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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
solid/good mp3 player - COULD HAVE BEEN _AWESOME_, December 17, 2005
First off - this is a great MP3 player from the company that could be responsible for the affordable portable mp3 player market. The Carbon stores a lot of music and data and sounds great. A _huge_ bonus to this mp3 player is that it is a 5GB harddrive. You can literally take this mp3 player and plug it into the usb port of any computer and all of a sudden you have a portable 5GB diskdrive at your disposal to transport data. Yes, that's right, you can listen to all your music as well as store data on it (I do it all the time.)
An even better thing about this mp3 player is the drag and drop feature. You don't need any music software like iTunes, Rio Music Manager, etc to put music on this great player. All you need to do (if you don't like messing with music software) is plug your Carbon into the USB port and start dragging music onto the player as if you were moving files from one disk to another - it's that simple. Once you're done and unplug the Carbon from the computer it will turn itself on and recompile a file list and create a new playlist of music (this takes about 4-5 minutes.) Isn't that awesome?? This is how EVERY player should work - INCLUDING IPOD. A HUGE plus to Rio for the aforementioned feature.
Now, before we get all giddy about this mp3 player there are a few issues with the unit.
If your Carbon has a serial number that shows it was made before (I think) December of 2004 you will need to call Rio and get a little plastic spacer ring or a headphone adapter. Why do you need to get that? On the Carbons made before a certain date there is an issue with the headphone jack. The headphone jack is plated/metal and you get a crackling/shorted sound with traditional headphones. Most headphones have a metal ring around the male prong of the plug. When this metal ring touches the metal ring of the affected Carbons you get a short of the electrical signal that is supplying sound to the headphones. As a result you get a nice crackle in the sound. Carbons fix is to send out a little plastic spacer or an inline headhone cable jack. Both of these have a PLASTIC ring that eleminates that sound. Both solutions work great and it's just a matter of preference on which solution you want to use. It's just a shame that Rio had this problem in the first place. Now - keep in mind - you are ONLY going to have this issue if the unit is part of the original batch of Carbons that had this design issue. The MAJORITY of Carbons do NOT have this issue and the Carbon Pearl does not have this problem at all. Actually, as I'm writing this review I do _THINK_ that Rio is shipping the players WITH the adapters included so you don't have to mess with calling them.
Now, another problem that you will immediately see is the carrying case that comes with the unit. The carrying case that comes with the unit is a simple holster with no belt clip and NO OPENING FOR THE SCREEN OR BUTTONS. What on EARTH was Rio thinking??? The carrying case is completely USELESS. You can't clip it to your belt and you can't control the player without taking it OUT of the case. Now, in Rio's defense they do sell a PROPER case with a belt clip and holes for the controls and screen for like $19 online.
Another issue I have found that pops up from time to time but not often enough to be annoying is player lockup. Every now and then the player will decide it's had enough of my heavy metal music and lock up. All you need to do to make it behave like it's supposed to is poke a little paper clip into the reset hole on the top of the unit. I've had to do this maybe 3 times in the year that I've had it. This is something happens to any mp3 player so this is nothing to panic about.
One other thing that is a plus for Rio is their firmware support. Rio has always been really good for keeping the mp3 player firmware fresh. There have been 3 or 4 firmware updates for the Carbon. These updates range from bug fixes to feature additions. I _highly_ recommend that when you buy this mp3 player that you go to the Rio ([...] believe) and upgrade to the latest firmware.
I have had my player for over a year and aside from the items listed above I have enjoyed this player and I am also thoroughly satisfied with the player. I happen to have one of the earlier refurbished models with the metal ring around the headphone jack. As a result, I had to get the little plastic ring but it works fine. I use this mp3 player as a portable diskdrive as well as a great mp3 player. I work out a lot and I take this into the gym and it works great.
So, overall - if you're looking for a VERY affordable 5GB+ mp3 player that also doubles as a portable harddrive this is what you want.
If you are someone that is looking for a good gadget-type gift for a geek in your family or a family member that loves gadgets then they will love this.
I couldn't give this 5 stars because of the design flaws that I mentioned before.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too Sensitive and Non-Repairable, December 9, 2005
I purchased a NEW Rio Carbon and from the beginning the controls are extremely sensitive. Just brushing against a button will cause a playback to restart or skip. I have to hold it out in front of me by the edges to be sure I can get through a book without having to refind where I was. Got it to use while walking but I can not put in in a carrying bag but have to carefully hold it. Very frustrating.
Also the power button is held in place by a thin narrow piece of plastic that flexes each time the Rio is turned on or off. Shortly after the warrenty period was done the plastic broke from repetitive use. Rio will not repair it, but offered to exchange it for a considerable cost. I now use pen or pencil tip to turn it on and off.
When it works it is OK but I would not buy another Rio unless the controls were protected from accidental use and there was better quality design and materials.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The volume knob broke, rendering the device useless, December 22, 2005
Hi,
I have had a Rio Carbon for 6 months. Its a great little player - it has everything you need, great user interface, and just works perfectly.
Unfortunately, I dropped it, and the volume dial broke off and pushed inside the device. Considering the volume knob is on one corner, there is a 25% chance that if you drop the device, it will render it useless by breaking off the volume dial. The volume dial is not very robust, and is the only sensitive part on a device which is otherwise very robust.
The Rio has a rubber strip around 60% of its exterior - all other times I had dropped it, it landed on the rubber strip, with absolutely no damage.
I now have an expensive paperweight, I can't really do a lot with it, as theres no way to change the volume without the volume knob.
A firmware upgrade to allow you to change the volume from the menu system would fix this problem.
In the mean time, I will have to consider purchasing another MP3 player. A pity, as the player is perfect apart from this glaring fault.
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