Home > Consumer Reviews > Rio Volt MP3 CD 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 CD's stored on my PC in WMA format so I don't always have to change CD's all the time etc. I was extremely annoyed when I found out that you can't play Copyrighted WMA's on the player, and as all WMA's are recorded from copyrighted CD's, that means basically that it can't play WMA's.
This is stupid. Rio seemed to push the WMA capability so much, and yet it can't play 99% of WMA files. It's outrageous, stupefying, maddening, crazy and shockingly disgraceful. Needless to say, I wasn't happy.
However, I soon discovered that the Real Jukebox software that comes with the player is excellent at ripping CD Audio into MP3's (although it won't rip WAV to MP3), so, after having a cool shower, I calmed down and converted all my CD's to MP3 format.
I recorded at 96kbps and managed to squish 18 albums (250 MP3's) onto one CD-RW, which I was very impressed with. I can carry all my music around on two CD-RW's, 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 you'd 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 you're going to break the thing, as if it's 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 it's hard not to press it in the wrong direction, especially if you aren't looking at the thing. If it's not in view, who knows which way is which?. It's 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. It's 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 you're likely to surrender a significant amount more money on the high street.

This is better than any Discman you could want.

For a start, it has a 15 hour battery life. Really! Because it plays MP3s, which are much smaller in size than CD tracks, it can load about 3 minutes of music into memory and stop spinning the CD. So it saves vast amounts of battery power, and runs for hours on end on the same batteries. I use it at least twice every day on my journeys to and from work, and one set of batteries last more than two weeks.

I have my whole CD collection on MP3 now, and each of my MP3 CDs has about 200 tracks on each, with up to 20 hours of music. It reads both CD-Rs and CD-RWs for maximum flexibility.

The Remote Control is limited compared to the snazzy ones you see on other players, but who cares? It's functional, and with the latest firmware upgrade, the Equalizer button can be configured to perform any of the tasks that the fascia buttons do.

The shock mechanism isn't great on 10 second ESP, and a brisk walk with it in my pocket causes it to skip occasionally. But with the 40 second ESP, you'd have to be in a John Woo action sequence to get it to skip.

Sound quality? Superb. The preset equalizer settings allow you to listen in whatever mood you desire, and if you don't like any of them, you can set your own (with the upgrade). I have my MP3 files recorded in VBR, and unless you're a hardcore audiophile, you won't be able to tell the difference between this and CD quality.

I have to stress that you need to get the latest firmware upgrade though. Not only did it iron out any niggles that I had when I first got it, but it allows support for Winamp playlists, which is invaluable.

If there are any criticisms, I would have to say don't buy this if you want to use it as a recording source, as if you connect the Line Out to an amplifier the sound is very low in volume and you have to turn up the amp. But for personal listening, it can go loud enough to annoy the hell out of your fellow commuters. Trust me. I know.

For personal use, it is an amazing little gadget and I would be lost without it. It is a superb piece of kit and I would readily recommend it. Bottom line: Got a CD writer? Like music? Get a RioVolt.

I have had this for 4 days and my first observations :

1) Downloaded the firmware upgrade straight away .

2)Headphones are ok . Remote isn't too shabby.

3)Used WMA format - it uses half the space of MP3 and sounds better.

4) 317 songs on one CD . I could have put 80MB more on the disk too.

5)Instructions aren't great but you can figure it out with the extra details on the cd.

6)Overall - it's a top player.

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 I've 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 MP3's 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.

after a lot of research into mp3 cd players I eventually decided on the rio volt, encouraged by the healthy reviews it had recieved. It was everything and more I was looking for...I was always a fan of portable cassette players because of size and convenience (recording your music to cassette, but the rio blows anything I've ever had out of the water completely, I can put up to 14 of my albums in mp3 format onto recordable cd sound quality is excellent, volume is great, and with the ability to read the winamp generated playlists (with latest firmware upgrade which is essential) the rio is head and shoulders above the rest. If you are in two minds don't worry it's definately all you would want. One thing is battery life , buy an AA battery recharger with four rechargeble batteries and battery life issues don't exist any more. I get around six hours random play on each set of rechargeables. (with alkeline much more).
I'm a huge music fan with around six hundred albums and the Rio has a place of honour in my house!
could the option to not include the "dancing things" in the next firmare upgrade be possible i wonder?? that way if you like them you can keep them.
The option to use the adapter is perfect for late night listening with no chance of bothering anyone else as the display can be left on....
excellent !!