Home > Consumer Reviews > RioVolt SP150 CD/MP3 Player

After doing my extensive research ,(as I usually do before purchasing a product)I came to the conclusion that buying this product may be a bargain. Many people rated this product very poorly and i really cannot seem to understand why. I purchased my product [online]and only paid $...after a...rebate - an EXCELLENT price (rebate available until 6/30/03). And so I was willing to take the gamble. I was looking for an mp3/CD player and i know I made the right decision. The RioVolt has extremely good skip protection and every variable can be tweaked to your satisfaction: Treble,Bass,ID3,scrollspeed,backlight time,traks,skip. First and foremost this product has Extremely good sound especially with the in-box earbuds. the player has unique features such as ID3 tags, which display ON SCREEN title, track, time, artist, album. It is really great. There is also a battery indicator w/ 3 levels. The weight is very little, the player is sleek and stylish as well. I am yet to have a single problem with any of the features of this player. I use it everyday with Rechargeable 2AA batteries (recommended). Now days it seems that one NEEDS an mp3 player, my CD-Rs, 700MB hold no less than 200songs about 5-6MB each. I have put maximum usage on my player (i'm a teenager) music all day long!
OKAY FEATURES (IF ANY):
Resume feature - only returns to last listened track not exact second.
NO AC ADAPTER included - i have one (4.5V) myself, so it wasn't that big a problem.
NO Remote - not a necessity but would be nice to have.
NO Upgradeable firmware/drivers...YET - In depth User manual, drivers, ID3 changer (excellent software) all available [online]... a great player, great value...

A decent design, but the oval display window cuts off some part of the outter characters. The volume on this thing is HORRIBLE. At the maximum of 40, you barely get just enough volume for a quiet room. Again, signature of Sonicblue, the claimed 15 hrs of battery life is NOT attainable with normal use. Build quality is actually decent, but the joystick key is really [bad]. The down arrow key doesn't work very well, i have to press it soo hard to activate, so hard that i am afraid i might punch through the circuit board underneath it. I think sonicblue's sp100 unit is the only one I like... everything else is just downhill from there...

My Sony Discman had broken after 3 yrs of hard labor and i was looking for a new cd player but this time i wanted one with the capability to play Mp3's. I was looking at the Sony Mp3/ CD players because of the luck I had had with them before, but they did not seem like anything special so I thought that I would give another brand a try. Reading articles on the internet I noticed that many of them mentioned the quality put into Rio's Mp3 only units and thought that the quality in these units would be no different. When I started reading reviews about this player I became worried because of the bad reviews but then I found out about the rebate and was sold. The Rio SP150 comes packed with many features such as ID3 tags, backlighting, 16 minute anti-skip protection, a great equalizer, and the ability to remember what song you were listening to before you turned off the player. The SP150 also has amazingly good sound for the price, although to achieve maximum sound qualty I suggest that you replace the in-box earbuds with a higher quality pair of headphones. Another great feature of this player is the equalizer. Depending on which type of music you are listening to you can adjust the treble and bass to give you the best music listening expirience possible. All in all I think this player is an amazing value and I have had this unit for 6 months now and have not expirienced any of the problems other people have been having such as the incapablity of playing Mp3's, scrambled mixes of letters coming across the screen, and errors in reading the amount of tracks on the disc. ...

I bought this item about 2 weeks ago and the sp90 and i find this to be better than the sp90 for 3 reasons. the backlit display the option to get the upgradedable firmware and the optional remote. i would sugest this product to anyone for someone who wants simplicity without getting lost in the ocean of products there is right now.

If you read all the reviews (like i did) and also purchased one of these (like I did) you will figure out the simple truth about this player.

Either you buy it and it works (and works very very well), or you buy it and it is defective. Hence the reason for the disparity in the reviews.

Mine luckily works very well and the features are very good (make sure to download the manual, becuase there are ALOT more features, like the equalizer, that are not in the included quick start guide).

This player is a bargain if you do your homework and shop around and wait for a decent rebate. Also make sure to buy it from a place where you can return it, in case you get a defective one. (Also, obviously don't send your rebate in until you decide to keep it, since it requires the original UPC code.)

It is a nice player with nice sound and a easy way to add MP3 WMA capabilities to your Car (assuming you already own a car kit...heck, don't we all by now 8-)

Anyway with some reasearch you should be getting this for about a Jackson after all is said and done.