LET ME HEAR THE BLUES
Written: Dec 15 '03 (Updated Aug 05 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent Sound, & Features, 64MB or add SD up to 1GB Memory Upgrades
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Sound is excellent! Carry your CDA, Mp3 and WMA with you anywhere to listen too!
|
|
|
| tipstir's Full Review: Rio S10 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
In this review I'll be covering RIO S10 64MB or 128MB for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems:
Windows 98 SE
Windows ME
Windows 2000 Professional"*"
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Professional"*"
Apple Mac OS
RIO S10 can also work Server OS even though not mentioned on the packaging or in the manual.
“*” means installed, tested, configured RIO S10 under those operating systems
I personally use RIO S10 with 64MB, and find it quite a joy to use anywhere like in the car, bike riding, at the office or hiking. It's small and lightweight and it's blue with a large circle display that has a blue glow backlight. This model which is a Club Pack comes with an extra memory card giving it a total of 96MB and real amount is 94MB free.
Even though it comes with the extra memory "MMC" type Multi-Media Card which is very tiny and AVG read / write seek times are 300kb per sec, still the RIO S10 can use "SD" Secured Digital which has higher read / write seek of 10mb per sec.
My personal thoughts about the RIO S10, which seems to be a hot deal right now, only 3 were left in the store when I had gone back the next to day to buy it.
Why did I buy the RIO S10?
It's one of those gizmo I don't have yet, plus my huge ever going MP3 collection is great for inside playback, but when it comes to the outside like driving in the car where I have everything there both CD and Dolby B Cassette Tape player, but the CD doesn't play MP3 and will take CD-R media. Which I do make but they can't only hold so much MP3 to CDA music on 1 CD-R 80m /700mb.
So I had idea! Why don't I buy this RIO S10 digital player and then download all the music, well some of the best tunes onto it then buy a CD (1/8 adaptor) to Cassette Tape Adapter for playing back anything digital in a car that doesn't have a CD or 1/8 adaptor input connector for either CD output or Mp3 Digital player output like Rio S10 has.
Updated Smart Tip: See my full review on CD Cassette Adapters like for Epinions SONY CPA-9C CD/MP3/MD to Cassette Adapter. Note not all adapters for the car cassette player are not the same and some offer better frequency response and filters while others don't.
Smart Tip: Get male to male stereo 1/8 connector ends adapter to connect directly into your home stereo system with 1/8 or use 1/8 male to left and right RCA audio output instead.
Smart Tip: Extract sound downloaded into Rio S10 from other sources you could use your laptop or PC desktop sound card input using 1/8 male to male connector and record use your PC Sound Recorder or other recording program.
Note: Some Car stereo have 1/8 input connector.
Well that's what I am doing it now! It's so cool to do it that way with the RIO S10 an again it's very tiny MP3 player which can play WMA "Windows Media Audio" and can play all the music that's stored in it continuously like a JUKE BOX.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE FEATURES
Extract CDA, MP3 and WMA Formats and upgradeable for future formats
64 MB Total Standards
32MB Add-on for Club Packs and Special Bundle"*"
Upgradeable to 576MB with 512MB "SD" or "MMC" Memory Card
Plays 1.5 hours worth of MP3 with 96MB
Plays 3 hours worth of WMA with 96MB
Can play up to 35 hours with 1 AA alkaline battery
Can also use NiMH (like rayovac 1800mAh or 2000mAh)
Large backlit display with Menu Mode Highlighted Options
USB 1.1 Connector
MENU
Playback (shuffles or repeats on/off)
DSP Equalizer (normal, rock, jazz, classical, pop, trance)
Bass and Treble
Bookmarks
Power
Resume
Language
Hold Mode
Contrast
Time
About
BUTTONS
On and off (not hard to use just a safety feature)
Enter (cycle through varies screens)
Play/Pause
Reverse and Fast Forward
Volume on the side / -
Menu
INPUTS
Multi-function port (USB, Stereo Earphones, Remote Control, CD-to-Car Cassette Adaptor)
CLIPS
Lanyard Holder (optional fasten cord)
PACKAGE ITEMS
1 - RIO S10 64MB MP3 / WMA Digital Player
1 - 32MB MMC Memory Card (bonus or club packs only)
1 - HQ Earphones for your eye lob type only
1 – Blue carrying case with belt clip
1 - Alkaline AA battery (no rechargeable only in S50)
1 - USB Cable
2 - CD Software / Drivers for (Windows OS) and (MAC OS)
1 - User Guide (more like a few sheets of folded paper)
INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
01. Open the back compartment
02. If you have the SD/"MMC" you need to insert that first
03. Now insert 1 AA alkaline battery or NiMH
04. Insert the CD into your PC CD
05. Install Rio Music Manager
06. Connect the USB Cable to your PC USB Connector
07. Connect the other end of your USB to the RIO S10
08. Turn on the RIO S10
09. Windows should detect new hardware
10. Direct Windows to your CD for the driver
11. Wait for new driver installation
12. You're ready to use your Rio S10 with Rio Music Manager
FINAL WORDS
The Rio Music Manager that comes with Rio S10 could be a bit better it’s very easy to use, but more like a Windows File Manager giving you access to your CDA, MP3 and WMA digital music files. The RMM does work very well Rio S10, you can transfer groups of songs or one at a time from any location partition, CDs, and other PCs on your network (just make sure you have them PC drive mapped first for them to show up in the Rio Music Manager).
RMM when connected to your Rio (by-the-way you have to turn on the Rio S10 before you enter the RMM software. The RMM will detect the Rio S10 and what available memory you have onboard and expandable memory SD or MMC Cards.
As I see it, I would need more memory for the Rio S10, 64 MB only around 15 to 18 songs can fit depending on the size of the songs also as for MP3, CDA more with WMA not by much.
Smart Tip: Mp3 files are huge are and what I have done is converted Mp3 to WMA which can save a lot of memory space on 64MB or pack 17 songs and 8 songs with 32MB.
On the MMC card around 8 with the 32MB showing as 30.6MB. As of today the prices for “SD” 64MB, 128MB, 256MB are not bad, the 512MB is still pricey hopefully go down soon, as SD will have 1GB coming out. I personally will buy the 128MB or 256MB and build up as I need the extra memory and update this review as I do.
The Rio S10 64MB has very good value for what you get, that is:
1. Very Fast Transfer even with MMC, Faster with SD
Memory Card
2. Sound Playback through head phones and home stereo systems is excellent, clear highs, tight bass and the overhaul sound spectrum is excellent. I am impressed with it.
Smart Tip: Press Menu button on the Rio S10 and change the Bass and Treble
3. Music Properties can be changed through the Rio Music Manager to be displayed on the Rio S10.
4. Rio S10 Display shows current time of day, track timer, time elapsed, remaining music time, track number total, Artist Album CD, repeat, shuffle, hold, battery, volume, and playback mode indicators and there is even a stopwatch mode.
Smart Tip: Rio S10 64MB is being replaced Rio S10 128MB (30 MP3 Songs) 2 Hrs Playing time, size and blue style of the S10 64MB.
Update: Aug 5th, 2004 If you own Rios S10, there is an firmware update for it.
Adds: Support MMC or SD 1GB
Adds: Play List, Larger Text View, Volume Control shows a long bar on display, Bass and Trebble have been extended to 14 max on the slide rule.
Adds: Save feature which is done automatically (Check when you save and X when you didn't save items.
And the new Rio Music Manager now sports a Windows XP interface, which takes a while to get use too. The new updates make transfering songs faster and can access the entire memory you have installed. To get good results you need to reformat the memory onboard and external SD or MMC.
Adds: Has cascade windows so you can view other drives or even network drives and folders. One big green arrow button to transfer files to the Rio S10. Can play, listen and transfer songs at the same time.
Today I did purchase PNY SD 128MB for $34.99 at Staples, prices are coming down the PNY SD is speedy. Newegg had 256MB for about the same price, but I had missed that deal. Now I had to remove the 32MB for 128MB (reads only 120MB) still I would get now 184MB to storge songs.
To help improve memory space you can use Microsoft free MP3 to WMA converter, that only problem it's slow going, there are other third party software online that will convert on the fly MP3 to WMA and you can pack your Rio S10 with more songs almost double for what you can fit with MP3.
Last Reviewed on 8 05 04, 11:54AM EST
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69.00
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tipstir
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Albert
Location: CT, USA
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Infrastructure Support Engineer
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.