Customer Reviews

Rio 800 128 MB Digital Audio Player (MP3/WMA)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(98)

 

 

First off, I'd like to correct the battery issue with many of the reviewers below. The problem you are getting is a might as well be calibration error of the battery. I say this because in the fine prints of the manual, if anyone has read it, says that you must go in the preference and choose the calibrate option when you are charging it for the FIRST TIME!! It says if you don't do this procedure, your readings will be off each time you use it.

Now, I'll just make this short on why this is such a good player. I'll prove this by comparing it's only competitor the Intel Pocket Concert. I've recently brought the Intel Pocket Player 128mb, after it crashed, I went and brought this. I found out that this player has everything the Intel has but with higher quality. First thing was the sound quality, in the Intel, there was this annoying hissing that drives you mad, in RIO there was absolutly none.

Next, this player comes with a charger! A NiMH charger! Intel...2 AAA akline batteries. haha. Next, this player comes with a soft casing which protects it from falls and scratches. Intel, none.

Next, this player has all the play list functions that you can dream of..ie making multiple playlists, repeat playlists, moving songs to different order on the fly. Intels...no play list function except the order that it came in.

Next, Voice recording, nuff said. Intel? None, but it does have a FM player which is pratically useless because the reception is horrendous.

Next, this player is extremely customizible, ie adjustable auto sleep mode, backlit display time limit(adjustable from 1 to 10 second to Always On), equalizer(also includes around 8 presets!).Intel? they have only a simple bass treble equalizer and, with sleep mode. But their backlit can only be adjusted to On or Off. The on setting will light for like 3 seconds, which is annoying if you want to see some scrolling you have to press some buttons to relit the screen.

Next, memory expandable? This player Yes. Intel...no.

Next, special unexpected features. There is a little undocumented feature that I found that can let you save the location of your last playing song. All you do is hold on the stop button for around 3 seconds while playing, and the player will turn it self off even tho the power switch is at "ON". And when you press play again, it will be at the last song you were playing.

Finally, last time I checked, the RIO was actually cheaper than the Intel's by like 10 bucks. I strongly recommand this RIO as I always try to get the best product possible for my buck.

If I were you, go for this player. The only thing that maybe killing this player is for its bad review due to the battery problem that I've explained how to fix/prevent. That was short, wasn't it? haha.

I just had a bad experience with a brand new Rio 800, went back to the store in 24 hours. (...)It seems there is a reason Rio is trying to move them. Their tech support lines seem to be jammed too. Seems they have been knowingly shipping units with bad chargers that may permanently damage the unit, and even my 'new' charger doesnt work.

Here's my disgruntled letter to Rio support:

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I am returning my Rio 800 player I bought yesterday for many reasons.

When I took it out of the case and read the charging directions, there was a slip of paper saying that if the charger didn't look like the charger in the picture, not to use the device until Rio ships a new one.

First, if there is someone taking the time to put the slip of paper in the case, that person should instead be checking the power supplies and exchanging them in the box before shipping the product. If the new power supplies are not ready, then you shouldn't be shipping units for Christmas that cannot work without them until they are. I would have been infuriated if I had given this as a Christmas gift and the recipient had to wait a week for a charger to play with it. Why not just ship stockings with coal? Quality-control is a job your employees do at packing time, not your customers.

Luckily I *had* a charger that looked like one in the picture, as best as I could figure. You don't specifically mention on the sheet what to look for to tell if you have a new charger, and you don't provide a picture of the old charger for comparison. I assumed that since the small nub jutting out beside the jack was unique, that that was what I was looking for, so I went ahead and conditioned the unit, per instructions, because I had such a charger.

Well, within 30 minutes the charge light went out and the condition screen went off. You mention in the instructions to make sure the charge light stays on, but provide no instructions on what to do if it goes off. Since I could not get back into the menu, I unplugged and re-plugged in the charger, and went back into the conditioning menu and continued charging. In the morning the light was off, and the unit had only 3% charge.

So I called the technical support number on the package, and this is where I ceased to become a Rio customer. I had to navigate a long and borish IVR system, riddled with tales of online customer support (I think I have 3 completely different email addresses for your support, including riohome.com, diamondmm.com, and sonicblue.com), other products, and even specific mentions of solutions for problems and products I did not have. When I finally got to the end, I was told not only were the customer support reps busy, but I would not even be put on hold. No queue times, no hold music, no nothing - just 'go away'.

Companies have an obligation to customers to have a concise IVR system, appropriately staffed lines, and to allow a caller to remain on hold and be kept advised automatically of their place in queue and expected hold times. These IVR features have been around for a while. You sell a hardware product - if you arent going to help me fix a problem quickly over the phone, back to the store it goes. I am not going to sit around and wait for email support.

Anyways, back to the store, one more lost Christmas sale.

First of all, in all fairness to Amazon, they have tried very hard to help correct my Sonicblue problem. I'm glad that I purchased this unit from them. However, it was a huge mistake going to the Sonicblue site and purchasing their 128mb backpack memory for [price]. From the moment after I calibrated the battery (which is required before using) the unit began a low humming and the battery would not go for more than an hour. I recharged overnight. Next morning the unit would not work at all...with any memory backpack. I called Amazon and without arguement replaced the unit for me. Next, I called Sonicblue, waited on hold for 1/2 hour. When I finally got to talk to customer service, I was told that I would have to send the backpack back at my expense. I argued that I had it for all of a day or two and that I felt it was defective... I will NOT go with Sonicblue again...I am just glad that I purchased the unit itself from Amazon. I have 2 RIO 500s that were by Diamond. I haven't had any problems with either. I have had other products that were by Diamond and when there were problems, I was treated with respect. There is one other thing to be aware of...if you have any technical problems with your unit after 90 days you will have to pay 19.00 for phone support. Sonicblue has turned out to be very petty and not customer orientated...

I have never been compelled to write a review for anything on amazon.com – until I got a hold of the Rio 800. I hate to say it, but what a piece of [junk]. I had high expectations for this product, but they were shot down almost immediately. A little note – I’ve been downloading MP3s since before Napster and Bearshare, but I held off buying a portable device mostly because of reliability issues. So when the Rio 800 arrived to the market, I was excited because it was Diamond/S3/Sonicblue/whatever’s third generation portable, so I figured it would be a pretty solid product. Boy, I was wrong. Yes, I RTFM, but that didn’t matter. Within 5 minutes of plugging the AC adapter into the device, the red charge light went off during calibration, which itself was a tedious 5 hour process. I assumed that the battery must have come partially charged, which is why the light went off. I wasn’t terribly alarmed, so I went ahead and installed the software after calibration completed. After deleting the music that came preloaded on the player, I uploaded some decent songs and was delighted. There’s no doubt about it – the Rio 800 sounds wonderful, has an intuitive interface, and great design to boot. I’m not sure why other manufacturers see it fit to make their players look so futuristic and tacky, but the Rio 800’s design is simple, even elegant, and it has great build quality to boot. Other owners can attest to this, I’m sure – it just feels right in your hand. Great care went into the little, often overlooked details – the buttons are rubberized, the connectors are gold plated, and the display is backlit and highly legible. As I was listening, I periodically checked the battery meter because I was afraid my unit would suffer the fate as so many other users’ Rios. It didn’t seem like I had a problem – 90% full, >10 hours of play time. Then forty-five minutes later, it died on me. No warning, nothing. Needless to say I was a little peeved. I checked the battery meter, which revealed a measly 8% left. Frustrated, I plugged the AC adapter back into the device and charged it until the next morning. Once again, the 800 died after forty-five minutes of use and 8+ hours of charging. The culprit, without a doubt, is the cheapo NiMH battery used in the backpack. NiMHs can suffer from a memory effect if the battery is recharged before it’s fully discharged; subsequent chargings only lessen the capacity of the battery. The fact that the red “charging” light went off so quickly initially was probably not a good thing. Sonicblue needs to take a page from Sony’s playbook and offer a LiION battery if they want to do rechargeable because they do not suffer from the memory effect problem and do not require a silly 5 hour calibration process. Yeah, LiION batteries are expensive, but the Rio 800 isn’t exactly cheap to begin with. More importantly, they need to beef up the quality control. It’s really a shame because as much as I wanted to love the Rio 800, I don’t want to deal with a device that’s plagued with an idiotic proprietary battery pack. The Rio 800 is packed with features, but just hope you get a good one.

god would this thing be great if it worked. but my $300 (at the time) mp3 player isn't worth a penny. i am now on my third one and sonic blue keeps convincing me to try "just one more fix." not only will it not hold a charge on its rechargeable battery (keeping it charging every minute that it's not in use, i get TEN MINUTES of play time before it dies), but the normal alkaline battery pack that sonic blue was kind enough to send me to fix all my problems won't work either. i get 3-4 hours instead of the 12 they promise and it dies whenever the battery gets to "7 hours remaining". they have had me exchange two units, calibrate, calibrate twice, calibrate twice and then recharge, calibrate twice-press select-unplug for a minute-and then recharge, use an alkaline battery, and download new firmware. bottom line, this product simply doesn't work. and speaking from someone who doesn't have $300 to just throw away...i couldn't be more angry and frustrated!

I bought my Rio 800 recently and I absolutely love it and have had no problems with it. Rio stopped shipment of their previous Rio 800 models due to all the battery charger problems (described in many of the reviews on this site). However, they just this month (March 2002) started shipping new Rio 800 models that have fixed all of the previous bugs.

This is by far the best player out there. I held off on buying this until they completely fixed all of the battery charger problems. And now that they have, there is nothing to dislike about this player.

Everything about this player is great from excellent sound to big memory to overall usablity. However, the MAIN problem with this product is that it has major defects as if the product was RUSHED? If the product did what was advertised, this product would have been great. The company definitely should have done more test before releasing the product. The first Rio 800 that I received had physical defect and some minor battery problems in that in won't play for a very long time: 3 hours? The 2nd replacement Rio 800 I got had major battery defect in that I only get 30 minutes of play time before the battery completely drains down to nothing. After experiencing these two, there is NO way I am going to buy anything from this company ever again. There product breaks easily due to their flimsy design (physical defect due to shipping). Heck, the Nomad's heavier magnesium casing feels way more sturdier. Furthermore, the battery life issue is a huge problem. Their advertised 10 hours is more like 3 hours or less. And you'll be lucky to find a battery that works. Its too bad you can't replace the battery. And last of all, their software is clunky and buggy crashing my system as well. Beware of this product!

So, I was very excited when I purchased this product... until it actually arrived. The feature list sounds fantastic! 128 MB, built in rechargeable battery, USB, support for mp3 and the superior wma formats... I could hardly wait! But alas, the bubble burst when the product actually arrived. I downloaded my running music on to the Rio 800, about 2.5 CD's worth in WMA format, charged up the battery and hit the road. Based on my previous experience with other Rio's I've owned, I was totally suprised when half way through the first song I heard a "skip". Then, in the next song it is "skipped" again and then immediately jumped to the next song. By the time it tried to play the fourth song (all songs have notable distortion and loud audible skips) the Rio 800 locked up and the only way I could reset it was to stop and pry the battery off the unit. So, in a fit of desperation I re-ripped my music library in .mp3 format and re-loaded my music on the Rio 800. This didn't help, and in fact may have been worse since the skipping seems to have increased and hard-locking now occurs at random. Safe to say this is not what I expect when I purchase something at the high end (arguably too high-end) of the personal mp3 player spectrum. I've been unsucessful at this point contacting tech support and fear that I'll be told that my only option is to RMA the unit.
Hope this helps someone make an informed decision on this unit. I certainly have learned my lesson.

I have owned the Rio 800 Extreme for about a month. I have had absolutely no problems with this great player and am in love with it. I wanted an mp3 player mainly for working out, so I chose to buy a solid state player to avoid skipping. 384K on my Extreme is awesome. With WMA at 64kps I can fit 170 songs (about 12 hours) on my player. SOUND - in a word, incredible. Big, full, and rich highs and lows. Excellent customizable equalizer with good presets. Lots of power - I never go past 10/20 on the volume. No hissing at low volumes as has been noted with the Intel Pocket Concert. DESIGN - This player has a nice solid feel to it, despite being quite light. It is wonderfully portable and looks great. Ergonomically a gem - extremely easy hands-free operation, when you choose to go without the remote. I love working out with it. The included case is attractive and protects the unit, while allowing easy access to the LCD and controls. The firm beltclip stays on during the most strenuous exercise. LCD - truly amazing. So clear - the screen has great resolution. MENUS - I can't believe how easy it is to navigate through the Rio 800's menus. No complicated maneuvers required to get it to do exactly what you want. HEADPHONES - Personally I find these to be light and comfortable. The sound is OK, but when I switched to Koss Portapros, I was stunned at how great music on the Rio sounded. REMOTE (in-line): works well, light, has a clip on it. Good for working out. I am waiting for the FM remote - by email Rio told me they are still working on it. BOOKMARK - you can bookmark in the middle of songs or spoken audio. PLAYLIST capability is flexible and easy to use. VOICE RECORDER - works well. SOFTWARE - I use Windows Media Player, which works fine with the Rio 800. Music transfers are fast. RECHARGEABLE BATTERY - I get about 8 - 10 hours on a 2.5 hr charge. Enough juice per charge to last a while. BACKPACKS - I agree with others that this proprietary system is expensive. However it also provides expandability. I hope that the Dataplay backpack will be available by the end of this year or early next year.

i got my rio because i wanted to listent to Audible books. it works GREAT for this. the interface to the audible software running on your local pc and the server (usb) is fast, flawless and error-free. the memory capacity allows you to store all but the largest of books in a single pass.

battery life is good.

things i would improve: the writing for the display is microscopically small and almost impossible to read. menu system is not intuitive. there is no warning when the battery is dying. there is no car-charger, and the headphones you get with the unit are like a vice grip - unusable!

but still, for what it does, it works great.