Customer Reviews

RioVolt SP350 Ultra-Thin CD-MP3 Player with Car Kit

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(48)

 

 

I already have an SP250 and an Iriver Slimx iMP-350. I bought this SP350 because of the 32 minute shock buffer. The player I got was skipping songs constantly. Called the online store to get a replacement. The replacement seems to work, but it skips songs still unlike the other two MP3-CD players(which never skip). First of all, I am disappointed in the review that [Amazon.com] gave because it says that you can use AA batteries. There is no external battery case to use AA batteries like the iMP-350(Sonicblue might sell it as an accessory later). This player does not always recognize my MP3-CDs like the SP250 and iMP-350. The only good thing is the sound quality is the best out of all 3 MP3-CD players. The rechargeable batteries that did come with the player take 6 hours to recharge. I currently have my own NIMH batteries and a 1 hour charger that I cannot use with this player. Sound quality is the only good thing about this player. Way overpriced and not worth the [$] retail price.

I agree with the folks who have problems with this RioVolt SP-350 player. It skips the music tracks of either ORIGINAL CD-AUDIO music or MP3s stored in CD-R or CD-RW media that worked FINE with the previous model, the SP-250 Player (i wonder why SonicBlue discontinued it!!)

I've followed all the directions of Sonic Blue and still nothing. I believe it's a firmware problem. I mailed SonicBlue a week ago and i just got a reply from them. They say "we are sorry, we have no firmware upgrades, please return the defective unit to the store where you purchased it from to get a new one as a replacement and if they don't want to do it, please call us after may 1, 2003 and we'll do ir for you." but reading someone else's post, getting a replacement won't help much because i believe that it's this model that is all messed up.. now.. will SonicBlue send me a refund for this defective unit? who knows!!

What a disappointment, i expected much more from this brand.. two thumbs down for this model.. SonicBlue guys, do something QUICKLY or you'll lose customers!

Best Regards,

Paul D. Fabre

I have a 90, 100 and have tried the 250 and the 350 leaves a great deal to be desired. It does not handle files well, can read only a limited number of files, does not have resume and is difficult to navigate. The older models have superior firmware. Perhaps SonicBlue will fix these problems with new firmware. It should have been done before release to the public.

Well, I bought it just when it was released, so that was the first problem, you can't read users reviews(lesson learned).
After charging the unit for about 6 hours, it started the real problem. I tried to play standard music CD's and it skipped all time, then strange ASCII symbols appeard on the LCD instead of the usual "track 01"(and for what I'm reading, I'm not the first one). Never worked. I sent it back 3 days later.
Dont buy it!!

I'm on my third MP3 CD player -- I really like the format. I have had the original Philips Expanium player and the Rio PSX100 (the original RioVolt player).

This machine is a turkey. It skips when playing my MP3 CDs, and it skips when playing commercially-available audio CDs. Also, when changing tracks on a commercially-available audio CD, the alphanumeric display went into "matrix mode" -- 2 lines of incomprehensible characters. The only way out of this mode was to power off the unit.

When I called technical support, they told me to "create MP3 files sampling at a lower frequency" than the 256K that I had used. Wrong answer! The device is specified to work absolutely correctly at the sampling rate I used. And that explains nothing about the failure of the ordinary audio CDs on the player.

They also sent me on a wild goose chase saying I should download and install the SP250's firmware on this device. There was no reference to this on SonicBlue's website, but I tried it anyway. The device refused to download the firmware. (I had no problem with firmware updates on my PSX100 in the past.)

I would complain to SonicBlue's support line about wasting my time except for the fact that they now have a recording that says that they are very busy, announces the support center hours, and then *hangs up on you*. No offer to have you wait in a queue. No offer to call you back. No nothing. This is an extraordinary statement about how much SonicBlue values their customer. I'm going to go ahead and return mine to Amazon within the 30-day return window...

On paper, the specifications of this player are extraordinary. In reality, it's a total loser. And SonicBlue has categorically dropped the ball on supporting the unfortunates who got one of these dogs for Christmas.

Maybe they will fix the quality on this product. Stay tuned. For now, this is one product to avoid. I plan to buy no more SOnicBlue products until I hear about a marked improvement in quality -- and that they actually answer their customer support line.

As an owner of the original Rio Volt (SP100) I appreciated that it was the first good, usable mp3-CD player, but eventually got tired of some of its shortcomings: inefficient display, with the dancing stick figures, odd remote and well, it was bulky, even for a CD player. This new Volt (SP350) adresses all of those minor issues, and adds a few new features over the old one.

First, the new design aesthetic is great - brushed stainless steel front plate, grippy grey plastic around the edges. It feels like a vastly higher quality piece of equipment than the original, or any other CD or MP3 player i've used recently, Apply iPod excepted (that's the gold standard for quality design/construction). The buttons have a more uniform feel and you can acutally use the player while it's in the case this time.

Second, the new display and firmware make organizing the 70 to 100 songs on the usual mp3 cd more convenient than before. The addition of an FM tuner is a nice touch as well.

Other notes: the buttons on the remote are small, but at least you can hit each of them individually, as opposed to guessing on one big circular button as on the SP100. It also seems that you can turn the player off from the remote, but not back on.
The sound quality is great as before, and the headphone amp is easily powerful enough to keep me from turning it up all the way. Granted they're no Grado's, but the included headphones are at least comfortable and sound alright out of the box.

In summary this is a great CD-MP3 player, and definitely worth the upgrade from one of the older generation players. Or, if you're in the market for your first one, you won't go wrong here. It has a quality feel and sound that makes it worth the money. Highly Recommended.

Review Updated...with the following information:
To counterpoint the opinions of the people that have had problems with this player, I wrote the initial review after using the player for a few hours a day for a few days. It has now been a few months and my opinions listed above still hold. It's still playing like new, no display issues, reads all of my MP3 cd's and normal cd's and has never skipped.
Perhaps there was a statistically large number of failures from a certain batch of these, but I can find little to complain about with my particular unit. I'd still recommend this player based on it's great sound and efficient design, just keep the warranty card around based on the number of complaints here.

This player is similar to the iRiver iMP-350 MP3/CD player, but a better display (4 lines instead of 2) and better accessories make the iRiver unit a clear winner.

Also, my experience with SonicBlue's customer service has been less than favorable (and this is being kind.) It has now been almost a year since I sent a broken player in for warranty repair or replacement. After half a year (!) they replaced my original player with a different, lower quality, model (SP250 with SP350). But it has now been a year -- and they still not have sent me accessories for the SP350 (which is incompatible with the old accessories.)

My review is quite simple. Don't buy. I got the unit for Christmas last year and dealt with the skipping for a little while, but then returned it when it was static like in the car. After getting a second unit from Amazon, I found the static problem somewhat improved, but now noticed that the unit had a nearly impossible playing MP3 CDs. SonicBlue says clean the lens (of a new player?) and burn CDs only at 128kbps. This is not the performance I expected. This is poor. Now I'm stuck fighting with SonicBlue to get a refund. This product is not worth $...Get an IPod.

After 3 days use:
1. Good Sound, (good volume level)
2. Fairly Good FM (no AM), FM presets hard to figure out.
3. Nicely equiped with rechargable, long life -over 12 hour- batteries, but long charge time, and hard locate extra batteries to purchase, fairly good headphones, Cassette insert, and a leather case.
4. Not supposed to play when using AC recharger.
5. FF and FR within track.
6. Figure couple hours to learn how to use. Complicated
7. No timed auto shut off.
8. A bit noisy at start up and switching tracks. STartup time is several seconds.
9. Expensive, but cheaper than an IPOD by far.
10. Upgradable by software you convert to CD and play on the unit.
11. Small controls on sides and on wired remote. 3 line display in a small lighted format.
12. Can Skip when first in a track (as expected).
13. Plays most CD and other digital formats (but apparently not DirectCD).
14. Thin CD player: but AC recharger is typical size and clunky.
15. Light and appears fairly sturdy. Reliability unknown but a nice 1 year warrentee. (do not buy used).
CONCLUSION:
GOOD CD/MP3 Player.

I have been wanting a Rio with the built in Radio Tuner ever since they came out. This thing showed up as a gold box offer one night and I got all starry eyed. It's thin, cheap, the controlsare confusing, the manual is a pdf file,that gave me a broken link error on the CD, fortunately I was able to retrieve it from the lacking in content support site.The software is dissaponting and not what I had expected at all. I should have gotten a used pre Sonic Blue model ... when they were still good. Now, don't bother.