Customer Reviews

Rio Forge 512 MB Sport MP3 Player

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

I would file this under "interesting/ nearly compelling", and actually deserving of five stars despite the 512Mb limit (other flash players go to 1Gb today). The keys to the Rio Forge's success are a very functional user-interface, nice "other-than-music" goodies, and support for SD/MMC cards.

The user interface uses the LCD real estate quite well. Songs have full ID3 tags displayed, scrolling when necessary. Title, artist, album info is stacked, so scrolling is minimal unless you have long info in all fields. The navigational system is intuitive, and while it isn't a clickwheel, the tiny joystick/ button combination works well once you adapt to it.

The music output is more than acceptable, but not quite equal to Creative's quality or level. It handles MP3s, WMAs, and iTunes AACs without incident. This makes compatibility fairly broad.

The best points illustrate the marked evolution of the Forge from its earlier Chiba/Cali roots. The device no longer requires proprietary software in order to copy files; the device is recongized as an external drive with all rights and privileges afforded to them via USB. A nice feature is the aggregation of the optional flash card into the removeable drive storage total. This allows you to copy a full 1.5Gb of music over to the device, assuming you have a 1Gb MMC or SD card inserted.

You can also format/copy/delete the aggregate; this might be a bit of a problem because you lack the ability to segregate, say, device content from flashcard content. I would tend to say it's not that much of an issue. Smart use of folders on either will help identify which content is removeable.

The device uses a single AAA battery and will go twelve hours easily at mid-volume. You can also specify the kind of battery (Alkaline or NiMH) and it adjusts the battery meter accordingly. This is actually a pretty good idea, considering the ubiquity of AAA batteries.

Some things I like are the FM tuner and stopwatch. It is designed to be a workout companion, and these two features make it especially appealing for big club members; televisions broadcast over locally-based FM, so your cardio workout is now accompanied by sound to go with the visual. The stopwatch is, well, a stopwatch. It also handles splits, so it's decent for running, not at all useless.

The usual expectations (presets for FM, inline recording, ID3 tag support, multilingual) all apply. It has a very good case with armband, and reflects its workout partner design philosophy throughout. Earbuds are decent, but if you're like me, you have a favorite pair already. No suprises on the input, as it takes the standard miniplug.

In all, it truly owns its niche for flash-based players. Hard drive based players cannot withstand the rigors of active running or quick movements for very long; any electronic device might break when dropped but the likelihood of inoperability is much, much less with the Forge. It certainly isn'g coming out of its armband holder without 20g of force. The ability to accept SD and MMC cards makes it more expandable than any other flash-based player as well. iRiver and Creative can't match it in this regard.

Finally, it's the intangibles that cement its primacy. It sits in your hand very well, and it looks pretty sharp. The cool blue backlighting only enhances its looks, and the outer cover is a big improvement over the Army Green of the 256Mb Cali. For a workout, this is my MP3 pick.

Fred

(1 week report) 4.5 stars.

This is the best MP3 memory player I could find for my Audio Books. I didn't want a hard drive unit such as iPod. It is Audible compatible, and I fit 10 books in it straight out of the box. They sounds just fine. I have an expansion card ordered which will bump my player capacity to 1.5 gb.

The FM tuner works well, and the FM record feature is cool -but you cannot 'schedule' recordings, which would be incredibly cool (I'd schedule recording of Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour and All Things Considered, for example.) You have to turn the unit on and hit FM RECORD at the right time. If it would have allowed scheduling, I would have given it 5 stars.

This unit does not have a voice record feature on it, which was on my old Rio. I actually used it pretty often.

The headphones that come with it (and most MP3 players) are not very good - so I use my Sony (bought seperately) behind the ear headphones.

I love the tiny size of this thing. It's almost as small as a large key-fob.

Another great feature is the fact it uses regular AAA batteries. Available anywhere. No more being stranded on the airplane or a walking trip without being able to charge.

The display is small, but very high contrast and easy to read. The controls have a wonderful back-lighting for easy location at night.

I'll report in again in about a month.

This is my first review of a product. My wife bought this for me for my birthday. It took me a few weeks to start to use it. I use it when I workout. Overall, I like the sound and it was easy to drop music on it. However, 3 1/2 months after buying it, the volume button got stuck. It would still allow me to decrease the volume, but I couldn't increase it. So, after playing around with it, I managed to decrease the sound to an inaudible level. I e-mailed Rio and received a prompt reply. Basically, since my 90 day warranty had just expired, I would have to mail it in and pay $89 plus shipping etc. for a remanufactured replacement for which I would have a 30 day warranty. The player is currently selling new for $83 on Amazon. So, obviously this makes no sense. I decided to take the Rio apart figuring I had nothing to lose at this point. The problem is that one tiny piece of plastic sheared off one end of the volume button, thus not allowing it to contact the internal switch to turn the volume up. I e-mailed them again asking if they would just sell me a replacement volume button and was told that they don't sell replacement parts, but I could send it in and have it replaced for $89. I will give them credit for replying promptly. However, I'm very disappointed with their service. I'm also very disappointed with the fact that something a simple as the proverbial 5 cent piece of plastic should cost me $89 to replace it. It is durable (except for the buttons) and is great for working out. I just wanted to let people know about my experience with this product. I haven't tried any other mp3 players. I basically reset the volume to a higher level and will have to take the cover off to turn it up (which is pretty easy) if it gets turned down, but it seems unnecessary when all I need is a new control switch. As far as the player goes, it is easy to use, and the controls are intuitive. Thanks for reading.

I'm a long distance road runner and I purchased this item from Amazon a couple months ago and have been happy with it. Positives - Its easy to copy songs from my CD collection to the Rio Forge 512 mb using the Rio Forge music manager. I have about 120 songs with about 20% capacity remaining. The directions are straight forward. I haven't tried to copy songs from the Internet, itunes or dogpile, etc. One AAA battery lasts a long time - maybe 10 hours of play. There is an indicator on face of the device and when only one little bar remains (I think theres 3), I replace the battery. Music doesn't skip or get slower when I'm running. The device is very comfortable on my arm and doesn't bounce around. The random shuffle feature of the songs is great for long runs. I did replace the earphones with Sony ear buds - I think they stay in my ears more reliably, are easier to figure out and operate without static. There's a radio, but I haven't tried that out. I purchased a 'beamer' thing from Radio Shack and now I can listen to my Rio Forge in my car by tuning my FM radio to 88.1. Negatives - I did duct tape the USB port - there's a little removable rubber door over the device USB port and its only a matter of time before that falls out and water gets into the device:(. If I have a major complaint it the arm holder for the device. It's lovely to look at (quite stylish), but does a poor job of holding the device in its holder. It would be fine for walking on a treadmill, but I'm out running with the cars on asphault - I ABSOLUTELY can NOT have it fall out of its holder onto the road with cars all around me or during a race with thousands of runners around me. I fixed that with a strip of duct tape. The duct tape works great:) (If there is a Rio Forge designer reading this, a small loop on the device would work well - I could loop the earphone cord through the loop and if the device got lose when running, the ear phone cord would keep the device from hitting the ground.)

Overall, I've been wonderfully happy with the Rio Forge 512 mb and would tell anyone that works out intensely (with lots of sweat, bouncing, etc) and doesn't want a PhD in MPs, this is what you want.

I'm a collegiate distance runner and I train an average of 100 miles per week. I've had the Forge for three months now and have used it almost everyday. It has all the features you would look for in a mp3 player: small profile, large memory capacity, great performance, and durability. I couldn't be happier about the size. It clips perfectly onto my running shorts and stays firmly attach even through tempo runs. The expandable memory slot is also a great feature. With a 1 gig flashcard I can fit around 400 songs. This is especially nice because when you run as much as I do, having a variety of music on hand ensures that you will always have something fresh. I never have to worry about skipping and I normally only have to change the single AAA battery once every 3 weeks. It works in nearly all conditions. I've ran with it in temperatures of -5 degrees F and as long as it stays close to your body and under a couple layers of clothes, it doesn't freeze up. I try to avoid getting it too wet but I haven't had any problems running with it in the rain. If it slips off the clip while your running you don't have to worry about it falling to the ground because the headphone wire is securely attached to the unit. The outer coving of the unit is fairly durable. Once while running I slipped on some ice and fell on top of the unit. Besides some scratches on the face, the unit was undamaged. It's not indestructible though. Ironically I did drop it once while I was not running and the button to lower the volume no longer works. But this is not a problem since I like my music loud. The point is that I use and abuse this thing so much that when it finally breaks, it will be well worth the money to replace it.

I read a lot of reviews, here and elsewhere, and many spoke of a lot of specific problems related to shutting off, and various other things. I can happily say the Forge worked without a flaw. I primaraily use it for audible.com books and it works perfectly. I must note that I just got it a week ago, and the firmware version is 1.3. Maybe Rio has fixed the bugs that existed with the earlier versions.

I have already dropped it on a hardwood floor a couple times, and it still works perfectly. I even tested the FM recorder, and it also worked great.

I rate it 5 stars because it does everything it says, and does it well. However, I wish the FM recorder could be set to go on and off at a specific time and channel. I also wish the audible.com books would be listed along with the songs (you have to go to an option on the menu system). Finally, I haven't figured out how to create my own folders using their software.

To sum it up...if you were like me and were scared to buy this because reviews you might have read, no worries...buy it!

The title says it all. I bought the Rio Forge Sport because it was Wired Magazine's pick for flash-memory players. I used the it every few days at the most, never bumped it or dropped it or anything, and then, one day, when I connected it to the usual USB port on my PC for music transfer, it went dead. I switched the battery, but that made no difference ... the unit was dead. I started doing research on the Web when I came across all the Amazon reviews here of other people who've had similar experiences.

Interestingly, like another reviewer here, this is my third Rio portable MP3 player, and the third one that has gone bad on me. In '99, I got a Diamond Rio PMP 300 player as a gift. This was very exciting, considering it was the first major release of an MP3 player. It worked great for several months until I dropped it on the ground, and it went dead. Even though I dropped it on soft, grassy ground, and even though it didn't have any moving parts, this was understandable, considering it was a first-generation product. Fortunately, Diamond provided a replacement PMP 300, but after a few weeks, that unit suddenly went dead for no reason.

Five years later, Rio now owned by Digital Networks, I decide to give the series another chance ... and the same thing happens yet again. Seeing the problems that people here are having with customer service, I'm not even going to bother trying to get it replaced. Maybe I'll wait another five years to give the Rio series another chance ... but I'll be sure to read user reviews first! For now, I guess I'll just join the crowd and get an iPod Mini or Shuffle.

I notice that despite the many reviews of other people having similar experiences, Amazon has chosen to continue spotlighting two 5-star reviews for the players. I also notice that many of the negative reviews here are voted as 'not helpful' by a number of other readers. I just checked the reviews & spotlights of the Rio Forge Sport 128MB & 256MB players ... and they seem to more accurately reflect the problems with this series. That's all I have to say ... good luck!

Before putting down some hard earned cash go to the rio forums at riovolution.com and rioworld.org to see if the this 512 unit has all the problems from the previous 128 & 256 Forge models fixed. There you will find informative and up to date posts about these issues and whether or not this is a good buy.

The Forge line does offer some great features - that's probably why you're looking at it right? The biggest of which is the ability to put in a 1gb SD/MMC flash cards and vastly increase the memory capacity! This works for all Forge models.

Good luck and READ UP.

I have been using a Rio Chiba 256, and despite it's flimsy construction, have had pretty good luck with it. I added a 256Mb SD card for some extra storage, and integration of the card was no problem. So when I saw that Rio was making a "ruggedly constructed" 512Mb player that could take up to a 1GB SD card, I bit. . . and I'm sorry I did! First of all, the Forge is of even cheaper construction than the Chiba. The battery cover seems to barely hang on, and there is a tiny "plug" that covers the USB port when not in use...this plug is not attached to the player and is extremely easy to lose, even when it is in place but the player is bouncing around in your pocket. In fact, mine's gone already! In addition, I purchased a 1GB SD card to bring the Forge up to an impressive 1.5GB of flash memory, enough for hours of songs and every episode of "The Shadow" or "Dragnet" or "Sherlock Holmes". Then, while loading them and attempting to get them each on their own playlists, I kept getting an error that the "player was out of space"! After several emails, the response to which was always short and useless, I finally called Rio on my own dime. I was on the phone with them for about 90 minutes. I'll say this. . . the support on the phone is much better than via email, as the techs at least tried really hard to solve my problems. Eventually we determined that the "Playlists" have to be saved on the internal memory, not the SD card. This really cut down on the amount of error messages I got, and eventually I was able to load the Forge up to almost full capacity. But another problem is evident here as well. When you load new material, or shift playlists around, or basically change anything about the way the Forge is loaded, it takes about 10 minutes after you turn it on to "integrate" all the new information! That's a long time, so make sure you have batteries that will last for the whole "initialization" (because the backlight STAYS ON too...good thinking Rio...NOT), or you'll be waiting again after replacing them. The software is a bit strange too. If you want to play music based on "Playlist", you've got to navigate down a couple menus. But playing by year or track number are way earlier on the menu than playlist. . . seems backwards to me, but I guess you can't please everyone. Overall, because of the trouble I had initially getting it to work, and the strange behavior it exhibits even when it's working "properly", I can't recommend this player to anyone.
It does have a few good points. . . it doesn't use a proprietary rechargeable battery. Since I travel alot, using a regular AA or AAA (it uses the latter) was a prerequisite, and battery life is quite good. It also uses USB 2.0, thank goodness. Sound quality is ok (as with most MP3 players, get a decent pair of earphones yourself, the included ones are mediocre). The finish of the Forge (the 512 is dark blue and silver) looks nice until you have it in your hand for a few seconds, then the shiny finish is all smeared with your grubby fingerprints. They should have tried a more matte finish.
Okay, my rant is almost finished. . .my recommendation if you want a capacious flash based player is to wait until Jet Audio or someone else gets the memory up (they're at 1 GB now) and read reviews on those machines.

First one lasted a few hours. Went dead. Sent back to rio, they replaced it. Second one would power off if you shook it, jarred it, or even breathed on it too hard. Sent it back, they accidentally sent me a new one and "repaired" mine.

My repaired one will still power off it you tap it in the wrong way. Even if it is in your pocket and you brush someone. The new unit is better, but it will still power off occasionally if bumped.

I will not possibly buy another rio. I had an old Rio 500 that I was replacing that developed similar problems.. although after years.