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Rio Volt SP250 MP3 CD Player
SONICblue (
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Electronics |
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£
49.99 |
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subject to change. |
usually dispatched within 24 hours. |
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Great Sound  |
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I was quite skeptical about the Rio SP250 after reading several reviews on the net and here about the quality of the sound. The sound is clearly not a problem. The volume is LOUD. I dunno how loud some people want it ... but its really great. Also my mp3s are all 128 kbps. Ive tested it on a branded CD-RW and it works very well. Ive also upgraded the firmware to 2.05 very easily.
Go for it !!! great price for a great product.
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Good but over priced  |
I have had my RioVolt 250 for nearly a year now. I brought it because I wanted to listen to my MP3 collection but didnt like the idea of memory cards as they are expensive and store very little (compared to a CD). The features on this player are superb. There are many things you can adjust and if you go to Rios website and update the firmware you can add a few extra features. I use it mainly in the car and it rarely skips. All in all a great MP3/WMA/CD player. I would have given it 5 stars but there are a few things to be aware of. First is the sound quality. If you have a decent car stereo this isnt a problem. But when listening through headphones the sound is very flat and is nothing to do with low bit rates on MP3 tracks! Is comparable to buying a very cheap CD player. Even adjusting the graphic equaliser and adding "bass boost" doesnt do anything much to the sound. This is on MP3 AND ordinary audio CDs. If you get a chance play your favorite CD in a Sony CD walkman then in this and you will hear the difference. Secondly the battery power isnt as good as expected. With the supplied rechargable batteries it will last about 5-7 hours (assuming you do not keep skipping tracks or turning it on and off as this uses a lot of power). Good features and range of formats, but poor sound quality and high price. If you want excellent sound quality stay away! If you want lots of features and will use it mainly in the car hooked up to a good car stereo, it is excellent!
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Radio could be better; Real software is a waste of time |
I bought this partly because one of the reviews on here said that radio reception was really good. This has not been my experience so far, where I live in North London the local pirates seem to be all I can get on this radio. I have three other FM radios which have no problem picking out the legit stations clearly. It seems the Rio Volts tuner is especially poor at picking out stations on a crowded dial.The other thing thats been a disaster is the RealJukebox software thats supplied. When I installed this from the CD, the program informed me that it was going to remove the RealOne player I had installed, which it did. Then on running RealJukebox it said that it was out of date and wouldnt work properly and that I needed to download an update, which turned out to be the RealOne player... unbelievable... To add insult to that it left me with the same free version of RealOne that I had had before, as opposed to the paid-for version of RealJukebox that came with the Rio. If you do buy this unit, my advice is to not waste time with the Real software and go and get something else from the net (Winamp with Audiograbber is good). So in summary it is good for its primary purpose but dont buy it for the radio and steer clear of the Real software. If you want a radio then it mught be worth waiting a few months for a DAB version.
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