Customer Reviews

RioVolt SP50 Portable CD/MP3 Player

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I heartily recommend the SP50 with a couple of caveats: don't buy it at the suggested retail price and be sure to buy it during the rebate period. On sale with the rebate, the SP50 is a good low-end player with enough features to satisfy most users. At full price, the SP50 simply isn't worth it.

The good stuff:

I didn't see any of the extreme problems with playback reported by others here. In CD mode, the player worked flawlessly. With electronic shock protection (ESP) turned on, I tossed the player on the couch and even shook it with no skips at all. In MP3 mode, the player functioned equally well. It has played every MP3 I have tried at bit rates anywhere from 96 to 196 kbps on a variety of CD-R media. (One note: all of my MP3 CD-Rs are closed disks. Some users have reported playback problems with open CD-Rs. I haven't tested this.) I have experienced some minor playback blips on fewer than 6 individual MP3s, and I can't be sure that they weren't due to problems during ripping. In any event, fewer than 6 small problems out of over 1,000 MP3s is good performance, if you ask me. Finally, I prefer the styling of this model to any of the other RioVolt models. The blue SP90, in particular, has always looked little too cutesy and toy-like for my tastes. In contrast, the SP50 has platinum and gray color scheme with a flat, rough-textured finish that resists fingerprints and smudges.

Not so good stuff:

This thing eats batteries faster than any music player I have ever used. SonicBlue claims "10 hours of continuous MP3 playback." That may be true if you just put a CD in and play straight through, but if you actually use the file search and playlist functions of the SP50, you'll find that 5 hours is more realistic. I suspect this is due in part to the way that shock protection works in MP3 mode. The player has a two-minute buffer, and once the buffer is full, the disk spins down. Thirty seconds before the buffer empties out, the disk spins back up and the buffer is re-filled. SonicBlue claims that this is to conserve battery life, but any freshmen physics student can tell you that it takes more energy to move a stationary object than it does to keep a moving object in motion. All this spinning up and down just has to eat up a lot of electricity, and the more searching and skipping through the tracks you do, the worse it gets. Worst of all, this creates what I see as the biggest flaw in the SP50: As the batteries get low, the player takes longer and longer to spin up the disk. Eventually, it take longer than 30 seconds to get the disk moving, and you get long pauses in the middle of songs while the empty buffer waits for more data. The solution, of course, is to keep fresh batteries in the machine or use an AC adapter, which, unfortunately, is not included.

As others here have pointed out, the included ear-buds provide inferior sound. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Since when are the ear-buds packaged with even the most expensive players worth much? If you're the kind of listener who is bothered by this sort of thing, you should already have purchased a decent set of headphones for yourself.

The search and playlist controls are complicated and cumbersome. It takes some reading of the instructions and a little practice to make it all work. I was eventually able to use those features with ease, but the process could be simplified.

Finally, the player does not include an adjustable equalizer as the package claims. It does feature a simple bass booster, which works well and is sufficient for my purposes. After checking SonicBlue's web site, I knew this going in, so I wasn't disappointed. It's probably just a misprint, but SonicBlue needs to correct it as soon as possible.

Bottom line:

You'll read a lot of criticism of the SP50 here. If you buy one of the players that are recommended, however, you'll never pay less than $100 for anything. On sale with the rebate, the SP50 is a solid little player at a good price that will satisfy the average user. If you are an audiophile and fussy about your playback, why are you listening to MP3s on a portable in the first place?

... the SP50 is a really good (though not great) player for the price (after rebate)
Pros:
-really has 120 second anti shock for mp3 playback and 45 sec for regular cd(only when ESP button enabled and not flashing) and with really strong batteries. Shook the thing like a earthquake, did'nt skip a beat.
-Played just about every thing i've put in it. MP3 recored at various rates up to 320kb worked fine.( used Nero-burnig ROM)
-Displays ID3 tag info (scroll)
-easily navigate folders. Displays folder names too.

-Seperate audio line out.something more expensive players don't have.

-Has a lot of standard features packed into it. (read the manual!)

Cons:
-Player feels light and fragile. Afraid to drop it.
-ear buds are poor and should be thrown away for better headphones immediately.
-No Back light. problem in poorly lit areas and at night.
-Sound quality is average.
-Equalizer button only increases volume nothing more.

Bottom Line:
If you're looking for an inexpensive MP3 player that does the basic job of playing MP3 and standard cd's has good features, with relatively average to good sound quality then this this is the right thing for you. But if you need more than an introduction to the world of MP3 players and have the cash to dash then look else where. This is not the luxury car of portable mp3 players but it will get you to where your going.

Well I'm starting this review saying that this is a cheap MP3/CD player. Keep that in mind. For the 40$(after rebate) this one costs, your are certainly buying something that doesn't have the features of it's more expensive brothers. What I have to say is it certainly is worth its money.

On the outside it looks nice but it feels a little cheap, as the cover doesn't "lock" into place but moves slightly (not causing any problems). There is an analog volume control, head-phones out, line-out (to connect active speakers, plug it in your soundcard, or for the car-kit), bass control (normal-boosted, sorry no equalizer here), a lock switch that disables the buttons on the cover, which are used for controlling the
device (play, stop, ff,...).

When it comes to using the SP50 I must say I was surprised. I thought it would be a really difficult thing to browse through songs, but that's not the case. The LCD display (no backlight) can handle up to 2 lines (13 characters each) plus extra info concerning the play mode, battery meter and file type. When you hold the player with both hands it's really easy to find the mp3 you are looking for, only using your thumbs. You can browse your mp3s on a cd either alphabetically (entering up to five characters), or by folder. Creating playlists (up to 64 mp3's) is actually a feature that you won't (or even can't) use, as it's not that easy. The random playback mode (entire cd or specific folder) comes in handy here. While playing, the ID3tag information (artist, title, album) +#kHz & #kbps scrolls on the first line while the current folder/mp3 number and duration are at the second one.

I have tried about 15 mp3-cds and the only problem (beeps while playing) was with one album encoded at 192kbps (I guess it was a problem of the codec used, as I re-encoded it using lame's codec at the same bit rate and now plays flawlessly). Also I have yet to find an unsupported bit rate, having tested mp3's from 48 to 320kbps and VBR.

Anti-skip protection works quite well at mp3's, but you have to bear in mind that there is only a 2MB memory (which means 4 minutes at 64kpbs, 2 minutes at 128kbps, 1 minute at 320kbps, 45sec for audio CD's). That means that the player renews its buffer every 2 minutes when playing at 128kbps, so you can shake it for 2 minutes, leave it alone for 10 sec. shake it again...

The sound coming out of this device is what some might find problematic. Yeah the earbuds are low quality (they can be replaced, I use the headphones of my older cd-player). There is a little white noise (hsssss) and a sound (eeeeee) when the player buffers the mp3 to the memory (that lasts 5 sec. every 2 minutes at 128 kbps). Both of these are only audible when using the SP50 indoors at low volume (or when it's really quite around you). When you increase the volume, they disappear and generally when using the SP50 outdoors (where you are supposed to use a portable device) the outside noise is mush louder. The line out however produces clear sound, the only "bug" here is that the bass feature doesn't affect the line out.

At last, battery life is quite good; I got about 6 hours on good alkaline batteries (that was with a lot of browsing and changing CD's, I guess at continuous playback you could reach the 10 hours sonicblue promises). My old Ni-Cd rechargeable batteries give about 2 hours of continuous mp3 playback plus 1 hour of audio-CD (which is enough for my every-day use).

Bottom line, the SP50 is an inexpensive mp3-cd player not lacking basic features. If there was no problem with the sound output I would definitely recommend it, but if you want some quality at this section you have to [spend more].

I was very disapppointed in the RioVolt SP50. It simply does not work correctly (at least the unit I got) with MP3 CDs. It puts extraneous thumps and other noises on top of the music. A different reviewer said that this didn't happen with bitrates of 160 kpbs or lower, but it happened frequently for me at 160 kpbs. Also, it has trouble with long tracks; it mysteriously stopped, and would not restart, at about 57 minutes into a 5 hour track. (The same CD plays fine on another brand player and on my computer, to answer the question you might be about to ask.)

So it's going back.

Also, the web site claims that "you'll find an AC/DC adapter in the box", and that the unit includes a remote and is "bundled with RealNetworks music management software and Adaptec CD-burning software". Surprisingly, mine was shipped with none of these items. I would not have purchased it had I known that.

You get what you pay for with this player. It's the cheapest one I could find and it showed. I returned it immediately. The build quality is horrible and it skipped while sitting on the coffee table. I was so disappointed that rather than tacking on [more money] to see what that gets me, ... I got the Sony 901 and it is excellent.

I bought the SP50 about 4 months ago, and it still plays the way it did the day I bought it.

The sound quality is good, and the output is loud enough. The controls are fairly easy to master, although it takes some time to get the menu navigation correct. I have dropped this play from a couple feet up, and except for the CD popping out, it was fine. I haven't had any problems with burning MP3 CD's for it to play, and I put almost 15 albums (165 songs) on one CD at decent quality.

One of my few complaints is that the battery life is definatly not long enough. It just eats batteries, but what is to be expected? The player does take a couple seconds to start up, and it takes a second longer than most to get to the next song, but overall, with a little patiance, it works out. Everyonce in a while I will get a "No Disc" error, usually when I haven't used it in a while. It refuses to read the disc and only randomly starts playing it. After it first read the disc, it has no problem with anything else. The last problem is that at the highest volumes it has quite a lot of static, it might be my inexpensive headphones, but it has done that with all of the headphones I've used with it.

This player is a great value. It's cheap for a CD/MP3 player, and even though I make a bigger point of the faults, it definatly works for me. I would suggest this product to anyone who is looking for a lower end MP3/CD player.

I had this unit for a month. This CD player does not seem compatible with multisession CDs containing MP3s. I had less problems with single session, closed CDs. However, I have some particular CDs where the player would start playing well the MP3 songs, and then would stop at a particular time, and would do the same thing for each and every one of the MP3 files in the CD (all of them would stop at more or less the same time). I could never figure out what was the problem.

All my CDs were recorded as single-session and closed, all of the MP3s were recorded at a constant bit rate of 128 kbps. Some CDs would play just fine, and some others would have that annoying problem of all of the songs stopping at a particular time. My guess is that the problem is in the anti-skip mechanism. I am puzzled however that the problem was presented only on particular CDs.

It was much of a burden for me to figure out what is wrong, so I took the unit back to [retail store]. I can accept that sometimes MP3 files do not show up well because of the recording, but not all of them.

Anyway, I just got a Memorex MP3 player (MPD8610) for less money, with more sophisticated controls. I tried the problematic CDs in the new Memorex, and bingo! they play just fine. The problem was in the RioVolt, not in the CDs. By the way, my new Memorex is compatible with multiple session CDs. I do not have to close the CDs, which means that I can add more songs at a later time if I want. The battery consumption is as efficient as of the RioVolt. The Memorex MPD8610 can read multiple subdirectory structure, which is quite impressive. It is not as elegant looking as the RioVolt, but who cares. With the Memorex I spend more time listening to the music than worrying about how the CD was recorded.

In summary, I do not recommend buying the RioVolt SP50. Check on the other smaller brand names instead, such as Memorex. You will be surprised of what they offer.

The SonicBlue fellows should definitely improve this RioVolt product, pack it with better headphones (the included ones are so [less costly] and poorly sounding, that you must upgrade immediately if you insist in keeping this product), if they plan on keeping costumers.

This player is great for the price. It is one of the cheapest CD/MP3 players available, but like the cheapest of anything, it has some flaws. First the positives

PROS
+ Decent sound quality
+ Connectable to external stereo with decent sound quality
+ Clear ID3 Screen
+ Plays most files

CONS
- 2 Setting EQ is either too little, or too much bass
- ID3 screen not backlit
- Gets only about 10 hours on 2 AA batteries
- Some songs sound bad when played off MP3 CD-RW
- Weak amplifier causes distortion (Not headphones)
- Included earbud headphones just plain [stink]
- Menu system takes some getting used to.

It works fine for what I generally use it for. My main complaint is the poor quality whe using CD-RW MP3s. When I play them on other sources, they sound fine, but on this player, or at least mine, I get many electronic bleeps. In the next model, I hope they add a better EQ, maybe with a Low, Med, High Bass setting, and not just too little, or too much. The styling isn't the best, but it doesn't feel or look real cheap. All in all, for the price, it's good. But if you use it a lot and have extra money to spend, it may be worth moving up to a RioVolt SP 90, or something similar to that. By the way, I hate ear buds, so I immediately bought Sony wrap-arounds as a replacement, and they work well with this player.

Although there are many negative reviews here, my player doesn't have any of the problems that the others have. It does everything it says on the box and overall it is a great MP3 player for the price that it is offered at.

THe first thing you do before you even purchase it is to look for some moderately good headphones. Anything will be better than the earbuds that come with it. The batteries that come with the SP50 do not have good battery life. They don't last nearly as long as what it says on the packaging. After I went through the included batteries (Only took about 3 hours, with extensive searching and messing around with the buttons to learn it), I popped in some new batteries and they have lasted over 6 hours, and are still going strong. It DOES read ID3 tags - Just that when you first start the song, the file name of the song shows, and then the Title, Artist, and Album, as well as the kHz and bitrate. All of my MP3's on CD-R discs have played without any errors, although it shuts down by itself sometimes (May be user error, I might have accidentally held the stop button down or something, but it has happened 3 times now).
The playlist feature is a pain to configure, so I don't reccomend that you use it. Instead, use the RND mode. If you have the songs on any mode, once you stop and start it again, you will have to set the mode again, and in my opinion, it is a real pain because RND is literally on the bottom of the list.
Although it has its faults, the SP50 does provide great sound quality. With the bass boost on, the sound is incredible, even on very high volumes. Those reports of distorted sound at high volumes, the sound quality is excellent with my Sony MDR-G52 headphones. The lock feature was a nice addition that is usually found on higher, more expensive models. The extra line out plug is an added bonus, though the bass boost function doesn't apply to it. It is quite slow when it comes to starting or switching between songs, and it is noticeable to other people and yourself if it is quiet. The ESP works great.
Overall I think that this is a good entry-level player with enough functions for it's low price. I highly suggest that you buy the SP50 for your playback needs. By the way, I bought this "fully working" version (It doesn't have the problems that the other people have) at Best Buy.

The SP50 is a good basic CD/MP3 player without alot of bells and whistles. The player includes a headphone jack, line out jack, rotary volume control, a slide switch to open the player, a enhanced bass/normal selector and a key lock to lock the controls on the top of the unit. The unit has 8 keys on top for operation. I only use four of them as the other four get you into the menu's to search and program tracks and unless I have the instructions it's just to much of a pain to figure out. The unit is shipped with battaries (chinese ones that don't last very long compared to normal alkaline's) and some ear buds that you might as well toss. I have no problems playing my burned CD's on this player. All of my files are at 128K and have been created with Misicmatch Jukebox ver 7.2. The display shows the artist and song on the display and is supposed to show the album but the album info comes up blank on mine. Sound quality with a decent set of headphones is good. Regular CD/s have played fine as well. I have not had any problems with skipping even when attempting to make it do so. ... I've deducted a star for non intiutive search controls, junky earbuds and the fact that the album title doesn't display.