Customer Reviews

Rio Cali 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(68)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

I was looking for a flash mp3 player to use while exercising and mowing the lawn -- and, of course, to have another neat little gadget. I have been shopping around for about a year and came across the new line of Rios that came out this past fall. The Cali looked like it fit the ticket and it seemed to get favorable reviews almost everywhere I looked. So, I started to pack away some cash in my piggy bank to get one. I'm glad I did.

Here's what I like about it. First, it's a flash player so it won't skip. Sure, 128MB (or 256MB) will not hold nearly as much music as an x-GB hard drive-based player, but who needs to carry their whole music collection around on their hip? With 128MB I can carry 4 hours of WMA files around with me in a smaller, lighter and less expensive package. This is plenty of room to accompany me on a riding mower or a long car or plane trip. Second, as I mentioned, the Cali is sleek and light. The controls are easily accessible and intuitive. The joystick is a little quirky sometimes, but still easily managable. Third, it sounds great and has plenty of volume -- with another set of headphones. When I first fired up the Cali I thought it sounded okay. Then, I invested in some Sony headphones and now it sounds great. Fourth, the memory is expandable if you want to pack more than 4 hours of music on the device. Fifth, the software is VERY easy to use. Transfering songs back and forth between Cali and PC is a snap. You can even control the order the songs play on the device by creating playlists. Sixth, the Cali uses only one AAA battery. Moreover, it can use either alkaline OR rechargeable NiMH. So, I plopped down five bucks at Wal-Mart for a pair of NiMHs. Now, I should be able to go longer between battery changes and shouldn't have to buy anymore batteries for about three years!

Now, here's what could make the Cali even better. First, the documentation and help that comes with it are sub-par. They barely give you enough info to get the thing up and running. The web site help isn't much more extensive. I have read that the tech support is good, but I haven't had an opportunity to use it yet. Second, there is no mp3 encoder with the software. Sure, there are about a million other apps that come with it, but come on. If you want me to use your equipment don't make me have to access three or four apps just to do so. Third, it would be nice if you could load the drivers without having to load the music management software. If I could load the drivers only I wouldn't have to stop using my other digital music apps or take up more space on my PC. Fourth, it is USB 1.1. This is almost inexcusable. USB 2.0 technology has been out long enough that it should be standard on any new devices. Fifth, you cannot load an expansion card without taking the battery out. This would not be so bad except that when you take the battery out all of the info you have stored on the Cali goes with it. Many portable devices, such as PDAs, will have a way to keep data in memory for a period of time between battery changes. This would be a nice feature for the Cali as well. Sixth, the belt clip and arm band are a little cheap. The belt clip is secure enough if you don't actually clip it to a belt and the arm band is an absolute horror to thread through the clip.

Well, that's about it. If you're in the market for a flash-based mp3 player, save your pennies and get a Cali. It's fun, flexible, and functional.

Looked all over for a mp3 player to replace my mpio-dmk which gave out after a year. I use mine almost exlusively for working out, especially jogging. I know of almost no one who uses armbands, clipping the player to a waistband works much better, and looks less goofy. Even though mp3 players have been out for years now the clips and attachments are still often made as an afterthought, and rarely well documented on the internet, or in the cases at the store. A case in point is the RCA Lyra rd1080, which I returned for the cali. Buying the cali was still an act of faith since there were no pictures of the "sports armband" that came with it. Anyhow, I've only had it for a few days but here is what I like about it:

1. It comes with a "holster" with a metal clip that attaches tightly to the player without covering any controls except the usb attachment. Perfect for jogging, it is lightweight, and the joystick works well enough for advancing tunes while on the move. Volume controls also very easy to use, even when running. Also seems solidly made, hope it will last.
2. The sd slot cannot be accessed without removing the battery, so it is impossible to take it out with the power on. This also makes the slot well sealed. Smart design.
3. Navigation to fm tuner and other features is straightforward.

All in all good first impressions. Recommended for runners

I've used this Rio Cali 256 for a few months now, and it plays awesome! I added a 512MB SD card and can fit 13 hours of MP3 music and play it all on 1 battery! The Music Manager application is good for categorizing and transfers, but I used another application to rip my CD collection. You have to use the Rio Taxi if you want to transfer data files, it does not show up in Windows explorer as a drive letter. Taxi is a very tempermental application. When trying to transfer large files (over 8MB) via drag and drop it crashes. It seems to work when right-clicking the large file and choosing Save Item As, then picking the folder where you want to copy it to. Really large files (over 100MB) don't seem to copy at all; the application times out. Can't understand how I copied a 165MB file to the Rio but now can't copy it off the Rio? Copying files to the Rio gave me no problem, just transferring files back to the PC. Copy and Paste doesn't work at all. Since I use this 99% of the time for working out and listening to MP3's, I give it a 3 out of 5. You're better off with a USB jump drive or something similar if you want a small product to transfer files.

Music 5 of 5
File Tranfers 1 of 5

Just click on this whet34 guy's link (10/15/2003 review) and whaddaya know...12 out of the 13 reviews that he's written thus far (today being 12/12/03) have been of Rio MP3 players, all of them ranting about how absolutely horrible these things are! Obviously:

1. He's a disgruntled former employee or soon-to-be former employee of Sonic Blue,
2. He got dumped by some girl (or, who knows, guy) who works for Sonic Blue or owns a lot of their stock,
or
3. He is so incredibly moronic as to actually buy 12 products from the same manufacturer that he swears only makes absolute junk.

Amazon, you need to do a better job of filtering out wackos like this!

(I'm giving this product 3 stars because I've never owned it, they won't publish this review without a star rating.)

Good sound but can only use proprietary software. MP3 files will not play on the Cali unless converted through the supplied software. Expansion cards CANNOT be written on anything but the Cali itself. So if I transfer my MP3 files through my card reader writer the Cali does not recognize it and reads the card as empty. If you transfer through the Cali then the PC sees the card as "unformatted" and prompts you to format the card. Major major flaw. I can't think of one reason to complicate life by making the unit so difficult to use and not compatible with standard MP3 format. The result is the user has to transfer all their MP3 files again to Cali proprietary format and only through the painfully slow USB 1.1 that the unit supports. Very poor design flaw. Any SD/MMC card written by the Cali is virtually useless for any other MP3 device or PC. So save your money and look for something else. I compared it the MPIO, which easily read the card written on the PC, but the sound quality was lacking on the low frequency. The Cali actually has nicer sound than the MPIO in my opinion. But after confirming the above with their tech support (which by the way was quick and polite but not so knowledgeable) after checking with his "senior technician" told me there is no way to support MP3 files directly from the PC unless converted through their own software or "Real" but only through the Cali. Another strange design quirk is the fact that every time you change cards you have to remove the battery, then the Cali is reset to "1/1/70" and then you have to reset the date every time!! (Yes, you read right 1970!!) Even a $20 pager can do better than that. Their engineer must be on drugs. Although I liked the sound, I took the unit back to Best Buy the next day. If all you need is 256MB and no expansion, then this unit is OK. But if you need expansion don't waste your money.

The Good:
1. Good sound.
2. Good battery life.
3. Simple menu navigation.

The Bad:
1. Horrible software design.
2. No support for standard MP3.
3. Cannot use external card reader writer.
4. Memory reset every time you change SD/MMC card.
5. Flimsy battery door.
6. Cards written by the Cali useless for any other player or any PC.
7. No color choice, you are stuck with the diarrhea green color.
8. Must re-program date/time every time you change cards.

I purchaced this item to run with. I down loaded the USMC running cadences. Running has never been easy, but when you can listen to an entire platoon, five miles is a piece of cake. It's small and easily adjusted while running. It does not get in the way at all. I have also used it while lifting weights, Scroll passed the marines and put on the Tu-pac and you lift like never before. I like the software it comes with also, it's easy to use I was up and running in a couple of minutes.

The player can use standard mp3's, it just doesn't write them to the disk in a standard format. This is not optimal, but it has to do with the filesystem on the SD card, not the format of the music files. Using the card for the Cali doesn't make the card useless, it makes it the expansion for the Cali. If you want to use it in your camera, pop it out and go for it. You just need to reformat it for different uses.

Also, the unit can be loaded from iTunes on a Mac as well as Rio Music Manager or WIndows Media Player on PC's.

I have owned one for over two years without a problem.

Good sound but can only use proprietary software. MP3 files will not play on the Cali unless converted through the supplied software. Expansion cards CANNOT be written on anything but the Cali itself. So if I transfer my MP3 files through my card reader writer the Cali does not recognize it and reads the card as empty. If you transfer through the Cali then the PC sees the card as "unformatted" and prompts you to format the card. Major major flaw. I can't think of one reason to complicate life by making the unit so difficult to use and not compatible with standard MP3 format. The result is the user has to transfer all their MP3 files again to Cali proprietary format and only through the painfully slow USB 1.1 that the unit supports. Very poor design flaw. Any SD/MMC card written by the Cali is virtually useless for any other MP3 device or PC. So save your money and look for something else. I compared it the MPIO, which easily read the card written on the PC, but the sound quality was lacking on the low frequency. The Cali actually has nicer sound than the MPIO in my opinion. But after confirming the above with their tech support (which by the way was quick and polite but not so knowledgeable) after checking with his "senior technician" told me there is no way to support MP3 files directly from the PC unless converted through their own software or "Real" but only through the Cali. Another strange design quirk is the fact that every time you change cards you have to remove the battery, then the Cali is reset to "1/1/70" and then you have to reset the date every time!! (Yes, you read right 1970!!) Even a $20 pager can do better than that. Their engineer must be on drugs. Although I liked the sound, I took the unit back to Best Buy the next day. If all you need is 256MB and no expansion, then this unit is OK. But if you need expansion don't waste your money.The Good:1. Good sound.2. Good battery life.3. Simple menu navigation.The Bad:1. Horrible software design.2. No support for standard MP3.3. Cannot use external card reader writer.4. Memory reset every time you change SD/MMC card.5. Flimsy battery door.6. Cards written by the Cali useless for any other player or any PC.7. No color choice, you are stuck with the diarrhea green color.8. Must re-program date/time every time you change cards.

Based on the reviews for MP3 players, I was going to buy the IRiver, at Costco.com (Sorry Amazon, the price at Costco was less and I needed it ASAP). I assumed the brick and mortar Costco would also have it, but they did not. So I bought the Rio Cali as Costco has a nice return policy and I was fed up with my Sony FM player giving me static and dragging CD's around was a huge hassle. Battery life on CD players is also horrible.

The included software is great. It did require an update of over 25 MB, but it was rather fast on DSL. Many others complained about the Cali, but I'm quite happy.

No battery issues like iPod. When I found out about that, I decided to buy an MP3 player, as 256 MB with expandability is plenty for me. My primary purpose for my Cali is in the gym and I do not want 1000 songs on my player, as I'd never hear them all. I like having about 50-100 workout style songs to push me along.

Pros:
* Very intuitive software interface.
* Copying tracks from audio CD's was simple and fast.
* Transferring to Cali was just as easy.
* Comes with belt clip unlike IRiver. Although some complain about skin irritation, at least it comes with one. I do not like arm bands, as it's tougher to access and not good for those who train with weights.
* Expansion slot for up to 1 GB.
* Excellent battery life with indicator.

Cons:
* Ugly green color.
* Cannot alphabetize songs or artists, which would make playback simpler. It does offer playlists, so you could create a playlist for each artist, album, genre, etc.
* Poor FM Tuner. But the reason I bought this was to have MP3 anyway.

Aside from the minor cons, the Cali is great for me and it deserves 5 stars. It also cost $30 less than the IRiver. I'll apply the savings to a better headset, as most MP3 players provide bear-bones head phones.

Okay, here's the deal, if you want this for a radio, don't, the tuner is pretty bad, at least in the Washington DC area. The earphones are relatively uncomfortable, but I don't like ear buds, so that's a personal thing. However, the MP3 sound is very nice, the memory is expandable which is very very nice, but even with the standard 256 MB, I managed to get 67 songs on it right out of the box.

Many people say the controls are not easy to use and the software is difficult, but these are probably the same people people that can't program their VCR. The software is very easy to use and works right out of the box (I'm running XP on an Intel chip, don't know about any other setup).

I love this thing, it's very light and sounds wonderful.