2 NEW MODELS of the Rio Volt!

[gsaldivar]

The $179 RioVolt SP250 comes with an FM tuner, rechargeable batteries and enough memory to store up to eight minutes of audio to protect against skipping.

The $99 RioVolt SP90 has up to 120 seconds of audio protection and runs on two AA batteries.

They both play CDs burned with up to 350 digital-audio files, or 20 hours' worth of material.

LINK

LINK

 

[Daniel]

The higher end one looks very cool, fm radio and 8 min skip, whee.

 

[Soccerman]

yes, the SP250 and SP90.

I've been doing quite a bit of research on MP3 CD players recently (debating on fixing a broken one), and there's info you need to know!

first of all, it is suspected (not totally proven though) that both of these models will not be firmware upgradeable like the SP100 (the original RioVolt). There are good economic reasons for SONICBlue to do this, but that affects us consumers.

The Original RioVolt had one product that competed with it (though it was released after the RioVolt) very well, but due to continued firmware support, the RioVolt gradually beat out the competing product (I believe it was the Mojo, which had 8 minutes of Anti Skip), becuase of the upgradeable firmware advantage.

The RioVolt hardware was nearly identical (except the cover's styling) to a product called the iRiver iMP-100. iRiver actually creates the guts and cases for both the SP100 and iMP-100 as well as firmware that is compatable (incidentally becuase SONICBlue never bothered to stop compatability). SONICBlue uses these firmware updates as a basis for their own, often adding bugs (unintentionally we hope) in them.

The RioVolt SP250 is again, identical with an iRiver model, which was released recently (I don't know the exact date), the iMP-250. Unfortunately, the SP250 does NOT include at least 2 features of the iMP-250: the upgradeable firmware (the iMP-250 has one), and an LCD display on the Remote.

So, if buying an MP3-CD player now, I recommend a RioVolt (SP100, which will continue to have at least the potential for firmware updates from SONICBlue, let alone iRiver), or an iRiver iMP-250, if you want continued Firmware support (and an LCD display probably about as good as the original RioVolt on the remote in the case of the iMP-250).

There is another potential for people wanting an alternative (the iRiver iMP-250 so far is only findeable at places like www.greycommerce.com which ship overseas products, and potentially at iRiver's website, though not likely), and that is an MP3-CD player made by Sony (I don't remember the model ##) which is due to release in the USA within a month or so.

PM me for a bit more info, and links to this info.

 

[gsaldivar]

"...The SP250 ... sports a long list of new features including: The ability to support firmware upgrades (by downloading and burning to CD, then installing from there) ..." Link

No indication is given if the "90" model is firmware upgradable, though.

 

[Soccerman]

oop!

well it appears that being out of date for a day will kill you on the net (I was up to date as of yesterday on this situation).

hmm.. it appears they're releasing the LCD remote as an accessory.. I wonder about firmware compatability with iRiver though (though that's less of an issue if SONICBlue does ok on firmware updates, I'm still worried about using SONICBlue's 2.01 and better firmware due to reported bugs).