The RioVolt SP150 is a versatile portable CD player that lets you play both MP3 and WMA CDs, the latter of which can store 24 hours of music on a single CD. The RioVolt SP150 affords users up to 20 hours of play time on two AA batteries, and the advanced navigation system makes it easy to search by song and artist. You also get text display for ID3 title information, showing track and artist information while music plays on its large, three-line, lighted LCD.
Enjoy 16 minutes of electronic shock protection. Programmable playlists, adjustable equalization, bass boost, folder navigation, repeat play, and shuffle play broaden listening options. The package includes a RioVolt SP150, high-quality headphones, two rechargeable NIMH batteries, a software CD-ROM, and a Getting Started guide.
1 Great player, but a few dissapointments.
After reading reviews and descirptions about this item I ordered my SP150 from a user on Amazon.com who was selling his factory sealed unit for $49. It was a pretty good bargain, considering that its regular price is $99. This workhorse plays WMA's and Mp3's both, has No-Skip (160 sec for CD, 16 min for MP3/WMA), a lit 3-line display, and an adjustable "user defined" setting for the Equalizer.
The case is also pretty neat looking, feels like it has some sort of rubberized plastic coating. The view window (so you can see your cd spinning) is pretty small, but I know why.. Direct sunlight and high heat aren't good for CD's, especially cheaply made CDR's. The Navigation is confusing at first but you get the hang of it after a while. Its like using video game's directional pad. Play is Up, Stop is Down, and Rewind and Skip are Left and Right.
Now for my 3 complaints.
#1-The volume:
40 is the highest it goes.. and at this level it should be blaringly loud, right? Enough to devestate my eardums?! But its not, the music is audible.. but just barely, it seems. How can I listen to Slayer, Manson, or NIN without a deafeningly loud volume? I guess this is some way that the designers are trying to decrease the chances of hearing loss.. Sorry guys but I don't need AVL. I (and the rest of the audiophiles) like music to be LOUD.
The cheap $25 Mp3/CD player I got at Wal-Mart actually had better volume. At 20 it was pretty loud, (enough to drown out the country music my mother plays in the car) at 32 (its highest) it was piercing. I have to turn my SP150 all the way up just to be able to hear my music at near-satisfactory loudness. Maybe there's some acessory out there that I can plug the buds into that will let me have some extra loudness. Or perhaps you folks at Sonic Blue will make it part of the next version of firmware.
#2-The Buds:
The earbuds that came with the unit are supposed to be high quality, they're good but I had to fight to get them in my ear. A cheap $4 pair of Maxell buds I got from Rite Aid had more intricate and pleasing sound, but the only way I can even hear my music with the SP150 is to use the buds that came with the set. The SP150's buds would be better if the unit had 10 more notches in its volume.
#3-The Equalizer:
Being able to adjust treble and bass is nice, but being able to adjust midrange as well wouldn't hurt.
#4-The batteries?:
Those "NIMH" batteries that are supposed to come with the unit? Well I got GP brand "super" alkalines with mine. Is that what was supposed to come with it?
#4-The Software CD-Rom:
I'm pretty sure that there was supposed to have been a CD-Rom that came with this unit, well I didn't see one when I opened my package.
Other than those 4 things I'm pretty happy that I bought this. It'll give me lots of enjoyment on the Greyhound ride home to Seattle,WA from Lansing,MI.
(a 3 day trip.)
-Chris Morrow
2 Great versitile player, but lacks good volume.
I ordered my SP150 from Amazon.com from a user who was selling it for $49. It was a pretty good bargain, considering that its regular price is $99. This bad boy plays WMA's and Mp3's both, has a lit 3-line display, and adjustable "user defined" setting for the Equalizer.
The case is also pretty neat looking, feels like it has some sort of rubberized plastic coating. The view window (so you can see your cd spinning) is pretty small, but I know why.. CD's and direct sunlight are bad.
Now for my dislikes...
What the sam-heck is up with the volume?
40 is the highest it goes.. it should be blaringly loud, right? Enough to devestate my eardrums! But its not and that makes me sad.
How can I listen to Slayer, Manson, or NIN without a deafeningly loud volume? NOBODY (especially not me) cares about saving their hearing. I don't need AVL. The earbuds the came with the unit are alledgedly high quality, they're fairly good but I had to fight to get them in my ear. The buds would be better if the unit had 10 more notches, the dude who said "low high volume" wasn't kidding.
The cheap $25 Mp3/CD player I got at Wal-Mart had nicer volume. At 24 it was quite loud. I have to turn my SP150 all the way up just to be able to hear my music. Maybe there's some acessory out there that I can plug the buds into that will let me have some extra loudness. Or perhaps Sonic Blue will make it part of the next versions firmware.
Oh and the EQ.. being able to adjust treble and bass is nice, but being able to adjust midrange as well wouldn't hurt.
Other than the limitted volume this is a great unit.
3 Go with the SP350!
I got this player in November '03, and it worked fine - for a while. It played all my audio CD's and my iTunes-burned MP3 CD's without a hitch.
Supposedly, the battery life is supposed to be longer when you play WMA or MP3 files as opposed to normal audio CD's. I popped in an MP3 CD and my batteries were dead in 3 1/2 hours.
I'm an accessory kind of person, so I went looking for the wired remote and the AC adapter at rioaudio.com. Guess what? Nonexistant! Firmware updates? Nonexistant!
The player itself has a few little flukes besides the battery issue. Occasionally, it'll only see the first 50 out of the 100 MP3 tracks on my CD, and sometimes it says "read error" when I stick in a new CD, but they're small problems. The thing that really bothers me it that the buttons on the front of the player are getting more and more unresponsive as time goes on. I practically have to jump on the play button to get the thing to turn on.
My advice? This player may be worth the $30 on amazon if you really need something cheap, but if you have a little bit more dough, go with the Rio SP350 (I'd give it four stars). If you decide you want to leave CD's behind all together, then get the Rio Chiba (256MB, definetly 5 stars).
4 Very Nice Easy Cd Mp3 WMA Player
I think the Rio Volt Sp150 is one of the best purchases you can make. It is better then the new mp3 player or even an Ipod, because those might not support WMA. Also it is faster to download the songs to a cd-r, which can hold 700mb of music and more then 200 songs. I have not experienced any problems, and the sound quality is very impressive.
Product comes with player, batteries, poster, and earphones
Pros
First off it plays WMA (Windows Media Audio) which is what a CD turns into once it gets saved to your harddrive, it also playes Mp3s and regular CDs.
Another Cool Feature is that it has a clear screen to tell you the Title of the song, artist, time elapsed, cd title, and track number (For long titles it will flow like a marqee).
It has very nice battery life and also has a bright green backlight.
The Player itself is thin and simple.
Has resume feature.
Payed 19.99 brand new on eBay
Cons
No radio
hard to get attachments (ie ac power adaptor, remote)
Low high volume
Takes alittle while to load intially
I give the Player 5 stars
Any Questions email me at x___2005@msn.com
5 Junk
This player software has too many bugs. In addition to all the problems listed in negative comments on this site I can add that I found the reason why battery life is so short.
One night I was absolutely astonished when the player started to play by itself !!! The CD was not spinning, power button could not stop it, and I had to take a battery out to make it shut up. It was bizarre! So, I guess, the player is using some energy even when it is off!?
Now when I know I am not going to use it, I flip one battery. Batteries now last longer.
Still, using this junk is too aggravating.
6 Fine unit - mediocre headphones.
I love my player and give it 5 stars. The supplied headphones are not that great - so the overall package gets 4 stars.
Owned this player for a couple of months and I think that for its price its the best one out there.
Nice backlit display, easy navigation and mine at least plays flawlessly. I got this player because it could play windows media in addition to mp3. I can get almost 20 hrs worth of music on one CD with windows media and it still sounds very close to the original. It plays VBR and CBR files (both mp3 and wma) fine.
Remembers where it left off.
Has user adjustable and preset tone controls - Very Nice feature. I hate when stuff I buy does not come with user adjustable tone controls.
Sound quality is super. No complaints.
No skipping problems.
Haven't measured battery life with my rechargeables - but no complaints on this front.
So - whats not to like?
Navigation could have been a bit more straightforward.
The line out level is quite low - so I have to turn up the volume on my home stereo waay up if using this as a source. This is irritating. Also, the line out is coupled to the volume control. Meaning that the signal has to pass through the volume control circuit adding to the noise/distortion specs.
The lid does not open as wide as other CD players - so one has to reach in a bit to put CD's in and out (which I don't do very often since I only use this for mp3 and wma)
The display is nice - but it should have been at the center of the unit or on front. Some silly designer put it at the back of the unit where it is harder to see w/o tilting the unit. And the display is oval - very stupid. Characters kind of get cut off because of its shape. A nice square display bang in the center would have been wonderful.
Would have liked the option of having backlight on permanently if desired.
A bit bulky - but who cares - it does its job rather well.
The CD viewing window is too small to figure out what CD is in the player. Why don't manufacturers want to give a larger viewing window?? I find this problem with other equipment too.
Would I buy it again - YEP! Any day - over a Sony. You should too.
7 beware of 'REFURBS "
upon receiving my sp150 found it defective after two weeks of flawless play- seller- who stated full factory warranty - now says sonicblue must repair it and they don't agree
I'm stuck but you don't need to be
8 best thing ever
this is the best cd mp3 player ever it reads a disc in like 3 sec and is skip proof and it fits in my pocket so it is easy to carry i highly recommend this player
9 terrible; don't buy it!
I bought this for my husband. He took a about a week trying to figure out how to work it. He tried getting some sort of customer service by phone or internet, with no results. Then the buttons started to go haywire. It ended up in the trash, despite the hundred or so dollars I paid for it. He really tried to make it work since it was a gift, but it just wasn't happening.
10 Stopped working after 3 months
The unit stopped working after three months of use. I experienced the same problem as a previous reviewer: the display would work fine, but the CD would not spin. I enjoyed the unit while it worked. It had good sound, decent battery life, and included a built-in battery charger that not even the user's manual mentions. You need to peel off one end of a rechargeable Ni-MH battery to make contact with a visible circuit. The battery recharges, and the display tells you so, when you connect the unit to an AC adapter. Anyway, my unit died and I invoked my warranty rights. Since the unit has been discontinued, SonicBlue sent me another model (an SP65 downgrade). I waited two months for the replacement. Well, that is better than having nothing. A piece of advice on how to make your warranty valid with SonicBlue/RioVolt. Write them a letter explaining the problem and ask for a Return Merchandise Authorization. Do not waste your time over the phone or e-mails. They will send you the RMA number by e-mail with return instructions. I know this because I have had the need to get replacements for three Rio products so far. It seems to me that the SP150 is rather flaky. I always had the feeling that the unit would not last long and I was right.
11 Extremely Disappointing
Now if you're reading my review you've probably figured out by now that this item is not very popular (at only 2 stars). Most of those reviews are really accurate. The device really does lock up and fails to play CDs very frequently. I made the mistake of thinking everyone was abusing the player or something and had caused it's malfunction themselves. But I can't figure why on Earth someone would price this sorry excuse for a machine at $100 - originally - after trying it for myself.I could barely get it to play store baught, ligitimate music CDs so have fun waiting for it to load up anything off your burner. If that wasn't enough, after about 5 minutes of using this player, the LCD begins displaying some sort of glitchy Japanese KANJI or KATAKANA until you shut it off and put it back on. The sound volume is _horrible_! If you want to listen to any invigurating, upbeat music, forget about it. The volume is unsatisfactory in even the quietest rooms of my house! The buttons are not much, and I can't say anything for the screen on account of it sputtering foreign alphabets at me.
I would highly recommend you stear very clear of this overpriced peice of garbage. There are _many_ nicer, cheaper CD Players out there that may not play MP3s, but function properly and might even have an FM/AM feature. Head our words, don't buy this under any circumstances!
12 depends on how much you paid and how you plan to use it
I got this thing for $20 after $20 rebate (yet to come) at circuit city.
Pros:
1. Nice display. Displays the whole file name, not just 8 or so characters of it.
2. nice backlight
3. Buttons easy to use when driving (comparing to other plaeyers)
4. Nice headset
5. Nice sound.
Cons:
1. FF is way to slow, about 5 times the play speed - takes about 10 min to FF 50 min (sony's is about 10 times faster. Panasonic doens't have one at all (for mp3))
2. Battery life is nowhere near 8hr.
3. When connect or disconnect the power supply (car adapter) it shuts off even when the batteries are installed.
4. Can only remmeber the last track, not the position in the track (very annoying when you listen to long mp3 files)
5. Sometimes skips tracks. (Yes skips right to the middle of a next track)
6. Sometimes get "reading error"
7. Starts playing automaticly when you install new batteries (useless feature.)
13 Do not listen to the bad critics!!
I'm French living in UK, and was amazed to see the number of bad comments on this RioVolt SP150 on US sites and was terrified to see so many unpleased users. They are all gonna tell you that it's cheap, crap, plastiki... Please, do not listen to them!!
My Rio Volt SP150 has been one of the best buy in the past few months. It really does what it says on the tin! It looks gorgeous, it's made of good quality plastic BUT they are right on one thing: It will maybe break if it falls! For God sake, any similar kind of devices dropped will probably break but remember that it's meant to play CDs not being dropped on the floor!!
Buy it for its price and quality. I've tried other players in the past and was chocked that they were skipping too easily or did not want to play cheap CDS.... This RioVolt is playing the cheapeast CDs around (I'm talking of £0.12 cds!!)and it's not skipping at all, carriing it with me everywhere I go!
So, do not listen to the bad comments around and please yourself!
Thierry
www.DanceandTrance.info
14 DO NOT BUY THIS
I got my Riovolt 150 in February, right out of the box it would lock up at times and not read the disk at others, by month 3 the player would no longer spin the cd at all even tough the display worked just fine. I tried to contact Rio about this but was told to try different batteries and different headphones, I'm not exactly sure how different batteries or head phones are supposed to effect spin up if the thing was plugged into the wall, but hey, so I did, and it still didn't work, contacted Rio again and never heard back from them, this thing is total junk do not buy it!
15 I paid $100. I paid $100 too much.
My RioVolt SP150 is a good MP3 player. That's basically all I use it for. I have it hooked up to my stereo so I can play my MP3 CD's, but I play my Audio CD's in the stereo itself.
When I take the Volt on the road, it works fine, except the batteries I use only give me about eight hours of power. I wish I could buy a remote, but alas, Rio's website offers no such item. Nor does it offer any AC adapter.
My advice, if you only have a hundred bucks, get a RioVolt. I would suggest buying a different model, like the SP350 (Which comes with a remote).
But if you have a little more money, like $300, get an iPod.
16 Good player, but...
The sound= good
the earphones= poor quality
the player= the mine is not exactly like the picture???
great mp3 navigation!!!
skips songs if the cd is burned at high speed (> 16x)
4x cdrw reads ok
the package doesn't have two rechargeable NIMH batteries(they are alkaline and not rechargeable) or a software CD-ROM, like the Editorial Reviews said. :(
17 Lacks Reliability
I dropped it once, less than a foot from the ground and it stopped working. Warranty does not cover that. It looks nice and runs great, but it can't take any abuse without completly breaking down. I suggest trying something else.
18 A great value
A lot of the previous reviews have stated that the volume for the unit doesn't go high enough- this is not correct- the volume is sufficiently loud even at a medium setting. The people who wrote those reviews likely had their headphones plugged into the "line in" jack rather than the headphone jack (I encountered this the first time I used it, but then realized my error).
If you're looking for a general-use player, then this is your best bet... if you're looking to run or exercise with it, you may be better off shelling out the extra bucks to get a "sportier" player with a strap and more anti-skip protection.
All in all, an incredible value for only $40, in my opinion
19 The Real deal with this player...worth an "Old Hickory"
If you read all the reviews (like i did) and also purchased one of these (like I did) you will figure out the simple truth about this player.
Either you buy it and it works (and works very very well), or you buy it and it is defective. Hence the reason for the disparity in the reviews.
Mine luckily works very well and the features are very good (make sure to download the manual, becuase there are ALOT more features, like the equalizer, that are not in the included quick start guide).
This player is a bargain if you do your homework and shop around and wait for a decent rebate. Also make sure to buy it from a place where you can return it, in case you get a defective one. (Also, obviously don't send your rebate in until you decide to keep it, since it requires the original UPC code.)
It is a nice player with nice sound and a easy way to add MP3 WMA capabilities to your Car (assuming you already own a car kit...heck, don't we all by now 8-)
Anyway with some reasearch you should be getting this for about a Jackson after all is said and done.
20 awesome cd player!
i've been searching the right mp3-cd player for me and the sp150 is the perfect one for me because the sound quality is excellent and i can even hear the details in the music that i can't hear in my old cd player! sure, it sometimes says "disk error" ,but that's common in most of the cd players.
Pros
-----
awesome design
sound quality
volume level
easy scroll-thru menu
bass and equalizer are great!
long battery life(but the batteries that come with it are short. don't use them!)
cool backlight
Cons
-----
kinda bulky
I know that in other reviews it says that it gets a "read error" but all you have to correct it is CLEAN THE GODD**M CDS! then it will work. i reccomend this player! The best of my cd player collection!!
21 Amazed by this product, espacially by the price!
My Sony Discman had broken after 3 yrs of hard labor and i was looking for a new cd player but this time i wanted one with the capability to play Mp3's. I was looking at the Sony Mp3/ CD players because of the luck I had had with them before, but they did not seem like anything special so I thought that I would give another brand a try. Reading articles on the internet I noticed that many of them mentioned the quality put into Rio's Mp3 only units and thought that the quality in these units would be no different. When I started reading reviews about this player I became worried because of the bad reviews but then I found out about the rebate and was sold. The Rio SP150 comes packed with many features such as ID3 tags, backlighting, 16 minute anti-skip protection, a great equalizer, and the ability to remember what song you were listening to before you turned off the player. The SP150 also has amazingly good sound for the price, although to achieve maximum sound qualty I suggest that you replace the in-box earbuds with a higher quality pair of headphones. Another great feature of this player is the equalizer. Depending on which type of music you are listening to you can adjust the treble and bass to give you the best music listening expirience possible. All in all I think this player is an amazing value and I have had this unit for 6 months now and have not expirienced any of the problems other people have been having such as the incapablity of playing Mp3's, scrambled mixes of letters coming across the screen, and errors in reading the amount of tracks on the disc. ...
22 Great value for the price!
Keep in mind this is not a $200 CD player. For the price you get a very versatile player that does pretty much all the popular format. Of course it's going to skip if it's shaken, it's a CD MP3 player, not a solid-state MP3 player. If you are going to go running with it, try that (and it's limited memory) instead.
23 Looks Like a Piece Of Junk
I do not own one of these players (nor will i ever) but from the reviews i have read around the web i can say this looks like the worst cd player you could get. From what i have heard this player is easily broken, just shuts down during play, skips songs, does not display the song it is actually playing and will sometimes just display a bunch of letters and numbers that don't make sense. If your smart you shouldn't buy this player. If you want a great mp3/cd player then buy either a RCA RP2458 or an iRiver ChromeX. They have many more features and do not screw up and i know that because i own them both.
24 Where is the volume???
Horrible volume control for any medium (cd, mp3...etc) that you listen to. The only way the volume is acceptable is if you intergrate the unit with a car playback kit. Then you are using the car stereo and not the RIO itself. I have to keep searching for a better MP3 player that uses CDs as a recording medium, this is NOT the one!
25 Where is the volume???
Horrible volume control for any medium (cd, mp3...etc) that you listen to. The only way the volume is acceptable is if you intergrate the unit with a car playback kit. Then you are using the car stereo and not the RIO itself. I have to keep searching for a better MP3 player that uses CDs as a recording medium, this is NOT the one!
26 Junk Junk Junk
I bought this a over a month ago it appears and it over heats and stops working. Called customer support appears to be a recall of these units as he said many have been returned with the same problem. Something with bad transistors. It takes a while to figure out it has a problem as the unit will play and then crash and eat batteries after about 1/2 and hour or so. I would buy this unit anyway as it doesn't come with an external plug and finding one to fit it properly is a nightmare. Stay away you've been warned.
27 Great player...No problems! great value
After doing my extensive research ,(as I usually do before purchasing a product)I came to the conclusion that buying this product may be a bargain. Many people rated this product very poorly and i really cannot seem to understand why. I purchased my product [online]and only paid $...after a...rebate - an EXCELLENT price (rebate available until 6/30/03). And so I was willing to take the gamble. I was looking for an mp3/CD player and i know I made the right decision. The RioVolt has extremely good skip protection and every variable can be tweaked to your satisfaction: Treble,Bass,ID3,scrollspeed,backlight time,traks,skip. First and foremost this product has Extremely good sound especially with the in-box earbuds. the player has unique features such as ID3 tags, which display ON SCREEN title, track, time, artist, album. It is really great. There is also a battery indicator w/ 3 levels. The weight is very little, the player is sleek and stylish as well. I am yet to have a single problem with any of the features of this player. I use it everyday with Rechargeable 2AA batteries (recommended). Now days it seems that one NEEDS an mp3 player, my CD-Rs, 700MB hold no less than 200songs about 5-6MB each. I have put maximum usage on my player (i'm a teenager) music all day long!
OKAY FEATURES (IF ANY):
Resume feature - only returns to last listened track not exact second.
NO AC ADAPTER included - i have one (4.5V) myself, so it wasn't that big a problem.
NO Remote - not a necessity but would be nice to have.
NO Upgradeable firmware/drivers...YET - In depth User manual, drivers, ID3 changer (excellent software) all available [online]... a great player, great value...
28 A very bad CD player!!!!!!!!
I recently bought this Mp3 player cause it looked good. But u have to try it to believe how bad it is. I used mainly for exercising and the cons come out pretty bad.
Cons:
1) No hand strap. How am i supposed to hold this bulky player.
2) Skips badly. If the CD player is kept horizontal it works fine with no skipping. I put it in pocket vertically and it skipped even while walking forget about running.
3) The battery consumption is pathetic. It drains very fast.
4) Some of the original CDs don't work on it. That's very bad.
5) Once it cannot read a CD it keeps on searching or dies down. But the CD keeps on spinning with no way to stop as the stop button won't function. Only way out it to take out the batteries.
6) As far as i explored it, i cannot make a dynamic playlist of my mp3s on the CD. That's limiting cause i don't know how i want to use my Mp3 after burning them on the CD.
So in all after so many Cons, the pros seem non-existent and so i won't mention any. Please spare ur money for other things.
A disappointed user.
29 bla....
A decent design, but the oval display window cuts off some part of the outter characters. The volume on this thing is HORRIBLE. At the maximum of 40, you barely get just enough volume for a quiet room. Again, signature of Sonicblue, the claimed 15 hrs of battery life is NOT attainable with normal use. Build quality is actually decent, but the joystick key is really [bad]. The down arrow key doesn't work very well, i have to press it soo hard to activate, so hard that i am afraid i might punch through the circuit board underneath it. I think sonicblue's sp100 unit is the only one I like... everything else is just downhill from there...
30 Disappointed
I absolutely loved my RioVolt100. So I tried this one, after I dropped my other player.
I read the reviews, and didn't believe customer support could be that bad. But they were hopeless. I asked about the features of the machine and may as well been asking about a model they didn't even manufacturer. I purchased it after giving up on technical support being able to list the features. I had to send it back.
It will not to allow you to program tracks. Too bad.
I highly recommend going with the iRiver 150, which costs less and has many more features.
But I'm sure this is a fine player if it has the features you want. Look at the user guide online rather than relying on technical supports answers.
31 Don't forget the accessories
Unfortunately, your purchase only gets you the Rio player and a set of earbuds. The real experience of the Rio Volt will require several accessories. Luckily, Amazon also sells most of these items. First, you'll need a roll of duct tape. This will come in handy when the plastic hinges that hold the top break and the top dangles by only a small cord. The cord may also pull loose from the top, but you can tape it back on too.
You will find that after a few uses, the screen on your Rio will constantly read "door open". This will happen even when you've tried everything including standing on the player to close it. This problem is easily explained. The small, frail plastic piece that works as a lever to tell the player that the door is shut has broken. This is why you'll want to pick up a small box of screws about a quarter of an inch or less in length. You'll take one of the screws and force it down in the hole where the small, frail plastic door indicator used to be. This will cause the player to think that the door is always closed even when it is open, but you might be able to play cd's in it now.
Instead of normal CDR discs, you'll probably just want to pick up the small discs that hold much less data. You'll find that your Rio will only play fractions of most songs before skipping to the next anyway, so save youself disc space and only record fractions of songs to begin with.
Finally, you'll probably want to pick up a box of matches to set fire to what little money you have left over.
Also of note, the Rio earned its one star for functioning wonderfully as a paperweight.
32 Poor quality, awful technical support
Bottom line, don't bother with this unit. It stopped working after about 10 hours of play. I also have an SP100 which is still working and seems to be higher quality.
When I tried to call for technical support I got the same recorded message "due to the high volume of calls, I should try back later". Must have attempted to reach them 10 times over a 2 days period, each time got the same recording. I will NOT buy other products from this company.
33 DO NOT BUY
I bought this this CD player and have been trying to get in touch with their tech support ever since. This player doesn't. All I get is READ ERROR with anything but the most basic CDs. Don't even try an enhanced CD (which ones aren't nowadays?). I have not even ventured beyond retail CDs for this player. Some basic CDs even display garbage on the screen. If you try calling their tech support you get told to call back later due to high call volume. With products like this, it is no wonder. Their website provides firmware updates for the 100 and 250, but not the 150??? Steer clear of this product. ... poor product and service.
34 Poor quality, awful technical support
This player only worked for a couple of days after receiving it. Now when I press the play button the disc does not spin and it looks like there's a problem loading the firmware.
Tried calling their technical support hotline for the last 2 days, must have called 10 times. Each time there is a recorded message telling me that they are too busy with other callers and asking me to try again another time.
Bottom line - don't purchase this player.
35 sonicblue secret
just recieved mine ...put 2 aa cel
ls in followed the "quickstart instructions" and lit off the un-
it which WORKED PERFECTLY and "computergeeked" the rest of the operation of the machine--EXCEEDINGLY SIMPLE! using unit with
a sonamp 225 watt-per-channel amp and stax headphones out of the
PROVIDED line output.NO SKIPS-NO ERRORS--you get what you pay for!!!Best deal on the market ...
36 Do Not Buy This Product
I bought this product for my 15 yr old son for Christmas and less than two weeks later it does not work. I would not even rate this product one star. When you push the play button it says "door open" even though the door is closed. My son has e-mailed the technical support for the company and had no results. We have called technical support numerous times and because of the high volume of calls (obviously others are having a problem with the product too), we are unable to get through. I am very disappointed and very dissatisfied with this product. Unfortunately according to the info received with the product, we can not return this product to Amazon, but have to deal with Riovolt itself. This is very disappointing. My son is very disappointed and I am out the money for this product.
37 Do Not Buy This Product
I bought this product for my 15 yr old son for Christmas and less than two weeks later it does not work. I would not even rate this product one star. When you push the play button it says "door open" even though the door is closed. My son has e-mailed the technical support for the company and had no results. We have called technical support numerous times and because of the high volume of calls (obviously others are having a problem with the product too), we are unable to get through. I am very disappointed and very dissatisfied with this product. Unfortunately according to the info received with the product, we can not return this product to Amazon, but have to deal with Riovolt itself. This is very disappointing. My son is very disappointed and I am out the money for this product.
38 Decent player...with a few catches
Not bad of a player; excellent at playing regular Audio CDs. However, this is supposed to be an MP3 CD player, too...and this MP3 CD player is less than perfect. It occasionally will not read my CDRWs, and the player has no skip protection to brag about. Ignoring the issue of skip protection, this is a decent player made by a decent company for a decent price. (And the bundled headphones are excellent.) If you don't plan to jog with it, I recommend it.
39 Riovolt SP150
I really enjoy this product. The only drawback so far is that there are a limited number of accessories for it as of yet. I have yet to experience any playback difficulties. It really does play everything short of DVD's.
40 Best thing ever!!!
Imagine carrying your entire CD library with you on, maybe, 5 discs! I burned 25 CDs onto one disk in wma format... sound is virtually identical to CD... and still have room for more. No more shuffling things around, just read the menus similar to what you see in you windows explorer.
Sound is very good. I've hooked it into my home stereo and it performs very well.
Now the work begins... rip my CD collection into wma files and burn them. It'll be well worth it!
41 works great
been using it for frequent 2-mile walks... no skips... easy to burn mp3 cds using my macintosh/itunes, keeping albums in seperate folders. fast selection between songs in different folders when playing random. the cd spin-down is cool, saves battery life.
42 Horrible
I first brought this cd player yesterday I was a bit dissapointed with the features, and the LCD display. It worked the first day, but the second day all it started saying was READ ERROR, and it doesnt do anything else but that, I think Rio Cd players should be Recalled, before i brought this everyone that recently owned one told me they [foul up] as soon as you take it out of the package! so i decided to buy it at the store..., so i could take it right back if something went wrong, and ofcourse like everyone told me, it [stopped working] for NO reason at all, you could keep this thing in a nice cushioned box, and treat it perfectly and yet it STILL will break. it is ashamed that they sell things like that for that type of price...
43 Not Worth it.
just bought it from circuit city. sound ok, not that great.However it does work how it supposed to, though it only comes with a small sheet of paper, NO user guide, which they mentioned that they would have one in the package. just my first time listening the letters and everything got all jumbled up, and it was question marks, and all types of punctiation marks on the screen, the LCD display isnt too good, not as bright as i expected, you can barely see it even in the dark, and to turn it off HOLD the stop button, which the sheet of paper says just press it twice... Over all this is not too good of a product for that price, i wouldn't suggest buying, However if you do decide to buy it, make sure you buy it at the store, dont order it.
44 oooops I dropped it
This unit has a great look and feel. The anti-skip protection works great. I use this to play burned cd's while I go for long walks to get excercise. One day, I tripped over the reminents of an old street sign( a little stub in the grass). I was about to fall flat on my face, so i let the mp3 player go and protected myself. After I licked my wounds, I thought that the mp3 player would be broken for sure. I picked it up and it worked. Big chips in the plastic and all. I didn't even have to make up an excuse and return it.
45 Dont drop it!!
This is the most fragile CD player I have ever seen. I went through !4! of these CD players and each of them broke when I dropped them once or twice. These werent big drops, 3 feet max. It has reading problems where for no reason it would say "read error" (this happens even before you "break" it). It was great having 180 songs on one CD, but replacing it so often is not worth it. I reccomend the sony line of CD players (they have a mp-cd player too), that line can really take a beating.
46 piece of junk, waste of money
this is by far the worst mp3 cd player. Tried 5 REAL cds and none of them worked then wouldnt stop spinning after I hit stop. Wouldnt take burned cds either, had it for an hour and a half until i returned it Dont buy it
47 Great Discman/mp3 player
I bought this item about 2 weeks ago and the sp90 and i find this to be better than the sp90 for 3 reasons. the backlit display the option to get the upgradedable firmware and the optional remote. i would sugest this product to anyone for someone who wants simplicity without getting lost in the ocean of products there is right now.
48 This is a cool mp3 cd player
I think this is one of the best mp3 cd players. It has up 24 of playtime in AA batteries. It plays wma files Cdr/cdrw/and mp3 files. It also has anti-skip protection. You get the 3-line text LCD screen. You can have up to 24 hours of music on one CD. And all the good things that you might want.
But it sometimes reads wrong. For example I had 54 songs in a cd and sometimes it reads it as 21. It some times has like words that you can't recognize from your songs. But I still think it is a good Mp3 cd player. I just bought me one.
