Let's Play With It!
64 MB of memory was exactly what
I needed. My other MP3 player only features 32 MB of memory and that was just
not enough for the amount of music I wanted to take on the go with me. Add
to that the fact that I found myself tired of hearing the same six or seven
songs over and over and you can see I was really looking for a player with
more capacity. Better yet, add the ability to pack another 16 MB in with the
flash memory upgrade slot and you should have no problems packing all your
Dre and Metallica favorites on the player. On the right side of the unit is
a button labeled "browse". Pressing that will list all your songs in a play
list that you can scroll up or down on. The volume button also serves as the
controller for all options. Simply press it down to enter the options menu
and scroll up and down with the wheel. In this menu you'll find the repeat,
random, program, EQ, and backlight settings. The
one handed operation of this unit made it very flexible and easy to use. Too
many manufacturers forget such a simple thing as being able to operate the
controls while on the go. The battery life is very good. I averaged over 15
hours with each battery I used. Diamond claims a battery life of 13 hours.
Depending on your battery brand you should have no problems reaching that
figure.
Diamond
sells a car kit for the Rio 500. It consists of a tape adapter that plugs
into the headphone jack. Sound in the car was quite impressive. While the
unit only features four sound presets (normal, classic, jazz, and rock) there
is also a custom feature that will let you select how much bass and treble
you want. A nice feature also packed into this unit is that the volume control
goes up to number 20! No wimpy number 10 setting here. Ok, just kidding, but
the sound output was quite good and I had no problems with the quality of
the sound at its maximum setting. Also optional are the rugged travel case
that was provided with this review unit, a leather case, and behind the ear
conventional headphones.
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Pros
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Cons
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- Isn't compatible
with the widely available 32 and 64 MB flash memory (see below
for update)
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Conclusions
There are so many unique
features in this player that it is hard to compare it to most MP3 players
on the market. This is by far one of the best players, if not the best, currently
available. Its sound quality is very good, and more importantly, you can put
enough music on it to actually make the unit useful. The LCD panel has good
size type and has a backlight, which is turned on every time a button is pressed.
From a design standpoint the layout of the controls on this unit are top notch.
Also an improvement are the unique earbud headphones that actually stay on
your head. I was quite tired of reinserting the headphones from my other MP3
player.
One area where this MP3
player really stands apart from its competition is its software. Not only
was the user interface of the software very easy to figure out, but the added
flexibility that the RioPORT website offers puts this unit leaps ahead of
the software included with other MP3 players. The software even works for
you Mac types out there. In my mind, the best feature of this unit is its
ability to use flash memory to increase its capacity. If you like, buy a few
of those memory cards and organize your music taste in 16 MB genres. I would
have liked to see this unit be compatible with 32 and 64 MB flash memory,
but a capacity of 80 MBs at this point is very acceptable. If you are looking
to buy an MP3 player I highly recommend you consider the Rio 500. Its combination
of play time, ease of use, and great software package make it hard to beat.
Victor
Oshiro July 26, 2000
Update 10-10-2000
There has been a firmware
update for the RIO 500 that allows it to use 64 MB flash memory. This
solves the problem with the flash memory and, in my opionion, makes it the
best available MP3 player on the market at this time.
