Rio S50 128 MB MP3 Player

by Rio

Product Details

Product Manual [701kb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006HYJ2
• Item model number: 90260383
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,563 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Designed to be the ultimate portable digital music player, the S50 offers memory, features, and a unique design unmatched in today's market. With 128 MB built-in memory, the S50 gives you up to four hours of continuous, skip-free listening. Plus, the S50's memory is upgradeable to 256 MB with the addition of a standard MMC memory card (not included). In addition to its sizable memory, the Rio S50 is loaded with useful features, including a large backlit screen (great when listening in unlit places), a clock and stopwatch, an integrated FM tuner, a carrying case, and an impressive battery life of up to 35 hours on just a single AA battery (up to 20 hours with the included rechargeable battery).

Rio Music Manager software boasts an easy-to-navigate interface, speeding and simplifying the transferring of MP3 and WMA files from a PC to the S50. Rio Music Manager software also contains an advanced and intuitive database that lets you store all your music and sort by artist, album, or genre. In addition, the software lets you create and name playlists, and incorporates an ID3 tag editor to help update titles and artist information.

Adjustable EQ, repeat, and shuffle play modes deliver all the features you expect in a top-of-the-line portable music player. Bundled RealOne Player and iTunes music management software ensure that your S50 is PC and Mac compatible out of the box, and software upgrades can be downloaded to support future digital audio formats and keep your Rio S50 up-to-date.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute best player in its weight range., October 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Rio S50 128 MB MP3 Player (Electronics)

I needed an MP3 player light enough for jogging, with long battery life, user friendly interface and at least as much memory as my previous favorite (Intel Pocket Concert 128Mb) - and this player delivered. Since portable music is important enough for me that I set an open budget, I did consider the IPOD and other hard-drive based players - but those are all too heavy. (the lightest 5mb Ipod is about 6.5 ounces ). This one is so light, depending on what kind of battery, it is probably bit over 3 ounces. The light, padded carrying pouch with belt clip is also very useful - you won't even need to put the buttons in lock mode, since they're accessible yet well protected when on the run. The supplied in-ear headphones deliver surprising good quality sound even when compared to brand-name equivalents (Aiwa, Panasonic, and Sony ones I bought for up to $20)

Then comes the fun part - tricking it out. First, I upgraded the firmware to version 1.2. With this, it will take SD (Secure Digital) cards of up to 256 Mb (as stated in the firmware documentation - who knows it might even take 512 Mb cards, but I decided to play it safe ), not just the MultiMedia cards as the manual and website state ( as far as I can tell MM cards are only available up to 128Mb )

Not only did it accept my 256Mb Sandisk SD card - almost tripling total memory to whopping 370 Mb - the S50 loads music files into this card more than twice as fast as it does into the internal 128Mb ! To make it perfect for running or working out, replace the single included rechargeable battery temporarily with an Energizer PhotoLithium battery which while expensive and non-rechargeable, is feather-light and lasts pretty much forever.

The music uploading software is simple and does its job admirably. Since the SD card is so fast, it uploads songs about as fast as I can pick them out from my library.

Any cons ? The design is uninspring. But so what - the best looking mp3 player in my opinion is still the Philips Rush which under WinXP is completely unusable because of utter lack of software support.

And I do miss the little scroll wheel that made navigating a large list of songs so easy on my Intel Pocket Concert. But that is offset by the fact that the skip back-or-forward-to-next-song buttons react quickly, much better than the ones on the Pocket Concert.

Also, the player has reset itself on two mp3's so far that played fine in winamp, most likely due to non-standard encoding issues. But such is the risk of running downloaded mp3's from unknown origins, and I have a lot of faith that with the ability to upgrade the firmware, the compatibility of this player with the various file formats is and will remain up to par with the best ones out there.

The bottom line: buy this player, expand its memory if you can afford to, and forget the many 'cool' looking competitors out there. This one is the most useful, unless you need your entire collection stuffed in a not-quite-portable, expensive hard-drive based device.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK MP3/WMA Player, Bad FM Radio, December 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Rio S50 128 MB MP3 Player (Electronics)

After looking at various MP3 players, I decided on the Rio S50. I liked how it was expandable, upgradeable (firmware), and had a FM radio built in. After much anticipation, I received it yesterday. So far, I'm a bit disappointed.

After opening the package, the first thing I noticed was that there was a large speck of something behind the clear plastic but on top of the LCD. There's no way I can get to it without taking the player apart. It's quite visible and it's going to stare at me for the life of the product. So immediately, I wondered about the quality of the player.

After recharging the included NiMH AA battery, I immediately upgraded the firmware to the latest (1.6). I had read in previous reviews about the bad FM reception and how the firmware upgrade made it better. The FM reception is still terrible! So much for listening to the radio when/if I get tired of listening to the MP3s I loaded on it.

I loaded as many MP3 files onto it as I could last night. The software to transfer files to the player worked fine (Rio Music Manager). The player didn't have any problems playing the files I loaded on to it. It seemed a little lacking in the bass, but I don't know if that's an attribute of the player or the earphones that came with it. The 5-band equalizer (with presets) helped a bit. I also noticed that the buttons sometimes don't work and you have to push them more than once to work. The volume buttons, on the other hand, make the volume go up or down quite drastically instead of 1 increment at a time.

Overall, I think it's an ok MP3/WMA player with some nice features. However, it's an awful FM receiver and the firmware hasn't made it much better. I expected more from this player, especially considering the price, and I'm a bit disappointed.

PROs:
small, compact, very lightweight
expandable, upgradeable
built in 5-band EQ with presets
easy to use software (Rio Music Manager)

CONs:
horrendous FM reception
questionable quality or QA
slow or overactive buttons
pricey

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice MP3 player...but don't buy for the radio, October 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Rio S50 128 MB MP3 Player (Electronics)

Good: sturdy design, you can use standard AA or included rechargable batteries(life is EXCELLENT!), nice form factor (2"W,3"H,3/4"D, well designed case, tranfer time for 128mb on a standard USB is about four minutes.

Bad: the radio reception is very weak, management software is average, MMC memory is more expensive than compact flash to upgrade

Conclusion: Buy this player if you want a well made player with capacity for 256mb. Do not base your purchase on the fact that it has a radio because you will never use it. I paid a premium compared to other 128 players, but would probably make the same choice today.