Rio Volt SP250 Personal CD Player

If you've read my review of the Kodak DC3200 digital camera, you might remember that this past X-Mas, I was blessed with $500 to fo with as I pleased. I jumped back and forth between several options for about a month. In the end, I decided to go on several spending sprees at Circuit City, on Ebay, and WalMart. The RioVolt was one of two very expensive items I purchased at Circuit City, and one of two that I decided I absolutely *had* to have while browsing the Circuit City website at 2AM.

BREAK IT DOWN - FOR THE n00biEz

Before I tell you why the Sonic Blue is perfect for me, you should know WHAT the Sonic Blue IS. It is the next wave of CD player technology called a CD-MP3 Player. This means that you can listen to burned CDs on it. "What's so special about that?" you may say. Well, I'll tell you. The CDs the Sonic Blue can play are MP3 DATA CDs, not AUDIO CDs. In other words, the other burned CDs you have contain about 18-20 tracks of audio. The reason you can only have 18-20 is because those mp3s are encoded to an audio format onto your CD; your current CD player can only read the audio format. But the Sonic Blue can take the data mp3 and convert it to a playable audio format on the spot. You can put 700MB (depending on the size of your CD) worth of mp3s onto a CD and play them all on your Sonic Blue! That's approximately 10 hours of music on ONE CD! Imagine if you burned 10 data CDS! You've heard of mp3 players, but you know that they can only hold as much as the memory card you buy, which is usually only 32 or 64 megabytes. That's not alot of mp3s. Mp3 players simply can't compare to the Sonic Blue.

BREAK IT DOWN - THE STATS

Okay, so now you know what's so new and great about the MP3-CD technology of the Sonic Blue, but what else is so cool about it? Well lets see.
-It supports mp3, wma, and regular CDs.
-It supports ALL bitrates (66kbit-320kbit).
-It is upgradeable through the RIO website so it will never be obsolete.
-It features a FM tuner with programmable presets.
-It allows you to use winamp playlists (m3u).
-It has a more than enough modes of play including: play all directory, play all CD, repeat directory, repeat CD, shuffle directory, shuffle whole CD.
-It supports a CD organized into directories (folders).
-It has 4 lines of text display and scrolling text displaying song in play.
-It has user customizable EQ settings.
-It has hold (a NEED nowadays).
-It features 10 minutes Shock Protection (it loads the entire mp3 into its memory before playing it so it is virtually shock proof).
-It is backlight with a blue glow.
-The unit is rechargeable.
-It comes with more accessories than you ever thought you needed, which I will describe below.

BREAK IT DOWN - GETTIN YOUR MONEY'S WORTH

Besides being an awesome CD-MP3 player, it comes with tons of great accesories: so much that you couldn't possibly
have to buy any. Here's the complete list:
-remote control, which DOES come in handy
-leather protective case with clip
-strap for case
-TWO styles of headphones: buds and in-the-ear-and-over-the-head-foldable ones
-rechargeable batteries
-AC adaptor/battery recharger
HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG?

IMMINENT ATTRACTION

I was destined for the Sonic Blue for three reasons:

1) I am a super puter addict. About 98% of my music listening time happens on my computer. The other 2% happens on the bus ride to school. I have ALOT of mp3s (about 20gb), and I listen to about half of them regularly. I wanted to port my music around with me. The Sonic Blue was the most affordable, practical choice for me.

2) The FM tuner. The other less expensive model didn't have a FM tuner, and it was only $30 less. Plus this one was Black and BLUE and came with my 3rd reason:

3) The remote. The thing you never knew you needed, coupled along with all the other neat acccesories. Not only was this my dream come true being able to port my mp3 collection around, it also came with some really awesome accessories the less expensive model didn't have.

How'd It All Go Wrong?

It was paradise for about a month and a half. Then it just BROKE. JUST PLAIN FLAT OUT BROKE FOR NO REASON. One day I tried to turn it on, and it didn't come on. Just plain DIDN'T come on. Two days before, the in-store warranty expired. I am currently trying to get Rio to take it back because Circuit City said they won't. Which leaves me to ponder: is too much of a good thing NOT a good thing? I doubt it, especially when it concerns something that seems so pure and beautiful as the Sonic Blue. All these questions lead one place to the...

Sum It Up

portion of the review. Well I really have no clue what happened, but someone else on the Circuit City website reported the same thing happened to him, so this isn't just a freak incident, though it appears rare. Lucky for him, he was still under store warranty and was able to return his for a refund.
I'm not trying to keep you from buying this because I truly love it, but I just want to warn you. Electronics tend to break at random, and if your Sonic Blue just up and explodes on you day for no reason, you'll be screwed out of alot of money. Irregardless, I still recommend the Sonic Blue, even though mine currently does not work. I love the Sonic Blue, and want nothing more than to have mine replaced. This is a great item if you have lots of mp3s you want to carry around.