Rio Chiba Street (256 MB) MP3 Player

Pros: Adequate storage capacity.
Cons: Clunky file transfer. Poorly designed playback feature. Battery door wears out.

If you listen to audio books or oldtime radio shows, or you enjoy playing songs in a specific sequence, there is a utility you should consider buying. An mp3 tag editor. Some mp3 players sort by alpha, or allow you to rearrange the sequence of mp3 ...

Pros: Small size, good battery life, FM tuner, decent amount of memory, nice UI.
Cons: Proprietary format/software, awful earbuds, cheap case construction.

[Note: after about two years of ownership I've finally broken this little gadget. Please see the comments for my final thoughts (October 2005); I've left the rest of this review as is.] This is my first Flash player, which I bought after two separate ...

Pros: Small, Light, Great sound, Great battery life, Lots of options, Rio Reputation
Cons: None

MY STORY Hard-drive MP3 players are becoming increasingly popular. Even with the “fantastic” “oh-so-sleek” “super slick” Apple iPod, the fact remains the same: Hard drive players are just too big to be used all that ...

Pros: Great sound, good size.
Cons: Horrible UI on pc software and Chiba player.

Update: Sorry, I just can't recommend this player. The pc software is just so terrible as to be total crap. Stay away from Rio until they fire their ui engineers and hire people who know what they are doing. I got a Rio Chiba with 256MB internal and ...

Pros: Small, lightweight, great sound, long battery life, expandable memory, easy to use
Cons: Flimsy belt clip

Okay this is going to be a cliffs notes review since I don’t have much experience with MP3 players so don’t ding me too bad. :) First of all, I won my Rio Chiba in a radio station contest. I probably would not have gone out and bought one of ...

Pros: decent FM tuner, good playback sound, expandable to 1.2 gig
Cons: Proprietary USB cable, so-so ear buds, included software sucks, somewhat cheaply made.

I paid $55 (inc shipping) for this, which is occasionally available, on woot.com. It think it is ok, but not much more. If you really want one wait for it to hit $40 or less on closeout sites.

If you are going to pay full price go for something that plugs directly into the USB port and does not require a special cable.

I was surprised but I do like and use the FM tuner.

The included software sucks but you do not really need it, any mp3 ogg software will probably work.

Poor construction alows the cover to separate from the unit letting lint from my pocket obscure the screen.

Pros: -Expansion slot -Long battery life -Small
Cons: -Radio reception is not too great

This is my second MP3 player, but definitely my better one. With 256 MB and an expansion slot, it can hold anything that I need. I like to use it for my talk shows, some music, and old radio shows.

The sound quality is very good as is the battery life. It also features a radio which is nice.

This is a good choice for an MP3 player.

Pros: It worked for three months. It's cheap.
Cons: Shoddy manufacturing, company is unwilling to assist.

I'd had my Rio Chiba 256 for exactly 102 days when the volume button stopped working. That's 12 days after the warranty expired.

I loved this thing for the three months but without being able to turn the volume down (can turn it UP but not DOWN) it has been rendered virtually useless.

I contacted the company who said SORRY warranty is up.

That's it. What a waste of $100. Don't buy it unless you're looking for a disposable player.

Pros: Great battery life, Easy to read LCD, Great capacity, and light...
Cons: none at this time.

I purchased my Rio Chiba back in December of 2003. I use the Rio Chiba everyday. Never have I experienced even the slightest problem with.

With its 256MB of space, there is enough from to fit between 50 and 75 songs or more depending the format you use. Rio even gives you the option of adding a memory card, to allow your Rio Chiba to hold at least 150 songs, more than enough to get you through the day. Whether its going to school, work, running, strength training, or whatever you may do, this is the one mp3 player that is light enough and portable enough to get you through the day.

A top choice among competitors, regardless of size or capacity.

Pros: size, weight, stop watch, belt clip
Cons: loose battery cover, the belt clips case head phone housing is too small

this mp3 met my needs because of it's unique look, long battery life, 3rd party support, and it's many extras.

first off this player looks kind of odd, not quite a rectangle, nor is it a circle. but i like odd things. the control is simple and logical, especially its main joystick controller. up to play, down to stop, and left/right for songs selection.

other thing this player has is long battery life. rio claims 18 hours, but i feel you'll probably get less if your planning on using expansion cards. but anything over 15 hours is acceptable.

the thing that bugged me was rio's software, it's really slow. so do yourself a favor and buy riorad exploror at http://www.redchairsoftware.com
this software will allow you to transfer multiple files at the same time. the rio software only transfers one file at a time.

another thing i liked about this unit was it's stop watch and belt clip. i tried the arm band thing, and i just wasn't for me the clip suit my needs better. however, i need to modify this clip's case so i can use my headphones.

but overall i liked this unit.

Pros: Small, light. Good built-in memory with expansion available through flash
Cons: Flimsy, poor belt clip, poor FM reception.

I thought that I was buying a quality product with quality support. However after 5 months of moderate use, the Chiba simply stopped working. Customer support informed me that my only option was to return it for repairs for $80. I paid 179 five months ago, and can now buy it for under $120.
This is my second Rio. I had a Rio 500 and that died some time ago with customer support being no help with constant software issues. This will be my last purchase from Rio.

Pros: Price, Sound quality, Easy plug-and-play
Cons: Terrible menu features and navigation

I have read a lot of reviews saying you have to install the proprietary software to transfer files to the Chiba, but it was plug and play easy for me. My OS is Win XP Pro, and all I had to do with plug it in and Windows auto-detected it as a USB hard drive with no problems at all. I filled the player with 50 songs so far without having to touch the included CD. Perhaps it's because I'm using Win XP Pro? Anyway, the player sound is ok, but I'm not impressed with the menu options. For one thing, all the other MP3 players I've used before allow you to delete songs directly from the player without a computer. So far, I haven't come across any option to do this. Selecting individual songs is a bigger pain! It's also a bit of an ugly unit. The price is fairly good, but the headphones are lousy quality even compared to my cheap $15 Sony headphones.