SONICblue's Rio line of MP3 players has always been top-notch--and the latest iteration, the Rio 600, proves no exception. The nifty-looking Rio 600 also offers detachable faceplates, allowing users to customize its appearance (although they are a bit pricey).
But it's not the aesthetics of the Rio that we liked so much (although the über-trendy, over-the-ear headphones make another nice touch). What really makes the Rio unique is just how simple it is to use. From installation to manipulation of the player interface or the Rio Audio Manager software, it's as easy as MP1-2-3. Intuitive on all counts, the Rio rarely forced us to consult the manual--whether we were in the middle of setup, switching songs on the road, or transferring MP3s.
In addition to the nearly ubiquitous MP3 format, the Rio 600 also handles the new Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, and SONICblue says it will be software upgradable for upcoming formats.
This version of the Rio 600 ships with 64 MB flash memory, which can handle over two hours of WMA-formatted material and about an hour of MP3 playback. One knock on the 600 is the fact that it is only expandable using Rio's proprietary memory backpacks (which literally snap on the back of the player). This system, unfortunately, takes away the ability to use cheap flash memory cards (such as SmartMedia and MultiMediaCard) to expand the possibilities of the player.
The USB-only interface proves to be another double-edged sword. On the one side, you need to be running Windows 98 or later to hook up the Rio to your PC. (For the Mac, you'll need a USB port and Mac OS 8.51 or later.) On the other, the transfer rate is like a hare compared to older tortoise players using parallel ports. It took only around 10 seconds to move a 4-minute MP3 song from our PC to the Rio.
The Rio 600 is not a perfect player--64 MB just doesn't seem big enough anymore and it lacks a belt clip--but the other players on the market aren't earning perfect marks either. But it is nicely light and highly portable--perfect for working out or taking on trips. --J. Curtis
Pros:
- Well priced
- Easy interface
- Changeable faceplate
Cons: - Only 64 MB memory and not expandable with flash memory cards
- No belt clip
With even more memory (64 MB), the Rio 600 will give you even more music with customizable features and high-end audio you can't get from other players. Capture and play back up to two hours of digital-quality music from the Internet or your CDs. Seize your audio, master your mix, retool your memory, even select your faceplate color--it's complete freedom of choice.
The Rio 600 supports the most popular audio formats--MP3 and WMA--and can be upgraded to support emerging digital standards so your Rio is always up to date. SDMI compliance means you can download secure tracks from all the major recording labels. Also, upgrade your Rio 600 with separate snap-on Memory Backpacks--up to 340 MB for up to nine hours of music playback. The USB interface allows you to download songs from your PC or Mac to your Rio faster than with any other interface type.
1 A decent product to a low price
I bought this MPŁ player in May 2002 and I've been pleased with it during all this time. I knew the capacity (64MB) was somewhat limited but I got what I paid for so to say. The sound quality was good and I primary used the player when I was out running, and I can't complain too much about its performance.
My major complain about this product is the battery indicator - sometimes when I went out running it indicated that I had 100% left but then the music stopped 10 minutes later due to being out of battery. Kind of ignoring when the Rocky soundtrack stops and you have 5 miles more to go! Who can run without the Rocky trumpets pushing you forward?
Today you get MP3 players with much more capacity for the same prize as I bought this one back in 2002, but considering the price of this player today you get a decent product to a low price.
2 My Rio 600
The Rio is a pretty good MP3 player. For the most part it has great sound quality. Unfortunatally, it doesn't hold very many songs. In the instructions it said I could buy memory cards. I can't find them any where, not even on line. If you push one wrong button all of your songs are deleted. This is why the "lock" feature is awesome. You can choose some of your own settings, which is cool. It's easy to opperate, but downloading can be challenging.
3 If you like shoddy craftsmanship, then purchase this player
I bought my Rio 600 online at Tigerdirect (I've had great experiences with them) and I have regretted it since the end of the first 3 months of ownership.
I bought the 32MB version with the extra 32MB backpack upgrade... it worked for about three months, and then it simply stopped working. It would not turn on, or display anything on the screen. After several e-mails to rio's customer support, I finally convinced them that my player really was broken, and that it was not a firmware problem. They finally sent me a replacement, which lasted about three months and is now broken again, exact same problem. I will not buy an mp3 player or anything else from Rio or its affiliates. I got this as a deal for about $70; at least that's all I paid. You get what you pay for, so save up for an iPod.
4 it's pretty good
for the reviewer who wrote "This is an excellent player! (if your one of the lucky 10% who actually gets one that works). Even if your one of the lucky 10%, I'll give you three months before it dies on you..That's what mine did." - I wouldn't trust this grammatically incorrect review. I've had my mp3 player for over a year and it works perfectly fine. And if I, along with all the others who have reviewed the product, got it to work for much longer than 3 months, obviously it was the user's use of the product that caused its downfall.
The only complaint I have about the product is that the battery indicator is inaccurate. It will be at 60% and then a second later, will just be dead. So be sure to have an extra battery with you when you get under 75%.
I am not sure about the validity of the mp3 draining the battery even when it's off, but I find my battery lasts pretty long even if it's been off for awhile
5 Looks are deceiving...
Performance was very poor, battery life indicator was useless and not very good quality all around. My power on/off button broke and no one stepped up to fix or replace...I would go another direction.
6 looks like 5 stars, performs like 1
This is an excellent player! (if your one of the lucky 10% who actually gets one that works). Even if your one of the lucky 10%, I'll give you three months before it dies on you..That's what mine did. Waste of money,Waste of time unpackaging it. Amazing how such a crappy product can come in such a good quality package.
7 came broken
sent a player as a birthday gift for my nephew. i tried to order a new rio but, at the time, only available was "refurbished", and it was unusable. the player was sent back but i have neither my money refunded nor a usable player shipped back. i hope others fare better.
8 light weight, easy to use menu..What more to ask for. well?
The rio 600 is super easy to use. It has a sexy look , it's light weight, it has changeable face plates to fit your mood and it has tons of accesories.. what more could you ask for... two gigabites of storage well?
Well when it comes to memory its all what you like.. Lets say you download a song from a website. The more kb the song you download has the better the quality. So if you want to listen to a super perfect quality sound than you want to dowload the song with the highest kbs. But that would also take up more space on your rio. Downloading the high kb songs you can fit roughly one hour of songs onto your rio.
Now if your intrested in having less quality songs so that you can fit more songs on your mp3 then you want to download the songs with less kbs. If you download the less quality songs than you can fit roughly 2 hours of music onto you rio.
The rio 600 comes w/ an easy to use instalation cd and a universal Serial Bus cable.
When it comes to dowloading songs I use www.morpheus.com and then once the songs are downloaded I download them onto real one player and from there I copy them onto the rio so that if something happens to my rio I can re-download them back onto the rio from real one.
Downloading is as easy as 123 w/ the rio 600 because once you dowload the songs from the website they transfer right onto the rio. If you have dial up internet then it will take roughly one hour to download a song from a website depending on your conection speed.
The rio has tons of accesories. There are two different packs of face plates.. There is a three pack of red, teal, and white. There is another three pack of black, purple, and orange. I think that the black or white face plate looks really cool on the rio. A three pack of face plates costs around $15. You can also purchase a remote for your rio so that you can control the rio when it is in your pocket. The remote costs around $30. There are lots of other accesories that you can purchase...
9 Not enough memory!
If you need an mp3 player and have a small budget this product is great for you. Hovewer I have some complaints: My main complaint is its low memory. I expected 2 hours(written on the box), but I only got a little over an hour. The battery is also a problem. This device eats up batteries. It's supposed to last around 11 hours but only lasts around 5. The headphones [stink]! But most headphones which come with devices aren't that great eather. It's small size and light weight is great. It also has some nifty features.
10 Broke in 1 hour
I bought this PLAYER and after 1 hour of playing music it quit working. Really poor.
11 Battery hog
I've had my Rio 600 for many months now and my biggest complaint echoes that of other people: battery life. Not only does it drain the battery like crazy, but the battery indicator is totally inaccurate -- not even close to telling you how many hours of battery life remain. It'll indicate that 7 or 8 hours of playing time are left but then die 15 minutes later. I believe the advertised battery life was 12 hours, but I'd estimate that my player has never lasted more than 4 or 5 hours on a single battery. It drains significant power even when it's off, so you MIGHT get the advertised battery life if you remembered to remove the battery whenever it's not in use. In any case, I always have to bring an extra battery with me because it's so unpredictable. Even changing the battery was a hassle for me. It's encased in a thin plastic sheath that covers the battery when you remove the back of the player, but I found it very difficult to re-clip the sheath over the battery without accidentally popping the battery out of place. In addition, the headphones that came with the player died within a few weeks of use. I found the player's controls to be OK as well as the software (actually, I use RealPlayer's plug-in for transferring songs), but the battery issues are a deal breaker for me. This is the first MP3 player I've purchased, but I'd assume there's got to be better ones out there.
12 Basic user controls are impossible to use
The basic user controls (play, rewind, fastforward, stop) are impossible to use. There is a single piece of plastic over all four buttons. It is impossible to reliably press one. or the other. What's more, they are not debounced-- in other words if you press and hold fastforward you usually end up going to the next track rather than going forward within the same track. If you have hour long tracks of low bandwidth voice, this becomes tedious.
Even if you take great care, you cannot reliably use the controls. Unless you plan to hit "play" and leave it alone, avoid this player.
13 Horrendous pain to use and keep working
This is a very poorly engineered unit. I knew this when I bought it but I wanted a player that would support the audible.com sound format and there are few alternatives. I find myself having to remove the back of the unit frequently as the unit stops working for no apparent reason several times an hour. This unit is a turkey.
14 Good luck getting help when it breaks....
I got my Rio 600 for Christmas this year and it was frustrating trying to install the software and get it working. Once I'd figured that out, I listened to it for 2 hours total before the unit completely died. I have spent days trying to get email help from tech support and once I finally got a guy on the line at tech support (on a half-hour long distance call) he said they are no longer making Rio 600s and I had to take it back to the store for a refund. He couldn't help me. What a waste. Sonic Blue has abysmal customer support and products that fail right out of the box. Think seriously before buying a Sonic Blue product. Their products are nice - full-featured and easy to use - but if it breaks, you're stuck with it and they don't live up to their warranty.
15 9 months and still working
I bought this about 9 months ago and have used it 2-3X a week for period of 30-60 minutes while working out. Get the 64 MB not the 32MB otherwise you'll be limited to 5-6 songs.
The case: reasonable, can't always read the menu but has never fallen off even during B-ball.
The earphones: weird but lightweight, single ear pieces and I'm still using them although should buy a padded set of headphones.
The software: A real pain, I have to click thru Realplayers advertisements every time I want to transfer mp3s from my PC. Menus are not intuitive and realplayer often saves my songs anew unless I make them properties, attributes read-only...so a song I downloaded a year ago suddenly has a new date on my hard drive.
The battery: change them often. I always worry about changing the battery because this involves carefully removing the back plate that covers a metal connecting clip with about 24 tiny prongs -- Bend one prong and you're out of luck; however, just take a 2-3 minutes and things should be fine.
The buttons; tiny but your fingers get used to them.
Overall -- some flaws but hey, it's new technology and still works well.
16 Nice, but not worth it
the rio 600 is a sharp player. the sound qualty is great, the features are great. but it isn't worth it unless you have a small collection of audio. it just can't hold that much. 64 mb can hold max 25 good length mp3's. and if you want to upgrade sonic blue is the only palce to buy new memory. instead of removable memory cards, they sell backpacks specially for the rio, and the biggest memory card they sell is 128 mb. the controls are also very difficult to work. they are small and you tend to hit the wrong button. if you are looking for a small mp3 player with good sound, it is nice but i don't think it is worth it.
17 Problems? What?
Purchased my Rio 600 about 3 months ago and i must say i am pretty impressed. I read many complaints and wonder to myself if i am the only electronic-literate person that visit's this website. Or maybe i just don't have fat fingers or DROP it everyware. :-P
Nevertheless, i take it snowboarding and through pretty hard falls it stayed together. My battery life is near 8 or 9 hours. Prehaps other people have problems with battery life because volume is too high or somthing? And another thing, if you are a reasonable age (lets say.. 40 or less?) the LCD ISN'T HARD TO READ, get some bifocals if it is. For people complaining about overall quality-of course there will be more problems with these then other MP3 players, this specific model sold more than any other, so obviosly the more units sold the more defective untis there will be. Thanks and have a good New Years.
18 Decent Player, But Beware of a Few Things
I got my player earlier this year and have had a fairly good experience with the unit. First of all, I tried the software that came with it (RealPlayer), and immediately stopped using it and took it off my computer. It does not work well for one, and secondly, RealPlayer tries to take over your computer (and your life). Advice #1: I have been using Windows Media Player with the downloadable driver for the Rio Player, which works smoothly.
I use mine primarily when I am running, mountainbiking, and motorcycling and have had no problems with shock or skipping. But, the headphones lasted a month or so before developing a crack in the wire and then start crackling. Advice #2: Buy some quality headphones if you want good sound and reliability.
The other complaint that I have is with the battery draining after the unit has been turned off. If I put a battery in and play it often, it lasted a reasonable amount of time. But, if the unit sits (in the OFF position) it will still drain the battery down completely within a week or so. Advice #3: Use rechargeable batteries.
Overall, this player does sound good and has some nice features. I continue to use mine with good performance, considering the downfalls mentioned above. I do, however, question the integrity of the SONIC BLUE/RIO brand of products from this experience and from similar experiences from other fellow consumers. I don't plan on getting the backpack expansion for this product because I've heard of quality/performance issues from others. Unless they can prove to me that they are going to make a good product and stand behind it, I will be leary about any of their future products. Hopefully, reviews like this will make a difference so that everyone wins :)
19 Try a different MP3 player
We have had one of these for several years; long before the proliferation of MP3 players. Besides, we thought the price was affordable for a gift for my one of my teenage sons.The whole process was a mistake from the beginning I think now in retrospect. I thought it would be easy to add a backpack for more memory and as it turned out we had a heck of a time locating them. They are only available at their website so you can't just run down to your local electronics store. That was the first problem. Next the darn thing seemed to only play for short periods and before you know it it is buried in the clutter of a teenagers room. Eventually I realized it wasn't getting much use so I hunted for the backback; you might have better luck deer hunting in the broad daylight of your big city downtown! Eventually I located the memory backpack through the website . I say eventually because they were on back order for the longest time. While I was at it I got some other accesories so after I get some feedback on the accesories including the additional memory I will report on the quality of this "upgraded" player. If you want to avoid some hassles now than look for another player. So far it has been an ongoing bad experience.
20 Not Happy.
I go this mp3 player because I have a mac and it was one of the few that were mac compatible at the time of purchase. I already owned the Rave mp3 player by sensory science, which is an excellent peice of equipment especially for the price. First of all, loading the rio 600 is a pain and it drains the battery more than playing it does, or so it seems. and a lot of times it craps out in the middle of a song so you get half of the mp3. Secondly, the buttons are also a huge pain. I think maybe I was spoiled by the buttons on the rave player but these buttons are difficult to use, *especially* while jogging. somtimes you really have to mash them (eg. leave scratches from my fingernails) and other times you just barely brush them. Also, the on-hold-off slide is very annoying. I also didn't like the way you change the batteries. Just seems more difficult than it should be. I definitely do not recommend this product. Sonicblue engineers were a little too keen on the *cutesy* image than practicality on this one.
21 Get ready for problems
I should have read more of the reviews already posted before getting the RIO 600! Most of the bad experiences posted happened to me as well, starting with the ON-OFF switch falling off within two months. It is also a battery eater to end all battery eaters. I have a battery recharger but this beast only likes fresh blood, recharged batteries are a waste of time since they will only work about 10-15 minutes and then die.
Next, the controls. Hard to use to say the least. Menues are in such small typeface you had better have very good vision or else forget about being able to read what is displayed. The Play/Stop/FF/Rewind single button is extremely sensitive. I can't count the times I wanted to pause something I was listening to and instead it went into FF or Rewind.
The battery location is another flimsy joke. It is hard to get the protective cover on and off and there is no reason for this. $5 kids toys have better battery compartments than this thing has. I can't count the number of times I have lost the protective cover and had to hunt it down. It is a cheezy piece of thin plastic with a couple of tabs that have to be inserted just so or it won't lock in place.
Trust me, I won't be buying another RIO product unless I see it in my hands and examine it closely for all of these types of design flaws. It is a real shame too, since the sound quality and reliability of the actual player are first rate. It is just too bad they wrapped it in a dime store quality case.
22 Don't!
My Rio 600 power switch fell out! The case is
so poorly designed that squeezing it in my hand causes the top
seam to open. Mine was in my backpack and must have gotten
squeezed so the switch fell out. So either I send it back
(and take my chances of getting who knows what in return) or
use a toothpick to turn it on and off.
Otherwise (!), it's a good MP3 player.
23 battery hog
this player is really nice, it has a cool look, good design and awesome lcd. The EQ is one of my favorite fucntions, and the playlist editing is a must for all mp3 players. Everything is nice with it, except that it EATS BATTERIES LIKE IT IS DRACULA SUCKING OUT THE BATTERY JUICE AS IT PLAYS. ITS LIKE A HUNGRY HOG THAT INHALES ITS FOOD, ONLY ITS A BATTERY HOG AND INHALES THE BATTERIES. It says it has 6 hours of battery life left, and it all of a sudden says it has 2 minutes left and i have to replace batteries. I have had this for a month and i have used about 16 batteries already, its gone from lasting for 20 minutes(3 times) to 11 hours, but 11 hours only once or twice. On average, about 4-5 hours is what you will get from 1 battery. If this was a 2 battery unit, i wouldnt touch this, but one battery will do. Once or twice the power has shut off at a random time, but otherwise, this was a great deal.
24 Poor Design, Awkward interface.
The RIO 500 was excellent. When in ceased working I sent it to the folks for repair. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER!!! I gave up and asked for a replacement. The Rio 600 came shortly.
The memory is non-standard. If you want more, Rio is the only place.
The battery compartment is difficult to get to.
The interface could be better.
Hmmm On the plus side
It is Audible Ready. It has (as far as I can tell) unlimited bookmarks.
25 Good to take running
This MP3 player is pretty easy to use and easy to set up. You don't have to be a computer nerd to use it. The design is stylish, and it comes with a belt clip.
I've found this MP3 player is quite nice to have while running or exercising. Unlike CD players, it will not skip - so you don't have to hold the thing like a goon the whole time you're running.
The downside is the memory. 64 meg. can only hold so many songs, and of course, the higher the quality the more memory each song takes up. It can hold somewhere between a half hour and an hour's worth of songs. This isn't a problem if you're using it to take with you while you're jogging, but it's not the sort of thing you want on a 5 hour plane ride.
Erasing and adding tracks to the MP3 player doesn't take too long (maybe 10 minutes), but it is a pain if you change the playlist everytime you want to go to the gym.
All in all, this is a neat toy. I'm pretty happy with it.
26 There's a problem!!!
If you have one of these and you can only fit about 6-8 songs on this(I have had the same problem), don't go looking for another mp3player! You just have to buy a backpack 64mb or higher. If you don't have this problem, then I think this is a great mp3player! It has great sound(which you can customize) and it doesn't skip at all! If you are looking for a good mp3player at a good price, then this is it! It's Great!I guarruntee that of you buy this product with another backpack (64mb or highter), then you will think it is great also!
27 Cheaply made
I admit - when I got the RIO, I was excited! I thought it was a good size, light, and worked just fine, despite having severly limited memory. Well, that's all changed. The thing must have been made from the cheapest materials available. My power switch broke after 2 weeks, and I wan't even flipping it that often. The battery indicator gives NO accurate indication of the juice you have left. Every time you look, it says there's plenty of power left, yet the thing can die at any time. The software is clunky and buggy. Also to top it off, when you get that "memory backpack," it's still a disappointment, because it's treated as a separate player. Suppose you have a bunch of MP3s that are around 4MB, and you use all but 3.6MB of your player's internal memory. Adding a backpack is like adding a hard drive - it just gives another location, and it's a real pain to have to switch your "source" back and forth to juggle the tracks so that you can make THESE ones fit on THIS memory part, and THESE others fit on THAT one. Couldn't the software try to calculate where to put the tracks so that it wasn't so tedious, and was easier not to waste space? This turned out to be a real turkey, and I have 3 friends who also have had the things break on them within two months.
28 Mine is Great
I ordered this thing and then read the reviews(dumb I know). When it arrived I was concerned. I use it for Audible Books. I opened the box hooked it to the computer. I had no trouble getting it up and running. It seems like a quality product. Not at all [as bad]as others have stated. I use my own ear buds as preference, the ones that came with it work fine. I have used it for many many hours and have not had a single glitch. I am very pleased with this product. I really don't see what the others were complaining about.
29 Nice concept, but I'm not a fan....
I bought this player because my first one, Rio PMP 300, was a good little unit until the transfer port gave out (I had it for about three years). I had high hopes because it got generally good reviews. After about a week exploring software options, I settled on using the MusicMatch interface, which wasn't the best, but it worked. The software that was recommended, RioPort Audio, did not work at all with my computer's usb running Windows 98.
I was greatly surprised that after about a week of use (the sound quality was excellent), I was disappointed when my headphones started fading in and out. Well, after trying to rotate the headphone jack in different orientations, the entire connection finally failed and no sound at all came out of the unit's jack (I even tried different headphones). I assume that this was because the same port is used to connect the usb transfer cable and that somehow I had damaged the connection contacts. I returned it to Amazon for a refund.
All in all, I have to say that my experience with my PMP 300 was a good one, but the Rio 600 failed to live up to my expectations. It seemed to be a quite fragile construction and I need a durable unit since I like to jog with it about three times a week.
I love the concept of an MP3 player for jogging, but I haven't found a good, reliable unit with the features that provide the excellent listening experience that I expect.
30 It was nice when I bought it
I've owned the Rio 600 for about a year now. It worked well back then and it was working well until a few days ago. I'll outline my history with the Rio below:
A few days after purchasing the Rio, I dropped it (accidentally) from a height of about three feet onto a tiled floor. The magnitude of the damage shocked me: the on/off sliding switch flew out of its socket, the battery backpack detached, and the door covering the battery appeared to have broken away from its position. I pushed the sliding switch back into its socket - amazingly, it worked - and I found that although the battery door had detached, nothing had broken. Then I slid the backpack back into place and it was almost as if nothing had happened (the on/off switch was still a little loose). I decided to use the included carrying case whenever using the device outdoors, and not coincidentally, there were no more breakage incidents.
About five months into my Rio experience, I decided that 64 MB of space wasn't cutting it anymore. The Rio could only hold 50 songs at 32Kbps compression rates - it sounded terrible. When I hooked this up to my car using one of those nifty cassette adapters, I found that the sound was simply terrible. It was very quiet, and when turned up, it was tinny and annoying. It sounded like the very low and the very high ranges didn't even copy to the device, which leads me to another peeve. You have to use Windows Media Player (on PCs, anyway) to use the Rio, and this is not the most reliable method of copying. Anyway, back to the storage issue: I purchased a 64 MB backpack from SONICBlue's website for an outrageous amount of money. After installing it, I was chagrined to find out that only 95 songs could be put onto the device in total, leaving me with a gaping amount of space at 32Kbps compression. It was annoying, to say the least.
One thing I liked about the 64 MB backpack was that it included a rechargeable battery. This worked fine until the recharging Rio was sat on by one of my friends. This knocked the recharging port out of alignment, and that was it for the rechargeable battery. I hadn't registered my Rio so there was no warranty, and even if I had registered it I would have been out of warranty anyways.
With my dead Rio in my hand, I decided to get a 5 GB iPod, which I received recently. To my gleeful amazement, I put 563 songs on it, and it's not even half full. I can say with certainty that the iPod is a superior product.
The bottom line: while a year ago I might have recommended this product, I simply can't anymore. The amount of space isn't enough for any serious music fan's needs, and the compression rates aren't high enough to listen to in a car. Go with an iPod instead of this product.
31 Awsome!
When I baught this, I was worried, 'cause I'd heard there were a lot of battery problems and such. Not so! I've had no problems at all. The great thing is, even though it doesn't have more memory than its competitors, it plays WMA files, so you can fit tons of music on it (I got 51 songs, and they sound great!). Also, the earbuds are much better than you think. They look really funny in the picture, but they are actually quite comfortable. It also has great internal software. Instead of cycling through information for the song you're listening to, they gave the screen good enough resolution that you can see everything about the song (name,format,lenght,bitrate,volume, track number, etc.) on there at once. It doesn't take a second or two to move through menu options like some, either. I've owned several mp3 players, and this one has more thought put into how it works than any other I've seen. Also, it's really customizable, and upgradable for future formats, more memory, lots of stuff. It has great sound quality.The one thing that could be a little annoying is that the buttons are kind of small. This doesn't bother me, but if you have big hands, this may not be the player for you. All in all, this thing is a great value (especially if you get it used, like I did). In short, get this one! ; )
32 I personally do not like this player
I am only speaking of my personal experiences, and i cannot necessarily speak for anyone else here when i say that i really do not like this player. Some people think that this player is flawless, but from my experiences, and my two friend's experiences, i can say that this player is not worth a cent that you spend on it. I am not a liar, and maby they fixed the problems that i speak of, but i would not reccomend this player to anyone. i have gone through 3 of these players, and none of them have worked correctly, unless you call shutting off after an hour "working correctly." and the 3rd one i got didnt even start up! and the customer service for SONICblue is terrible. if you can get through to them, ill tip my hat to you! the player randomly deletes my playlists, and hey, 64 megabites is not a whole lot guys. you could buy many other mp3 jukeboxes out there with 50x the memory for the same price. personally, i went the way of the mp3/cd player. they can hold about 240 songs per cd, and you can also play normal cds on them (just in case all of your friends dont have the tecnology that you have and you want to listen to one of their cds). i reccomend a phillips mp3/cd player; i havn't encountered any problems with mine. i hope my review has opened your eyes to the flaws in this mp3 player, and i think you should consider all the possibilities before you choose this one.
33 Read this before you buy the Rio 600!
I am a 15 year old audiophile and I got this mp3 player for christmas last year. I was really excited, because of all the good things that had been said about mp3 players (this one in paticular). I hooked it up into my mac and downloaded a very small playlist; most people could fit about 30 min, but with lower quality of music (around 96 kbps), I got about 45 minutes on it. The mp3 player is cool because it is completly skip free, and it is also very durable (I dropped it from waist hight onto asphalt, and it worked fine afterwards, save a few scratches).
But after about a month or two of using it, I started experiencing glitches. The battery level would fluctuate from 100% to 50% and back again and about 3 hours after replacing the batteries, they quit on me. This thing EATS batteries like no other! Also, every once in a while, the mp3 player would automatically delete all the songs that I had downloaded onto it.
I emailed SONICblue, and after about the 5th or 6th email, they responded saying that they would replace the player. I got my second, and it had the exact same problems as the first one did! I emailed again for another or a refund, but they never replied. I went to [local store] (where we bought it), and they gave us a 3rd one. This one didn't even turn on! I couldn't do anything with it. So, about a month before the warrenty ended, I got store credit for it and bought a PlayStation 2 : ) (no complaints there).
My friends with this player have had the same problems with the player and costomer service as i have had, and so have the people on amazon. Please reconsider buying this defective product.
34 This player is flaless what are these people talking about
What are these people talking about! This player works geart. Nothing anyone has said bad about this player being bad is true. If you want a player that you can really use and that is durable get this one. I got this for 100 bucks and its a great deal. If you like music then buy this.
35 Works but I really can't recommend
I purchased this player and have used it now for several months. The player & software work but based on my experience I really can't recommend purchasing this unit. My reasons are that 1) the battery life seems very limited and the player stops working usually after about 2-hours of play. I constantly have to change the batteries and the old ones still have life and work fine in my Walkman. 2) the player's software seems to be problematic and will lock-up on many MP3's that play perfectly fine on my computer. Sometimes the player will just stop for no apparent reason. 3) finally, the menus are a little difficult (bass & treble) to operate when exercising and the skip forward and backwards features to not seem to operate effectively.
36 So much for quality control...
I would love to write a review of the performance of the Rio 600 MP3 player, however, I could not get mine to work. I purchased the product brand new and sealed in it's packaging. There was no slide switch for ON/OFF, so I had to package it back up, and am now attempting to return it.
Just a note to beware of this product -- great price, but at the cost of flimsy construction? Maybe it's great, but I've seen multiple reviews to the contrary regarding durability and battery life.
37 I Love my Rio600
I love my Rio 600, Hate the software that came with it. After a search for freeware online I found A music player called dBpowerAMP and they had software on their website that you can download so you can point to a song right click the mouse and convert the song to whatever format you want, and download it to your rio 600.
38 Poor Quality Control
I am the IT manager for a large company so I am fairly technically adept. I received a RIO 600 MP3 player for Father's Day this year. I installed the software, which was not user friendly at all. I then installed the battery and noticed how paper-thin the plastic parts of the player were. When I plugged the player into the USB cable to download songs, there was a loud "pop" and smoke came out of it. I returned it to the store and bought a Creative Labs Nomad II C and love it. It is built well, the software is very easy to use, the controls are intuitive. The Nomad is a great little machine.
39 Not too darn bad!
I think this product (Rio 600 64mb) has a very specific application. I'm what you'd call a geek on the go, i always have access to a computer and yet i'm out doing stuff. So for this application, it's great to have a couple hours (i suggest WMA-64 encoding, good space saver for this amount of storage, and sound quality is nice) of music for me to access. Reason I gave this 4 stars is the price was a bit steep (100 bux) and the included headphones are a bit lax. However, just purchased sony street wraparound headphones and they do a great job. The sound reproduction from the Rio is brilliant, the belt clip holds solid, and AA batteries are cheap. If this situation sounds like you, hook it up. I'm very satisfied so far.
40 Rio 600 64 MB Works Great with Audible
...I had previously had the Rio 300. This is a very nice product and works well with the audible.com audio. I actually look forward to my 1 hour commute thanks to both of these. The battery life is great, downloading material is fast. I highly recommend... the rio 600 64 MB...
41 Not a solid product
I purchased by Rio600 after my Rio500 inexplicably quit working altogether. I would have used another brand, but I primarily use the MP3 player to listen to books from audible.com and there are a limited number of compatible brands. The Rio600 seems really flimsy, the buttons don't work consistently and the battery gage shows full and then jumps to empty within 2 minutes. In addition, the unit emits noise through the output that makes it very difficult for me to use with my SoundFeeder (which is a device that broadcasts the output onto FM radio, so that I can listen in my car without having a cassette input). I would avoid SONICBlue products if possible.
42 the kng of POS Mp3 players
firsdt i bought a 32mb rio at circut city, the keypad didnt work and i was forced to retured it, after that i bouht this 64mb thiking that Rio wold put a little more money into the product, NOPE. after a week te usb cabel didnt work, u know whats weird how they have FM radios on thingsthat dont need radioson them BUT A MUSIC PLAYER THEY SEEM TO NEGLECT PUTTING A SIMPLE RADIO ON, WHAT GIVES. im glad this player got stolen from me so know i can buy a rea MP# player
43 Poor Quality Player and Bad Customer Support
I purchased the player as a gift needless to say after about a month of use the machine stopped working. MP3's would play for a short while and just freeze the machine. The switch would not power down the machine and I would have to remove the batteries in order to reset it.
I have had nothing but several weeks of emails with customer support and have finally received a replacement. Only trouble is this replacement does not work at all. It does not even switch on.
For those of you who may doubt the bad reviews here, I suggest you also look at ...the Better Business Bureau for some insightful customer frustrations
44 DO NOT BUY THIS!!!
I received this MP3 player for x-mas and from the start it had problems. First it would shut down uneeplainable and more recently the battery life has decreased to a pathetic level. I am at Amazon right now to buy an Intel MP3 player.... Do yourself a favor and dont buy the Rio
45 I really like this player but...
The Rio 600 is a very capable player but the included headphones and software bite. I use "Music Match Jukebox" as the software for the Rio 600. With MMJB you can use leveling and even apply DFX effects to the tracks before you download them to the player. Like any audio equipment the quality of the output depends heavily on speaker quality. I listen to the Rio through a pair of Sony MDR-V600s and the sound Kicks.
46 Good player but does have some problems
Overall I think this Rio 600 is worth the money. It is reliable, holds a lot of music, sounds great and doesn't skip. I primarily use it for working-out and running. I do like it because it's small enough to wear comfortably so I take it pretty much everywhere. However the headphones are not that great so I bought some Sony sport water resistant ones that sound much better. I also have the problem where it sometimes either won't turn on or it does but freezes and the only way to fix it is to take the battery off and reconnect it. That is a minor inconvienience but I also would rather not have to do it. But as I said, I DO feel is is worth the money and you will enjoy your favorite downloadable songs.
47 Good player, eats batteries, terrible support
The player works great. I've had it a month.
I've never gotten more than 5 hours of battery life (11 is advertised). The battery indicator is almost useless: 60% < 6 hours really means CHANGE THE BATTERY NOW!
Email support is useless. Regarding the battery issue: it took over a week for them to tell me to forward my request to .... (You'd think they'd either update their website, or forward it themselves!!) I'm still waiting for a real reply...
48 Wish I had read more reviews
I bought this unit based on the feature list, which looked pretty good. I also read some technical reviews, which all indicated it was a "hot" product.
Now I wish I had spent more time reading other people's experiences. I was able to easily connect to my computer and transfer songs, but as soon as I hit the play button, the whole thing freezes, including the power button. I called tech support, and they pretended like this was not a previously recorded problem...which of course is stupid, because after reading the reviews on this site, I saw several other people with similar problems. Per their recommendation, I am going to send it back to them for "repair", but based on what other people have written, I'm guessing they will simply send me a new unit, and that chances are pretty high that won't work either. I would have felt better if they had simply admitted some units have a problem, rather than pretending this is rare.
I also found some really annoying stuff on their web site, I for instance got an nasty database error message when trying to submit my problem electronically...and also, where you have to enter when you purchased it, the year selection only went up to 2001. The latter not a big deal perhaps, but it shows this company has poor quality control.
Based on my faulty unit and the poor tech support, I do not recommend purchasing this product.
49 Worked great - for two days. Support? What's support?
SONICblue, you let me down. You made me this light, easy to work portable player that sounded great and didn't cost an arm and a leg, and after a couple of days you replace it with a unit that plays distorted garbage (when it wants to turn on at all). I didn't mind that I had to wait 5 hours before I could use it, nor that you changed my MP3 file names when I edited your database because you didn't pick up the song information correctly, or that I had to spend lots of time cleaning up the database because you wanted to include every stupid little WAV file on the entire hard drive. Then you tell me to go to your website if there's any problems, and you tell me that the unit you just sent me has a bad charger, and you'll kindly send me another one if I just click on this link here. And the link doesn't work! Nor does the report-a-problem link! And when I try to send you email, I'm informed that you're no longer providing customer support at that location, and that I need to retype my mail and send it to another address! And they don't respond (funny how the put-me-on-the-mailing-list link seemed to have worked the first time, though). Then I found out you sent junk to other people as well (some people a couple of times), and have been doing it for some time now! What, did you only send fully functioning units to those doing editorial reviews?
50 Defective and no remedies
Defective product. When returned to manufacturer, they do not repair or replace, but promise to furnish replacement if and when they get some into the service center. Though units are being sold, there are none available to customers as replacements.
The product is a dog and the company is worse.
51 Just OK
The RealJukeBox software is not so great. The biggest drawback is the inability to upload an entire playlist into the Rio 600.
52 Don't buy it
I've now gone through two of these devices. I experienced the same problems others have described on both units. Specifically, the battery does not hold its charge even when it is not being used. Also, the unit does not always turn on even when it is charged. What's even worse is customer service. I sent them an email and they respond by directing me to send my email to another site. Why didn't they just forward it themselves? Either way, they never responded. Bottom line...the unit doesn't deliver what it promises and customer support is non-existent.
53 Avoid this player!
STOP.... don't buy this piece of "_ _ _ _ ". I received the Rio 600 with my monthly subscription to Audible.com. I think they sold me a refurbished model because it arrived in a plain white box. At first, I was impressed with the cool design, small size, and fast loading memory. However, using the unit is a total headache. The player controls are difficult for normal-size fingers, and the unit continually cuts off for no apparent reason. Also, if you try to rewind a few seconds, don't be surprised that you're taken to the beginning of the book. Ten minutes later, after queuing up your original position, the Rio may suddenly cut off and you will have to repeat this ridiculous process again. I've decided the Rio makes a good rock for breaking windows.
54 May help rio users
I have owned my Rio 800 for one year before any problems developed.
And I think I have found the problems.
The problem IS NOT the battery as it is.
I tested my battery and it is fine after it is charged.
The problem is with the software in the Rio player's POWER SAVER MODE.
If the player is on long enough for the power saver time to shut it off, the player will not come back on at all- even if you remove the backpack and replace it.
When I turned the POWER SAVER off, the player played for 3 or 4 hours with no problems.
But when I powered the unit off, I could not just power it back on. I had to remove and replace the backpack for it to work, even though the POWER SAVER MODE was set to off.
Which means, the Rio unit is shorting out the battery.
(Before, I only had to charge the battery every other day and I would have the player on two and a half hours every day while working out.)
I hope this helped
55 audible users will hate it
Battery says 11 hours, means 3. (With battery consumption as bad as it it, I can't believe you can't get an external car power accessory.) Buttons are touchy -- hard to hit correct spot each time. Display tough to read, especially in a car. Internals are cheap. Bundled software is a mess. But at least my Rio lasted almost two months before *completely* dying.
All I wanted was an audible.com player -- I'd have gone with something else if I'd felt there were better alternatives for that. And this has still been a huge disappointment to me -- despite all the negative press I'd read here first. Believe it!
56 The bare minimum
I got the RIO for Christmas, while I was really hoping for a Techno Yepp. The RIO works. That's about it, though. The firmware is poorly designed. You have to go through four steps, just to see what time it is. The interface (buttons) are also poor; they feel cheap and are hard to use through the soft clip-on case. Finally, it looks like there's a lot of wasted space in the design. The player could be a little smaller, packed tighter, and feel a little less cheap.
That being said, I haven't had any technical problems with my RIO. By tweaking the frequency of the playback, you can squeeze three hours of good quality music on 64 megs. That being said, I would jump at the opportunity to use something with software that was more intuitive.
57 Initial comments -just got it 2 days ago
This is my second MP3 player. My previous one was a Samsung. As for this Rio 600 here's my initial thoughts. It looks real nice. It sounds as good as any I've heard so far. The battery drain is very low. It is easy to use with Windows Media Player to load it up. (Get the WMP driver off the Rio site.) I personally hate Real Jukebox (comes with this player). Most of Real software is Real Bad. And it has a very nice belt clip pouch. Also it has good ID tags and a very easy to use back lit menu. Those are its strenghs.
Weaknesses - Instead of using removable flash media cards it is upgraded via a special backpack which is hard to get right now. It does not seem to be as rugged as I would like. So I keep it in the belt pouch for protection. I have yet to call Rio (Sonicblue) customer service. I've been told that they are very weak in service. I hope I don't have to find out.
This of course is my initial review. I will try and update this review in about a month.
58 Pretty Basic
My best friend purchased this and loved it. What can I say? She's not technologically inclined. I checked it out. The face plates are easy to use, you can see the screen easily, but as my title states, it's pretty basic. The headphones are hard to use, I had to ask how to put them in my ear and they never stayed. That's no big deal though; they can be easily replaced. The memory space is all that bothers me, and the buttons can be difficult to figure out.
59 THIS IS AWESOME!!!
This is a great mp3 player. It comes with a cool carrying case and USB cable. It also comes with a CD-ROM with Real Jukebox and Audible Manager. The only problem I encountered was connecting the USB cable. I have an older computer and I just inserted it into the other USB port and it worked like a charm. I'm listening to it right now as I'm writing this review. I've been listening to it since I downloaded the songs! This is awesome!
60 Nothing but problems
This is the second 600 I have had, and now this one is kaput and I'm shopping for a new one, I don't want to deal with it anymore. LIke many others said, it won't turn on and you have to take the backpack off, my backlight works very randomly, when you turn the volume up or down it freezes and you have to disconnect the backpack, now it won't even play, you push play and it just restarts the device! Two thumbs down!
61 Nothing but problems
This is the second 600 I have had, and now this one is kaput and I'm shopping for a new one, I don't want to deal with it anymore. LIke many others said, it won't turn on and you have to take the backpack off, my backlight works very randomly, when you turn the volume up or down it freezes and you have to disconnect the backpack, now it won't even play, you push play and it just restarts the device! Two thumbs down!
62 I love my RIO600...but I hate their support
We have recently bought two RIO 600s, and love everything about the device itself. The on-line support, the email support (no response) and the phone-in support, are frustrating at best, non-existent at worst. When you go to 'install' the software, well, their motto seems to be, 'let the selling begin.' As it happens, all we needed off the installation CD was the driver (this took...ah...a while to figure out).
As for the player itself, we couldn't ask for more. You can pick any bps rate from 32 to 128 and download up to 40 songs (120 minutes?). We run and work out, have found no skipping, plus, grrreat sound (particularly with upgraded headphones, the bass comes pulsing through).
We don't use the backpack, which does seem to be a problem for many. And, be prepared to muddle thru until you find the right settings, for example, 'enabling the volume leveling', while time-consuming, seems to eliminate many errors.
That's it, then...a 5 star product with 0 star support. I'm sure they get a ton of returns from folks who just can't get it up and running.
63 I could live with this
I recently bought the RIO600 with 64MB and I am pretty satisfied with it.the only problems are that it is battery hog(lasted me only 4 hours...this time includes lots of copying to the RIO),when i want it to skip back to the previous track, it stops play....
Apart from that , the buttons have a very weak feel...feels like they are going to break off if you press too hard.
I would give this product a B...Those of you who can spend 150+dollars on an MP3 player, might look somewhere else.For those with a limited budget, i think this would do the trick.
64 I could live with this
I recently bought the RIO600 with 64MB and I am pretty satisfied with it.the only problems are that it is battery hog(lasted me only 4 hours...this time includes lots of copying to the RIO),when i want it to skip back to the previous track, it stops play....
Apart from that , the buttons have a very weak feel...feels like they are going to break off if you press too hard.
I would give this product a B...Those of you who can spend 150+dollars on an MP3 player, might look somewhere else.For those with a limited budget, i think this would do the trick.
65 Beautiful Garbage
Love the looks, but it's useless. After 5 months it will no longer turn on. From reading other reviewers comments, this is apparently a common problem. What does that tell you? Don't buy this item, it's just not worth it. I'm getting an iPod.
66 Lowest Quality Electronic Equipment I've Purchased
I received a Rio 600 64MB MP3 player for Christmas. I opened it, loaded it full of songs, and listened to it for about two hours one day. The next morning I tried turning it on to load some new songs, and it wouldn't even turn on. So I replaced the battery and messed around with the memory backpack to no avail. It would respond to nothing. Figuring I had received a random dysfunctional product, I promptly returned it to the store it was purchased from.
Giving the SONICblue company one more chance, I opened my new player, loaded some songs, and was amazed to find out that this new player actually worked...for two days. At the end of the second day on my way home, I turned it on successfully and pressed play...unsuccessfully. I tried everything, just as before: battery replacement, battery connections, etc. That was one week ago, and I've tried it every day since...to no avail.
Bottom line: this company evidently doesn't have any quality control whatsoever, and this is the last purchase I'll make from them until I discover that their company has upgraded their horrible testing division.
DO NOT PURCHASE THIS, EVEN IF IT IS A LOW-COST MP3 PLAYER. BUY SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD
67 Not bad for an intro to MP3 players
This is my first MP3 player and so far I am impressed. I sometimes have problems if I want to use the skip and it accidently stops playback completely. The only other problem is it is something of a battery hog, but since it only uses 1 AA at a time, I can't really complain. The software it comes with isn't bad. I'm not a Real Player fan to begin with, but once you get the hang of it, it is fairly simple. I get about an hour and a half of playback on the memory, depending on file size. All in all it is good player and I recommend it for beginners to MP3's.
68 POOR QUALITY
I normally don't feel the need to blast any company but I've had (and returned) 3 of the Rio products. I had the 800 - worked for 10 minutes. I tried a demo model of the 600 32mb - never turned on. And now I'ved tried the 600 64mb - the unit turns on but doesn't play. The play button functions like the skip button. This company has a BIG QUALITY PROBLEM and their site is almost useless. Avoid Avoid Avoid.
69 player worked for about a year
I had the rio 600 for under a year. I found that it constantly
freezes up when running. For a product that claims not "skip"
I found this to be much worse since the backpack would have to
be removed to unfreeze it (on/off switch frozen also). WOULD
NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLAYER. Its in the trash now.
70 Acceptable player for audio books.
Overall, I'm happy with this product. I have the refurbished 32 meg model that Audible.com offers through a promotion. I ordered it a week before Christmas, not expecting to see it until well after the new year, and it arrived in four days. That was a pleasant surprise.
While 32 megs is not a whole lot for MP3 files it's plenty for audible books which don't demand as high of quality as music. I want to get more memory for music but it is too expensive for their proprietary 'backpacks'. If memory becomes a real issue for me I will have to go with another brand that supports the more popular memory cards. For now I'm happy to use it just for audio books.
I was considering going for a higher model such as the Rio 800 but I've read the horror stories (customer reviews on this site) and decided to stick with this one. I was wary of upgrading to a rechargable only model in the first place. I think I'll stick with this one and just pop in an AA battery when needed instead of carrying a charger around all the time.
You can basicaly take the CD that came with it and use it as a coaster. The PC software instalation wanted to overwrite my current version of Real Player before it would continue to install the Rio Manager software. This I wish would be an option. The automatic software installation would not let me go about it any other way. I let it do it and reinstalled the current software afterwards. I figured out later how to manualy install the Rio Manager software through exploring the software CD. Also, Microsoft's Media Player recognized the hardware on it's own. I have yet to use the Rio Manager software, I don't need it.
Finaly, I have to report one glitch with my Rio 600. Sometimes it doesn't turn on. I have to disconnect the backpack (which houses the battery) and reconnect it and everything is back to normal. All information such as bookmarks and the actual files are still intact and only the time/date is wiped. This is only a small nuisance for me but it's still something I wish it wouldn't do.
Pros:
It is great for audible books. If you want to experiment, the promotion from Audible.com is a safe bet.
Cons:
32 megs is small by today's standards. I would imagine the same is true for 64 megs. Upgrading is expensive due to the price of it's proprietary 'backpacks'. The software installation program needs some work, namely the option of leaving more upgraded software on your computer rather than overwriting it with the older software that comes on the CD. Sometimes it won't turn on, but I don't know if this is a common glitch or just happens with my Rio.
Not the best player out there, but not the worst either. (I hope.)
C+
71 Take A Look At This
I purchased the Rio about a month ago. So far I am really happy with it. It will hold up to about 1 hour of music. If you change the file it will hold up to 2 hours. I highly recommend this !
72 SonicBlue isn't all its cracked up to be...
Ihave no problem with batteries unlike those other reviews but the firmware in SonicBlue's players(Rio600 & Rio800) crashes on me just about every 15-20 minutes. I have went to their webpage and downloaded everything it told me to, to correct the problem, and according to their support staff I just need to upgrade my memory, I have tried that over 20 times and it still freezes up. Well, if you want to waste your money and buy this cheap product that worked for about a week, this is the one...
73 Audio book listeners will love it.
The book mark feature allows more than one person to listen to an audiobook without losing their place. The power consumption is minimal, it uses 1 AA battery that lasts for ever. Its easy to use, along with the audio.com program. The fast forward/rewind feature zips you through your book easily to find the passage you might want to find. The display is easy to read and simple.
The "stylish" carry case, however leaves much to be desired. It is almost as stylish as my fathers leisure suit, and the window tries to show both the controls and the display but misses both. I did some trimming on mine.
The bottom line is that book listeners will love it. no cassettes to deal with or repair. No crying because the player ate one and the rest of the cassette book is worthless. The price of downloading saves 50 to 75%. And after you download the book you can zip it into your Rio in about a minute or two.
74 Cheap and overpriced
2 weeks after I bought this item, it shut down.. After that, whenever I pressed a button down longer, or with more pressure than the minimum pressure and length, it would shut off. It was horrible. After about three weeks, the backlight stopped working, and the batteries didn't last longer than 1 hour.I was so repulsed by this MP3 player, I switched to rewritable CDs. Do not buy this item, even the headphones broke.
75 Not for sports use
This is a good product if you don't plan to use it for running. I have found that it seems to have a very bad battery connection and will 'cut out' while I'm running. What makes that especially annoying is that then the unit has to go through the 'power-up' process all over again (takes 15-20 seconds) and you're back at the first song. Of course you can fast forward to the song you were listening to, but this seems to create even more strain on the battery and sometimes the unit cuts out again. I find that the unit only operates properly during the first 1-2 hours on a new battery. From there on out, even though it might say that you have 5 hours left on your battery, you will have problems.
If it weren't for this problem it would be a good unit!
76 The is awsome
This product is the best one iv tried yet. It dosent go through batteries like nothing like the other people say it has plenty of memory and i like the color faceplates. This product is easy to use and install. Gets loud when you turn up the volume. Reccommended to all!!!!!!!!!!
77 Eats Batteries for breakfast
whoa! I got this as part of the Audible.com promotion, to listen to audio books. It works, its small, sound is good. But it destroys batteries. When you turn it on, it tells you how much battery life you have, it can read "9 hours left" and then be drained after 10 minutes. I listening to Jack Welch's book, which is great, but it is really annoying to keep having to replace the batteries. I am on my 6th AA battery for this one book (which is 14 hours total), and I am not finished yet. I would estimate that each AA battery gives me about 1-2 hours of listening. Its a refurbished model, maybe that is the problem. But its not acceptable for regular use. Your mileage may vary.
78 Good stuff here.
Based off of about 2 weeks use, I think that this is an excellent mp3 player. Don't listen to what everyone else here says, if they would just follow the dierctions, they couldhave installed it quicker and it would work perfectly for them. 64 megs is just perfect for me because i change my playlist about every day. The only thing i don't like about it is that the usb connection is slow, but i can live with it.
79 Have an expert computer person by your side, you'll need it
We purchased the Rio 600, and after more than 8 hours of trying to process and install all the programing info, it's been fun and easy. The initial time to program was a HEADACHE, and I'm not sure if I would atempt the process again. It's very easy to install CD's, but we are still working on downloading from MP3.com for music.
Might want an advanced computer person by your side to do the initial installing of the program info. It's tough!!!
80 Not bad, Rio 500 is better
My family owns both a Rio 500 and 600. Below is a list of pros/cons between these two models CONS 1) The standard Rio 500 comes with more memory than the 600 (64 MB vs 32) 2) The 500's controls are more sensibly laid out. As the picture shows, the 600 has this stupid omni-purpouse button on the front. The 500 has idividual stop, play, ff, and rewind controls. 3) Although I can't prove it, I believe the 500 offers better sound qaulity
PROS: 1) The RIO 500 can't seem to play any audio files (such as audio books or old radio shows) below 32kb/s. The 600 can. 2) The 600 has a far better PC interface program. It's more streamlined and crashes less often than that of the 500. 3) This thing gets LOUD when you crank up the volume. 4) The 600 has the (expensive) capability to expand its memory to 320MB.
Both these devices really need the extra memory to play any amount of music (a 5 minute song with decent sound quality can be 4-10 megabytes. That's quite a bit when you only have 64 to toy around with)
So, if you just want a portable device that reliably plays digital audio, I would reccomend the Rio600.
PS: The RioPort website for setting this thing up is a nightmare. Be prepared to spend some amount of time getting the 600 working.
81 Great Player
This a great player right out of the box. The software was so easy to use that the first night I had it i was listening to music before I went to sleep.There is a whole lot of room on it too. At RioHome.com/ there is a promo that when you send in you proof of purchase and a form you get at the siteand your receipt you recieve a 32mb backpack for FREE!!! thats just another maybe half hour of music.There maybe is one problem that this thing eats up batterys quicky!Ever since I've had it it has worked perfecty. Also with the USB connection to the mp3 player it downloads the files a lot quicker than an old parallel line. I recomend this mp3 player to anyone who is looking to buy one.IT'S GREAT!!!!!!!!!!
82 what a waste!
I tried two of these, and had to return both. 1 did not work, out of box, and the other died within 1 day. I wished I had read more of these reviews before I wasted my money.
83 Great MP3 Player for anyone
I got this mp3 player and I was not disapointed at all, and the sound quality is just great. Very simple and easy to use, it is the best musical device I have. I take it wherever I go, it fits in my pocket. All sounds good, right? Well, the problem I had was that the headphones that came with it were great, but the wire broke right up by the headphone part, too close to repair. I just got some new ones (not the original kind that came with the player) for 6 bucks, and they work fine. I dunno if I was just careless or what, maybe I shouldn't be knocking the one star off... but anyway
84 Great beginning player
I started learning all about .mp3's a couple months ago(Thanks Napster). I immediately got a writable cd burner and then moved onto pc based .mp3 player and just learned how to convert .mp3 files into Windows Media Player(cut's the filesize in half!!!) So my obvious next choice was to buy a portable .mp3 player. I didn't know anything about them so I decided to buy the basic unit before I wanted to drop $300 on one of the really good ones. The guy at BestBuy recommended the Rio600 because it's pretty basic, yet upgradable firmware and memory pack (up to 340mb pack). So far I'm really happy with it and recommend it if you're looking for you're first mp3 player.
Last, back to mp3-to wma conversion.. I could only load 6 6mb .mp3's into the Rio600 w/32mb. I converted my .mp3's to .wma (Microsoft Windows Media Player format) and I was able to load those 6 files + 5 more! Convert your files to WMA! You WON'T regret it!
85 Disappointed
The unit was advertized with a $50 rebate offer; well, I never received my $50. The player is nice and simple, the sound quality will depend on your headphones. It runs on a single AA battery, and it eats them quickly. If I had known I would not receive the promised rebate, I would have gone with a Nomad. That's my advice.
