denon dcm 280 - cd players

	Rio Volt MP3 CD Player SONICblue ( 25 May, 2001 ) Electronics Our Price : £ 119.99 Prices subject to change. This item is not in stock or has been discontinued.

nice..........

I just got the Rio Volt as a present and it does live up to the hype. Upgrading the firmware was a snap, all it required was burning a file to the CD and starting the player with the CD inside. This upgrade adds features like resume and the ability to keep the backlight on. Not wanting to take the time with burner software, I just copied about 150 songs onto a CD-RW, and it plays without a hitch, no skipping like Ive heard in some reviews. Navigating the CD is a snap, as a function will allow you to browse the CD while it is playing. Granted I take great care when creating my MP3s but the sound is excellent, though I discarded the enclosed headset (I do not care for earbuds). The remote control works well, though it does not have the navigation button. Lastly, it is an elegant looking, with a large display clearly showing the ID3 tag, something few MP3 CD players do. Simply, a player that holds 10X the music most MP3 players hold.

Genuinely superb

I bought this player about a year ago, and I am extremely pleased with it. If youre thinking about buying a personal stereo, compare your selection with 10 of the Rio Volts key specs: 1) Plays CDs. - no synching or software installation needed. Any computer that can burn Mp3s will do. 2) Plays CDs. - 650MB per disk, disks are cheap, burners are fast, literally unlimited capacity. CD format isnt going to change anytime soon - unlike the array of storage cards. 3) Plays CDs. - You take 20GB Apple iPod on holiday. You buy a cheap chart CD from a shop. Good luck. 4) Plays WMA files - higher compression, better quality than Mp3 - 300 songs on a disk for Windows users. 5) Supports directory structure. - copy that folder with album containing subfolders onto a disk. Browse by category/album/song on the player. 6) Uses 2 AA batteries. - Youre on holiday playing Mp3s with your rechargeable iPaq. Good Luck. 7) Plays Mp3/WMA files - Song loads, plays, disk stops spinning for duration. caches next song so no spin-up and seek. Less power used. 8) Remote control. - Bury the player in your coat/bag. 9) Resumes play from point of stopping - Also after batteries are changed and with a several disk memory. 10) Supports file names. - So you know what youre listening to. Some downsides (trust me, theyre livable - no surprises): 1) LCD dancing maniacs animation is guff. 2) A bit cheap feeling (because it is). 3) Has to boot-up. Takes less than 30 seconds from totally off. 4) Ditch the headphones (all players come with poor headphones). 5) Case is crud. (Dont use it.) 6) Comes with software. (Please God dont install it.) Thats it. For me, the WMA support is great, as Windows doesnt seem to come with an Mp3 ripper program amazingly enough (I may be wrong, but doubt it). For the price, its an absolute steal. Go buy it now.

Its a decent player

Mmm. Until recently my opinion of my new Rio Volt has fluctuated daily. I bought this CD/MP3/WMA player because I have all of my own CDs stored on my PC in WMA format so I dont always have to change CDs all the time etc. I was extremely annoyed when I found out that you cant play Copyrighted WMAs on the player, and as all WMAs are recorded from copyrighted CDs, that means basically that it cant play WMAs. This is stupid. Rio seemed to push the WMA capability so much, and yet it cant play 99% of WMA files. Its outrageous, stupefying, maddening, crazy and shockingly disgraceful. Needless to say, I wasnt happy. However, I soon discovered that the Real Jukebox software that comes with the player is excellent at ripping CD Audio into MP3s (although it wont rip WAV to MP3), so, after having a cool shower, I calmed down and converted all my CDs to MP3 format. I recorded at 96kbps and managed to squish 18 albums (250 MP3s) onto one CD-RW, which I was very impressed with. I can carry all my music around on two CD-RWs, great. I was also hesitant to buy the player because of some of the reviews on this site, complaining about poor sound output levels etc. This really is a load of rubbish because the sound can be turned up to louder than youd ever need without going deaf and subsequently begging for scraps of mouldy bread on the streets of London the rest of your life. Anyway. On to the real bad points. The wired remote is a pile of garbage. Pick it up and you feel as though youre going to break the thing, as if its a delicate little piece of doggy turd, precariously positioned underneath an elephant herd suspended over it using a piece of fishing wire and a roll of sticky tape. The central button is very hard to operate due to the one button having 4 operations, and its hard not to press it in the wrong direction, especially if you arent looking at the thing. If its not in view, who knows which way is which?. Its a bit suspect if you ask me. The carry case is also a pile of garbage. Throw it away as soon as you get the damn thing out the box because it is so poorly designed that the only holes in the case are for the player to fit in, and one for headphones and Lineout jacks. No space for the LCD and control buttons to poke through or anything like that. Its just ridiculous. Sony, Rio aint. But in general, the sound is very good quality, bass is excellent, the headphones are surprisingly good for "Supplied with goods" standards, the OSD is extremely simple to operate, firmware upgrades are easy to perform. Magic. Buy it from Amazon because youre likely to surrender a significant amount more money on the high street.