Rating: 
Summary: For those considering The Rio Volt SP90
Review: Note that all the SonicBlue mp3/CD players are rebranded versions of mp3/CD players made by iRiver. If you can afford the price swing, go with the iRiver SlimX iMP-350; it adds a boat-load of features, including a slim design (around half this one's thickness).
Rating:
Summary: Very good player...
Review: The sound is crisp and clear. I haven't heard a skip yet even after some good shaking. You will need a cheap power supply available from many locations to connect to house current. Also, get NIMH rechargeable batteries otherwise you'll spend a fortune on batteries. I'm very satisfied with the quality and sound.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Product
Review: Ditto to all the other rave reviews about this amazing piece of hardware. It's very cool.The most important feature for me is support for .m3u playlists. I haven't been disappointed with the IMP-150. (Note: it will only handle a maximum of 20 playlist files per disc.) Also, I have .m3u files generated by software other than WinAmp that don't work in this player. No problem, though...I just load those into WinAmp and generate a new playlist and they work fine. (Probably has something to do with drive letters in the file names). If the shock protection feature is turned on, it takes a long time to access the next track. With it off, the transitions are very tight. I'm not a fan of multi-function buttons, but after a few minutes I got the hang of these. With the dozens of user-configurable options on this unit, there is no other way. All in all, I'm very pleased with this unit. It does everything I need it to do. Hope this helps those of you interested in .m3u support.
Rating: 
Summary: Great functions, poor design.
Review: The ChromeX iMP-150 is a nice little CD/MP3 player with a lot of great functions. It's got buttons and controls up the wazoo, giving you the ability to customize the player for your own needs. I was most impressed with the number of shuffle/repeat options available and the ability to turn off those options you don't want to use. The unit also includes a small detachable beltclip control module, allowing you to access all the player's functions while it sits in your bag or pants pocket (if you have the kind of pockets that can fit a CD player). Unfortunately, while these are really wonderful, there are some serious downsides. The buttons on the CD player are poorly located, as are those of the beltclip module. It's a completely counter-intuitive interface. I still haven't managed to memorize the layout. The LCD backlight is good, but it turns on when you use the beltclip module. This is a problem when you consider the fact that you usually use the beltclip module when the main CD player is inaccessible, and thus the LCD screen is unviewable. There's no way to change this at present. The Navigation button on the beltclip is redundant for the same reason. (If you can't see the screen, what's the point? You'd have to have your playlists memorized!) My next gripe has to do with the fact that the player does not come with a power cord. Coupled with the fact that it only gets 7 hours when playing a normal (non-MP3) CD, I suspect iRiver has some sort of agreement with battery manufacturers. On the upside, it does get nearly double the time (over 13 hours) with an MP3 CD, and I've only changed the batteries once so far because I only use this player for MP3 CDs. Construction-wise, this player is one of the lightest I have ever used. I don't mind that, but the latch for the cover pulls too easily, so it pops open a lot. The CD doesn't fall out, but it stops playing, which is annoying. (Thankfully the player has excellent memory for resuming, and you can set it to fade-in when it resumes.) My final two problems concern the unit as an MP3 player. First, when skipping forward or back, there's a small wait when the player loads files. It's just long enough to be annoying after a while. Secondly, the unit seems to get confused when you skip forward and backward a lot and starts mixing up songs so a different song plays in the place of the song that was supposed to. Overall, I'd have to say it warrants a 3.5/5 rating, but it's iffy enough that I went for 3.
Rating:
Summary: easy & sleek, but lightweight...
Review: (Please see Edit notes below.) I've had the imp-150 for fewer than 24 hours and am quite pleased with its design and sound capabilities. What I'm not happy with is the lightweight, and by that I mean delicate (not un-heavy) quality of the material from which it's constructed. A drop in the grass it'll survive, but a good concrete floor should do it in. The remote control feels so fragile that I just put it away for safekeeping, and the battery hatch is held in place by tiny plastic hinges so delicate that I'm confident in wagering they'll be the first things to go. Then what... duct tape? I have a power supply for my car that I bought ages ago, and it has supported (and outlasted) several portable audio devices. It's the correct voltage & mAmpage for the imp-150, but it doesn't work. As seems to be increasingly popular with electronics, the imp-150's external power setup appears to work only with a proprietarty device (which costs an additional [price] from the manufacturer). Anyway, neither my old auto-adapter nor any of the other 4.5 volt adapters I've got lying around seem to work, which is frustrating. But the machine itself is a marvel. Once a month I do a professional dj job, for which I packet-write dozens of sound files from one computer, which has a broadband connection but can't be used for audio, to another, which has no network but is a superb multimedia machine to listen with. Then, if I like them well enough, I burn the files to audio-cd using ez-cd creator. The imp-150s ability to read packet written files (I use direct cd) means that I can eliminate several steps in this very time consuming process. I can load flies onto a cd-rw, and then delete from it, then add more if necessary, etc., until I'm satisfied with my creation. And that's my archive disk. No need to transfer files from one machine to another, no converting to wav, no audio software necessary, no audio cds required. Wow! Maybe I can finally start listening to the music instead of eternally shuttling it from one storage medium to another... The programmability of the imp-150, its apparently excellent ASP (I've had no problems with skipping yet...), the addition of a line-out and upgradeable firmware make this, for me, the superior purchase in this price range, in spite of the few flaws I've listed. I'll just have to be more careful with it. Edit: Nearly a month after I wrote the above I am returning the imp-150. I love it, but it's imperfect. I thought the problem was bumpy rural roads making the sound "cut out," but I'm having the same problem when the player is sitting stationary on my desktop. It seems like the buffer can't cycle quickly enough and the result is an unintended break in the music (maybe if my mp3s were recorded at a lower bitrate?). Anyway, after an hour or so the machine sometimes seems to struggle, and the result is jarring and unpleasant. On the other hand, I like the idea so much that I'm going to upgrade to the imp-350... Hopefully it'll tolerate country life and high bitrates better than the imp-150...
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Sound - but limited power
Review: So I haven't used this yet with MP3's (as I am still putting mine together) but I thought it would double equally well as a CD player (as it is advertised). The sounds IS amazing, the design is very cool, ergonomic (though somewhat heavy compared to your standard sized CD player). The remote is fantastic. However, the playing time on a standard CD is horrible. I commute on the subway 40 minutes each way, morning and night, and standard AA batteries (Duracell) last me 2 days. That is ridiculous. I know the playing time for MP3's is longer, but come on, 2 days, less than three hours? I'd would have bought something more expensive with better playing time if I had known I'd be spending all of my money on batteries.
Rating: 
Summary: Best for it's price.
Review: Granted, there are better players, but not at this price range. Skipping: I've only had it skip twice with mp3 CDs, both times were from really poor roads + really poor alignment on my car. So no fault to the ChromeX. Now, it skips occaisionally with audio CDs. The mp3 CDs just work better. It's like the audio CD portion was just thrown in as a bonus for people who still listen to those. Construction: Okay, it looks cheap, it feels cheap, it probably is cheap. But, it's fallen from 4-5 feet to hit hard ground a couple of times (I'm not the most graceful person in the world), and fallen off my dashboard a few times (gotta outrun those cops chasing me for playing my music too loud), it still works. The LCD screen is in perfect condition. Another thing is the plastic is really, actually, hard to scratch. O.S.: Obscenely easy. So easy, that the manual would have been fine if it only came in pdf or something like that. Gripes are reserved for the scrolling "effect." It's obnoxious. It doesn't scroll, it magically appears, disappears, appears with new text, then disappears again, et cetera. I HATE THE SCROLLING "EFFECT." My friend has a RioVolt (oldest one) which IS an iRiver CD-Mp3 Player (with a changed logo), and it scrolls (with moving characters from right to left) like a PC or Mac. Oh, and you can only have 64 characters in a title, which may seem like alot, but a paticular band I listen to has (lot's of) song titles that are 80-90 characters ("And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown" 123 characters). I know these don't really matter, but they bug me. Overall: It's the best Mp3-CD player for this money, hands down. My couple of meaningles gripes aside. iRiver ought fix the scrolling "effect" in the next OS upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: This MP3/CD player is Great
Review: This mp3/cd player is great I've always wanted to have an mp3 player. to me the only thing i hate about is that doesn't fit in your pocket that much and there is no rechargable batteries included. overall this mp3 player is still great IT IS PERFECT AND VERY CHEAP FOR THIS KIND OF QUALITY.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I have this and I love it. I cannot get it to skip without taking a sledge hammer to it. It is easy to use and works smoothly with my system. I have not had any problems what so ever. I have had many other units that did not perform nearly as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have recently purchased this product and found it very good for the price. It sounds just as great as it looks. After comparing it to other products on the market, i found that this is the one is a great buy. My freind had one of these and after listening to it and playing with it once,i knew i had to have have one. The backlit LCD display, makes this CD player very fashonable and easy to use. The remote fits well in your hand and is comfortable to when you are using it. My favorite part of this product is the LCD display.
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