Rio Central CD Recorder
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- Device Type: Recorder
- Number of Discs: 1
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Take your home audio system and kick it up a notch.
Pros
The ultimate digital audio management solution, for home entertainment.
Cons
Way too expensive. No wireless network connection.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
At $1149 this item is way too expensive for the average user. Only true technophiles would appreciate the added convenience.
My Buying Decision.
I have an enormous MP3 collection because MP3 is my preferred format to archive my favorite songs. A few months back, I went thru all my 500 or so CDs and copied my favorite songs into MP3 format. I made this huge investment in time and effort so I could enjoy my music at home, work, in my car and a portable player when exercising or traveling. Also I was sick of juggling hundreds of CDs and filtering thousands of tracks to listen to my favorite songs.
I would copy MP3 files to a CDR for playback on my home entertainment system. My second alternative was to connect my WiFi enabled laptop to the audio receiver and connect to my MP3 collection over a wireless network. I was looking for a seamless way to transfer my collection to my living room. That's when I came across the Sonic Rio Advanced Digital Audio Center.
The Good.
40GB hard drive capable of storing over 6500 songs or 668 CDs. Drive also has a built in cooling fan.
CD-RW drive can copy your favorite songs to MP3 data CDs or regular audio CDs.
56K modem automatically connects to the internet to lookup artist, album and track information. This allows for advanced search features to quickly find the music you want.
Automatically catalogs and archives songs from pre-recorded CDs to MP3 collection. You can create unlimited customized playlists by genre, artist, albums etc.
Multiple bitrate encoding options. Choices are 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256 and 320 kbps. It supports MP3 and WMA formats. It can be updated for future standards as well.
Transfer songs to a portable MP3 player using USB. Currently it only supports the Rio 600, Rio 800 and Nike PSA portable players.
Connect to a computer or home network using USB, ethernet or 10mbps PNA (phone line networking). For ethernet connectivity, you will need to purchase an optional USB ethernet adapter. Transfer files by drag/drop or copy/paste from windows explorer into 'Rio Emplode' music manager software, which will then synchronize all files with the Rio Central.
A large color backlit LCD display makes it easy to access and control the multitude of functions, settings and options thru an intuitive menu.
17 inches wide, same as a standard audio component.
Includes the following connectors:
RCA audio out to home stereo receiver.
Digital optical out.
Phone line in and pass thru jacks.
USB port to connect to a PC
USB port to connect to a network, keyboards etc
USB port on front to connect to a portable MP3 player.
The Bad.
Very expensive at $1149.
No option for connecting to a wireless network.
Included in the menu are four games that can be played on the LCD screen.....HUH !!! what the heck were they thinking of? This is a totally useless feature.
Product improvement suggestion for SonicBlue Inc.
Sonicblue should have included an 802.11b wireless network port. This way the built in 40GB drive would show up as a network drive in windows explorer, allowing for drag/drop file transferring from a remote networked PC. This would eliminate need for synchronizing with proprietary 'Emplode' software. This would also allow for use of a shared broadband internet connection as opposed to dial up only. And please, get rid of the games.
The Bottomline.
At $1149 this item is way too expensive for the average user. Only true technophiles would appreciate the added convenience.
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I have an enormous MP3 collection because MP3 is my preferred format to archive my favorite songs. A few months back, I went thru all my 500 or so CDs and copied my favorite songs into MP3 format. I made this huge investment in time and effort so I could enjoy my music at home, work, in my car and a portable player when exercising or traveling. Also I was sick of juggling hundreds of CDs and filtering thousands of tracks to listen to my favorite songs.
I would copy MP3 files to a CDR for playback on my home entertainment system. My second alternative was to connect my WiFi enabled laptop to the audio receiver and connect to my MP3 collection over a wireless network. I was looking for a seamless way to transfer my collection to my living room. That's when I came across the Sonic Rio Advanced Digital Audio Center.
The Good.
40GB hard drive capable of storing over 6500 songs or 668 CDs. Drive also has a built in cooling fan.
CD-RW drive can copy your favorite songs to MP3 data CDs or regular audio CDs.
56K modem automatically connects to the internet to lookup artist, album and track information. This allows for advanced search features to quickly find the music you want.
Automatically catalogs and archives songs from pre-recorded CDs to MP3 collection. You can create unlimited customized playlists by genre, artist, albums etc.
Multiple bitrate encoding options. Choices are 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256 and 320 kbps. It supports MP3 and WMA formats. It can be updated for future standards as well.
Transfer songs to a portable MP3 player using USB. Currently it only supports the Rio 600, Rio 800 and Nike PSA portable players.
Connect to a computer or home network using USB, ethernet or 10mbps PNA (phone line networking). For ethernet connectivity, you will need to purchase an optional USB ethernet adapter. Transfer files by drag/drop or copy/paste from windows explorer into 'Rio Emplode' music manager software, which will then synchronize all files with the Rio Central.
A large color backlit LCD display makes it easy to access and control the multitude of functions, settings and options thru an intuitive menu.
17 inches wide, same as a standard audio component.
Includes the following connectors:
RCA audio out to home stereo receiver.
Digital optical out.
Phone line in and pass thru jacks.
USB port to connect to a PC
USB port to connect to a network, keyboards etc
USB port on front to connect to a portable MP3 player.
The Bad.
Very expensive at $1149.
No option for connecting to a wireless network.
Included in the menu are four games that can be played on the LCD screen.....HUH !!! what the heck were they thinking of? This is a totally useless feature.
Product improvement suggestion for SonicBlue Inc.
Sonicblue should have included an 802.11b wireless network port. This way the built in 40GB drive would show up as a network drive in windows explorer, allowing for drag/drop file transferring from a remote networked PC. This would eliminate need for synchronizing with proprietary 'Emplode' software. This would also allow for use of a shared broadband internet connection as opposed to dial up only. And please, get rid of the games.
The Bottomline.
At $1149 this item is way too expensive for the average user. Only true technophiles would appreciate the added convenience.
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