plays MP3, WMA, and Audible (#2 and #3) formats * backlit LCD displays MP3 ID3 info * built-in stopwatch and lap timer * repeat and shuffle play * 5GB hard drive holds approximately 160 hours of music at 64 Kbps *
1 Nice small size, no good case, no folder navigation
Pros: The size is very very compact, easily fits even in jeans pockets. The sound quality is excellent. The headphones are great. The response time for navigation keys is excellent. No software required to only transfer files. So serves well as storage device.
Cons: 1. The supplied leather case hides the main navigation controls, and you have to pull it out of the leather case if you want to navigate. Currently, there is NO OTHER CASE available in the market !!
2. It is not possible to navigate by folders. You will have to tag all your music collection, and make playlists. Of course, playlists can only be made on the rio software !
2 Compact design & poor firmware
The rio carbon is a slick and compact design that plays well but constantly locks up at the end of a playlist. Updates to firmware have not solved the problem. Don't waste your money on this.
3 Great product, Great Price. Buy it now.
I won't bore you with specs, you can find those elsewhere on this page. All you really need to know is that the Carbon's sound quality is great, its a full gig bigger than its primary competition, its battery life will get you to/from wherever you're going in the continental US (and perhaps beyond), its about the combined size and thickness of my (short and moderately stubby) ring, middle, and pointer fingers, its easy to synch and even easier to control play, and you won't need to become married to iTunes if you own it.
Oh, and since you're going to have to spend money on this, your decision should be made even easier when you learn that its a bargain compared to MP3 players with SMALLER hard drives (even when a rebate isn't available or its not on sale). I couldn't be happier with my purchase of this product.
**The only reason for knocking one star off this product is the headphone connection glitch discussed in other reviewer commentaries. Fortunately, Rio ships new units with an adapter that takes care of the problem.**
4 Awful, how do people get off calling this junk/iPod killer?
Where do I begin? Firstly, the sound quality is inferior to that of the iPod. I used the same exact MP3s ripped from my CD collection for my iPod at 160kbs. The sound was radically inferior. I found part of the problem was the Rio earbuds, the iPod earbuds are far superior. I have a sneaking suspicion that RIO is aware of the inferiority of their product, for while Apple's iTunes defaults MP3's at 160 kbs, Rio's defaults its MP3 ripping and encoding at 200 kbs VBS! This means that the 1GB more you get over the original iPod Mini is meaningless. The kicker: today my Rio broke after less than a months light use. Rio Support is a horrible. Res Ipsa. Or as my uncle used to say: "buy cheap, pay twice."
5 Customer Support SUCKS! -- Design not practical...
While the RIO Carbon is a nice gadget and seemingly does a lot in its compact design, it really needs to be tested for quality and designed for everyday life!
While in a Holiday Inn, I my Rio Carbon player fell 30" (yes, I measured.) from the table onto CARPET - not hardwood or cement-- CARPET. So when I try to adjust my volume I see that the volume wheel was jammed into the player case, and would not move. How's that for cheap parts?! The free leather case does not protect the wheel either! For $250, one would expect better quality than this!! Even my FREE cell phone survives falls from higher elevations onto pavement and sidewalks!
The bad thing is that, even though I'm within my "warranty," it's not covered because I dropped it. and it doesn't matter that the product is designed poorly ... I would have to pay $149 to replace it. For this poor excuse for customer service, the company has lost a customer.
In addition, what's up with the RIO holder/protective case? I can't take it to the gym because I can't clip the darn thing anywhere. I can't even dangle it from my neck. Forget putting in my back pocket - WARRANTY VOIDED if you break it. Their designers must have missed their Practical Application in Design 101 course while they were in school. It's terribly inconvenient to try and use this in any everyday, realworld situation because it was designed poorly and doesn't have the physical accessories needed to make this useful player.
The technology is great, the practical application REALLY BAD. Read your warranty carefully, and if you are the kind of person who occasionally drops things, be forewarned, you should probably buy a steel and padded case for this thing to help keep your warranty intact from any accident you may cause. I'll never buy anything from this company again!
6 Junky toy; makes iPod seem like Rolls Royce of MP3 players..
After using iTunes, other music playing software tends to come across as run-of-the-mill PC junkware. iTunes does organizing, sharing, ripping and burning so much better than the others, it isn't funny. Nothing like hearing Windows Media Player play MP3s; call me crazy, but I love intermittent volume and tonal shifts throughout a song, takes the listening experience to a whole new level. So, hmmmm tough decision here; Apple's iTunes software, from the masters of GUI or Rio's bloatware?
Hmmmm, another tough decision; get a MP3 player that has auto support from BMW, VW, Alpine and others or get a disposable with no support?
Sure the Rio feels like a toy, but wait, it has a "Plays For Sure" sticker - ah, I love little logos, especially with Windows flags on them, makes me feel safe and secure...
The most interesting testament I can say for the Rio Carbon, and I kid you not, is two different people I know have purchased these things recently and both Carbons are now dust gatherers. One person ended up getting an iPod Shuffle the other got a new iPod photo; and the iPods never leave their side. My experience with the dial thing on the Carbon was a joke, so good luck finding songs; better off setting the Carbon to shuffle and using the next-song button, letting the Carbon surprise you with a random playlist. Also consider, the less you use the Carbon's dial, the less likely it will break (and it WILL break, just a matter of when. Read the reviews).
Advice; get a player you'll love and actually use - in other words, do u want to drive a Porsche or a Hyundai?
iPod;
+ iTunes support, slick ease of use, growing auto support, LOTS of peripherals, also can use as external drive, Apple hardware quality, it just works, cool factor
- battery life, no microphone
Carbon;
+ cheap, disposable
- lousy software, plastic dial thing, no iTunes support, cheap, disposable, zero cool factor/no fun to use
----------------------------------------------------------
There was one "review" filled with typos and grammatical errors, I believe referring to the iPod as an "iflop";
Hmmmmmm, the most respected and ubiquitous MP3 player in history - the gizmo that has completely changed the way people listen to music... A flop?
LOL, yeah right...
P.S.; batteries for iPods are under $50 - its called shopping around.
7 Notes from a former IPOD 4th Gen
After having a "sour" apple ipod 4th gen experience, I decided to get something cheaper. After using the ipod religiously for 7 months, I LOVE the Rio Carbon much more.
The price is incredible. The size and shape feels much better and fits more easily into your pocket. They offer you a case and headphones, and anyone who has read the issue of static with headphones that have metal around the base, this has been solved with tiny adapter that converts such headphone jacks with one that has a rubber insulation.
I really like the fact that I don't need software and can synch using Media Player 10. In addition, I can take my music and transfer it to my pc at work or my laptop, unlike the ipod. The ipod makes your music invisible, not trusting you like an over protective parent, and assuming you will share music. If you really want to, you'll find a way, so it's just an apple inconvenience.
A feature I really like is the bookmark option. I can listen to multiple audible books and use a bookmark for each book. Or, two people can read the book (if you share a device) and each bookmark their own.
I admit the interface is different and takes time getting used to. I worry the button on top may wear out or break, but I've never heard of this to happen. I like the wheel better than ipod because each movement has a little click feel to it. IPOD makes a noise, but I found it hard to get to the exact song I wanted. I would stop at the song, and when I lifted my finger off of the click wheel, the movement of my hand would often change to another song. Annoying. Rating a song became impossible because of this.
I'm not a big fan or writing reviews, but felt that this would warrant one. I admit it, the ipod had changed my life, making music and books a larger part of my life. However, the Rio will be the one continuing the journey. With a way better value and competitive look and design, I'm hooked.
(Note - after 7 months my ipod's click wheel stopped turning, but occasionally would work and apple has a long list of disclaimers and possible charges - like "Apple may charge you a diagnostic fee including shipping charges, of no more than one hundred ($100) dollars US, (ńDiagnostic Feeî), plus applicable tax, if Apple inspects your product and determines based on the inspection that the product does not require service. If "and would not pay shipping after 6 months to fix it. They also have disclaimers that scared me because they put clauses in to pretty much let them charge you whatever they want, at their discretion. Not very friendly or, in my opinion, fair. So, I sold my ipod for parts on EBAy.
8 Small, long battery life, resets shock
I've used my Rio Carbon every day for three months. I've used it while walking, working, and snowboarding. It is very shock resistant -- for a device with a spinning disk -- and has only "skipped" once after a severe shock while snowboarding. In that case, it just paused for a few seconds and then resumed playing. I was able to place about 1300 MP3 songs encoded at 128K before filling up the player. When I tested the battery life, it lasted about 14 hours. I usually top off the battery every day or so. The supplied USB cable is used to charge, but it is very slow to charge it from your computer. It charges quickly (about 1-2 hours) with the AC adapter. The USB cable plugs into the AC charger, so to charge from your car you will need an AC converter (about 2 for $30 at Sams). The sound quality is so-so and definitely not as good as my old Panasonic portable CD player. The only problem I've had with it is that it resets itself about once every 3 hours. After a reset, it comes up in the "stop" mode and you must press the play button to restart the music (not so easy on the ski slope with gloves). It also looses track of where it was in the playlist after a reset. I've downloaded the latest firmware update, but the problem persists. It is not related to the encoded songs, because I can play the same song again without another reset. The PC software furnished is not as useful as Windows Media Player, so I don't use it. I purchased an extra USB cable from Rio so that I can charge with one cable and leave the other hooked to my computer. The user interface doesn't have as many features as Ipod Mini, but the smaller size, larger disk (5 instead of 4 Gig), and longer battery life compensate for this.
9 Carbon is a good player
I decided to get the carbon after seeing the price here on amazon.com, only $169. The price is what sold me. I was originally going to get the 6gig Ipod mini, but for 100 dollars less and only one less gig, i found this deal unresistable. I got my rio a few days ago in the mail, already filled it up with about 3.5 gigs of music from my cds, and so far so good. However, there are a few things i wish rio could have done to make it better. The case just sucks, you can't access the controls while the rio is in the case, you have to take it out, which can be a pain in the ass cause the case is such a tight fit. Also there is no hold button on the outside, which, if you put the rio in your pocket without the case turns out to be a pain. Additional worries about the Rio are that it just isnt reliable. Although i have had no problems, the stuff i have read in the reviews here is kind of scary,so i am trying to be extra careful with mine. Other that that the rio has turned out to be awesome, good music quality, everything one could want from a digital music player, but who knows if my opinon will change after a few more months of using it.
10 Terrible quality! Die any time!
Mine died within 3 hours! No light, no response any more.
I've thought it's out of battery, but after pluging in USB cable with the charger for a whole night, still doesn't have any response.
Tried press and hold power button for more than 10 second.
Will return it. Scared by its quality. Yours could die any time as well. Watch out!
11 Rio Carbon - Why buy anything else?
The only other Mp3 player I have had, has been the Rio Cali (128). Our youngest son (age 12) has one, and our college age son has one. They are great, but I wanted something that has lots more space in it. I did lots of research before purchasing the Rio Carbon, and even though some have had some problems with theirs, I decided that I still wanted one. I will say that this is probably NOT for those who use an MP3 when they workout, or during strenuous physical activity. I use mine for listening to music when I go for a walk. I put the headphones on (I use Sony headphones, not the ones it came with), then I slip the Carbon in my jeans pocket, and it sure makes my walk go faster! I also like to listen at night when I go to bed, so I take it bed with me, and I listen as I fall asleep. My husband was saying that any type of Mp3 player like this would be more delicate, because it has a hard drive in it, as opposed to removable memory.
As far as I'm concerned, this is an absolutely awesome Mp3 player. The sound quality is fantastic, and the software is easy to use. I wouldn't recommend it for the child in your family, but for the average user, it is the best!
12 The budget MP3 player.
The player is a lot cheaper than Ipod or Zen Micro. Sound quality is good and physical appearance is also nice, very small and handy. However, my battery died just 2 days after using it and I have to send it back to Rio for an exchange to a new one. The customer service people are very nice, it's just that I have to pay for shipping to send it back to them. Overall, it is a good player although if you want to play safe and don't mind spending an additional 80-90 dollars, you can get a Zen Micro or Ipod instead.
13 Worth it.
The Ipod click wheel is clever. But I don't find it especially intuitive, and it didn't win me over. And at about 50 bucks more, I don't consider it worth it.
I was shopping for price, acceptability of features, and size. The Carbon wins on the first and third, and does well enough on the second.
Size: small enough you won't notice it.
Price: Small enough ...well, I noticed it, but it doesn't hurt.
Features: The scroll wheel appealed to me since it reminds me of Sony's electronic dictionaries. That said, a lot of the criticism of the Rio is over the alleged flimsiness of this wheel. It's not so flimsy, but it does feel out of place on this otherwise pretty solid unit. It IS easy to use, though. Too bad I'm always tempted to use the other buttons instead, despite that being the easiest mode of navigation.
The lack of playlist creation, and the inability to jump around a list of songs with single keystrokes (like one could on the Rio Volt) is a bit of a pain. That is the low point of the Rio's design for me.
The high point: the Carbon is very, very pretty (I like the red LEDs, underused since the introduction of blue LEDs), and it is designed in such a way as to be very comfortable in a pocket (tapered shape) without slipping out too easily (rubberized edges).
Sound quality is good. I wasn't looking for one, but I didn't notice any stand-out difference between it and a 3rd gen Ipod. The pack-in headphones suck, though. Decent sound, but who the hell has ear canals that big? That and I broke them within two days. My 16 dollar isolating earbuds are awesome with this thing, though. I'm tempted to go for some of the pricier ones.
Anyhow, if you aren't totally enamored with the Ipod mini, and you have to have something small, and the price/capacity of a flash player doesn't appeal to you, this is a good choice.
The only thing keeping it from a 5 in my eyes is the navigation. And if you would just play premade playlists or shuffle, that isn't important.
14 Clear winner over Zen Micro and Ipod Mini in my opinion
I looked and used an Ipod Mini, Zen Micro and the Carbon. I found that the Carbon was the best player of the 3 for my needs.
I owned 1 a week for 3 weeks to get the feel of them. The Ipod was my least favorite. The touch wheel was an interesting interface, but the pad felt like it was made of paper. My finger nail scratched it very easily and I question the durability of the wheel on the mini. Take a look at one on display at a store and you will see what I mean. The Ipod has a very user friendly interface. Most of my music library is in WMA, so converting everything to transfer was a pain. I don't like Itunes, but it is way better than the Zen's software. Ipod has games on it, but all I want to do is listen to music :).
I liked the Zen Micro except for the touch interface. If it was a scroll wheel I would have loved it. Like the Ipod, you have to install drivers and software to talk to the jukebox. The Zen had great sound. The best of the three I am reviewing. I own 2 other Creative jukeboxes and the sound quality runs in the family :). Creative's software is not very user friendly for synching. Consider buying the 3rd party Notmad Explorer if you pick a Zen. FM tuner is nice, but don't need it
The Carbon had a good feel in my hand. It felt smaller than the other 2 and was cleary designed for the hand. The little wheel blows away the other 2's scroll devices in my opinion. It is right where your thumb is. The Carbon sounds as good as the Ipod, but not as good as the Zen. The Carbon's ability to hook up to any computer without having to have drivers or software was a huge factor. This way I can use it both as a mini hard drive and a jukebox without any hassle.
Here's the summary..
Ipod Mini - Cons: Have to use Itunes, doesn't support WMA format, hated the touch wheel interface, touch wheel feels like paper and scratches really easy, user can't replace battery and proprietary cable. Pros: Rugged feel, great warranty, lots of stuff available for it
Zen Micro - Cons: Touch pad stinks, proprietary software that is bad and device has a cheap feel. Pros: User can replace battery, support for WMA, FM tuner, great sound, looks cool when lights up, Outlook sync (but why?)
Rio Carbon - Cons: Pleather case that comes with it (joke), have to use little cable for jacks with metal, user can't replace battery, have to use software to make playlists, metal back get full of fingerprints easily, short warranty. Pros: Windows sees as a drive (no software or drivers need to be installed), fits well in hand, smaller than other 2, natural feel buttons (no touch stuff), software is simple but effective, looks neat when lights up.
15 DON"T BUY FROM JRs
UPS delivered to wrong address, that I don't even know. JR won't send or reimburse me for it. UPS told them it was lost and that they will cover it and still I haven't get a respond from JR. I will never buy from them again.
16 Lousy service
I returned my second RioCarbon after 3 months. It froze permently. I was promised a replacement within 10 days. It is now one month since I started the return process and still no replacment. For weeks they coud no find proof of delivery even though I had the proof in hand and gave them tracking numers. I called numerous times and was often on hold for 15 minutes, I was frequently escalated to higher ranking reps each whose compentency decreased as their title increased. I was promised two day deliverybut at last contact am getting 7 day delivery- maybe. I still do not have replacement in hand., I enjoyed the Rio Carbon when it worked. I actualy got 18 hours for my audible books. It is a handsome piece with a good screen. The service stinks. The quality is marginal. An IPOD for me next time. It would make a good fishing lure.
17 Try the reset button
I've had the Carbon for about four months now. Works as advertised and described in the other reviews. I use it for Audible.com files and RIPs of books on CD. Easy. Great battery life, too.
Every once in a while it acts (non-acts?)dead. I have a feeling this has something to do with the device not being "stopped" before it's taken off my USB connection with my laptop. Not Rio's fault; this is a problem with lots of USB stuff.
So,I pop a paperclip in the little reset hole as the instructions advise. The device comes back every time.
The carrying case is useless. I have not yet found one that fits well, and I have been looking pretty hard.
All-in-all, it's worth your hard-earned dollars, I think.
18 Easy-to-use MP3 player
I got the Rio Carbon after much research in the MP3 world. I don't regret my choice at all.
I'll go over the aspects I disliked about the Carbon first.
1. Durability: The LCD screen scratches way too easily. Mine already has about a dozen small scratches. I highly recommend protecting your screen with PDA protectors. In addition, keep the thin, transparent plastic that the Carbon comes with on the back of the player; the silver back part tends to be a magnet for fingerprints and smudges. The front buttons also attract fingerprints, but that doesn't matter because you will always have to press the buttons anyway.
2. Leather carrying case: This case is just terribly designed. It blocks out the front buttons and the screen which basically prevents any use of the player. I cut holes for the front buttons and the LCD screen and then taped up the edges of the holes with electrical tape. When I placed my carbon inside and then took it out later, the tape scratched the screen badly. Be careful if you want to cut holes in the leather case. An alternative is to but a vaja case. They cost about $50, but they provide full protection for your player including the screen.
3. No hold button: Sadly, there is no physical hold button; the feature is inconveniently buried in the menu.
4. Static: With all that metal in the Carbon's body, static is created when metal headphone jacks are plugged into the player. You can either place electrical tape at the base of the plug or use nail polish to coat the jack. The electrical tape works the best for me and I have never heard static with my metal jack headphones after applying the tape.
5. Shuffle option: The Carbon shuffle option wasn't as good as I hoped for. I occasionally heard repeat tracks but it is good enough for me.
6. Non-replaceable battery: I don't like the fact that I would have to send in my Carbon to get the battery replaced when it dies. But then again, by the time my battery dies, I'll probably have gotten another MP3 player.
Now for the good stuff.
1. Sound: The Carbon gives an excellent sound that is free of hissing or skipping. I tested out the sound by playing my Bourne Supremacy soundtrack on my CD player and then playing the exact tracks on my Carbon. The two sound exactly the same!
2. Simplicity: This is the real strength of the Carbon. It is so easy to use the player; I figured out how to use it without looking at the instructions. You can access a tracks by name, artist, album, genre, or year. The jog wheel, used for volume control and scrolling, works like a charm. The front buttons, consisting of play/pause, fast foward, rewind, stop, and center buttons are simple but versatile. The menu button is also good but it bumps you back to the now playing sceen sometimes.
3. Battery: The Carbon's battery is very good but isn't as good as it is advertised. Rio claims the battery can last for 20 hrs. Mine gets about 13-14 hrs. In any case though, this is very superior to the mini and Micro's battery lives.
4. Size: The Carbon's small frame is very pleasant to the eye and to the hand; its rounded shape gives it a high tech look and feels great in your hand. at 3.2 oz, it is much lighter than the micro and the mini. I am very impressed that a device this small can hold almost 5 GB.
5. Storage: Rio claims that the Carbon can hold 5 GB of music. In actuality, the Carbon can only hold around 4.6 GB of music because about .4 GB is needed to run the machine.
This is still more than enough storage for me, since I only have loaded about 175 MP3 tracks at 96 kbps, taking up 554 MB.
6. Screen info: The Carbon's screen holds a huge diversity of stuff like Track title, album, artist, time elapsed, progress bar, track number, volume level, playback options, battery indicator, and current time and date. The backlight comes on behind the screen, Rio logo, and front buttons and fades away nicely after times ranging from 5 to 30 seconds.
7. USB cable: The USB cable for the Carbon doubles as a transfer medium and a charger. I thought that was very nice since you don't need an additional cord for the AC adapter.
8. Software: The Rio Music Manager software that the Carbon came with is extremely fast and easy to use. I was downloading music within five minutes of opening the software. The transfer rate is very fast to me, as I was able to download albums in seconds.
9. Extra features: The bookmarks are pretty cool and can remember your favorite tracks. The voice recorder is nice but I prefer not to use it because it eats up memory fast. I would have like to have the Carbon feature a radio, but unfortunately, it doesn't.
Overall, the Rio Carbon is a great MP3 player that rides on its simplicity. I felt it was definitely worth the money.
19 Broke as a Joke after 2 months!!!
I recieved my RIO carbon as a christmas gift. I loved it.. NOTICE I said LOVED!!! It died for no reason. I didn't even have a chance to wear the plastic off the back if it. It was not scratched, dropped, wet or anything...
I called Rio to see what they could do. I have yet to experience the drama that comes along with the exchange. But I am very let down because I liked it.
I hated the fact that I could not seem to get things to play in the order in which I wanted them. I have not even gotten a chance to experience listening to a downloaded book on it...
My advice is Get an IPOD I believe they are more reliable. Then when I asked my friend for his recipt from Radio Shack it was blank... the Ink faded... SO what am I to do now?
Save your $$ the Rio is not ready... It SUCKS!!!
20 Stopped working after 1.5 months
There are clearly some quality issued regarding the Rio Carbon. I won't say iPod is any better or worse in this department, as I've never owned one, but I will say on an absolute scale, the Rio Carbon is not to be trusted. Look around, there are other reviews like mine. My Rio completely stopped working after a month and a half for no apparent reason. It's dead to the world. I didn't drop it, I didn't get it wet. I woke up one day, plugged in my headphones, and nothing. it just didn't work anymore. Thank god I was able to find the receipt! I read reviews on here referencing Rio's bad replacement and warranty situation. I will now have to deal with this, and I'm not looking forward to it.
I say go with the iPod. I don't know if it's any more or less reliable, but I do know their customer service and warranty/service organization is much better.
21 Great look, feel, and ease of use
Pros:
The Carbon seems perfect. The look and feel are excellent.
The controls feel like they are made well. (Time will tell.)
The overall design: shape, steel case, LCD, backlighting and work well and look great.
It is very small; smaller than my flip phone.
The sound quality is great. The EQ presets are good. (The included earbuds are satisfactory, but nothing special)
I even like the Rio Music Manager software that comes with the Carbon. Rio Music Manager can automatically (or manually) delete old content, transfer new audio content, and keep the content on your Rio Carbon fresh and dynamic*. You can specify what percent of old content should be replaced by new content. You can specify the source from a play list or just a random selection of your library. It's really easy to use if you don't want to spend all day picking 1000 of your favorite tracks by hand.
* from the Rio Carbon manual pdf .
Cons:
The case it comes with is poorly designed as others have said. It's sleek and sexy, but you can only access the power and volume control and can't see the LCD. I found a generic pleather cell phone case with a clear plastic front panel (where the phone keys would be) that allows full access to all the controls and the LCD. It's a little too long and a little too narrow, but close enough for $10.
Battery life does not seem close to advertised. I got about 12 hours on my first charge.
Static is an issue on the steel case as others have said. My Carbon came with an all plastic headphone jack adapter to eliminate this problem.
22 A beautiful product that lasts 3 months
I bought the Carbon with high hopes, it seemed like a steal, and with the silver shell and red lights, was very good looking to boot. Aside from a few minor quibbles, I liked it fine, until about the 3 month mark, or more specifically, 5 days after the warranty expired. It pooped out with an "upgrader" message, and despite all my efforts, and 45 minutes spent talking to technical support, I couldn't revive it. So now I have a useless 200 dollar hunk of metal, and wish I'd read a review like this before I bought it... don't make the same mistake I did! Oh, and I'm not an isolated case either, check any Rio Forum and you'll see plenty of instances like mine.
23 cannot display Chinese
It can not display Chinese while it's competitors, Creative and Ipod pay more attenttion to international customers!
24 Lousy warrenty, few features, questionable sound quality
To start, I bought a Carbon about 4-5 months ago back when Ipods were in high demand, so I ended up going with the carbon ONLY becuase I wanted an MP3 player and the place of purchase was out of Ipods. I thought at the time though: No big deal, I'll just take care of it and it will last a couple of years, and I will still enjoy it.
Things did not go as planned though. To start, the sound quality on the carbon at times can be a little weak. Some songs do not sound as good as they should even in a low quality mp3/wma format. The carbon also does not seem to play some ogg vorbis formated files, which is a pain in the butt. Another blow to it though is the lack of features it has inside it. There is no radio tuner, nor are there any 'visulizations' to watch or any sort of beat meters. No games either, so do not get this and think that it will totaly relieve a lack of boredom. This is strictly an MP3 player with a stop watch and sound recorder feature (and I haven't even really had a need for the recorder, so why the heck is it on here?)
The other gripe I have with the rio is that when I bought it, it was valued at about 250-280, which after taxes and a warenty plan from the place of purchase, came to around 300 dollars. That is pretty steep for just a 5 gig mp3 player with bare essential features.
Another weakness that the Carbon has is that it has a TERRIBLE carrying case. You cannot see the screen nor control it while it is covered in the case, so all you can do is listen, turn it off, and adjust the volume. Another weakness that the case has is that it doesn't cover the entire carbon. It exposes one of the most fragile and importaint parts of it - the sound wheel. And it just so happens that one day when I was pulling the player out of my pocket it slipped out of my hand and it landed on the sound wheel, lodging it into the player and thus making it almost impossible to change the volume (unless you mess around with it.) This gets to where the warrenty kicks in... (and if you wonder why I am not using the warrenty that the place of purchase gave me, I am in the middle of a move and becuase of that the papers are unavailble at the moment.)
The warrenty that rio offers is only 90 days, and after that warrenty the ONLY thing they will offer to do for a damaged player (in any way shape or form) is to charge you a $149 refurbashing fee. That is way more than half the price of the product as it stands now!! This is rediculous. You can pretty much buy a new carbon (or another mp3 player) of equal or greater value for a little more than $149! Absolutly insane...
To top off all my griping, the earphones just failed, and now I will have to buy a new set of earphones or headphones so I can listen to the blasted mp3 player.
So overall, the Rio Carbon does cover the basic essentials of an mp3 player, and offers a decent amount of storage space. It sadly though has a weak sound quality at times, and the other features it comes with can seem to be useless at times. It has a sleek, although flawed design. The carrying case for it is terrible though, and the damage resistance it has is pathetic. The warrenty that rio themselves offers is terrible, and do not plan on getting any decent sort of replacement plan from them. It is hightly advisable to go with any of the other brands: Ipod, Dell, Creative... ect. I am very dissapointed with Rio, and you may as well be in the long run if you purchase the Carbon.
25 Nice until the volume wheel broke
I really liked this player, until a short time after the warrenty expired my volume wheel broke. I glued it back on, but i think the volume wheel wasn't manufactured very well.
26 The sound is OK, but quality and customer service are poor
The volume wheel of my Rio Carbon broke few days after the warranty period (90 days) and the Rio customer service does not care about it. I do not recommend this player especially due to the poor customer service. I bought my Rio Carbon for $249.99 four months ago. Its price dropped down to less than $179.99 !!!. It is pretty easy to guess why?
27 Great product, but a few downsides...
The Rio Carbon is an excellent product. I have been using it for about a week and I haven't had a single major problem. Below are my comments and I will try and avoid repeating what others have already stated about the pros.
Pros:
- actual player itself seems very well made
- the buttons are well laid out
- Screen displays quite a bit of information in very little screen space yet is still surprisingly easy to read
- Doesn't need ANY special drivers to use this as an external storage device in Windows XP
Cons:
- Battery life doesn't seem to be as long as the manufacturer states. I average closer to 10-12 hours.
- Load time is quite long at around 10 seconds sometimes
- the scroll wheel on the upper-right is fairly handy and works fairly well except that when using the "click" or "select" ability, it seems a little too sensitive
- Rio's included carrying case is almost worthless. Can't see the screen at all while in the case
- No FM tuner
This is another huge one for me: When using certain headphones, the output is scratchy (pops, hissing, etc). Most headphones including the ones from the factory don't have this problem, but I have a headphone jack that runs directly into my car's head unit that has major issues with this particular device. No other devices including my laptop, cd players, portable dvd players, etc have caused ANY of these problems.
Based on the suggestion of another Amazoner's review, I used clear nail polish on the headphone jack itself but this only marginally improved the quality. The scratchiness has dropped a fair amount to a more bearable level but by no means is it perfectly acceptable. I think I might send this back to Rio for them to check out.
I also had the opporunity to use a friend's Creative Labs Zen Micro 5gb MP3 Player and I have to say that it was quite impressive. While I can't speak for reliability or battery life, I did feel the layout of the buttons and menus seemed more intuitive. Also, the look of the device was a little more appealing than that of the Rio Carbon especially with the blue leds lighting up every aspect of the player.
Overall, I have say that I am happy with the Rio as it seems well designed and has served its purpose very well. I have used it every day with no major problems with the exception of occassionally reponsding slowly to various actions. I would highly recommend upgrading the firmware on this device before using it if you purchange the Carbon at www.rioaudio.com .
28 Rio is a great buy and addon to your computer system
This little Rio has been fun to play around with ever since I got it a week ago. It is smaller than my friends iPod Mini and obviously holds more, as many other reviews will talk about. It syncs well with my Asus laptop and everything is recognized. The program that comes with it, Rio Music Manager, really does a great job with making playlists (something I like doing) and keeping all your music is good check, to the most extent anyway.
I am about to change my file formats over from mp3 to wma to fit more music on this light device. So that is a bonus from the one format iPod mini. I love the fact that I can just plug it in and it is instantly recognized as a drive.
I haven't checked out the voice recorder yet.
The headphones aren't as bad as what I expected after everything on the web. Yeah, there not Sony's and the sound isn't as sharp as the earbud style headphone, but they stay in my ear when I run and the sound on this beauty has no trouble in making me forget how much I am hurting.
I have had some problems with the switching to music though. When the starting the Carbon, the loadup time is about 20 seconds. Also after it has loading up, for about the next 30 seconds it doesn't respond well to any changing of music, whether it be volume, track, or getting into the menu display.
Also, the shiny casing does get fingerprint/scratch marks VERY easily. In fact after only 24 hours of having the unit, the backside had a few stratches. I thought that that is something that Rio needed to look at. And dont bother about the case that comes with it, you will see that it may as well not come with the player. I have put it somewhere and don't bother even messing with it. During a run, the rubber around the Carbon makes for good grip when the hands get a little sweaty, but a good belt clip/case would be nice (yes I have seen them for $60-$70, but that is a bit extreme for a case).
When I first got this machine I thought "Had I put $200 down on something that will just sit on the shelf after a few weeks?", but now that I have got it and customized it a little, I strongly believe it will travel well over the next year. By then there will be bigger drives and smaller units anyway.
Overall a 4/5 only because of the scrathes and sometimes slow HDD, but dont get me wrong, this is a beauty that you will be happy with.
29 NEVER BUY AN IPOD!!! EVER!!!
This player is so much better than any ipod the kids have at school. Many of them have dropped their ipods and broken the, but I have dropped my carbon several times and it always works.
It plays well and has always been reliable. Never buy an ipod, especially not a mini.
30 Would Be A Great Product If....
...if the volume wheel didn't break so easily. I first got my first Rio Carbon for Christmas. Exactly one week later, I've got it in my pocket during school, I pull it out sixth period to find that the volume wheel has been pushed inside the Carbon, making it impossible for me to change the volume. So I take it back. This time it only takes me 5 days, and viola! Volume wheel breaks again. It fell out of my hands 5 inches above my desk, and the same thing happens. I don't feel like returning my MP3 player every week, so....I'm just gonna get a refund and buy myself an iPod.
31 Broke and issues with USB port
It took me a few days to get it running because plugging it into the USB ports on the front of my system didn't work; it had to go in the back. And this was not obvious. We figured that out, and got the music on it. The next morning I went to turn it and it was dead.
I've bought an IPOD and I love it. Worth every extra penny.
32 Very Simple to use!
This is a very nice looking MP3 player. If you are looking at this review that means you have already done your initial research on the smaller size MP3 players already. For those people with too many things to worry about already, why make your life more complicated?
Get this MP3 player. It is EXTREMELY easy to use! From opening the package to listening 1st mp3, it only takes about 5 minutes! Of these 5 minutes, 3 minutes was used to open the package.
33 pretty good itunes integration
I won't go over the ipod mini comparisons, as there's plenty of review material on this subject.
I'm pretty happy with this player, having an iBook/itunes as my home music library and itunes on WinXP at the office. The Carbon shows up as a device on itunes mac os x after installing a simple plug-in, though it's a bit slow with an ibook G3 that has older USB 1.0 ports. You can drag songs, albums, and playlists to the Carbon, but the playlists are not retained--it simply copies all the files to the Carbon. I don't make extensive use of playlists, as I ususally just browse by artist/album. The scroll wheel moves thru menus at a constant speed and doesn't accelerate, so it does sometimes take a number of turns (easier with two hands, I have to admit) to find what you're looking for. However, for 5GB, the album and artists lists don't get unmanagably long. Scrolling thru your whole track list would probably be too long, but I never do this--I always know at least the artist or album and can browse to there first.
There is no itunes plug-in for Windoze, but the device just shows up as a lettered drive, and dragging files directly from the file explorer is convenient enough (if you let itunes "keep your music organized"--see itunes prefs).
34 A Great Player!
Well, my parents gave me the money for an mp3 player this Christmas, and after much investigation I got the Rio Carbon. This is a great little player, I have played around with my friend's Ipod mini, but the Carbon has better battery life and more space for my music. The only reason I didn't give this thing 5 stars is that the volume wheel is pretty fragile. Mine broke, but the folks at Rio were very helpful. They definately have some great customer service. If you want an Mp3 player to take with you on trips, or to listen to on your down time, I'd strongly recomend the Rio Carbon, great quality AND customer service!
35 Better Then The Ipod Mini
During Christmas break I was very upset when I opened my gift to see a Rio Carbon MP3 player. I wanted a damn Ipod but, my parents being the good consumers they are said that the Rio Carbon was much better. At first I thought they were lying to make me feel better but as I used it more and compared it with the Ipod, The Rio is the better deal. It has 25% more storage space than the Ipod mini. It is also much smaler than the Ipod. Also had a great battery life. I love the Rio and I am glad my parents got a great MP3 player!!
36 The Carbon does everything I need, and more.
I (like a lot of you I'm guessing) have searched and searched for the right portable music player. Well I found the Rio Carbon to be just the right one for me and my needs. I first bought/tried out a cheap RCA Lyra but it's functions and storage are severely limited, it was cheap ($39.00) but for even the most basic of my needs it just didn't to cut it. Next I tried the Creative Nomad Zen Extra, but found it's user interface very unintuitive and when I transferred VBR (variable bit rate) MP3 files to it it would play them back at half speed (I'm guessing), and I really didn't want to go through a long and complicated process to convert the VBR files to CBR (constant bit rate) that and the UI made me return this one also. Maybe I should back up here and lay out what features I really wanted from a portable player. The ability to work with multiple online music stores i.e. Musicmatch, Napster, Wal-Mart etc.. The ability to play long MP3 files (over 2 hours), the ability to turn the unit off and have it remember where I last left off in a long MP3 file and/or the ability to bookmark my position. The ability to fast forward a long MP3 file (skip through commercials), decent size storage capacity 2-5 GB, User friendly user interface, long battery life, excellent sound quality, all at a reasonable price of course. Well the Rio Carbon does all this, and more!
What I needed some of the above features for is so that I can time shift/listen to my favorite radio show when I commute, and have the ability to just skip through the annoying commercials and station breaks. The Carbon lets me do just that, and if I want to take a break I can easily set a bookmark and come back to the same spot at which I last listened at any time I decide to do so.
I first looked at the Apple iPod but there is no bookmark function while listening to MP3 (or AAC) files. You can set bookmarks while listening to Audible (.AA) files but that's it, and if you shut the player off it automatically starts at the beginning of the track you were last listening to, so if you're an hour and a half into something and turn it off be prepared to do some lenghty fast forward button holding! There is a "work-around" to this which involves converting your MP3 files to ACC and then changing the file extension to .MP4b, but whenever I did this it shrunk the time of what I converted from 2 hours and 45 minutes to like an hour and a half, and I would find big chunks missing.
The Carbon works with both Mac and PC, it works with Audible.com files also and it has a built-in voice recorder (if that is a feature that interests you). It uses the (very fast) USB 2.0 standard. Comes with a simple software program (for Windows XP, I haven't tried it with a Mac yet) The headphones/earbuds it comes with do lack quit a bit but I knew that going in and already have my own aftermarket ' buds.
All in all this player has a very complete feature set and the sound quality is right up there with any other player I have listened to. I give the Carbon two thumbs-up and recommend it highly.
37 Great, unless it's broken
I love my Rio. But, the first time I ran on my treadmill with it, I knocked it off the stand and the wheel got pushed in and no longer works. Well, because I dropped it, the warranty doesn't cover it so I figured I would just mail it in and get it repaired. Little did I know...Rio does not repair its products. I can simply mail it in and pay $149 for a REFURBISHED one. This is over half the cost of the original one...why would I pay that much? Anyway, I just think they have bad customer service because the lady was not even nice to me about it. So, if you are even remotely likely to drop your Rio, don't buy one because it will cost you almost as much if you break it.
38 Don't waste your money, buy an IPOD
You know how everyone is comparing this, as well as all other mp3 players, to the apple IPOD? Well there is a reason. The Ipod offers features that the others can't fathom, and has the reliability and customer service that one expects when making a large purchase such as this.
My Rio is fine, but when comparing it to the Ipod I was only dissapointed. I cannot get an FM transmitter, and the file organization is pathetic in comparison. The case is awkard, and I only have one choice for cases. And of course, the interface itself on it just is not up to par. The Ipod has obviously been refined time and time again, and they have a very polished product. The Rio Carbon may be a good item in a couple generations, but they have a long way to go. The battery life is the one advantage that it holds over the Ipod, and that is a nice feature.
In short, if you are going to spend this much money, you might as well buy a quality product such as the Ipod.
39 Rio - Horrible Warranty Service
I'm all for paying for a superior product that I believe in but in this day and age of competition, there are a lot of similar products out there. While the Carbon isn't perfect, it was my choice at the time of my purchase in October 2004. But dealing with their customer service and the warranty replacement process has led me to the conclusion that I would gladly purchase a 5gb mp3 player from a "creative" competitor. I can honestly say that I will no longer purchase any Rio products and will not advocate any of their products to others. With my electronics purchases lately, I am learning more and more that it's not only about the product itself but a lot about the warranty and customer service that comes along with the product. As for the Carbon itself, well.....only 90 days warranty and it died on me in 6 weeks. I have been 2 months to date without my Carbon due to Rio's lacking and unacceptable warranty replacement process. And it looks like it's going to be another 2 weeks before I get what is hopefully my final unit. I just can't believe that I sent them a 6 week-old brand new looking Carbon (due to failed power) and they send me back a refurbished unit with a lot of scratches and even large pieces of dust dislodged in the lcd. And they even told me that they were going to send me a new unit to replace my defective one and that it would take 3-4 weeks because they were expecting new inventory then. 6 weeks later, I receive a highly refurbished, scratched up unit. That's messed up. And over 2 hours of phone calls, etc., I have to arrange to send back the scratched up refurb unit and they don't even do anything about expediting my replacement even though they admit their faults. Lying or incompetency.....call it what you may! The saga continues for another 2 weeks.
40 I LOVE MY CARBON
I have had my carbon for several months now and have NEVER had any kind of problem. I listen to audiobooks on it and love the way it shows up as another drive and I can just drop and drag. I don't care for the software bundled with other MP3 players. The battery life is AWESOME. I listen to my books everywhere I go. I bought an IPOD, but didn't like it and sent it back. I love the way the carbon looks and handles. It is so easy to use. I DO NOT LIKE THE CASE. It is AWFUL. It would be nice to have a case with a belt clip. I found a nice small cellphone case with belt clip that works great. It would be nice to have a delete feature like the MPIO has.
41 Great Player
Great player. Very easy to use. I didn't even need to read the directions to use the software. Excellent sound quality. Very compact. The only thing is the case is not very functional. You can't access the controls when it is in the case. I bought a generic arm band case at Target so I can store it when I walk. Definately worth the money over the Ipod. Purchased at NewEgg.com $199.00, no tax, free shipping. That is $50 less than in the stores. I bought this over two weeks ago, and I have not had to charge the battery yet (after initial charge, ofcourse). Used it in the car with a FM transmitter and had very good quality. I just order speakers for it. I also purchased new headphones for it, but the ones that came with it were fine. I just like a different style. I give this MP3 player 2 thumbs up.
42 Cool little mp3 player!
I was going to wait and save up for an Ipod but I found a good deal on the Rio Carbon and had to snatch it. It is a cool little mp3 player that sports a 5gb hard drive with built in voice recording. I like how it automatically sets up on Windows XP as an external drive and you can drag and drop files immediately. Made sure I downloaded the latest firmware for it before I started messing with the settings. The sound I would say is a little above average, had to mess with the equalizer to get it the way I wanted it. There are presets for Rock, Jazz, Techno, etc. The other good thing is that it accepts WMA files so I didn't have to convert any of my previous WMA tracks. I thought the menu access was kinda quirky, everytime you select and change something it automatically goes back to the audio screen and you would have to press the menu button again to get back. The volume button doubles up as the scroll button which is surprisingly fast to the touch. I like how it charges via USB and the battery life is a whopping 20 hours after one charge. Overall, I would rate this player 4 out of 5 stars. I would've given it a 5 if it wasn't for the menu access thing and the lack of a dedicated hold button (but can easily be done through the menu settings).
43 Looks cool and sounds great but...
This little player looks cool and has great sound but. About 20 percent of the tracks skip like an old record player.(I thought we were way past that!) Rio support's response was upgrade the firmware which had already been done. When I informed them of this they disappeared off of the face of the earth. I don't know about you but that is totally unacceptable. Whatever happened to SERVICE in this country.
Buy an Ipod and avoid this crappy company. It will work properly at least until until the battery dies.
44 What's an iPod?
This thing is perfect. My ONLY issue has nothing to do with the player but with the leather carrying case. It doesn't help much having to remove the player from the case each time you need to fiddle with controls.
The player itself is a dream. It's smaller than the iPod mini but gives you an extra gig of storage. I especially like its flat, smooth ergonomics. It fits nicely in the front pocket of your jeans. You don't realize it's even there.
It sounds great and it plays wma files which is very nice. I don't care too much for the lack of lossless wma playback as those files carry huge file size overhead.
I honestly don't have a negative thing to say about this audio player. I have one of the 500 limited edition models and am still as enamored with it now as the day I got it. It's one of those rare products that actually delivers exactly what you'd expect from it. And with some of the deals that Amazon has on this thing right now, I'm amazed that they aren't sold out.
45 A sleek little gem that holds a lot!
I had never owned a digital music player before I, on a whim, really, ordered the Rio Carbon "Limited Edition" (first 500 units made). I travel a lot and wanted to be able take my music collection with me in the car and on the plane.
When I received it, back in September, I was amazed at how small it really was. I started loading it up with my CD collection, and found that I had plenty of room left over. Syncing it with Windows Media Player 10 was a joy, as was the ease of use and the great sound quality.
I had never really thought about the Audible support, but I tried the free month and was hooked, downloading books and the daily New York Times. I listened to Bill Clinton reading his "My Life" during a long car trip, and was enthralled. The Carbon does Audible navigation very well, allowing fast forward and rewinding, skipping forward and backward through chapters, and has the ability to save up to 10 "bookmarks". It has the iPod beat here in many ways.
The battery life is truly astounding. The meter will appear to show that it is low, but it will keep playing for hours more.
I do have some minor gripes - the user interface can be confusing in some places, where you have to know which of "click the scroll wheel", "press the menu button" or "press the OK button" you need for a particular function. But I picked it up soon enough. I would also like the ability to create playlists on the fly, rather than having to upload them, but that is minor. Lastly, the case provided protects the player well, but you can't get at any controls when in the case!
I do like that the controls are all findable "by feel", even if the player is tucked in my pocket.
I've now owned the Carbon for almost five months, and it is giving me a lot of pleasure. If you're in the market for a small and sexy hard disk player, this is the one to get.
46 Great Player !!! Get it for free !!!
This on of the best players on the market. The storage is a little small, but it actually pretty good considering the size of the thing.
(...)
47 If you're using a Mac, buy an IPod!!!!!
This product advertises Macintosh interface. It will interface with a Mac, but not gracefully and consistently. But the main problem is that IT WILL NOT TRANSFER PLAYLISTS USING ITUNES ON A MAC!!! Why is this important? Perhaps you're not a teeny bopper downloading the latest tunes from the net but a person who loves classical music and opera and need playlists for efficient storage/transfer. I returned this product and bought an IPod which will do what I need it to do.
48 Review-Rio Carbon
The Rio Carbon is by far and away the best portable audio device that I have ever used. Plenty of features and all are very easy to use. 5 GB of memory is more than enough, and certainly as much as I will ever need. Sound is incredible and is very easy to customize with the equalizer to your own personal liking. The only negative is the ear buds. Very uncomfortable, sub-standard sound quality, and constantly falling out of my ears. I purchased a set of "in the ear" buds from Radio Shack ($21.99) which completed an almost already perfect package. Awsome product!!!
49 This is the best one yet!! Almost...
I bought this MP3 player before Christmas after saving for a while to get it. It is quite cool, lots of nifty features and is a reasonable price.
Then I did more research and wanted the added functionality in the iRiver H320, but couldn't justify spending the $$.
(...)
So while this player is decent starting out, a free one is even better, especially upgrading to the iRiver! Good luck!!
50 The Best - for now!
This is a really volatile market, so watch for new products. Having said that, this is the market leader for now in my view.
I went from a Creative Jukebox to an iPod, and was quite pleased with it. But the case started to split and the battery life diminished, so I decided to try the new mini. But this little beast sat next to it on the counter and I compared the two. This baby makes the iPod mini look out of date and clunky, uncool even!
Touching wood, I have had no problems to date (3 months use) with reliability, but the useability is superb. I love the controls and the clarity of the screen, although the carrying case is badly designed.
But you buy one of these for the sound, and I recommend that you listen to one. Compared with the iPod, it gives a cleaner, sharper sound which is, I suspect, as close to CD quality as we are likely to experience on an MP3 player for some time.
Battery life is really good (although I cant say I have tested the manufacturers claims), way better than iPods.
To summarize, it is a real "feel good" machine. Try it and fall in love with it.
51 2500 mile 3 week christmas vacation stress test
after reading several reviews i decided on this model , purchased from best buy with an extended warrenty , just in case
so far it has preformed brilliantly, excellent battery life no need for a car charger ( it was on for a few 18 hour streaches - still life on battery before recharge)
files were easy to download through windows explorer or media player
can play audible books ( not all mp3 players can ) in fact mine came with a coupon for two free audible books
built in EQ does work , purchased good sony earbuds and coated the base with nail polish- no static problems- sounds great
can download music from several sources , no need to be locked into one source ( i-tunes )
has shuffle play and yes you can fast forward or reverse through any song that is playing
never skipped in the car , just to test it out i tapped it on my table fairly hard and it still didnt skip
i used a leather punch borrowed from a friend put a hole in the case purchased a black leather shoe string from walmart and now i wear it around my neck for chores in and out of the house
so far im rather pleased with it, i do recammend the extended warrenty just im case that microharddrive fails, after 3 years ill be ready for a new one anyways
52 Could have been a true ipod killer
I have had this player for only a week and already it has died out on me. For those who are wondering, rio fixed he static problem and my sony headphones work just fine. At first it was great. A few navigation gripes here and there but other than that it was perfect. Then I get a black screen and irresponsive buttons 3 days later. I reset the carbon. It works for 4 more days then it dies. Perhaps a change in the manufacturing might help fix this. As for me, I'm returning it for an ipod mini. From what I've heard it's MUCH more reliable.
53 Great Sound... Short Charge
I agree with most other folks that this device posseses great sound, and that the design is fantastic. However, I do think that the manufacturers mis-stated the life of a single charge. There's no friggin' way my Carbon could last 12 hours of continuous play!
54 I like it but.........
I love this MP3 player, mostly because of it's small size and the fact that it can play my WMA files downloaded from Musicmatch.
However the hard drive crashed after 3 days, all I get now is a whirring and clicking sound. I still plan to get another one, but this time I'll buy it from BestBuy and get the extended warranty.
Also, I hope the person(s) that came up with the dumb case (no access to the screen or controls) gets fired or demoted.
55 Great Product as long as its not a limited edition
After Months of waiting Rio finally released the Rio Carbon LE. I quickly snatched it up from Rio's wed site with a special deal. I loved this player for about 2 months when it stopped working!!! Rio's Customer Service is the worst I've ever had to deal with. When i finally got a hold of someone she told me that there was an error with the design of the LE and to send it back. I did so and still havent recieved a new one. They sent me an email saying it was shipped then the next day sent me another one saying that there on backorder. I told them to give me a refund, still havent gotten it. This all started about 4 months ago and I'm still without an MP3 player. I still want a Carbon but I'm nervous about buying one of the Carbons from Best Buy or Circut city to get the same problem. The Rio Carbon is the best player for its size(5gb players) but they really need to work on their service and support.
56 Use safety pin to insert in "Emergency Reset" hole!
I am enjoying my new Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player which I received for Christmas.
However, after a day of playing, it froze and needed "rebooting", like any computer sometimes requires. One reboots by inserting a nonsupplied pin (I used a small safety pin) in the "Emergency Reset" hole on the upper right of the top next to the player's volume control. This fixed the problem immediately.
This one freeze-up which my Rio player experienced was probably the fault of the dubiously edited spoken word file I had been playing when it crashed (the file had long duplicate segments of audio spliced together on the end). I have not replayed the file for a test of my theory, but I have used the player extensively since then with no untoward consequences.
I like the Rio Carbon's organically futurist design and easy operation. I think it out-sleeks the iPod Mini in style.
The only odd thing is a noticable delay in response to control clicks when in the "Recorder" mode. Click the upward ">||" option and there's about a second delay before the solid circle in the diamond appears and thereby indicates it's recording speech -- and clicking the same option to pause recording likewise has the same delay. However, the recordings are clear even without holding the small microphone close up.
With my Rio Carbon, I now enjoy spoken word and music audios from several sources by playing them amost anyplace anytime. I've downloaded two 'podcasts', the lastest Internet trend which is based on the Apple iPod Mini and similar MP3 players such as the Rio Carbon. 'Podcasting' began a few months ago with advent of the iPodder program for Apple and Windows. (Technically speaking, iPodder is an aggregator for RSS newsfeeds containing MP3 enclosures.) For the future, I expect podcasting to keep my Rio Carbon loaded with a stream of new content.
ITcoversations.com is a great source of IT industry conference talks, all for free, all announced via podcasting. And, at 30 MB an hour, the 5 GB hard drive of the Rio Carbon is a good portable listening device for these informative geek talks about how the world's going to change as a result of what's happening in techiedom.
Another spoken word audio source for one's Rio Carbon player is Audible.com, from which I've purchased a couple of audio books ("Masters of Atlantis" & "The Dream of Reason"). The Rio Carbon comes with info on an offer of a free month's trial membership. This offer isn't advertised, but there was a coupon inside my Rio Carbon plastic encasement with the URL for the offer. A free month gives an immediate free audio book (unabridged) and a free month's access to subscription audio (such as downloads of the weekday Charlie Rose Show interviews). Best of all, it gives access to purchasing as many audio books during the month as you like at the heavily discounted price of $10 each. Check out this option when buying.
The Rio Carbon 5 GB MP3 Player can utilize the special Audible.com format for spoken word audio. Somehow this audio format not only compresses 8 hours into around 60 MB of file space, but also seems to speed up the reader's speech without distortion, thereby allowing only a little over two minutes per typical page. Or maybe these professional readers are just very fast talkers. Yet it takes me about 3.5-4 minutes to read a page aloud, at my quickest.
Additionally, in regard to 'mobilizing' my music collection, I have been able to indulge my taste for the exotica of avante-garde classical music by "ripping" a few of my old audio CDs into MP3 VBR format. For example, on my Rio Carbon, the noisy Edgard Varese is now only a few clicks away at anytime so I can give my nerves a jangle whenever needed on late weekend evenings, as a sort of aural equivalent of caffine. ;-)
For background music in idle moments, or for "spacing out" in meditation, the Rio Carbon does an excellent job of reproducing the solo piano music of Dr. Will M. Tuttle's "The Call" album (I chose the 'Best' MP3 VBR format under the Rio Manager program and ripped the entire CD).
The Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player greatly enhances the value of one's music collection, by making it transportable and selectively accessible via customized 'playlists'. I compared the popular Apple iPod Mini (4GB) and chose the Rio Carbon (5 GB) instead, and I have yet find a significant downside to my choice.
For scholars, students, and other note takers, it is important to point out that the Rio Carbon comes with a built-in voice recorder feature. If I recall correctly, the Apple iPod Mini has no built-in voice recorder. All other things equal, and ignoring the 25% greater storage capacity of the Rio Carbon, the voice recording feature leads to the Rio Carbo ranking better than the iPod Mini.
Note: A recent review of the Rio Carbon and other MP3 players in the New York Times' Technology section states that there is a known problem in use of non-Rio headphones on the Rio Carbon -- they cause a 'static' noise. But I've personally found the small earphones supplied with the Rio Carbon adequate because I mainly listen to spoken word recordings and have found a way to wear them comfortably.
My recommendation is to buy. I did. Yet keep in mind that this is a device designed to work in conjuction with one's computer (there's no other way of loading it with music & talk audio content). Hence, it's not for technophobes.
57 Absolutely HORRIBLE!!
I bought this after many online reviews and I was quite disappointed with it. My main reason is due to the fact that the machine DIED only after two weeks of use. It was in no way mishandled either!!
Buy with EXTREME caution.
I KNEW I should have bought an iPod.
58 Best of Class - Great Size to Capacity Ratio
I have been a big fan of the Rio hard drive MP3 players having owned a 1.5GB Nitrus for over a year and have played with the quite similar 20GB Karma for a while. I loved my Nitrus, but my biggest complaint was that I wished there were just a bit more room. The second I saw the 5GB Carbon, which is roughly the same size as the Nitrus, I knew I had to have it. When my Nitrus broke, it turned into an opportunity to get a Carbon.
On a side note, hard drive mp3 players apparently do not survive 20 foot drops very well. But I digress.
Pluses:
1) The size!!! Like the Nitrus, this is still the largest benefit. It is smaller and lighter than the 4GB Mini-Ipod and about the same size as the Nitrus. I can carry it in any pocket with no problems. Not only is it small, but it is very lightweight. I don't even notice it being in my pocket.
2) The capacity!! The Nitrus held 1.5GB, which was pretty decent. The larger I-Pod Mini holds 4GB, which is obviously better. But this puppy holds 5GB. Right now is has four different music playlists and four books and I've barely put a dent into the amount of space it holds. All this in a little-itty bitty package. Brilliant!
3) Volume control. The Nitrus had two flimsy-feeling buttons. Now you use the scrolling wheel. This is so much easier, especially while wearing gloves or fidgeting through a case.
4) The battery. My old Nitrus ran forever, and now the Carbon runs even longer. I rarely run out of battery on my Nitrus (I just had to charge it once every few days) and I've yet to run out on the Carbon. I do hit the road often and it is nice to not have to tote a power cord everywhere I go for it.
Mixed Reviews:
1) Voice recorder. This would be great if there were a quick and easy way to make recordings. Instead, you need to go through the menuing system and even then it takes a bit for it to start recording. If you wish to make a quick note, it'd be faster to grab a sticky pad. And the results aren't that fantastic. It is really hard to figure out the perfect distance to get a good recording as it offers no feedback on audio recording levels (it's always too much or too little, never just right).
2) USB. You now use the USB to charge the Carbon and to upload/modify music selections. However, the USB must carry a certain amount of power. This renders my laptop unable to transfer the files or even synchronize. But, when the Carbon is attached to my computer and is idle, my computer will actually charge the battery. An annoying drawback is that when you plug in the power, the Carbon doesn't know if it is power or a computer hookup so it will power on. Many a times I've hooked it up to power it and then come over to find it running. Instead, you need to hang around awhile and make sure to turn it off afterwards.
3) The case. I almost put this in the negative column but since the Nitrus didn't even include a case, I decided to move it into mixed. This is not really much of a case, though, but more of a protective covering. You can't attach it to anything like a belt clip, so be prepared to buy a new case for this. Believe me, you'll want it (please see earlier reference to 20 foot drop). But I use the included case with my newly purchased case. If you look at their online manual, the case actually looks nice. Too bad the one depicted there wasn't shipped with the Carbon.
Negatives:
1) Support. Their web site is lousy while trying to get answers. Software updates are a breeze, I'll give them that, but I can't figure out anything else. It is nearly impossible to get a live body to lend a hand in times of need. And as somebody else pointed out, this only comes with a 90 day warranty... though my Nitrus lasted over a year with no problems, except the lack of a parachute.
2) Playlists: You can only make them at the computer and they can often be difficult to make correctly (I often listen to audio books so they MUST be in a certain order). I hate being on the road when I realize that the books got jumbled up. This is also a big complaint of my mother's, who also owns a Rio.
3) The cover: The stainless steel looks awesome, but with certain headphones I get a lot of static. Including their own earbuds!!! Talk about a major oversight. How annoying.
In the end, I would highly recommend this over any other player if you are looking for something in the 5GB size. If you actually need 20GB, look at the Rio Karma. That is a fine piece of machinery as well. If you are insane and need more than that (why are you reading this review then????) then look at the I-Pods which sport hard drives as large as 80GB.
59 Think Twice
I had high hopes for this product after reading reviews in the PC/computer mags. This is not a user friendly device. Copying audio and transferring it to the RIO is a gamble... Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Tech support is poor. No 800 # and long waits on a long distance call. Check out all MP3s before deciding.
Beware of this one.
60 Terrible
If you're thinking of buying an MP3 player, you should probably ask yourself a question: Am I the type of person that forks over 200+ bucks for something that might not last me a week?
The first Rio Carbon I bought lasted me four days. I got it replaced with another one and it lasted me less than 5 hours. Rio has done an awful job engineering this product.
And my friends haven't had much luck w/ IPods (they die out after several months). This, of course, concerns me since companies are distrubting faulty products. If you're thinking of buying an MP3 player, please wait for the products to be improved. I sure learned my mistake about it.
61 A Mighty Midget
I can't believe I waited this long to buy my first MP3 Player. And my decision to buy the Rio Carbon is one of the best I have made recently. This tiny dynamo has it all in a device that fits in the palm of your hand. The sound is great. I loaded all of my favorite songs from my music collection and still have 2 meg of space left. The only negative is the carring case. You have to remove the player from the case to use it. Highly recommended.
62 Excellent product for my needs
After doing a lot of research on MP3 players I decided to go with the Rio Carbon. I've waited a month before writing this review, and so far I have not had any problems with it.
Here's what I like about the Rio Carbon: It's small. It literally fits in the palm of your hand and it's half the depth of a cellphone, so it can easily share a pocket with something else. It's lighter than a cellphone too, you wouldn't even know it was there if it weren't for the tunes. Being one of the smallest harddrive devices, it's still 5GB, more than the iPod Mini. Using and carrying the device is simple. The scroll wheel is conveniently located for your thumb to use and it's easier to use than the iPod's wheel, which can be very touchy. Playback features include an equalizer, repeat, shuffle, playlists, and lock-mode. It also looks damn good.
Here's what I don't like: As far as I can see, there is no way to build a playlist from inside the player, they must be transferred from your computer. When hooking up a pair of Sony MDR-V600 headphones, the Rio shutdown. Why? The plug has metal around it which made contact with the Rio, which I assume caused it to short-circuit. Luckily it was fine and I tried again, getting it in without the metal making contact. The sound quality was noticeably flatter than what comes out of the computer, which would have been a huge disappoint if I purchased the Rio Karma for home use (20GB is nowhere near enough for a FLAC player) - but I opted for a travel companion instead, and thus perfect sound quality is not necessary. Don't get me wrong, it's still good, I can hear the bass. It's just not as good as an Audigy2 soundcard.
I would never disrespect someone else's opinion, however another recent review included some plain false information. The Rio Carbon includes a protective carrying case, a USB cable, free songs, and a free 2-month trial subscription to the Audible network, which carries eBooks.
Overall, the price, size, weight, storage, and ease of use of the Rio Carbon make it a winner. If you want to check it out, I've seen it in a few large retail stores, but wary the price, it's cheaper online. Hope this helps.
63 Better than iPod Mini
I own both the Rio Carbon and the iPod Mini. Personally, I prefer the Carbon. I'm sure many of you out there are deciding between the Rio Carbon, the iPod Mini, and the Zen Micro. As far as I'm concerned, the offerings from Dell and Gateway aren't nearly as competitive. Here is why I bought the Rio Carbon (for myself). I got an engraved iPod Mini for my girlfriend because it was shiny and pink.
Pros
1. 20 hours of battery life (Manufacturer estimate) - way longer than Mini or Micro (Micro has removable batteries though, but you'll need 2 of those batteries to equal Carbon battery life)
2. 5gigs of memory - 1gig more than Mini, does not need partitioning for file storage like Micro
3. Drag and Drop interface - easy to load and unload than Mini or Micro
4. Does not need Drivers - transfer files to or from any computer
5. Smaller/Lighter than Mini and Micro
6. Nicer looking (unless you like the different colors)
7. Microphone for recording! Mini lacks this function. Micro has it plus radio!
8. Plays WMA files. Mini lacks this function. Micro has it!
9. Cheaper than Mini and Micro (street price)
Cons
1. No radio
2. Laggy interface
3. Just one color
4. No engravings
5. Static when using metal plugged headphones (can be fixed)
Battery life:
I haven't gotten around to timing the battery life, cuz I never need it for 20 hour straight, but it definitely lasts me through the longest days. (about 14 hours or so) All the battery life you'll really need if you recharge while you sleep. The battery can be charged by USB, which is very convenient if you need that extra juice. The usb cable also plugs into the charger (like the firewire cables for ipods), so you only need one cable when you need to travel around.
File transfer and storage:
The claims about it being drag and drop are true. It is so easy to put music in and take music out! However, you'll probably want to use the software included on the CD (or from the website) to sort and organize the music and for mass editing of ID3 info. The drag and drop feature allows you to use the whole hard drive as a portable storage device. That's up to 5 gigs that can be used to store personal files! (Way better than the Zen Micro's half-baked max 2 gig partitioning system). File transfer speed seems standard fare for a USB device w/ a MiniHD.
Look and Feel:
The overall quality of the Carbon does not quite match up to the Mini, considering the Mini uses a fully aluminum shell. Keep in mind, the Carbon is by no means a cheap feeling device. The back of the case is a shiny chromed metal (shiny, but scratches and smudges easily like iPods). The sides of the case is rubberized, which is very effective in keeping the device safe in your hands. The front shell is a glossy plastic. The top and the buttons are also chromed, but I think those parts are plastic instead of real metal (I could be wrong). Overall the player looks very sophisticated. I was amazed by how thin it is, about the same as the Mini, if not thinner. It's lighter, shorter and rounder, and fits in my hands better than the Mini. I have less fear of dropping the thing when I'm holding it! My friends are amazed at the size and weight. The display is sharp and bright when backlit. The red lights are cool too! The fake leather case that comes w/ the player is poorly designed though, it could use a hole on the side for access to the buttons and display. I took a razor and cut those holes myself!
Sound Quality:
The head phones that come with the Carbon is pretty bassy. I've found I need to pump up the mid range to compensate, but overall, sound quality is crisp and clear. Please note that I am not an audiophile off any sort and not very good at judging this. The reports that using headphones w/ metal plugs causing static must be true because Rio has thoughtfully included plastic extension wires for headphones to keep metal parts from contacting the metal in the shell. The voice recorder is decent. I've used it for class and it was able to record the lecture pretty clearly, although I had to set it close to the teacher's podium to do so. Voice files are recorded in .wav files, pretty large...so keep that in mind when recording for long periods of time. The high pitched whining the internal hard drive can be heard on the recordings, which is a nuisance.
User Interface:
Rio must have decided to use a cheap processor in order to extend the battery life. There are many times during its use when the user interface lags behind my inputs. Keep in mind that the music has not yet skipped on me. But there were several times when I would try to jog the volume or switch between songs and the display would fail to keep up w/ my inputs. I was spoiled by the iPod's relative quick response. However, this only happens when a new song is being played, which is understandable because the player has to search for the song and then read it into memory. However, the lag is a tad frustrating, especially when you're trying to change settings for a new song. As far as I have used them, it never occurred in iPods I've used. The button layout and functions are very intuitive and easy to use. The jog wheel is just as functional as the overhyped touch wheel on the iPods. I've found touch sensitivity can be difficult for people without a delicate touch.
Overall a great buy. Better than iPod Mini in my opinion. I haven't tried the Zen Micro so I wouldn't make that comparison safely. The Dell and Gateway players don't appeal to me. So the Rio Carbon just might be the best miniHD mp3 player on the market right now!
P.S. about clipping electronics on your belt... Don't do it...It looks real dorky~
64 WAY OVERPRICED
You get 5GB(holds 1000-2000 songs) for $250 when you could have the Sony Digital Walkman 20GB(holds 13,000)for $350. About between 13 and 5 times the # of songs for only $100 more. You can't play movies on it like you can with the 20GB RCA jukebox/media player,has a 3.5 inch flatscreen and can hold 80 hours of movies(about 11 3.5hr movies,40 2 hour movies:costs $300 after rebates,$50 more )
The Accessories not included
Case-$15-$45(included with Sony's and RCA's)
USB cable-$30(included with Sony's and RCA's)
No free songs(30 free with Sony's Walkman digital music player)
Dock $40(included with Sony's and RCA's)
65 Great little player
The Rio Carbon is a superior alternative to an iPod mini. I checked around, read lots of reviews and wavered slightly before going with the Rio Carbon. I have never looked back. The playback and storage space is phenomenal. I listen to audio books constantly and this little player holds a WHOLE lot of books. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because I think that the Rio music manager software sucks. I have not been able to get it to work at all. It gets hung every time trying to scan for files on my computer. If I stop the scan it works okay to transfer files but not good enough for my satisfaction. I have problems with static in the headphones but am hoping that the nail polish trick works. Battery life is incredible and recharging is quick. With the firmware upgrade, the player can be charged through the computer via USB which is really really nice. Highly recommend this product!
66 unsure about the sound quality
i wasn't sure between the rio carbon 5gb or the ipod mini...they were the same price, but rio was 1gb more, so i got that. when i used it...1. i had trouble transferring the songs into rio....the 2 arrows kept spinning and then it said done...but my songs weren't in there...and then it froZe. 2. i'm not sure..but the sound quality wasn't very good....i don't know if it was just how the songs should sound or it was the earphones or just its quality. the songs i tried to listen to were the few songs already in the machine. I wasn't familiar with them so i am not sure how they should sound, but what I heard was unclear static music. I looked up the songs online, and they did sound more enjoyable online, so i think maybe it is the machine itself. Did this happen with anyone else? Were the songs supposed to sound like that or was it the machine?
67 very happy with my purchase
THE TRUE IPOD KILLER, SO MUCH SMALLER THAN IPOD MINI
68 RIO SUCKS !! DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM RIO, YOU WILL BE SORRY
as I am after buying a Rio Nitrus. I will save myself a lot of work: Just read the reviews for the Nitrus.
69 Carbon vs ipod mini
Like most I probably spent over a week visting every web site
that had reviews of mp3 players and read every review on amazon for all of the various players. All signs pointed to the Carbon
as the right player. My one concern was the ever mentioned design flaw with the metal casing and how with some headphones
static whould be induduced due to direct contact with the metal.
A trip to the local store change my views. I found that all of the players that I saw looked and felt VERY cheap. I was actually
disappointed with the Carbon as well. What did catch my eye however was the Apple ipod Mini. The feel and look of these players can not be ignored. I feels sturdy and yet not heavy. I thought there is no way I'm going to by an apple product when all I have are Windows machines. However the more I read on line
the more I decided to strongly consider this unit. I was worried
about the player not supporting wma files. However I downloaded the itunes software and was pleased to find that when you import a wma file it will convert it. The software lets you convert it
to several formats (ACC, mp3). The default is ACC but I decided
to go with mp3 even though they are larger then ACC mainly because I wanted to be compatible with playing files on other
windows machines that didn't have the itunes software installed.
I ended up going with the ipod mini and thus far feel it was the right choice. Great sound and a user interface second to none. I encourage anyone thinking of spending money in this range to go see the players in person and see if you like the feel of the players in your hand. You will see that the majority of these players look and FEEL very cheap even though they are highly priced. I was also wanted a way to clip the player to my pants, something that is not provided by the Carbon.
In summary don't hesitate to consider the ipod mini even if you
are a windows die hard.
70 Rio Carbon and Rio Karma
I have had a Rio Karma for a year and a half. My wife has a Rio Carbon. I am writing in response to several bad review.
Sound quality: the Rios do a bad job on bad MP3/WMAs. That's right, the problem is their files, not the player. I have 2800 files on my Karma and the only ones that sound wrong are the ones I got years ago off the net. Yeah, I can tell the difference on my $10k theater system. Then again if you want hi-fidelity, wouldn't be playing through a lossy format like MP3s or WMAs. There is the lack of lower frequencies, but through portable headphones the lack is barely noticable.
Quality: I have dropped my Karma (20 gb hd) while it was on well over 20 times. I have yet to have a failure. Firmware updates worked fine and added lots of features (not just bug fixes) along the way. Syncing has never been a problem. I have been syncing using both Windows Media 10 and Rio's software with three computers since I bought it. The ability to sync with more than one computer was the reason I went Rio over Ipod in the first place.
71 Number 1 mini HDD MP3 player
You've probably been hearing all about ipods (unless you've been locked in a cupboard for 3 years) and how they are the best and only MP3 player out there. Well, they're not (either) with the Rio carbon being THE player to get.
Compared to the ipod mini, for $50 less, you get 1gig more space, a plug and play interface (just plug it into any computer with win 2000+ and transfer files in explorer), a 20 hour battery (2.5x apples at least), better sound quality (I think anyway) and the list goes on. Better compatibility with audio formats (MP3, WMA, WAV), can use loads of music stores, not just crummy iTunes, a better navigation system (the non tactile everything is annoying). The wheel on the carbon is great, as you can just change volume like that. It's also more stylish I think, and will show that you're not a clone who has to get an ipod.
Other players are good, but just don't compare, with the Creative muvo2 having an awful navigation system, and the zen micro again going the all non tactile route (even for volume). Some players may be decent, but are double the size of the carbon (another one of its huge advantages). If more space is essential to you though, I suggest the rio karma, which is amazing value, playback, sound and navigation.
The one minor issue is the static issue many people mention, but I think it has been resolved now anyway, but a bit of nail varnish on the jack isn't that hard, but most earphones come with the plastic part as far as I've seen. The case is also not the best I've seen, but vaja make a superb custom designed case for $40 or so, which you can get for saving all that money from not buying an ipod!
72 An almost perfect little MP3 player
The Rio Carbon is the first MP3 player I bought. I was first intrigued with the Apple iPod Mini that my nephew had, so i decided to look at other MP3 players.
The Carbon is almost perfect, and I feel a bit better than the Apple Mini iPod. It has 25% more capacity. I have placed over 800 songs on it and used only 60% of the hard drive. The unit is a bit smaller than the Apple unit but looks a lot cooler. The red backlit logo and rocker pad looks very svelte. The back chrome plate is prone to fingerprints and smudges. As previously mentioned, the only design flaw is that some headphone jacks causes static when it touches the stainless steel edges of the unit when plugged in. This is easily fixed by painting a layer of fingernail polish on the exposed headphone plug (but it should not be necessary). There is a lock function on the Carbon (it pays to read the manual) by holding the MENU button in and pressing the center button. The carrying case is very snug because of the odd shape of the Carbon and does not have a belt clip. The ear phones while sounding good, do not fit well in smaller ears (too large) so I had to buy a separate headset. I find the interface very easy to use with a tactile feel to the wheel. I find no problems using it. The battery charges either from the USB port of your PC or from an adapter that uses the same USB cable. The display is very legible for its small size and longer titles constantly scrolls laterally across the screen (cool!).
The Rio Music Manager is very easy to use. Unlike from what I read before, you CAN do mass corrections to the ID3 info tags. Select all the songs you wish to edit and open the properties and change the fields. The one thing I find to be an issue is that if you update any fields in the Rio Manager, it does not update the info on the Rio if the file is already in the Rio. The software just synchronizes songs that are not on the Rio, not if there are any changes to the ID3 fields. The easiest way was to delete all the files from the Rio and resynching the unit. It is best to update the ID3 fields before synching the Rio.
73 So far, so good
Great small player. Price was well within reason for what it provides (I got mine for 250 online)
Pro's: Small, light, sleek. Real easy to charge (USB). I've so far been happy with the sound (be aware, if you use an all-metal plug for headphones, it may cause distortion! Design flaw). Thumbwheel and buttons all well placed and easy to use. Been jogging with it several times without any skipping (very nice)
Con's: Case. Okay RIO, just why do you make a case that neither has an arm band nor a clip? Plus you can't access any of the controls while it's in it. Someone just wasn't thinking! The music software that comes with it is adequate, but watch the defaults if you like a specific way to load your music.
Small nits: Playback. I would like to be able to playback music by directory as well as "artist" or "genre". Yes, I know I could make playlists, but I'm lazy. RIO made some nice features including a clock and a stopwatch. I wish they went the one extra step of adding an alarm to the clock (to wake me up) and a countdown timer to the stopwatch (for jogging).
74 A dissapointing purchase
Prior to buying my Rio Carbon, I spent days searching the web for both professional reviews from major and smaller consumer electronic device reviewing sites, as well as many consumer reviews of the Rio Carbon. After reading all the hype and glamor everyone had to heap upon the Rio Carbon, I decided that it was time to finally get one myself.
Though the price was quite steep (around $270 after s/h), I was still very happy and satisfied at purchasing what I thought was a superb product. Upon receiving the Carbon, my first reaction was awe. What a cool looking device! Very sleek, thin, and fits comfortably in the palm of my hand. I then proceeded to carefully read the maunal and follow the directions step by step before even turning on the player itself. I charged the player for 3 hours just like the manual told me to do. Then went online to Rio's site and downloaded the latest version of the Carbon's firmware. I then proceeded to plug the USB cable into my USB port in my computer and followed all proper installation procedures to upload the firmware into my Carbon. One really neat thing that I noticed at this point was that when the USB was connected to both my Carbon and my PC, it would actually take that time to charge my Carbon through my PC's USB port! I then proceeded to take out the Music Manager CD that came with the Carbon, installed it onto my PC, and then surfed the web to update it to the latest version. Then started the task of uploading all my MP3s onto my little player. It was then, FINALLY, after a good excruciatingly long 7 hours after I had received the Carbon in the mail (after all, I wanted to make sure that I didn't do anything that might damage or deter from the directions laid out for my little expensive player), that I FINALLY turned on my Rio Carbon.
It was definately worth the wait. For as I turned on the Carbon, I was greeted by very cool red glow from the Rio logo on top of the player. And as the menu lighted up and displayed all the little neat functions of the Carbon. Such as voice recording mode, music/voice/audio playback, stopwatch, and a few others tweaks and settings.
However all little neat features aside, this was after all a MP3 player. And the whole reason for purchasing it was to play.....you guessed it......MP3s! I quickly pulled out the earphones that came bundled with the Carbon, plugged them into the player, and pressed play. Much to my dismay, the sound quality was HORRIBLE! Maroon5 sounded like either a girl or a guy with a VERY high pitched voice. And my other MP3s didn't fare too well either. I couldn't understand if my player was just defective, or that this was normal for the Carbon. It occured to me that maybe a few of the MP3s may have gotten corrupted somehow during the transfer from my PC to the player (though I don't see how that would be possible). But the fact that ALL the MP3s didn't sound the way they were suppose to quickly ruled that possibility out of my mind. I pulled out my flash drive, uploaded all my MP3s onto it, and then transfered them onto my laptop to make sure the original files wern't the cause. And as I suspected, they played perfectly on both my PC and laptop through Realplayer, as well as Windows Media Player. Which left me with the conclusion that something was wrong with the Carbon. At $270, I was not overly eager to ship it back to receive a replacement that might give me the same results. So instead I opted for a full refund.
Overall this player had a great design, was a very good idea, but ultimately it failed where it counted the most. In its ability to actually play MP3s.
75 Overall I like it! BUT...
I waited at least a month after the Carbon came out to see what others thought, would it hold up, what bugs are present ect.. Then i made the plunge. Overall its GREAT. the battery life does last 20 hours. You can even use a usb card charger i got for my palm to charge in the car with the included mini usb cord. Holds a good amount of cds and love the fact i can listen to my audio books. Any negatives are the power button. With in the first 3 days the unit fell and the power button stopped working. BestBuy exchanged it no problem but i made sure to get the 2 year warrenty extention with the new unit. And this needs to build play lists in the fly. I never used playlists untill i got this. But it would be nice. How ard would it be to add this? This looks so much better then the mini ipod and takes up very little room in a pocket. If u use this in your car get the belkin tunecast II. It powers via car charger. Im tired of buying batteries for the tunecast I. Carbon lasts longer then it does
UPDATE. Im on my 3rd carbon. This is the last try. Love the player but something happened to unit and it wont power on. Didnt drop it but did have a hard jolt. IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING THIS PROBLEM? If this one fails then i guess i get an ipod. But damn it works so well.
76 Avoid like the plague!
Rio's products are horrible, and the Carbon is no exception. Looks nice, but will break within weeks. The controller pad failed on me, making it half useless. Not to mention that the battery is not replaceable and so when it dies in 1-2 years, so will your Carbon.
77 Very good product with very short life...
Yes I mean it! The thing dead on me the first day I use it!!!!
78 Great so far
I chose to pick up this guy over the ipod mainly because the ipod uses itunes and aac. I'm one of those "bad" guys who prefers to pick up my tunes from p2p networks without the hassle of converting to apple's format.
Some pluses about the carbon:
-Supports wma, this works really well with j river media center which allows you to upload and convert to wma on the fly.
-great battery life, some people are complaining that they want a removable/replacable battery, but by the time the battery goes dead the player won't be worth keeping by then.
-I personally like this design better than the ipod; as one reviewer said, I think the design appeals more to a male audience that finds the ipod a bit too toy-like.
-I use this to also listen to audio books in the car (via the Belkin Tunecast II). The carbon supports the audible format, but I just rent audio book CD's from my local library and upload them onto the player.
-the 5 gig seagate harddrive can be removed, and it actually works in most devices that use type II compact flash (yes, it's that small). But from what I hear there are bugs with replacing a CF card back into the carbon.
Some cons about the carbon:
-Like any other mp3 player, the stock headphones do not bring out the potential of the player. There are alot of earbud headphones on the market, but I recommend the Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia for those on a budget (amazon has it for 27 bux). These earphones appear to be nearly identical to the MDR-EX71LP's, but the 71's have only a 15 inch cord because it's designed for players with a remote. The 71's come with a one meter extension, but the adapter looks bulky and the overall length becomes too long. Also, if you get static just put some clear nail polish around the base of the earphone jack to prevent direct contact with the metallic casing. of the carbon.
-the playlist feature cannot be edited from the carbon itself, and mine takes a bit long to process the playlists but only after I've uploaded new songs. (not a big deal, only about 10 more seconds and that's only after i've synchronized).
Overall, a very good buy considering the features, performance, and price. Plus, you avoid becoming an ipod clone.
79 Cool product - needs a little more thought put into design
I've been a big fan of Rio/Sonic Blue products since their inception. The Carbon does have a lot of storage space for music, it the perfect size and weight (I use mine while working out and running). Also, cool metalic backing like the iPod. Ease of use. Dislikes: battery goes fast! 6-10 hours of use before it needs to be recharged. Also, battery guage is crude and not all that accurate. Not precise. Also, NO HOLD BUTTON! That is probably the biggest design flaw - I keep hitting the buttons and pausing/forwarding/reversing songs unintentionally. Lastly, the leather carrying case, while very cool, does not have a viewing window so to fast forward songs you need to remove device from case and manually fast forward. Really needs to be a "cut out" to view buttons and the screen display!!!! A note about RIO products: while cool products, good size and weight, they do tend to break rather quickly. I'm not that rough on the equipment but previous 2 Rio products had problems that required fixing. I bought my first Rio at Best Buy (yeah, they ripped me off) but got a cool protection plan that allowed me to trade in if product breaks within 3 years (for an extra $39). You can return for same product or upgrade to the latest and greatest!
80 as close to perfect as it gets..
No drivers required (your pc will see it as an external hard drive), Audible compatible, real-world battery life of 14+ hours in my experience, bookmarking, outstanding sound quality and a form factor that is second to none for portable use. Slip it in a pocket and it disappears. The only downside is a function of what this player is - a hard drive based player. As such it can be damaged easily. The same is true of any hard drive player - iPods for example. Bottom line, the Carbon is portable audio nirvana.
81 Incredible product
I've had my Carbon for about two weeks now, and I am incredibly satisfied with my purchase. First off, kudos to Rio for the sleek design; it's amazingly small and light, travels very well, and looks very, very stylish.
There are minor annoyances associated with the Carbon though. First off, if you buy this, make sure to have a set of good headphones / earbuds of your own with a gold plated plug. The packaged earbuds are crap, and anything uncoated apparently produces a lot of static due to some design error. Secondly, the back of the Carbon and the touchpad collect fingerprints like mad; being the neat freak that I am, I spend quite a lot of time polishing the bugger (annoying!).
Beyond these small grievances of mine, the Carbon trumps the iPod in both storage / battery life. Beyond the obvious 1gb increase, I'm never concerned about the remaining battery power (although I haven't tested the claim of 20 hours, I've never ran out of power, and I use this thing all the time). If you do buy the Carbon, make sure to upgrade the firmware; lots of small fixes and charging while connected via USB = plus.
82 Love the size and shape!
What a great little player (once my dad got the crazy package open). It's about 3/4" shorter than the iPod mini, but about 1/2 wider. Similar thickness, but more rounded. Similar weight. Like carrying another cell phone.
The rubber grip is nice too -- fits great in the hand. One complaint: the shiny chrome case collects fingerprints and scratches like crazy. After 2 days, the back is pretty scuffed just from sliding it across the table. The iPod Mini has a brushed metal case, which hides scratches and fingerprints.
83 Good luck opening the package!!!
Very frustrating! The Rio Carbon comes in an industrial strength plastic package. I spent over 15 minutes trying to get it it open -- it is too thick to cut with scissors or slice with a razor blade. Once I got it cut, I gashed my hand on the plastic. I am no wimp -- this packaging is just crazy! It could serve as the shipping container.
84 Excellent player! Few small quirks, but worth buying.
I've had my Rio Carbon for about two weeks - I got a great deal from Amazon.com when they were $25 off on presale. I was replacing a broken 2nd Gen iPod. I was bummed to have to get a new MP3 player so quickly (my iPod only lasted a little more than a year), but this is a nice chance to try out a new gadget.
I have to say that this is a very nice hard drive based digital audio player - my first thought is that I like it more than the iPod. It's tiny. Smaller than my cell phone and smaller than the iPod mini. It's cool looking. It holds 1 GB more than the mini and has a reported battery life of 20 + hours. The jog wheel and center pad are no match for the scroll wheel of the iPod, but there's more to the interface than the input method - the Carbon OS does the job of browsing and selecting files just fine.
I had a brief problem with the device locking up when I first hooked it up to my PC, but I flashed the firmware and instsalled a new USB 2.0 (I had been having trouble with the onboard USB ports anyway) and everything looks like smooth sailing from here.
I have managed to squeeze on just over 1300 songs, including some fairly long players spanning the jazz, ambient, rock, classical, electronic and avant-garde/experimental genres. I transcoded many of my songs into WMA @ 128 and I don't notice the difference much, if at all. The sound is comprable to the iPod and even maybe a touch better.
There's lots of talk on the "Interweb" about how Rio made a poor design decision by making part of the body of the Carbon out of stainless steel. This is true - I plugged in my headphones and got a lot of static. Lame, Rio, mighty lame. Luckily, there is a fix that doesn't require any sort of modification to the Carbon at all, nor any thick black electrical tape on your headphones. A small bit of clear nail polish on the base of your headphone jack (where the metal meets the metal body of the Carbon) does the trick just fine.
Overall, I rate this item very highly and would gladly recommend it to anyone in the market for a new MP3 player - especially if they were already considering the iPod mini. This player is a better value, and very slick looking to boot!
85 Very good mp3 player - could use a docking station
I have been on the PC platform for years and have gone thru a variety of MP3 players.
I recently bought the carbon and like it a lot. I use musicmatch for my music server and am able to drag and drop songs out of the catalog onto the drive.
I didn't install the software with the device - I try to avoid installing drivers for items like cameras and mp3 players on my system - I'd rather view it as a hard drive.
There isn't a plug in available yet from musicmatch for this device but it was able to see it essentially as a blank hard drive. I loaded up a ton of music and it froze somewhere along the way. I looked in the specs and reformatted the hard drive of the carbon and then started reloading tunes in smaller units which has worked fine so far.
The device doesn't seem too tempermental which is nice because I work out with it on. You have to bump it pretty hard to stop it which is good. It comes with a leather protector pack which protects it but you can't advance the track without taking it out of the pack which is a bit of a pain. You can change the volume with a rolling wheel on the top even when it is in a case.
5 MB is a lot of space for music but about 1/4 of my collection so I can't use the "synch" feature.
The sound quality seems very good. I load up my MP3's at 128 kb bitrate. I used some of the "hook" headphones I had from another player - the ones it came with I didn't like. But I have lots of headphones around, anyways.
The system features are a bit cumbersome but they are on any device. It wasn't intuitive how to move to "shuffle" mode (important because I loaded by artist and don't want to hear 75 beatles or alice in chain songs in a row). I was able to read the manual (duh!) and figure it out. Once you set everything it stays so no big deal.
The battery seems to last for several hours. The charger is a bit odd because it doubles as the USB cable to connect to your PC and the plug (put a different attachment on). I haven't seen anything like this before but it seems OK. I wish it would charge when you plug it in via USB but it doesn't seem to do it - you need to plug it in via USB to load tunes and then unplug it and switch attachments to charge it. Not a big deal but it would be nice to have a "docking station" that would both charge it AND do the USB. This is the main reason that I am giving it 4 not 5 stars.
Don't think that the basis of this review is a complaint. I LOVE the Rio. I always patronize Rio because on the PC side they have been WAY ahead of the curve - with items like the (sadly) defunct rio receiver that was one of the first media servers. You mac guys have lots of stuff but we have to make do on the PC side, that is the way it is.
5 GB is a lot of space; sound quality is good; it is easy to load and you can always re-format if something crazy happens; seems to be a solid device.
Also I agree with the guy who bought an extended warranty from circuit city. I did the same thing. Normally I NEVER buy those (they are a huge profit margin for the vendor) but if you read them they will either give you a new device or store credit over 2 years. I guarantee that it will bust in 2 years of walking around / dropping it so this is worth doing.
Best of luck!!
86 I pod killer
I work at Circuit City so I love this tech stuff. Rios carbon is by far the best Mp3 on the market. As you already know it's sleeker and more stylish, has a better battery, better softwear, equalizer, 1 gig more than "I-flop". Great sound!!
It's very easy to do, if fact there isn't much of a instruction manual just a fold out poster with the 6 steps to get started. You hear everyone say it is plug and play well it is. Plug it to USB, start rio manager, put in a cd (rio manager will read this cd and gather Artist, album title, track listing, it will identfiy genre, and even published date. So now that your cd is loaded and read, select the tracks you want to copy or select all if you want the whole cd. You have your selection, now copy tracks (this just takes it from the Cd and puts on your computer. Once it is on your computer select transfer. This will send it to the rio player. it took me about 2mins from putting a cd in and hearing from my carbon. i have 182 tracks (746mb used, 4769mb free) this includes and audible file "Bourne Ultimatium" which is a "Book on tape" 3:30hrs long. You get 2 free downloads from audible.com
Why only 4 stars?
1) 90 day warranty? Lots of customers dont like extened warranties, but $50 (circuit city) covers you for 2 years and is cheaper then spending $200-400 on a new Mp3 Player.
2) The case-- Yes it is a tight fit, dont worry about it falling out- it wont. But couldn't Rio at least put a belt clip on this thing?
3) Scratches easily- already have a teeny-tiny one over my lcd. Spend an extra 5-10 bucks and get a pack of PDA screen protectors most likley you'll get a 2 year supply just cut and put it on the lcd, be carefull not to cover the mic (if you plan to us it)
4) non-replacable battery- the lith-ion battery should last 2-3 years. apples I-Flop will run you 99$ to change the battery and you most likely have to wait 4-6 weeks for it to come back, after thinking about the battery, i think in 2 years mp3 players will be so advanced that it will be worth it to buy a new one. Remember the first I-flops? now 3-4 years later apple has the minis, and 3rd generation I-Flops are out now, word is the new 60gig from apple will store and display video. My point is technology advances to fast to worry about a battery. Remember minis batt only last 8 hours compared to rios at 20 hrs, there is a 2:1 ratio. Charge minis 2 times for every charge of rios.
I researched the rio carbon and I-flop. This cant be beat, i tell my customers to get the carbon over the mini. You should too. It's just better. The only reason i would tell customers to go with apple is if they were die hard for I-tunes.
hope this helps----
Pete
87 Rio Carbon - A College Student's Perspective
General thoughts about Music Playback:
It's great at its main purpose, playing music. The Rio Carbon is small and incredibly lightweight so carrying it in your jean pocket, jacket pocket, tight jeans' pocket, etc... is easy and comfortable. The metal back scratches a little too easily but that is something you have to expect with this kind of shiny surface. Just love the battery life for playing music (not recording! - see below). The way the music files are organized requires me to really use playlists. Otherwise, I'll often play the same album 20 times in a row. Shuffle could be a little bit more random but really can't complain. I mainly bought this device because of its potential for super multi-tasking so I'll leave the music playback comments to other reviewers.
As a Portable Hard Drive:
I've used it to replace my USB memory drives (since I either lose them or they stop working after 6 months) and it interfaces seamlessly with the computers I use (mainly Win XP). Like all multi-GB HDDs, it takes awhile to scan the files when you first plug it in. Unfortunately, you can't download the Win 98 drivers from the Rio website. For those who use Win 98 computers occasionally, this means that you'll either need to carry the Rio CD around with you or put the drivers online (i.e. in an email account). Overall, the concept of using this as a cheap portable small harddrive that just happens to be an mp3 player is very appealing to a student like me. You get slightly less than 5Gb so it's possible to allot one entire gigabyte to files while saving the other 3.7GB to music. It's about the size of 3 Sandisk Cruzer Mini USB drives laid parallel to each other, but it can hold a billion more files (slight exaggeration)!
As an Audible player:
Unlike the review below, I've had very little to no problems listening to Audible tracks on the player. I've used an old iPod and a Treo 600 with the Audible Manager software before so I know that juggling extra Audible devices is confusing but definitely possible. I've heard that Rio Carbon only accepts Audible formats 2 and 3. Audible always requires that you download drivers for (or "Activate") any new device/player you add onto your account. My experience is that downloading a 46MB Audible format 3 file takes me about 10-15 minutes. Copying onto the Carbon takes me 5 minutes via USB 2.0. Maybe this varies with Carbons and/or software but personally, I really appreciate the ease and integration between Audible and Rio Carbon. (My old 2nd gen iPod had problems but that was probably because I got it secondhand and the previous user was also an Audible user. Songs can be transferred but couldn't be played.)
As a voice recorder:
I had such high ambitions for this device to be used to record lectures. Sigh... the whirring of the hard drive, the orientation of the built-in mic (perpendicular from the face of the Carbon)... all this really hinders any kind of comprehensible recordings you have when you sit more than 4 rows away from the front of the class. No wonder Rio specified the voice recordings for reminders and such. I was able to listen to the muffled and noisy recordings by fiddling with the equalizer in windows media player 9 (without needing to find a noise reduction software) so maybe it's still possible to use this as a lecture recorder. Turning down 32 - 125 Hz on the Graphic Equalizer in WMP9 pretty much cuts out the whirring hard drive noise. Recording format is .wav and a 1 hour lecture is 12.2Mb at 32kbps. The Carbon heats up slightly during recording. Also, recording eats up batteries. The battery barely made it while recording for 2.5 hours (plus about 30 minutes of listening to music). If you have a laptop, you can easily charge it inbetween classes really quickly.
88 Some Good Some Bad
I have had an iPod for almost a year now. It hasn't been perfect and Apple recently replaced it for me at their Genius desk at one of their stores. The full year warranty was nice compared to the 90 day that comes with the Carbon. I was excited to get the new Carbon since it meant I wouldn't have to deal with the Apple zealots at their stores anymore.
The carbon is VERY small and lightweight. I was a little disappointed that the metal of the casing on the front was pulling away a tiny bit on the top left corner. The iPod has no edges to catch on anything. I listen to a lot of Audible books on my iPod so the first thing I did was try to copy a book to the device. There is no way to do this using the Rio software. It throws and error message saying it doesn't support `.aa' files. I had to download a driver for the Carbon from Audible. I tried to copy a 50 megabyte book file to the device and it took almost 2 hours. I figured I must be doing something wrong. I looked in the user guide and on Rio's site for help. I think their actual help desk is only open 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm every other Friday. There was nothing about Audible files despite the fact it brags about supporting them on the box the device came packaged. I tried copying another book file again and got the same results.
I poked around on the device via windows explorer and discovered that the carbon has to convert the file from `.aa' to `.asf' and apparently this takes a LONG time. Well, this just plain sucks. I don't have 6 hours to wait for all three book files to copy over every time I want to listen to a new book.
I liked the bookmark feature, the size, and the battery. I didn't like the fact that when you shake the device the power button rattles. It seemed kind of flimsy to me. Also, the case that comes with it is embarrassingly cheap. It looks like something that you would buy for your child in one of those plastic toy cell phone kits.
By the way, copying the same file to my iPod takes about 3 seconds per file.
89 Big Disappointment
My computer had a problem locating the drivers for the Rio so I called their customer service line. After waiting on line for about 45 minutes a customer service rep. spent 1 1/2 hours trying to help me with no results. I was able to make the device work after some trial and error on my own only to find out that the on/off button was getting stuck probably due to poor design. I am returning the Rio and getting an Ipod.
90 So far so good.....
I bought the Rio Carbon after buying and canceling my order several times. One of my main concerns was that the lithium ion battery cannot be replaced, as it can be on the Creative Labs Muvo^2 4Gb player. I had considered that one for some time, but after seeing that Dell, the IPOD, and nearly every other new MP3 player has a permanent battery, I decided to take the plunge and the risk. So far, the player is very nice, with an amazing amount of storage(I cannot imagine a 30GB player....my computer is 30 gigs!). I put
