Rating: 
Summary: Excellent but needs better earphones
Review: Excellent features, with a well executed and flexible menu structure. The included wired remote allows you to keep the player tucked away.Overall, the unit is very good, but the earphones that come with it (both pair) are pathetic. Also, the amplifier has too much background noise, but not enough to be a problem with headphones that aren't particularly sensitive. The line-out is perfectly clean.
Rating: 
Summary: Great When It Works
Review: As most electronic devices go, they are great when they work. I had my SP250 for about a month and then all of a sudden: SP250 no workie. On startup, it will spin slowly then after a minute or two of aggravating, teeth-clenching wait, it says "No Disc." I've used new batteries. I've tried using the AC adapter. Same thing. I've tried MP3 CDs and normal music CDs. I've talked to tech support who has agreed to send me a new one ... I think. There's a bit of confusion there since the tech person has to send a report to the people who actually does the replacing and they decide if I get a new one or not. (On a side note: Although, eventually I got the right phone number, their tech support computer lady asks you to press a bunch of selections and in the end says something like, "Sorry, I can't forward you to that number because I'm dumb but their number is 555-..." Pretty sad.) But she did mention that she has been getting some complaints like the ones I had so it might not be as rare as we'd hope. But I give it a four since I was pretty happy when it was working. It has great sound. I love the back light. And it has pretty long battery life, although I can't for the life of me figure out how to charge the batteries using the unit itself. I use my Rayovac charger which charges in an hour. Also, they designed it so that it's a pain in the butt to get the batteries out. Okay, you know what? I'm giving it a three. There is a much cooler looking one coming out by the same guys who sell to SonicBlue. Check them out at iriver.com/english. There's a product called IRiver SlimX which I assume will be adopted by SonicBlue also. It reportedly has better FM reception than the SP250, which is pretty weak, FYI.
Rating: 
Summary: enough about the battery recharger!
Review: O.K. The only flaw I find with this awsome product is the lack of correct instruction on how to recharge the batteries. So here it goes. Plug the adapter cord in the proper jack in the unit & then into an outlet. Turn the player on using the jog (12 o'clock position). As soon as it starts playing, press & HOLD the jog(at the 6 o'clock position) UNTIL the recharge display comes on. Pres the jog (at the 3 o'clock position) to put an x in the recharge box. Then press the jog (again at the 6 o'clock position ) & you are recharging. It will take several hours. Invest in good headphones to truly appreciate this state-of-the-art player I am using SONY MDR V700 headphones. Yes, the printed instructions are just basic to get you started, but if you print out the manufacture's instruction from the CD that's included or from their website, it's very thorough & easy to follow. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: DONT BUY IT
Review: I GOT THIS MP3 PLAYER FOR CHRISTMAS, IN A COUPLE OF DAYS IT BROKE. WHAT HAPPENDED WAS THAT THE CD WASNT FULLY IN THE SLOT SO WHEN I PRESS "PLAY" IT SAYS "NO CD." WELL I THINK NO BIG DEAL AND I PUT THE CD IN CORRECTLY, BUT WHEN I GO TO PRESS "PLAY" IT WONT WORK! I TRIED PUTTING IN NEW BATTERIES, USING THE AC ADAPTER, I TRIED EVERYTHING, BUT NOTHING SEEMED TO WORK. SO I RETURNED IT. ALSO THE CONTROLS FOR IT ARE VERY CONFUSING, THERE ISN'T EVEN AN OFF BUTTON, YOU HAVE TO OPEN IT TO TURN IT OFF. THE QUALITY OF THE SOUND IS GOOD, BUT IT HAS NO BASS AT ALL THE FM TUNER CANT PICK UP ANY SIGNALS, SO BASICALLY THIS CD/MP3 PLAYER IS HORRIBLE. GO FOR ANOTHER ONE OF RIO'S PRODUCTS LIKE THERE MINI MP3 PLAYERS. CHECK THEM OUT AT.....
Rating:
Summary: A MP3/CD Player that will last a Lifetime
Review: When I bought this product. There were only two left, one was open. I was feeling guilty that I had even come to the store at first. I wasn't even sure if the MP3/CD player will even work. So i bought the new one and came home. I spent 20 minutes to open the damn package! I took it out, burn several CDs and it didn't work. But then I realized that all the complaints people made about the SP250 is stupid. The people that complained didn't know how to use the CD player. Fools. I went to FAQs and Emailed customer service on the MP3 Navigation. I figured it out myself and realized that I was supppose to burn the cd in data mode with Folders and MP3's. This, I thought, was cool. It is easy and nifty. I should of thought of it at first.
Here are the PROs and CONs. PROs - The good stuff first.
1. MP3/WMA playback is incredible.
2. When you have mP3/wmA mode on, the CD does not spin, giving you ANTI SKIP. This is even better than the sony G-Protection!!!!!!!!!
3. CD quality music.
4. The package includes rechargeable batteries, ac adapter, a remote control, and not one but two ear/head phones.
5. The player is very convientient and I love it!
6. There are many other good stuff too! CONs - Bad stuff...
1. The Ear phones suck. It is uncomfortable. It feels like stuffing chopsticks in your ears. The earbuds are much better.
2. The USER MANUAL suck, too. Nothing can get worse. I looked for help on the rio user cd on Navigation. It gave me exactly two lines: Burn MP3s and WMA files on your CD-R/W for over 20 hours of music. It also lets you navigate.
3. Rechargeable Batteries take too long to recharge.
4. CD player should have a variety of colors, other than black. Well over all, the MP3/CD player is incredible....
Rating:
Summary: The Best of its Type, but...
Review: after much comparison shopping, i chose the rio volt for the following reasons: plays wma files also
doesn't skip
comes with rechargable batteries
is reasonably easy to navigate once you learn how
gives good info on its better-than-average lcd screen
has a useful remote and a nice skin case
has acceptable sound
has good controls. i was very pleased with this player for the first 2 weeks. then it just stopped working. i tried changing batteries, running off the a.c. with no luck. so i sent it back, and i'm now back to square 1. i've since read about other quick failures. i'd gladly pay top $ for a really quality, really well made mp3 cd player. sony makes a pretty one, but it doesn't have the features that this one has. (the sony also beeps when in pause mode- aaagh!)
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Review
Review: I bought this player for my 17 year old daughter as a Christmas gift. I made the purchase based on the reviews here at Amazon. She loves it, uses it frequently and has compared it to other players owned by her friends and feels that she has a superior product.
Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly the best CD player on the Earth..
Review: To say the least, I was very skeptical and downright near doubtful about getting a CD Player 2 to 3 times more expensive than the generic Sony brands (in which I'm sick and tired of since my brother's CD players broke within a year. mostly Sony). Another reason why I was very skeptical was the fact that I got this RioVolt 250 as a Christmas present. But right after getting it in Amazon.com and opening the case (believe me.... the plastic cover for this CD player package is almost impervious. It took me exactly 30 minutes to get the CD Player out of the package), I was instantly in love with RioVolt 250. First on to the bad stuff, which isn't much, is that the leather cover that comes with the CD Player has its zippers on the bottom side which might un-nerve some joggers, but I always put my CD Players in a big pocket. Other than that, I don't see ANY shortcomings with this CD Player... oh, I forgot to mention that the Batteries that came with my CD Player were dead to begin with. No wonder they are said to be "rechargeable"... And finally onto the good, what can I say? I once tried RUNNING with this CD player and the thing NEVER SKIPS. NEVER.
Also, the headphones that comes with RioVolt are TOP NOTCH. Forget the other peoples' gripes that comes with these headphones. I barely noticed that I even had the headphones on while I'm writing this review. So if you want THE BEST CD PLAYER YOU CAN FIND, and want it at a GREAT PRICE, then you should immediately try this CD Player out. It's worth every cent and more. If it was worth the money, I would have gladly put my money on it. Excellent, and downright near flawless CD Player in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Two bad units.
Review: I had a lot of problems with the RioVolt 250. The first unit I got would not even play normal CDs let alone MP3s. I returned this unit, and got a new one. The second unit would play CDs, but when I put a CDR with MP3s in I got really bizarre results. Some folders showed up as expected. Other folders did not show up at all or had the first few leters of their name clipped. Some folders had names in Chinese characters. Similarily, the MP3 files, themselves, were a mess. Some there, some missing, some with Chinese names. Weird. I tried burning a CDRW disk instead. The chinese characters and missing directories went away. But now I could play none of the MP3 to completion. The unit would seize up mid-song and stop playing. Every song. I burned multiple disks in both formats, but none worked. Both my CDR and CDRW disks work fine in other CDR capables drives. I finally gave up and returned the second unit. Perhaps there is something about my CD burner (HP 2500) that is incompatible with this product. Perhaps, I just got unlucky and got two bad units. In either case, I cannot recommend this product. It looks cool, but it shouldn't be this unreliable or hard to use.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best one out there but not perfect (4.75 stars)
Review: I got this player for my birthday and I love it. I researched it a lot before i asked for it and I ended up with this. If you have problems with yours its because one of 2 reasons:
-You simply have a defective unit
-You are simply a dumbass who probably shouldnt have bought/own this unit in the first place The features are fenominal. I love the screen ,I love ID3 tags I love the remote and I will probably upgrade to the LCD one, I love the rechargable batteries and the simplicity to navigate an mp3 cd. The Earphones are good and I use them a lot, but the headphones... They feel like jamming popsicle sticks through your ears. The rechargable batteries are good. I'm not sure they last 15 hours while playing. Ive had them last for about 10 hours. When they say 15 hours its probably some stupid marketing thing and they will last 15 hours but probably when its on but not playing anything. When you play an audio CD it sucks batteries. The users manual is good enough to get started. It seriously lacks detail in most of this things other features but it shows you the basics and after that its more fun to figure it out on your own. If your a real stupidass the computer one will help a lot more. The hold switch is excellent if your smart enough to use it. Id leave the player in a bag and it would turn itself on and drain the batteries while I was somewhere else. Now I know what it does. If your using the remote make sure u hit both hold switches. The remote is handy but it is a pain to navigate an mp3 CD with unless you have the screen right there in front of you. Ill probably upgrade. This thing has never skipped for me in mp3 but it has a lot in audio. My advice is if you wanna bring your audio CDs out and about , burn them onto an mp3 cd because they wont skip, you have the ID3 tags to help you navigate easily without the stupid case, and it saves batteries. Some people think mp3 sounds a lot worse and its not quite as good as audio but i can hardly notice the differnce and if u think it sounds bad you shouldnt get this player. If you have trouble with mp3 CDs just get smart and figure out how to organize them well. I make huge ones with hundreds of songs and I can get any song easily within 5 secondsor usually less because I organize them well. They say you can get over 20 hours onto one CD. That depends on 2 things:
How much storage the CD holds
What the KBS rate is. If its 64 KBS (mono0 you could get well over 20 hours on a 700mb CD but if its 192 you probably will only get 7 or 8 on a 700mb CD. I stick with 128 KBS. Its good sounding stero and you can get over 12 hours on a 700mb cd. As I said this is a great player and if you have problems with it its probably because your and ignorant stupid ass who would probably be better off with cassette tapes.
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