Home > Consumer Reviews > Rio Cali 256MB (Sport) MP3 Player

First, the good news: the Rio Cali has some excellent advantages over the other mp3 players I looked at. First, it’s the only one rugged enough for sports (I take mine snowboarding and jogging), the yellow and black design intentionally recalling the old Sony Sportsman, I think. The arm band and belt clip give you a number of options for carrying it, and both work fine. Also, it’s tiny and light and slips easily into your pocket.

The player is extremely easy to use with loads of great features. The simple joy stick; the language options; a fully adjustable graphic equalizer (a must for me); date, time, and radio options for Europe, Japan, and the US (I travel to all 3 a lot). The radio is a big selling point, with 8 presets. One surprise feature I love is an “adjustable” key guard lock: you can lock the power button and joystick, but keep the volume free for adjusting. This is just great! Add to that that the volume up/down buttons are different sizes and shape with a raised “plus” sign on the volume up, so you can feel which is which in your pocket. A lot of good thought went into the design.

The screen is big and easy to see with lots of nice information, and there’re plenty of options for timing its illumination, and also a power-save auto-off feature.

The biggest selling point is its expandability: you can slip up to a 512MB SD memory card in there to make room for a couple hundred more songs. Never mind that the card will cost more than the player.

The software it comes with is well organized, intuitive, and easy to use, or you can use Windows Media Player, take your pick.

Now the bad news: first, file organization is a little poor. A folder system would be nice. Instead, you get play lists (which, if you add a whole album to, the songs get alphabetized and thus out of order) or bookmarks. Bookmarks would be great, except you can’t name them. You have to remember what was bookmark 1, 2, etc. Perhaps they can fix this with a firmware update (which is updatable from their website).

Lastly, and most importantly is the sound: there was a lot of “operational noise” when a song was playing – this had nothing to do with the quality of the sound file, but came from the player. The sound was also a bit flat and tinny – very disappointing. I took it back to the store and exchanged it for a new one, but had the same problem as the first. The other features made it nice enough for me to keep, but especially on quiet songs, I was annoyed. Then I tried some higher quality headphones to check if that was the problem, and indeed it was – with better headphones, the sound was crystal clear, the tones rich, and the equalizer even more effective without any tinniness.

SO. For the price it can’t be beat, especially if you’re using it for sports as it was intended, or for travel. But to get it up to snuff with the more expensive players out there, you’re going to have to invest in better headphones for sure (good quality, say 50 bucks minimum) if you want to appreciate digital clarity in all its glory, and the SD card (another 150 for 512MB) if you’re lazy about swapping out songs. With the upgrade, I’m completely satisfied aside from the bookmarks/folder issue, which could conceivably be solved with software in the future. Still a delight to use straight out of the box if the little whine in the background on quiet songs doesn’t bother you too much. Recommended.

I had read the other reviews and was a little concerned about the comfort of the headphones. However, they are great - very comfortable and stable and give a perfectly clear performance without the wearer having to worry about them falling out, as I have experienced with those stupid things you have to practically force into your ear only to feel them gradually easing their way back out during your favourite tunes. I even found the downloading straightforward which was something for a technological retard like myself. Best of all, the price was the cheapest on-line, after Amazon reduced it following feedback from other sites, and the delivery was up to Amazon's usual faultless standard.

As usual had the excellent delivery from Amazon within 3 days and I was up and running with this very easy to use player within an hour or so.
The radio was a feature for me however reception on the move is not particularly good, but adequate if you are still. This is one reason for not giving a 5 star status.

The battery life is very good around 14 hours with Duracell and the space is around what it state I have between 3 and 4 albums (around 4 hours)on the kit and you always have the option to increase the space with another card. Have not quite figured out the WMA and 8 hour capacity yet!

Sound is impressive but what previous reviewers have stated is correct, there is an audible buzz through the headphones and I think it is a compatability issue with them. Have tried some borrowed Senheiser phones and they were fine. So if you are after high quality and listen to soft Jazz or quieter type music you need to think about an extra cost in upgrading the headphones.

The big selling point though is this unit is so small, light and surprisingly robust it is just ideal for jogging, cycling or working out in the gym. Arm band is secure and comfortable if required. Very easy to use and quick to exchange tracks so the relatively low memory is only an issue if you are going on holiday say.

Would recommend this bit of kit to anyone who likes to listen to music on the move.

Well after spending more than a year going to the gym, I was getting really fed up listening to dross by Justin Timberlake and others on MTV. Then I stumbled upon the Rio Cali, which has really changed things for the better. It’s really easy to use and I bought a 512SD card, which means the player can hold approximately 180 songs (MP3 format). Like other reviews have said, the headphones are not the best, so I would advise you buy Sony MDR-EX71SLB earphones, which have a short lead that fits perfectly with the player when you have it on your arm (the earphones also have an extension that allow you to place it on your hip or where ever). The sound that comes out of the player is fantastic and well worth the extra money.

NOTE: The software that comes with the Cali is pretty easy to use and you can create playlists (just like folders on your PC) that allow you to store the songs in any order you wish, but there is one BIG PROBLEM. The software that comes with the player is out of date. When you install it, it automatically checks for any new updates, but mine came back and said there was no new updates. With this version of the software I also had the problem of not being able sort the songs on the playlists that way that I wanted. I checked www.rioaudio.com and found that there was a newer version of the software that could be installed and once I installed the newer version I could order the playlists any way I desired.
The only negative aspect of the player is the FM radio. I live in Newcastle and have found the FM radio to be quite poor; I get a much better reception on my Nokia mobile. This is not really a problem though as most FM stations play the same rubbish as MTV!

Perfect shape/size, great menu, decent FM radio reception and the sound quality is excellent (though I’m using a set of Philips earphones).
And for those of you who thought the ‘sports’ model was only for runners, skaters or fitness freaks - don’t worry you can also listen to it just as effectively walking and sitting down…
I’m using Windows Media 9.0 to manage my songs – this has all the functionality I need. To sum up – looking for a fool-proof, good value expandable MP3/WMA player? Then look no further.