Customer Reviews

RioVolt SP250 Portable MP3-CD Player with FM Tuner and 8 Minutes Anti-Skip

5 star:		(133)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

After reading tons of reviews and demoing several CD MP3 players, I finally decided to spend my hard earned on this wonderful little device. The Rio Volt SP250, in my opinion, is as good as they come... and better!

It has just about every feature you could dream of in an MP3 player, including: plays MP3's (of course... one would hope - haha), WMA's (with WMA files you could easily fit 20 hours of music on a single CD), it reads audio on CD-R's, CD-RW's, regular Audio CD's, and can be upgraded with firmware that you download from the Net to make it compatible with future formats (this is awesome because the player will never be outdated as far as usability is concerned; you will always be able to use it even when new music file formats come out later). The SP250 has an awesome, loaded, easy-to-read display and the coolest looking backlight ever (Indiglo blue baby!!), and it has an excellent EQ and the bass boost rocks! You can program this thing to play songs just about every way you can imagine and songs can play in order, at random shuffle or repeat. The shock protection is amazing! This sucker just won't skip!!! I sat there shaking the darn thing just to see if I could make it skip and nothing! The battery life is great too. The longest I think of any of the CD MP3 players. 15 hours of use easy with this one and what's better than that??? How about RECHARGABLE BATTERIES!!! YES!!! IT ACTUALLY COMES WITH RECHARGABLE BATTERIES!!! When the batteries get low, just plug the SP250 into the wall and it will recharge (takes about 5 to 7 hours for a complete charge - I just plug it in overnight and I'm good to go)! AWESOME!!! No more spending 6 bucks for a pack of batteries after a few hours of playing on your regular old walkman.

It comes with a wired remote that is so easy to use you only need to play with it for a couple of minutes to figure it out. All those people whining about a... manual just need to open their mind (grin). I didn't read a thing and was having a blast with thing in no time. The stock wired remote is very cool and easy to use, but for... you can order a wired remote that also has a LCD display on it. That would be cool. Too bad it doesn't come with the SP250, but that's such a minor concern because the remote it does come with is still great and all of the other awesome features just drown out the little things... And think about it anyway, how many CD walkmans come with remotes anyway. This is a nice bonus!

I noticed while reading reviews about the SP250 that a lot of people seem to complain about the headphones. ...it isn't enough that it comes with TWO,... styles how come no one mentions that they sound fine... oh, and did I mention it comes with TWO styles of headphones? Most regular CD players you buy that are worth anything don't come with anything but the player and maybe a cheap set of phones, so who can complain here? This thing costed less that my old SONY car discman and it just blows that old SONY away! So headphones? Minor detail. In fact, I thought the stock phones sounded great. That wasn't a big deal to me anyway because I mostly use the player in my car. I already had a car kit from my old player and it plugged right into the Rio (except for the power supply) so I was pleased as punch! If you do like listening with headphones a lot though, I would agree that you can buy a much better pair.

The good news also about this player is that it has a lot of power in the volume department!!! You can crank it loud on the headset!!! I just hate it when you get a player that has nothing when you wanna crank it. The Rio does just fine in this department!!

The SP250 also comes with a very nice protective carying case. I have one of those clips on the dashboard of my car for my cell phone and it works just as great for putting my SP250 on it while in it's case! Sweeeet!

The FM radio is a bonus too. In fact I was having so much with all the features on this thing that I forgot it came with a radio. When I accidentially switched on the radio I was then totally excited. How can this thing be any cooler? It has everything necessary.

Now, you might be asking me, do I think there are there any reasons not to buy this thing? NOPE! I can't think of one! Please, don't spend your money on an MP3 player just because it's half as expensive as the Rio Volt SP250. In fact, don't even get a step down from this model (i.e. SP90). I almost did that and I am so glad I went ahead and forked out the rest of the cash on this unit. It is true; YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!! This item has a $200 value if you ask me! I would have paid that for it. I got mine...at a store and I know there are some sites that have it a few dollars cheaper, but here's the deal, whatever you pay for it it's worth it. It's a good machine, quite durable, a ton of nice features, AMAZING SOUND QUALITY, and a very intuitive design. Anyone that's ever operated a regular discman can figure this thing out in no time! You will be happy!!!

I just love it and highly recommend it. The only thing I wish it had was a car power adaptor. Currently they don't make one for this, but I'm sure one will be on the way given this things increasing popularity. In the mean time it's not so bad because the battery life is fantastic. Just charge it up at night and your set! If you're like me and only get to listen to CD's in your car for maybe an hour a day or less, then you'll love how many days this thing will keep playing before needing a recharge.

A great buy! A great product! 5 stars easy! Amazon's a great store too and you should get it here if you can't find it at your local store.

This player is awesome in terms of decoder and sound quality. It can read some VBR songs that my previous Philips could not handle. There is no skipping. I love its huge buffer, which means it will only spin the CD for a few seconds to read in a song, and then play it from memory.

Now to where Rio could have done a little better:

(1) User manual: The manual, which comes as a 35 page PDF document, is a let down. E.g. it does not explain how to recharge the batteries. It spends 15 pages describing in excruciating detail how to set the 20-some functions and for each of the functions, it repeats how the 4 navigation buttons work. However, it fails to explain the *meaning* of many of them. And that leaves it to you, the user, to experiment around and find out what the options really do.
(2) The unit operates 5 shuffle modes, but only 2 of them make sense. There is for instance a "shuffle 1" mode, which keeps shuffling the same single song. This is really the same functionality as their "repeat 1" function, and makes no sense in the shuffle menu.
(3) VBR bitrate display: Most of my MP3s are VBRs (variable bitrate encodings). Many people including myself believe that VBR gives you a much better quality / size ratio. Unlike the popular Winamp software, the Rio does not display the average bit rate of the song. This should be a piece of cake to calculate though, since the unit already knows the length of the song and the file size.
(4) The "eq/+10" button. Two functions put on the same button that better should not be together. If I want to get to the equalizer and do not press the button long enough, I find myself all of a sudden skip 10 songs (the "+10" feature).
(5) radio reception quality: The quality is good at mono, but at stereo it just does not measure up to my little Sony FM/Cassette walkman.
(6) radio presets: It has 20 presets. In my town there are only 8 stations that I like though. Unfortunately, the firmware does not let me eliminate the remaining 12 presets, such that when I cycle through the presets, I have to skip over 12 dead stations.

Well, I did not mean to bad mouth this unit. It is probably still the best portable MP3/CD player out there. Among all the rave reviews, I just wanted to point out some of what I think are weak spots. Fortunately, the firmware is upgradable, and hopefully they will at some point have a fix for some of the above issues out there...

Everything I buy, I research thoroughly. EVERYTHING! So when I got interested in MP3/CD players, I spent many hours on the internet reading their complaints and praises in the reviews. It's hard to know what to believe. One person says a product stinks, while another thinks it's great. I finally chose a RioVolt SP100 because I could use it with my iMac
computer. But the store I went to also had the new RioVolt SP250. It cost a little more, but has been well worth it. It has tons of fantastic features (...). This player DOES NOT skip! 45 second shock protection for CDs and 8 minutes when running MP3s.Lots of information on a 4 line, backlit and contrast LCD display. Totally programable for CDs and MP3s. An FM radio circuit that works great. 5 presets and 1 adjustable equalizers. Easy to understand and use file directory. Clip-on remote with headphone plug-in. Sleep and stop timers. Bass and treble boosts. Bass and treble corner frequency adjusts. 10 second song intros. Hold switch. 10 file jump feature. AC adapter. Aux line out jack. Sampling, compression, and codec displayed. Stereo channels graphic display. One YEAR warranty. Easily upgradable off the internet. Zippered, windowed, clip-on carry case and shoulder/belt strap. Two rechargable AA batteries. Many other controls and adjustments using the 26+ setup menu settings options. The sound is great as long as you have a decent pair of headphones. It comes with earbuds which are fair,AND an earbud headset which is poor. Actually that's the only negative thing I can find so far (...).

Ok. first off i have been doing this MP3 gig for about 2 years now. I first bout the original RioVolt.... which was revoltingly bad - skipped while just walking..... so months later i purchased the Rio 800..... nice unit but only hold 128MB ... which in MP3 terms is only 2 hours..... all these solid state units that claim 4 hours with 128MB... assume you want to convert all your MP3s to WMA....... a very painful process even with good Software like MusicMatch.

So I am about to embark on a oversea trip so I need something with some major play action. Should I go HDD unit like Nomad or should I try MP3/CD again. Well I did both. I tried the Nomad 6GB and Archos 6GB systems..... both were ok, but VERY heavy. I was always fearing that I would drop the (...) and that would be it for the system. Plus they seemed really bulky no matter how i carried them. So they both went back.

While returning these units I decided to take a look at MP3/Cd again. I starred at the SP250 box for a week. Read every review here and on CNET. Well everything GOOD about this unit is TRUE.

Here is a summary of improvements and key features.
1. NO SKIPPING. In both 45sec and 8MN mode I could not make this thing skip.... AMAZING!!!!!!
2. Carrying case.... ok its not leather (as many have stated) it is a pleather product..... but DAMN it works AWESOME... best CD/MP3 case I have ever used bar none. It has a belt clip and a carrying strap for either use....
3. Controls and Display. Just AWESOME. Many have compared it to the rio800.... well I own a Rio800 and will say this display is WAY Better. Much cleared easier to read.
4. Rechargable batteries. They are just AA NiMH batteries. If you have ever used these types of rechargables you already know that they are great. I will say charge time and play time were much shorter then what is stated (more like 6 hours play time and 12 hour charge time). I recomend buying the Eveready NiMH charge and some extra batteries... its an awesome product too.

Ok, the BAD. Both pairs of headphones.... suck. I would recomend noise cancelling ear buds from Sony. Does the same thing as the $(dollar amount) Bose ones... but are very portable and only $(dolalr amount). If that breaks the bank, I would recomend the silver earbuds from Sony $10 at any Target. They work great too.

Hope this helps.

I just have to write this review to say that this thing is probably the most amazing piece of electronics I have ever bought. I just got it and have already figured out most of it's plethora of features. I am not usually one to buy the model with all the features, but every feature on this thing is totally usefull. Rio really thought of everything with this unit. The sound quality is awesome. The EQ adds a great edge. Navigation through folders and files is so easy-I figured out how to navigate in about 10 minutes. The only drawback is that when you browse through files it reads the filename instead of the id3 tag, but so far I have had no problem with id3 recognition. The coolest feature is that you can be listening to a CD, take it out, put another CD in, then put that first CD back in and it remembers where you were! The remote control is great-you can do almost everything that you can do with the buttons on the unit. You can even customize what some of the buttons on the remote do. As other reviews have stated, it does not get excellent FM reception. It is usually a matter of sitting it in the right position/direction. If you are deciding between this and the SP100, this unit is definately worth the extra 30 bucks. The display in itself is worth the extra money-it is so much better that the display on the SP100. The navigation seems to be much better too. Overall, the unit is totally intuitive. This is a really well designed product. You can use the AA rechargable batteries that it comes with, or a pair of regular Alkalines. I have the Kenwood in-dash mp/cd player in my car, which I loved until I got this thing. Now I realize how a CD/mp3 player is supposed to function. This player is everything that my in-dash player is not. There are so many features, and you can customize just about anything within reason.
I've never written one of these review, but just wanted to emphasize how happy I am with this product. I'd say buy one if you're thinking about it. Hope this helps.

Everything I buy, I research thoroughly. Everything! So when I got interrested in CD/MP3 players, I spent many hours on the internet reading the complaints and praises of these units in the reviews. It's hard to know what to believe. One person says a product strinks, while another thinks it's great. The TDK Mojo looked like a very good player with many outstanding features. But I decided on a RioVolt SP100 since I could use it with my iMac computer and it also had a lot of good features. When I finally went out to buy it, I instead found the newly released RioVolt SP250. It cost me a little more, but was well worth it. It has tons of fantastic features that you can read about at ( www.riohome.com ). The first thing I found out was, this player DOES NOT SKIP, unless maybe you drop it. It has 45 second shock protection for regular CDs and 8 minutes when running MP3s. It gives lots of information on a 4 line, backlit, contrast adjustable, LCD display. Totally programable for CDs and MP3 files. An FM radio circuit that works as well as any I've seen. Five preset and one adjustable equalizers. An easy to understand and use file directory. Clip-on remote with headphone plug in. Sleep and stop timers. Bass and treble boosts. Bass and treble corner frequency adjusts. Ten file jump feature. A "hold" switch. Ten second song intros. Sampling,compression, and codec displayed. AC adapter. Auxiliary line out. Stereo channels graphic display. ONE year warranty. Easily upgradeable off the internet. Zippered, windowed, clip-on, carry case with shoulder/belt strap. Includes 2 rechargeable double A batteries. Many other numerous controls and adjustments using the 26+ setup menu settings options. The sound is great, as long as you have a decent set of headphones. It comes with earbuds which are of fair quality, and an earbud headset which is poor. Actually, that's the only negative thing I can fine so far. I paid $180 for mine at Circuit City, but got fantastic features and performance for it. I've only had the SP250 for two weeks now, so I hope it keeps on working like it has been. It's an unbelievable piece of electronics!!!

I bought the Riovolt SP-250 a few days ago, and I was amazed the moment I examined its features! It is extremely flexible and easy to use, with the remote control far better than the one of the previous Riovolt, now having a roll-over buttons and tight connection to the cable of the headphones (the latter being a problem to the model SP-100). Actually, the manufacturers have looked into every detail and what could be considerd as a flaw to the SP-100, and made it straight! I mean, adding the rechargable batteries feature, the entire different remote control desigh, the LCD display, the carrying case (a big failure of the SP-100!), and besides, the 8 minute anti-skip protection, which means great memory capacity!!
the only problem I experience as of now is the strange conduct of the battery indicator - sometimes it indicates the battery is fully charged when I don't think so; sometimes it says the battery is gone when I have just placed it in and the unit doesn't seem to prepare for energy exhaustion but plays strong as normal. I found it extremely strange not to see anywhere explained in the manuals the battery charge/discharge function of the SP-250, appearing right after shutting down the unit when still being plugged in through the AC adapter. I really urge the manufacturers to perfect this also, as they have done so diligently on the other features of the SP-250. As a whole, if you consider bying a good (and logicly, expensive) cd/mp3 player, do so with the SP-250, it is worth the investment. It is only about $30 more priced than the SP-100, and is far better than the latter, so don't hesitate when choosing between them. Thank you for reading and I hope you find this review helpful.

I spent around a month reading reviews and finding information on the Riovolts. I finally decided on the SP-250 because I had some money to spend and it looked a lot better than the sp-100. Let me garauntee you that it is!!!!!

There are hundreds of reasons why this cd player is the best. Here are a few: the backlit display shows everything you need to know including a scrolling song title and artist (its display is way better than the sp-100), it looks pretty nice even though it is just black, you can fit over 200 songs on one cd, finding songs is easy with the navigation feature, you can make playlists usng winamp so you can sort your songs according to artist, genre, etc., sound quality is fantastic, it can get plenty loud, there are preset equalizers including rock, jazz, classical, and extra bass, or you can create your own, it is upgradable from the internet so you can customize tons of things to what you like, and it comes with a remote that has a belt/ shirt clip (the remote can controls all of the main things you would want like volume, skip forward or backward a song, stop play, mode). It also comes with two sets of heaphones. The headphones are horrible, but the earphones are pretty descent (it's not like any headphones that come with a cd player are that great). I would spend the 20 bucks to get nice headphones. The black leather carrying case is extrememly nice and useful and it allows you to control the riovolt while its in its case. The case also has a belt clip and a shoulder strap that you can attach. It also comes with an ac adapter and two rechargable batteries.

The only bad things that I have found in the Riovolt are that upgrading it and making playlists are kind of complicated, and the getting started guide that it comes with doesnt tell you much so its best to print out the user guide that is on one of the cds that the riovolt comes with.

I would completely suggest this to everyone. It is a fantastic portable cd player and never skips because it has 45 or 180 second esp for regular cds and 8 minute esp for mp3 cds.

I don't have much experience to base my opinion on, but I have a hard time finding fault with the RioVolt SP250 CD Player. Previously, my experience with portable CD players was limited to the one I occasionally managed to pry away from my pre-teen daughter. I have a long distance bicycle event coming, so I decided I needed one of my own.

In addition to playing CDs, I did not want to give up the FM tuner my present venerable Walkman Sports offers. That immediately cut the selections down quite a bit. At present, only a handful of portable CD players offer a radio tuner. My selection was narrowed even farther by my desire to have a wide range of formats available, including compressed formats.

For openers, SonicBlue has produced a CD player supporting store bought audio CDs and copies produced on popular recordable disc formats. It also supports MP3 and WMA formatted tracks enabling you to pack multiple conventional discs onto a single CD. The SP250 has a built in FM tuner that allows up to 20 preset channels.

I'm still in the learning mode with his toy, so I'll just highlight the big plusses I've discovered. In as few words as possible, reproduction quality is evident. I had thought digital music is digital music, so there should be no difference. Not so. The same CD played on my daughter's player sounds good, no doubt about it, but it sounds great through the SP250, even when using the same headphones on both players. Conclusion: There are quality components inside. A set of rechargeable batteries are included, which is nice, but I'd still keep a set of AA batteries handy for a long weekend. The unit also came with an AC adapter / charger, a very nice plus as I intend to use this as a stationary personal player as well as a mobile music source. There is a remote control that you can clip in a convenient spot while the player is in a fanny pack or the provided carrying case. The remote allows access to all the functions provided on the surface mounted interface. Real sweet. Also a nice touch is the inclusion of two styles of headphones: earbuds and classic over the head style.

On the negative side, there are a few things that really irritate me, but in no way detract from the technical performance of the SP250. There is a carrying case included, but holds only the player. There is no place to store the remote or a set of headphones. Given a choice, I'd sacrifice the included rechargeable batteries for better designed case. Setting the FM tuner's presets is a breeze... unfortunately, the directions don't match the actual process. Once you realize it's automatic, you get over it. If you're buying a portable CD player, you're not buying the tuner as a primary music source, so this is a minor quibble.

I have not opened the software that came bundled with the SP250, so I have no opinion of it. I'm using my existing CD burning software to create music CDs by copying existing CDs and creating my own mixes with either WMA or MP3 files. There are no apparent compatibility problems.

The last factor is the price. I consider this a very good price / performance ratio in that it appears to be very well made, it does provide excellent sound and the cost is in the upper mid range, but not really excessive. I saw a lot of units advertised that offered fewer technical features for more than the...MSRP of the RioVolt 250. Nonetheless, I do consider the RioVolt SP250 to be slightly overpriced because of my complaints about the carrying case. Technically, I find it very hard to fault and I highly recommend it to portable audiophiles. Shop around for the best price you can find.

As a side issue, if you want to hear how good your recorded music can really sound, hook the SP250 up to a set of high end headphones, like the Bose QuietComfort Headset. You won't believe it!

Addendum to my report (6/12/2002)
Over the weekend of 6/8 - 6/9/2002, I spent 150 miles on a bicycle with my SP250. All I can say is the trip reinforces my original posting. On the entire bike ride, over some of Pennsylvania and Ohio's nastiest back roads, I did not have a single skip of any duration. The CD player resided in one of the compartments of my Camelback hydration system and I used the factory supplied EarBud type headphones. The playback quality through my headphones was acceptable for what I was doing, bicycling long distance, but was not the ultimate in quality many people demand. For what I was doing, however, it was indeed great. I listened to a mix of store bought audio CDs and WMA encoded compilations and had no problems during the entire weekend.

My complaints are the rechargeable batteries and the provided case. The rechargeable batteries did not last between one rest stop and the next, about 15 miles. I switched to a set of Lithium batteries and they lasted for the remainder of the tour and finally had to be replaced today, almost twelve hours of play after I first inserted them. What more need be said?

The trip also reinforced my complaint about the factory supplied case. I wish I had a single place to store the headphones, remote and the SP250 itself. I'd be wiling to feed the unit Lithium batteries in exchange for a better factory issued case for everything.

The OEM remote is good enough that I doubt I will want the optional remote featuring the track info display. Again, however, I'd trade the batteries for this optional feature, but I'd still want the improved case.

Overall, my rating stands as originally published. I hope this clarification helps some people in deciding on what features they really need or are willing to pay for.

I purchased the RioVolt SP250. It is excellent in many ways.
I am quite impressed with it in all ways except that you can't
jog with it. When the ad says
"8-minute shock protection that stores multiple songs in memory and stops the disc from spinning, protecting music from skipping, regardless of conditions. " ... the regardless of conditions part is JUST NOT TRUE.

I called RioVolt's tech support to ask about it, and all they would say is that it WAS NOT MEANT FOR RUNNING.

Well, I have a fairly old Panasonic CD player that only has 10 seconds of anti-skip protection but I can put it in my tune belt, and run with hardly ever a skip. But with the rio, even if I let it load for a long while before I start running, after around 5 minutes it doesn't just skip .. but rather it cuts out altogether until I stop jogging and walk a few steps. Then I can get anywhere between 1-3 minutes before again it cuts out and I have to stop jogging and walk a few steps before it will play again.

I think any manufacturer advertising long anti-skip times should have to also tell you "if it can be jogged with" if they are going to have their tech support reps say "it wasn't meant for it".

If jogging with it (or similar active use) doesn't matter to you then I do recommend it!