Rio500 MP3 player review (Diamond Rio 500)

Member Name: dan123

Product:	Diamond Rio 500
Date:	23/09/01 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: light, small, quick file transfers, only uses 1 battery, 64mb of memory

Disadvantages: the BUG

Last year I spent months searching for the perfect mp3 player for me. I searched all over the web, all over the world trying to find what I was looking for at a price I could afford. Finally I thought I had found it: A rio500 on offer for only £90!
The same day I went out and bought it and I must say I was impressed.
The rio500 has a great set of specifications and looks great too.
It has 64Mb of in-built memory which is enough for about an hour of CD-quality music (128kb/s) and also has a smartmedia slot in the top of the player so extra memory can be put in if wanted. So far so good...
When you switch it on and start listening the quality is quite good and lived up to my expectations of it. There is also an equaliser with bass and treble settings and various presets if you want them. The volume doesnt go up to a very high level but is adequate and would suit most peoples needs.
When it comes to transferring music, this is also done quite speedily, taking only a couple of minutes to fill up the memory.
On paper it seems perfect to fit the needs of most people and if you can still get hold of one it is worth considering.
However, since about two or three weeks ago, I no longer own a Rio500. Coming up is my one and only gripe. The rio500 has a bug. A bug that is not mentioned on the packaging, in the manual or anywhere. This is why I no longer have a Rio500. Once I knew what the bug was, it was already too late. If the battery is low while you transfer music from your pc to mp3 player, it crashes and you're stuck. It no longer works. After searching the Rio site for a while I found a bug fix. This said that it sometimes fixes the problem, but unfortunately in my case, didn't. So beware if you are going to buy one or own one, too ALWAYS have a new battery in your player when transferring music. Of course, you could always opt for another player as I did (the Samsung Yepp which I will write about soon). Whatever you do, good luck wit
h your choice and I hope you dont suffer the same problem as me :-)
Overall I would say the Rio500 is still a good player, just... be careful with it :-)

Dan

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