip covers on them and your problems will be solved. The skipping aspect of the player...nonexistent. I was riding some of smooth and dirt road, occasionally I would stand and be riding, but no skipping. Sound was great. It made riding in the mountains with a nice atmosphere of music, quite nice. People talking about the remote being flimsy and probable for breaking...hmmmm...I guess if you throw your stuff around and don't take care of it, that could happen. I found the whole player package to be quite useful. I do know about music and good sounding things and I believe that all audio equipment has to have some bit of care taken towards it. I can see why people have problems when they throw it in there backpack or don't take the time to improvise of the stuff given to you. I thinks this mp3/CD Player is quite good and would recommend it to anyone that asks me.

thank you

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A year old already!!!!
Review: WOW!!! the first mp3 cd player is a thing of the past. although out of production i think this is still one of the easiest and best souindling mp3 cdplayer. I have a set of maxwell rechargable 1600mah batteries that on averedge give me about 16 hours of play time!!! I carry a total of maybe 20 cds in my car now instead of the 120 i used to take with me. This player reads the most scracted cd perfectly. It has great antishock altough it cant greatly decrase its battery life. The best part of this player is with the frimware upgrades you can read the newest compressions the way they should. One more upgrade would be good for mp3pro which would give you 40 hour of music on a cd. This cd player reades even the most horribly put together cds unlike its cheap counterparts like the memorex or audiovox they are junk spend the extra money and buy a rio you stupid music junkie!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great awesome some poeple are crazy
Review: this is one of the best cd players i have ever had many people say they break easy but i have had it for 4 months and it is like new those people must have been hitting it. so why dont you buy this and write a review like me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Product - Greatest Price
Review: I bougth a reburbished sp100 (61$), i think this was a great DEAL. this is very light and fast to read tracks , dont could be best. I recommend this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Maybe Choice. It depends if you like batteries or not.
Review: This, I thought, was an okay purchase. The fact that it had text display so that you can see the names of your songs was a great idea, but it did not work for every cd. And the part that I do not like at all which has driven me nuts ever since I have gotten it is the battery life. I have used all sorts of brands of batteries and I can never get more than 40-50 minutes of battery life. It literally gobbles up your battery . I mean it is preety bad when your jammin' to one of your cd's and then, bang, it cuts out on you. I think it might be because of the pointless people that they have dancing around on the bottom of the LCD display screen. Other than the battery life problem it is a great item.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great fun! Until its stupid...
Review: I bought the RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with all hopes of finally having tons of songs on a cd that would never skip. And with MP3s it didn't.
Audio CDS did skip at the smallest touch as there was no buffer for them and such a buffer would have made it cost more. The sound quality was great, but it took quite a learning curve to understand the product. The equalizers pretty much did nothing, and you were very limited in how you made your own.
But heres the funny part:
I put it on my desk after i was done listening to it overnight, and in the morning it just didn't work anymore. It would only play tracks one and two of any gived cd, and then it'd only play 22 seconds of each song.
SonicBlue has a TERRIBLE customer service. SO BAD that they havn't even contected me yet, and it broke LAST SUMMER.
If you guys really want something that will play MP3s, buy an Archos or an iPod. Archos lets you record songs, so if your friend has a song on their cd that you want, you can just record it from them.
Get something else.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A great player, BUT....
Review: ...don't expect it to last forever. Granted nothing does, but considering that I dont usually have much excess money to spend, I wanted a little more than a year of usage out of it.

I bought this player pretty early on in its life, sometime in July of 2001. It worked wonderfully for months, and accompanied me everyday to school. The earbuds provided put out great, loud sound, although the volume meant nothing, since outside noise always seeped in around the tiny phones. That aside, it read the cds fine, never skipped, and used very little battery power. As an extra note for the cds-they were cheap CompUSA ones, and worked in virtually no other player without a hitch.

As with most portable audio devices, the first thing to go were the headphones. That was no big deal, until I learned one major and unstated error. The player is much quieter when it isn't plugged in, and so you need headphones with low OHMS. It was several months before I had another problem with it, this time it wouldnt read the aforementioned CompUSA cds. That was no big deal, since I got better ones and was using those on a regular basis. Unfortunately, it only got worse faster from there. It soon began skipping constantly when I loaded an mp3 cd. It would load some songs fine, and play them fine everytime I wanted to hear them, but for others that werent listened to as often, it wouldnt load at all. I finally (after a year) upgraded the firmware to version 2.10 to see if that would help. It added a bunch of cool options (such as doubling the lacking volume), but did nothing to correct the read problems. Finally, just a couple days ago, it died. It won't even load the firmware...it just spins and says "no disc."

So, story aside:

-You can't get a better player for the money, except maybe the SP-90 Riovolt.

-Sound quality is pretty exceptional, even with the included earbuds.

-Equalizer settings are useless, except for Rock, which has a well-balanced tone

-Anti-Skip works well, until it runs out. Good luck listening to anything without restarting.

-It takes abuse pretty good...it was jammed in the bottom of my backpack quite a few times, and also took a 3 foot high fall onto concrete, and once I unstuck the laser from where it was caught, it came out working like a charm. Ironically, it stopped working when it stopped getting abused. Go figure.

-I dont know about people's navigation problems...its pretty easy to get where you want to go between the '+10' and navigation buttons.

-display is easy to read, the backlight is bright enough to keep the monsters under the bed at night, but I dont really know what the dancers are for.

-I've learned that if it doesn't work, bang it against the carpet a few times. The carpet's got the right consistency to knock the sense back into the player and get it working again.

Bottom Line (literally):If you have a burner, a few hundred mp3's, and a limited budget, go ahead and get this. If you have some more patience, I suggest cruising over to Ebay and picking up a Nomad for the same price (thats what Im gonna do). Or if you have more money, go buy it from this wonderful place.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good. very. single problem
Review: The Riovolt Sp100, for its price, is a very good buy. While the Iriverslim, and Sp250 are better, they also have the price to match.

Being able to unpgrade the firmware makes this product outstanding. Technology will advance, and sooner than we know, a new format is going to be out, with a upgradable firmware, the rio is a great buy for that sole reason.

While most people can store 200+ songs, i uually stay around 120. I use mostly 192 kbit songs, and a few 128 kbits, never anything lower. While this does eat up more memory, the sound quality is signifigently better. HOWEVER, it has been found, once you go over 250 songs, the Rio has problems recognizing them.

While most users complain that it is hard to scroll through 200 songs, change the scroll speed, FF speed, etc, they all don't understand how to use the rio to its full potential. Burn music in folders on to CD-R/Ws and they will appear as directories. Beware though, DirectCD often creatures strange folders that were not burned, such as "popnation" or "Rockathon" that contain no music. With ungrade 2.1, many new options are avaible. you can change almost anything. FF speed, scroll speed, even a custom EQ settings. Experiment, that's the only way to reach the full potential (don't tell the durability though). If you turn a rio off, then turn it back on without removing the CD, will resume where you stopped. if you turn the player off in the middle of "Garbage - When I Grow Up," the rio will contiune from the middle, well at least for my player. For playlist, the instructions are not complicated, and can done without much trouble.

The rio rarely skips, that remember that depends on what setting the rio has been set, and the charge to the batteries. a rio with low charge batteries will skip FAR easier. I've sprinted with the rio in my hand with full charge battieries, and the rio did not skip for a full minute.

the sound quality is good, but that depends on the quality of the songs you burn. burning 96 kbits songs will give you bad quality sound. The earbuds the rio comes with are good. they don't get staticy as the sound level rises. alot of headphones do.

The large, backlit display is far better than many CD players, the decent battery life, and durablity are all good qualities. I've dropped my rio in its leathercase two feet on to concrete by accident and my rio was fine. the leather case really helps stop scrathes.

The customer service, contrary to belief is good. My rio stopped work for some reason, and with a few e-mails, i sent my rio to sonicblue's HQ, paid for shipping ... amd had a new one sent to me within two weeks. The new one works better than me old one. However, if you have problems and must use customer service through e-mails, don't delete ANYTHING from the previous e-mail when u reply. that's probably the reason why other users think rio's customer service stinks.

The single problem i have with the rio is the remote. three of my friends bought riovolts sp100s and within two months the remotes all stopped working, except for a single button. While this isn't a big deal, the remote that came with my Sp100 is weak, flismy, and not dependable. If sonicblue hasn't started including the new remotes, I seriously suggest you buy a new remote if you get a Sp100. The remote looks like the Sp250s, but not black.

Sonicblue has continously evaulated the sp100 since the first day they started shipping. originally, the opening of the leather case was on the right side (holding opening away from you), and making it akward to pull the cd player out. then whenever a new upgrade went up on the support site, all new shipping rios were upgraded. this is a good buy for it's price. However, i'd suggest you look into the Sp250 or the Iriver slim.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent! A Six-Star music player.
Review: TO BEGIN
I had been looking for an affordable and reliable CD player for months before I came across this beauty (the RioVolt sp100). I was simply looking to replace my 2-year-old CD player with something with skip protection. After much research, I decided mp3-cd players were the way to go.
- CD/mp3 players play regular music CDs as well as CDs with mp3 (or WMA) files stored on them.
- Depending on the size of the file, you can store anywhere from 1-999 tracks (usually no more than 200 medium-sized songs will fit)
- Regular mp3 players ONLY play files from cards or memory chips; these play from standard CDs, and are capable of playing normal music CDs while providing skip protection as well
- One disc of ...will give you 700MB of space; ...P>TO CONTINUE
Now why I chose THIS particular product above all the rest
- Its aesthetic appeal- more so than the sp90 or sp250
- Very user-friendly interface
- It has a large LCD display with a backlight, which is a must if you use the player in little/no light
- This LCD displays the song track, title (if mp3), type, mode, time elapsed or remaining, and makes navigation easy when browsing for a particular song or directory
- The controls are easy to use (playing, programming, navigating, preferences, etc)
- It comes with an ON-WIRE REMOTE--one of my favorite features. Not only does it match, but it's also wonderfully designed and conveniently plugs into the headphone jack, where a few feet later you can plug in your headphones to the end of the remote, adding flexibility. The remote is especially useful when the player is in a case. The buttons on the remote can do anything the buttons on the player can!
- If you put an entire folder from your PC onto a disc, it will appear as a "directory" on the player; very convenient for sorting the songs by artist/album, etc.
- The features are outstanding! There are of course the standard mode settings such as repeat, shuffle, continuous, etc, but these can be combined with each other or with all the files on the CD, only the files in that directory, etc.
- The preferences are innumerable! Customize the preferences you want when operating this player. Easy to use, and fantastic!
- For normal music CDs, you can choose the strength of the ESP
- Equalizer to fit the genre of your music; even create your own
- Very sturdy, durable, and well-built, and LONG battery life
- It does not skip, not even with normal music CDs
- If you buy a car adapter you will be able to listen to your mp3s wherever you can play standard audiocassettes.
- Comes with CD writing/organizing software, includes upgradeable firmware to change with the times (latest is 2.10)
- MANY more

TO CLARIFTY
- There are no "popping" "clicking" or any other unpleasant noises produced by this player except for the music itself. These problems were on the older firmware, which has long since been fixed.
- Earbuds: no complaints. They match, work, are tiny and NOT uncomfortable, and I certainly have no complaints about the sound quality. If you feel otherwise, simply pick up a different pair ... do not let the headphones be the reason for not buying this player
- The case: The player, though sturdily built, is a bit safer in the case. Sure, you can't see the LCD or the buttons while the player is in the case, but it fits nicely and has a convenient hole in the side to plug in your headphones, remote, AC/DC power source, etc. If you really feel the need for a better case, you can buy a better one on Rio's website ... If you still have problems with the case, JUST DON'T USE IT. Or simply cut a hole for the LCD display yourself; it'll be fun.
- No matter what they will tell you, it DOES NOT SKIP unless under extreme conditions-- but any other player would, too. It HAS NOT SKIPPED ONCE for me.

TO CLOSE
- My major motivation for buying this player was the price...This is an unbeatable price for what you get! You could buy the sp90 for ... less, if you can live with less features and accessories. Or for ... extra you can get the higher model, the sp250, which offers an FM tuner. But for the price and everything that comes wit it, don't settle for anything less than the sp100!
- I recommend only buying this player if you have CDs with mp3s on them, or plan to in the future (mp3s are the future--or rather present-- of music storage)-- you never know when you'll need to play mp3s on the go. But hey, even if you don't why not buy the player anyway?
- Please do not take all of the negative reviews into consideration. I mean, it's always good to know others' experiences with a product (you know mine), but I notice that most of them are angry because of customer service, slow shipping, incompatible computers, damage due to mistreatment, etc. My experience with this player has brought me nothing but joy and amazement. You're reading this because you are considering. You will not regret it! If you are one of the .1% who receive one that for some reason does not work, it's under warranty; send it back.
- I know that you will be pleasantly surprised at the overall excellence of this player. When I got it, I would never have dreamed of being able to write so many great things about it. Believe me; I've done my homework and KNOW-- this is the best mp3/CD player for your money. God Bless!


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