A Less Than Rave Review
Written: Jul 02 '01 (Updated Mar 03 '07)
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Pros: Good on batteries, works about half the time.
Cons: Far too many.
The Bottom Line: Buy something else.
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| Bruguru's Full Review: Rio Rave MP2050 MP3 Player |
Those of you who know me even a little bit know that I like to drink beer. Some of you may also know that I’m diabetic, and that the two do not mix very well. So how do I do it without sending my blood sugar skyrocketing through the roof? One key of course is moderation in the amount of beer I drink, but the most important factor in being able to retain the ability to have a beer now and again is exercise.
There are many different forms of exercise one can partake in, but I like to walk. Walking out in the fresh air doesn’t even seem like work, it’s just too much fun watching the cars and people go by and taking in the sunshine, green grass, and blue skies. I even make money at it, usually finding about 15 to 25 cents a day on the road, which makes my walks only marginally less profitable than writing 450 reviews for Epinions.
I walk about 4 to 6 miles just about every morning, and spending that much time walking, a good music player is of course a must. I have gone through my share of cassette players, radios, and lastly a portable CD player. But an MP3 player had been on my wish list for some time, and a little over a year ago I decided to buy one. The model I purchased was the Sensory Science Rave 2000 player, much to my regret. I didn't use the player on a daily basis during the first 30 days after purchase, during which time I could have returned it to the store. When I did use it, it seemed to work OK. Over the long haul however I have had lots of trouble with it.
Transfers from hard drive to player often fail, whether I use drag and drop or right click and use that transfer option. The clock will not hold the time, it never has for the year plus I’ve tried to get it to do so. Files are often merged or overwritten, and the software will suddenly display that 75MB are available on a 64MB card. Attempting to delete files from the software rather than the player often does not work. The headphone jack does not work well with many sets of headphones, including the pair of Sennheisers that came with the unit. These sound nice enough but they are the in ear type with no overhead band to keep them in, and they constantly fall out while I'm walking which is extremely annoying.
It is advertised that you can upgrade to 96MB of memory, but neither Best Buy (where I bought the player) nor CompUSA stocked this type of card (though it can be purchased from the company's website for about $100). The unit can also be used to record speech, though I’ve never used it for that. It is good on power
Tech support has been unhelpful and unprofessional. I never did return the player for repair, but rather I’ve been slugging along with it as best I can. There are too many problems here for me to write this unit off as a bad apple. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and Sensory Science has blown theirs with me. With many newer types of players on the market (including relatively inexpensive CD MP3 players), I’ll be shopping for a new one soon. It will definitely not be made by Sensory Science.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 239
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
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