RioVolt SP50 Portable CD/MP3 Player

thanks


I'll give it a few days   June 4, 2003
I just got the SP50 in today. So far, I'm disappointed. I bought it to replace an off-brand 2.5" hard drive player, that wouldn't hold a charge or recharge well.

I recorded a full CD, with one folder of sixty tracks, and the rest in the root directory. The sound quality is decent, after I realized I needed to plug my cassette adapter into the headphone jack instead of line out (it sounded awful when plugged into line out).

But navigation is a pain. I haven't figured out how to get to my other folder, except by browsing in reverse from the first song. The major problem is that after song 60 or so, it just won't read the MP3s, at least in the time I considered reasonable. It just spun and spun, and never actually played the songs from 61-80 (except for 65).

I will keep it for about a week. If I'm not happier then, I may try to return it for something else.


Good for the price   May 2, 2003
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

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.


This mp3 player is great!   April 17, 2003
 3 out of 7 found this review helpful

I've had mine for about a year now. I like the line out feature so I can hook it up to external speakers. This little cd player looks cheap so if you are into fashion, you need to come up "some more money" for a mp3 player that does has the same functions but looks high society. about the scrolling of the songs, yes it is a chore to have to scroll through 130 songs if you dont put songs into folders. So if you aren't too bright and are really lazy, do not buy this item. Otherwise, the only draw back is that it has no AM/FM tuner. I think another Rio model does. Oh, and the SP50 plays ANYTHING I feed it. It just gets hungrier by the minute