RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with 120 Second Anti-Shock

by SONICblue

Product Details

Product Manual [12.37mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 2 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005A1KZ
• Item model number: 90260193
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (314 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

There are certain milestones in the progression of any technology that demand attention and praise. With its versatility, sound quality, and ease of use, the Rio Volt Portable CD MP3 Player represents such a standard-setting achievement in the world of portable MP3 CD players and has positioned SONICblue as an industry leader worthy of emulation and acclaim.

While the Rio Volt's predecessors combined solid sound with the ability to play MP3-encoded discs along with standard CD-Rs and CD-RWs, none of them took the extra step of including both WMA (Windows Media Audio) compatibility and ID3 tag support. The addition of these features to the MP3 CD formula makes this unit the most adaptable portable on the market, as well as one of the most convenient.

WMA is a Microsoft audio format that purports to offer MP3-quality sound from files one-half the size, potentially letting you cram up to 300 or so songs on a single disc. The format supports data transmission of 48 Kbps (near-CD quality) and 64 Kbps (CD quality).

ID3 tags are markers embedded in MP3 files that feed song, artist, and album names to your player. Supporting these tags means that a device can display this information, letting you find the song you want without having to remember exactly where on the disc a song sits. This proved an invaluable feature as we scavenged through the hundreds of WMA and MP3 files on our discs for tunes to match our ever-changing moods.

Moving through a song list is easy with the Rio Volt's up/down buttons, and a +10 button lets you jump ahead 10 tracks at a time--especially useful with fully loaded MP3 discs. The inline remote (part of the headphone cord) lets you operate most functions without having to dig the unit out of its carrying case and even offers a battery-friendly hold switch that prevents unwanted initiation of playback.

For those new to MP3, WMA, and rewritable CD formats, the Rio Volt includes Adaptec's Easy CD Creator Standard 4 (for PC--a Deluxe version is available separately) and SoundJam (for Macintosh) software packages for creating your own CDs. Of course, the burning of CDs does require a CD-recording burner, an expense that is almost inevitable if you want to keep up with the latest in audio technology.

Despite the numerous strengths of the Rio Volt, we ultimately discerned a few chinks in its technological armor. Most notably, its programming feature--which offers shuffle and repeat modes along with memory programming--lets you choose songs only by track number rather than by song name. In our testing, this forced us to check track numbers against the CD playlist on our computer several times (and we couldn't print the playlist for easy reference, because the software doesn't provide this option).

Another shortcoming of this portable is its earbud headphones--consider upgrading as soon as possible to headphones that better convey the quality of the Rio Volt's sound.

Along with the handiness of the unit's feature set, we were impressed by the rich, powerful sound of the unit and the consistency of sound quality across the various compatible formats. High-bit-rate MP3 files sounded nearly as crisp and full as standard CDs, and digitally copied CD-RWs (rewritable CDs) sounded just as good as their sources.

Five equalizer presets really make a sonic difference, especially the Jazz and Extra Bass settings. Throw in a choice of 10 or 40 seconds of extremely effective antiskip protection (the 40-second option consumes more power), and you've got the recipe for an easily customized aural treat that performs under almost any conditions. --Ed Noble

Pros:

• Compatibility with MP3/WMA, standard audio CDs, and CD-R/RWs
• Supports ID3 tags for easy search of MP3 files
• Five EQ presets that complement various musical genres
• Great sound

Cons:

• ID3 tag info not displayed when programming
• Hollow-sounding earbud headphones
• Awkward carrying case

Product Description

Item number 4709-12, Grading is cover/record: M- using Goldmine standards. Please see seller profile for abbreviation descriptions.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best One on the Market, May 22, 2001

By 

Jason N. Mical (Bellevue, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with 120 Second Anti-Shock (Electronics)

I recently had a chance to test-drive two different MP3-CD players, the RioVolt and the Philips Expanium, and in the end, the RioVolt came out the clear winner.

When evaluating MP3-CD players, there are two things to keep in mind: first, that this technology is still in its relative infancy, and allowances will have to be made before the companies figure out exactly what works and what doesn't. Second, MP3-CD players aren't an industry-created standard; they are a response to something that consumers originally designed and made for themselves (MP3 encoding and the idea of storing loads of MP3s on a disc). Therefore, it makes sense that companies with relative inexperience in the market - Philips for instance - are going to lose out to Rio, who's been in the MP3 game for a couple of years.

The RioVolt is a nice-looking package, pleasantly round and silver with blue trim. It's got all the standard features - a window so you can see your disc spinning round and round, a hold switch, and the option to choose a 10 second skip buffer or a 45 second skip buffer.

There are several things that make the RioVolt stand out: it has a digital volume control, instead of an analog wheel, which is nice, and it has a backlit window, so you can see what you're doing in the dark (car trips, subways, etc.) In addition, it reads ID3 tags, which means you get to see the title of the song you're listening to - something the Philips player doesn't do. And, as a coup-de-grace, the Rio will read CDs made with Adaptec DirectCD - something other MP3-CD players will NOT do (and, unfortunately, often don't tell you they won't do on the box).

I tested the RioVolt for two weeks, and it preformed well the entire time (and hopefully, it will continute to do so!) The sound it produces is clear, even on MP3s ripped at lower than 128 KBPS quality, and it has no problem reading up to 320 KPBS songs (for all I know, it goes higher, but I don't have any higher-quality MP3s to test it with). I tried it with three different kinds of headphones, and on all of them the higher-end sound seemed to suffer a little, especially on songs where there were rapid treble spikes. Again, that could be an artifact of ripping, and not the player itself. The RioVolt is also upgradable, which other MP3-CD players are not (I would highly recommend getting the 1.13 upgrade from Rio's website). Unfortunately, you have to waste an entire CD-R to upgrade, but it's a small price to pay for a product that changes with the times. Additionally, even on 10-second anti-skip, dropping the player from 4 feet in the air (a little higher than my waist) didn't cause it to skip at all.

Of course, the RioVolt does have its flaws. The lid seems a little flimsy, and the stop button (located on the bottom of a "wheel" control panel, like some VCRs use) has to be pressed just right in order for it to work. If you change your ID3 tag, say in WinAmp (to remove "Various Artists" and replace it with the actual band name), the RioVolt still reads the "Various" tag, which is a bit of a pain. The biggest flaw, though, is the crummy headphones - you might as well leave them in the box and buy another pair. Mine only played correctly out of one side, and the other side died in less than an hour. The last item of note is the strange remote control, which I suppose could be useful, but adds another two feet of wires for you to tie in knots and catch on things. I found I didn't really need it anyway, as I just set the player to "shuffle" and let random effects take their course.

Will there be better players in the future? Undoubtedly. Is this the best player available right now? Hands-down yes. If you've gotta have the latest and greatest, or (like me) want a way to make your massive music collection portable without having to lug 100s of CDs around, go with the RioVolt. You won't be disappointed.

67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars it's about time, it's about good music !!, February 25, 2001

By 

Bryan Lieberman (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with 120 Second Anti-Shock (Electronics)

The first MP3 CD players were picky about what discs they would play and lacked any features beyond bare-bones playback. But these products have matured quickly, and after seeing Sonicblue's Rio Volt, we're ready to say that MP3 CD players have arrived. Aside from an awkward carrying case, we were hard-pressed to find anything wrong with this player. Best of breed To put this device through its paces, we burned a number of test CDs, which included MP3s and WMA files with a wide range of bit rates. We used CD-Rs, CD-RWs, discs with everything in one root directory, discs with songs organized in folders, and a number of different burning preferences within the included Easy CD Creator Standard 4 (for PC) and SoundJam (for Macintosh) software packages. Much to our surprise, the Rio Volt handled every disc that we threw at it with aplomb. It's also only the second MP3 CD player we've seen that reads ID3 tags (the Pine Technology D'music SM-200C being the first). Without ID3 tags, you have to plod through 150 songs on each CD using only track numbers as a guide, so we consider them a necessity. It's also the only such player to play WMA files as well as MP3s and audio CDs. But there were many other reasons to be impressed by this newcomer. The +10 button, which lets you jump ahead ten songs, makes navigating more than a hundred songs much easier. You can also group your songs in folders, since the Volt lets you navigate within directories, unlike the other players that we've seen. A Shuffle mode lets you skip around between all the songs on the CD-R, while the A-B mode is useful for looping any section of audio. We were as impressed by the player's form as we were by its function: The understated, rounded design is starkly modern compared to those of other portable MP3 CD players, which often look like prototypes. Skip the skipping The Volt collects 120 seconds of audio from MP3/WMA discs and stores the sound for playback in a flash-memory buffer. When playing back standard audio CDs, you can choose between 10 and 40 seconds of antiskip protection (40 seconds consumes more power). While walking around with the device in a bag, we encountered an occasional delay when fast-forwarding between songs on an MP3/WMA CD. However, once the music started playing, skipping was not a problem. If we can single out one problem with the Volt, it would have to be the carrying case, which must be threaded through your belt if you want to attach it to your hip. (The player itself doesn't have a belt clip.) While the player is in the case, you can't tell which song is playing or whether the player is on or off, since there's no display on the remote control. But at $..., the Rio Volt has to be one of the best portable audio values around. Unless you really need a very small, light MP3 player for exercise or travel, multiformat CD players such as this one are the way to go, since they're cheaper and hold many more songs on a single CD. Some other players cost a little less than the Rio, but its ability to play every type of MP3/WMA CD-R and CD-RW that we burned definitely makes it your best bet.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Need, February 26, 2001

By 

S. Kong "mookie" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RioVolt SP100 Portable CD/MP3 Player with 120 Second Anti-Shock (Electronics)

I got the Rio Volt after many trials with different MP3 portable players. I wanted a unit that would hold lots of music, so that ruled out the solid-state memory type players. So, I was down to either MP3CD players or harddrive based units. I went through: Pine D'Music's SM-200C MP3CD player (cruddy sound, short battery life, skipped badly), Creative's Jukebox (good sound, lots of storage, short battery life), and Archo's Jukebox 6000 (tinny sound, some hardware/software problems, decent battery life). Then I got the Rio Volt and that's what I've been happy with ever since I broke it out of the bubble packaging. This player does it all, you can put CD-R or CD-RW in it. It supports multiple formats of discs (ISO and DirectCD being the two biggies). It supports multiple encoding bit rates (up to 320kbits). It supports variable bit rates. Its firmware is upgradeable easily so that it'll support future standards. The little remote control is handy. It sounds great and best of all I can get 14-15 hours on a pair of AA batteries! If you are not using your MP3 portable while exercising or during physical activity then the Rio Volt is the machine for you.