Rio Cali 256MB (Sport) MP3 Player

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.

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.