Customer Reviews

Imation RipGO! Mini CD-R Burner & Digital Audio Player

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well, here's a real review for this item. All previous reviews tell nothing about the product, so I'm going to share my thoughts about it.
I owned about five different mp3 players before (Memorex, Rio, TDK). I was very happy with my old TDK Mojo but its size always made me wish it were smaller. An unfortunately accident ended the days of glory of my Mojo, so I started to look for a new mp3 player.
I was looking for something small, so I decided for mini cd players, and then I found the RipGO! from Imation.
The player comes with 2 blank discs and an installation disk with the necessary drivers (required only for Windows 98). It comes with Nero and other two applications I didn't bother to see.
Putting the player in action was very easy. Just plug the player on the USB port and you have a new CD drive (in this case, burner). In five minutes I burned a disc, unplugged the player and stated to listen to my favorite sound track (Cowboy Bebop). I tested it with mp3s encoded at 160kps and it didn't skip at all.
The player has a very funny feature, when it's playing a song and the buffer starts to run empty; it starts to fill the buffer with the next song, avoiding the gap between tracks. The screen is clear and has all the necessary information (track name, time remaining, song length, EQ Mode, etc). The menus and navigation are a bit complex at the beginning, but you will get used to it.
The sound quality is great, better that any other player I heard before and has more presets than other players (Normal, Rock, Pop, Classic, Salsa, Techno, Jazz, Etc). The headphones are just ok, but they'll do the job well.
The player is small, but is not the smaller player out there. It doesn't come with a carrying case or anything, but you can hold it in the pocket of your shirt.
One mayor flaw I found on this player is the battery life. It comes with a rechargeable battery, but it will last only 3 or 4 hours.
Overall, this is a very good product, but if you prefer gigabytes of storage instead of 185MB mini cds go to the Archos Jukebox, they'll cost the same, but they are bigger heavier and may crash sometimes.
I hope this will help you.

The RipGo unit performs as it's advertised. It burns 3" CD-Rs (not CD-RWs) of 185M and 210M capacity via USB port. Although only rated at 4x, lower capacity of the discs make burns at 4x tolerable. The unit does not have buffer underrun protection, however I have not had created any coasters burning 10 discs using Nero software. Playback of MP3 and WMA files is reliable and with no skips during walks. This player can play much louder than most portable units sold today and preset EQs functions very well. The unit also has balance control and random play option. The behind the head headphone is typical inexpensive units packaged with portables and you would want to replace it with a better unit.

After about 4 months of light use, the lid hinge broke on the unit (break in the plastic tab due to defect). Although it was explained to them that the unit was never dropped and was always kept in a case, Imation customer support was very quick to blame me for dropping the unit. They finally agreed to repair the unit under warranty but upon repair, again they insisted that the unit was dropped. It is not a very pleasant experience when the customer service does not believe the word of the customer. Although the merchandise works as advertised, the treatment of their customer service makes me think twice about purchasing any other Imation product.

The Imation RipGO! is a first generation product that has several problems. Although it is feature laden, it falls short on several items.

The battery retainer clips are flimsy, and one broke on my unit the first day. The clips were inadequate anyway, and some electrical tape was required to hold the battery pack in place for even mild athletic use.

The user interface is poor, and disc loading time is rather long (greater than 30 seconds/session). It does not tolerate corrupted MP3 files well. On the plus side, the RipGO! does support multisession discs. Unfortunately, it does not support CD-R/W media.

I would recommend only using 185MB discs with this drive/player. The drive has a difficult time reading the 245MB/8cm discs reliably.

The unit does support ID tags. Firmware is field upgradeable. (My unit was not shippped with the latest version.)

The headphones supplied with the unit are above average in sound quality, but may not fit everyone. Also, the compact switching power adapter is a nice touch.

Overall, the RipGO! is still in need of some refinement. There are better choices if you do not need the CD-R burner capability.

This is really an okay device. It doesn't always do what you tell it to do, though. I have had problems with the burner function, and it's fidgity about MP3's...it won't take some of them. Also, if you're on the road for a while, or on a long flight, the less than 5 hour battery life is really a pain in the neck. However, for casual use, jogging, or mowing the lawn, it's okay. I'd recommend, however, if you have a burner drive in your computer, use that instead of the RipGo's burner (silly, i know)

Above average player for the money ($$).

Pros
- Convenient pocket size.
- Screen information w/ backlit display.
- Battery life.
- Good sound.
Cons
- Slow startup.
- Doesn't play CDRWs.
- Stopped working consistently ~9 months into ownership.

Very good small mobile Mini Burner. I like it. This is what I look for.

You can get multiple benefits from this device. It has a rechargeable battery built in, so you can use it on an airplane, train, bus or car. It will play mp3 music files through a line-out/headphone port. It includes headphones for that purpose. You can use it to backup important data on your laptop - perhaps you have an older model without a built-in burner. And it uses these very cute 8cm (3 inch) media, which is a very convenient size for sending along with a letter or greeting card. A great way to share photos and videos from a vacation or business trip.

I recommend this to anyone who loves the idea of a CD-mp3 player that's versatile, feature-rich and has great accessories.

What makes this little guy so special? Well, other than having a backlit display with ID3 support, support for both variable-bitrate MP3 and WMA, coming bundled with a mini-version of Nero, flash-upgrade ready and pretty decent headphones when compared to the competition, the RipGo! is a portable CD burner!

While burning at 4x (slow compared to modern CD-burners, even most portable ones), the RipGo! offers versatility that no other MP3 player in its price range can match. At work and just bought a new CD? Pop it into the CD player of your computer, convert the music to mp3 or wma and download it directly onto a new or partially-fully 8cm CDR via the included USB cable.

The only real downside to this machine is the power issue. It uses a 6v 2amp power supply (that's 2000mA). Most DC adapters use between 500mA and 850mA, so in order to take this on the road, I had to buy a AC/DC inverter that could handle the amperage and just plug my AC adapter into it. The proprietary Lithium-Ion battery also takes about 3 hours to charge up from empty (not that bad if you charge it overnight or while listening and plugged into an AC outlet), but only lasts for 5 hours (that's 5 hours of plugging it in and letting it go without touching it and lighting up the back-lit display, I suspect. Kind of short for most mp3 cd players.

I tend to use it plugged into a wall outlet.

Pros:
1. Size (4"X6")
2. Included accessories (headphones that don't hurt, a slimline AC adapter, USB cable, 2 8cm CDRs and an installation disk with sample music and software.
3. Flash-upgradable.
4. It's a burner as well as a player.
5. ID3 Support with foldername support for easy navigation.
6. MP3, WMA and CD-Audio playback.
7. Backlit display with contrast control.
8. Random (Shuffle), Repeat & Equalizer settings.
9. Set-up is a breeze with WinXP.

Cons:
1. Battery is proprietary. 5 hour life, 3 hour recharge.
2. Power supply is needy. 6v 2000mA. Good luck finding accessories for the car.
3. 8cm CD means fewer albums per disk, but I've been encoding my music as 64kb WMA using Windows Media Player and get good sound. It's also really hard to find good 8cm CD wallets. Amazon offers some good Case-Logic wallets and holders, but the one I decided on had to be to ordered direct from Case-Logic.

This product performed in exactly the manner it describes - it uses 3" CD-R media to make for a less bulky package than full size MP3 players. It supports WMA and MP3 digital formats, which was a requirement for me. It's useful as a storage device when I'm back visiting family. Installation and operation are a breeze. Included headphones are of above average quality.

The battery issue is this products only downfall. It uses a proprietary battery which lasts aroun 4/5 hours for my use, and can only be charged in unit. The charging only takes place when you have it connected to the power supply and you turn the unit off, not exactly the most obvious charging manner.

The battery issue alone is not enough to part me from this great thing

Well, I bought one of this, at the beginning I was very excited, that was a really cool device, until I started to use it, then start the deceptions, first it don't support in anyway the Mini CD-RW, second belived or not it don't support the Mini CD-R of 210MB and this two problems Imation can not solve with an update of firmware, so if you buy this product you have to stay with 185MB discs, because the larger ones don't work on the RipGO they are really a headache. Sorry to dissapoint to the fans of the RipGO.

En resumen no gasten el dinero en el RipGO, no soporta los discos especificados antes solo el de 185MB CD-R, y ya hable con Imation y no pueden solucionarlo con ninguna actualización de firmware, así que, así queda hasta que dure.