Rating: 
Summary: FRAGILE
Review: I've never had a CD player break so soon after buying it. I noticed as soon as I took it out of the packaging that the entire product seemed to be made out of cheap, thin, brittle plastic. First the latch snapped after about a month, allowing my cd's to fall out in mid-track. Then the electronics inside just died. (I still don't know why; maybe I dropped it on a pillow) I still have the headphones, almost a year later- they're starting to hiss and crackle now. Excepting the serious physical defects, the player did do a good job. Sound quality was high, and it didn't eat the batteries. no backlight and no remote were minor annoyances. When I tried to open it up to fix it, it was screwed together so tightly, I enede up breaking the casing around the screws. It's just not worth the hassle. Although it sounds like a deal, I'd be suprised to find a student who carried this one with him for longer than I did before it broke.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Design
Review: I picked up one of these when I had to fly across the country recently, after my old cd player died. Shortly after takeoff, I pulled it out of my carry-on bag and the brand new batteries were dead; luckily, I had an extra set of rechargables with my camera. The 'Start' button is large, and positioned right on top, so it must have been bumped while packing it the night before, and it ran all night until the batteries ran out. The sound was okay, and it played my CD/R's without a problem, but the volumne was really wimpy, and especially inadequate on a plane. Then I had to change planes, and when I was back in the air, I pulled out the SP90 again, and it was playing away again, in my carry-on bag. The only way to stop this was to remove the batteries, which were not easily accessable (inside, underneath the CD). I returned it.
Rating: 
Summary: An okay player for the price!
Review: December 12, 2002 I have now had my SP-90 for 24 hours and have been able to check it out. I am using firmware 1.0. I have found that most of the bad reviews that I read after I bought the player really did scare me, but now that I have it and used it I find that those reviews have only some merit. The battery cover does come off and I solved that problem with a little tape
I have run 5.5 disk before the Duracell (2 AA) batteries died.
Drooped the unit to see if it would skip or break, it did neither
Very little lag time between each song, I am happy
The volume is a little low, but who wants to go deaf
Used unit in noisy room with TV on, no problem with hearing the CD
The little dancing men on the display is dumb, but the LCD read out is okay
A back light would be nice as it is a bit hard to read is low light
It spins up in a reasonable time and you must remember it is storing 120 seconds of sound to keep the skipping from happening. Not a problem at all...
I am not a jogger so I can not tell you if it will work under those conditions
Can not say much nice about the "RioVolt Getting Started" institutions the player comes with. It is not well written and forget the online guide, it's not very good but anyone can figure out how to use it. The unit is user friendly and intuition should help you run it... I am not sure I will do the 2.10 firmware update right now as the unit works just fine. If you do go to the hack sit and get the information, the author does not make the institutions very clear so if your a non-computer, programer person, it may be better if you get a friend in that area do the hack for you. I am a programer so I just knew how to do it and the hack is sooooooo easy to do if you know programming. There is a review that was done earlier in this review section that gives a very good outline of what you really need to do. I recommend you read it first. As for those that had so much trouble with their SP-90 they either got a lemon or are CD player challenged! I got my SP-90 from Amazon.com, and my final price was [$$$]counting the 20 dollar rebate if I get it back! You can not go to Wal-Mart a get one for that price so I think Amazon.com did a nice job. (no tax and no shipping charges) Merry Christmas to one and all...
Rating: 
Summary: great for my mp3s
Review: I listen to a lot of OTR (Old Time Radio), and the mp3s are hard to play on some players because the quality of the programs are so low (usually mono, and scratchy at times). My friends recommended this one for me, and I bought one and haven't been disappointed in the least. It plays all my CDs, both audio and data mp3s, wonderfully. The sound is really clear, and it comes with a lot of options. The file navigator is easy to figure out too. I never had to bother looking at the instructions. One other thing I was really worried about was it draining my batteries. It seems to handle 2 AAs for quite a decent period of time. I still wish I could find an AC adapter though.
Rating:
Summary: It bites... unless you do the firmware upgrade!
Review: I ended up buying two of these units! They're great - good on battery life, seamless song transition, good menus, great sound, etc... but Only if you do the firmware upgrade! The firmware upgrade can be a little tricky, but you'll be glad you did it afterwards. This unit is great to hook up to the stereo to play your MP3s, great for travel, or if you're just walking around and you want to listen to some tunes. A++
Rating:
Summary: it is bad
Review: i wanted this for ever and when i got it i took it out of the box.I listened to it for around 4 hours. then i walked away. i came back 3 days later and it doesnt work! i have changed the batteries and still nothing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for amatuers
Review: This was my first mp3 player.
It was my partner for about 6 months.(I currently own Sony's MD Player) Sound quality is comaparitively average. I recommend you to go with sony's.
Its some what bulky.
Though great for amateurs.
Rating:
Summary: Poor anti-skip behavior
Review: I use my RioVolt SP90 to listen to music and audio tapes while walking for exercise. I have found to be quite undesireable for this function, due primarily to the short 120 second anti-skip buffer. Invariably, withing 15-20 minutes of starting my walk, it runs out of buffer and stops playing. From then on, it plays a few seconds, then stops for as much as a minute before resuming. Very frustrating. No matter how I carry it, I cannot avoid the severe interruptions in play. I guess it would be an okay player if you have it setting on a desktop or something.
Rating:
Summary: You won't get the rebate, but it's no good anyway.
Review: This is the worst electronic device I have ever purchased, and I have bought plenty. I wanted something to play both cd's and mp3's. I bought it solely on price at Best Buy, because it had a [X] rebate. Best Buy told me to make a COPY of the UPC symbol to send in for the rebate, or my warranty would be voided with them. I did so. After waiting about six weeks, I got a notice from Sonic Blue saying that I couldn't get the rebate because I didn't send them the original. Even though they put you in this Catch-22 situation, it's a piece of crap. You can't find a cigarette lighter adapter that will work with it. When I finally MADE one, from a tip that fit and a plug with the right current/voltage, it would only work with CD's. MP3's wouldn't work at all. It has no backlight, so forget about using it in the dark, unless you're blind and used to feeling your way around.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Dud
Review: I purchased this portable cd player for my son and already it has problems. First, we would put new batteries in the player and within 3 days we would have to replace them again (battery drainer). Second, it stop working all together. I am disappointed with the quality of the product. I have to replace my sons Rio with another player. [Money] down the drain!
| 
