Customer Reviews

Rio Fuse 128 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

After waiting so long for the Rio Fuse to arrive (it had been on backorder for a while), I was pleased. This is the second Rio product that I've owned, the first being the Rio 800.

It is so small and so tiny and if you have very good eyesight, then good luck. The font is so small and the buttons even smaller. The Rio Music Manager program is not that difficult. Anyone can transfer music onto this player and there are no cables and wires to fuss over.

The only problems that you may run into is the menu on the Rio Fuse player itself. Again, I said the font is small and the buttons are even smaller. It might take getting used to. The other problem that I had was plugging it in the USB port. There were other wires that were in the way so I couldn't get to the USB port and when I did manage to plug it in, my keyboard lost its connection. So you might have to make some connection sacrifices like I did.

Other than that, I just love the Rio Fuse. It's not a big and bulky player like a CD walkman and you can slip it in your purse. You might also want to get some rechargable batteries, because although it comes with an Energizer AAA battery, it will run out really fast.

I have had continious problems with Rio, the same goes to many other people. Many things have broken on many peoples players. ave your money and be confident in your purchase. DON'T BUY RIO!!

Problems with my Rio
3 months - screen started to blank out in lines
5 months - keeps losing songs (you have to pull out battery to get them back I found - YAY)
8 months - won't start when I hit the 'on' button, but if I keep pulling the battery out and trying to start it, then it will come on after I do that a while)

DON'T BUY RIO - more bad reviews with other Rio players - read them before you buy

Make sure you have an easily accessible USB port before choosing this player -- its size requires me to unplug my mouse when using it with my laptop, or climb under my table to plug it into the back of my computer case when using my desktop (the front-facing ports are at an angle that won't accommodate the Fuse's size).

This isn't to say that this player doesn't function well -- in all aspects, including battery life, sound quality, and user interface, I really like it. My Fuse has been a solid performer for about 6 months now, and has stood up to a lot of abuse already.

A Better choice would most likely be a Rio Cali (slightly larger, but has an FM radio and is available in 256mb for only slightly more money).

This is a great player, but if you are one of those intend to go to the gym or run with it, you might want the rio cali instead. The fuse is small and compact with great sound. But it doesn't come with a belt clip or arm band. i love it though, was worth its price.

I am a digital music enthusiast and have owned several MP3 players like this one; this was perhaps the most dissatisfying MP3 player I have ever purchased. Unlike most every other player I've owned, Rio requires that you install a program in order to transfer music to the device (most MP3 players simply show up as an extra drive under "my computer" allowing you to drag and drop files onto them). First of all, I hate installing vendor software like this, because these programs tend to be fairly invasive (changing file type settings, installing 3rd party "bonus" software, and they take up too much hard drive space given how minimally useful they are). My second complaint (which ties in with the 1st) is that the device was not plug-and-play compatible. This means that I can't download music to it from school computers or friends' computers either (because odds are they won't have the Rio software either).

As you can tell, I never actually got to listen to any music on it, because I could never download anything to it.

Anyway, these complaints may seem minor, but they make this device look kind of bush-league compared to equably priced models by other companies. I guess I had just expected more from such a popular brand of MP3 player.

The juggle will break after few mounths (bought two of them, on one the backward stopped working, on the second the play stopped working), otherwise it would have been a great mp3 player

I bought this player 4 months back. I am having a serious problem for the past 1 month. Although the player has 128Mb of internal memory, I have been able to use only half of it, whenever I try to copy music files beyond 60 Mb I get "copy" error. I tried copying different files but even then I got the same error, then I reinstalled the software and the online updates. Even that didn't work. Now I am using it as a 64 Mb player. Unlike most of the MP3 players, it cannot be used as an USB drive. Average sound quality and good battery life.

A great product - powerful yet tiny. 2 problems though....the first is no belt clip. This is easily solved by buying a 3rd party do-it-yourselfer. The 2nd problem is the access to your computer's USB. As many owners ascertained, other wires get in the way. What happens when the wires you must pull out that block its entry are the mouse and keyboard? That is the case on my Sony Vaio. Owners of this computer also know there are an additional 2 USB ports on the front for easy access. What you may not know is the plastic frame which makes up part of the tower casing prevents the Fuse from fully connecting with the USB port...Nice....
Why the geniuses at Rio couldn't forsee this hassle is beyond me. I am now forced to export MP3's to my laptop so I can transfer them to my Fuse. What A pain...

First off, I'm not disagreeing with many of the negative comments concerning its usability and design. Certainly if you're looking for something to play music (as 99% of the buyers are), then there are better units out there.

However, if you are an avid podcast listener, there is one overlooked feature that this has that I have been having extreme difficulty finding in other brands: Multiple bookmarks that can remember positions even within a single file. I resample downloaded talkshows to 24Kbit/mono which allows me to fit almost 12 hours of programs into 128MB so the puny memory is not an issue for me. There are many programs which are two or even three hours in length. The bookmarks allow me to remember & go back and replay / resume interesting parts of a program for playback later. Without this feature, I'd be forced to always start at the beginning of a very long program and spend long periods of time holding down the fast-forward button (assuming one exists) to parts of the file which I would have to remember or write down.

I'm far from being an MP3 player expert. If there are other models that are dirt cheap in this low memory range with a bookmark feature, please give a shout. After all, as of this writing this model has been discontinued and I've been using it very heavily. I don't know for how much longer this little guy will last...

There are pros and cons to this little gadget.

Pros
1) Sound quality is excellent
2) It's portable

Cons
1) It sucks the life out of batteries very quickly, so unless you have rechargeables, don't get this.
2) It might be portable, but you have to put it in your pocket. It's not very slim.
3) It loses songs! ALL of them. The battery will just stop, the Rio will shut off and I'm unable to turn it back on. I'll pull out the battery, put it back in, and voila! The Rio will turn back on but no songs.
4) Will not play WMA's.
5) Uses software, which is quite annoying. Can't just download songs from anywhere.

The Rio seems to be a decent mp3 player, but not the Fuse. Buy something else.