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Need advice!!! Should I purchase a RioVolt 100 for $70? or something else? I need to decide soon!

E

Epsil0n00

Golden Member
I have a friend that is selling his RioVolt 100 for $70. He says that is in mint condition and hardly used. I need to replace my CD player (cause its 6 years old) and would love to have something to play MP3s. I am not considering a solidstate mp3 player cause they seem like they're pretty expensive for the small amount of storage space. I would love to get a HDD based MP3 player, like the iPod, but cannot afford it.

So... given all of that, I think that a CD based MP3 player is the best option for me right now. What is considered to be the best CD/MP3 player out there and how does the RIOVolt 100 compare? I need something that is easy to use, still plays standard CDs VERY well, and has good battery life.

Please let me know what you think, other good deals you've seen, or personal experience.
Thanks much!

Epsil0n00
😀 😀 😀
 
The only thing that appears to suck with regard to the Rios is that they can't play VBR-encoded MP3s. Might not be an issue at all with you, though.

HDD players sound nice in theory but it takes a long time to update their songs.

The iRiver SlimX looks to be the best. Theoretical battery life is 23 hours if you use the external battery contraption along with the internal rechargables. Sound quality is excellent as is MP3 navigation. It has a full LCD screen on its remote. They do VBR MP3s. The list goes on. $200 though.

A Rio 100 might be fine but $70 sounds a bit steep for a used model. 🙂
 
I like JellyBaby's suggestion. I have the SP100 and it's quite bulky. The anti-skip is not all that great, and battery life is not all that great either. However it does play MP3s fine, so that's the thing I like about it. The retail for one of those should be about $100-$120, so $70 for a used is not a great price.
 


<< what is VBR encoding for MP3s? I have never heard of that... please elaborate, now I'm interested. >>

Variable Bit Rate encoding basically matches the bit-size of each frame to the complexity of the music. Quiet frames may only need 32 bits to store all the information while complicated multi-instrument frames may need 256 bits or more. You end up with an MP3 that has the sound quality of a 256 bit encoding but taking up less space. It's the best method to encode if size matters to you.

The catch is only one encoder does a great job at VBR and that's LAME. Oh also encoding time is longer, too due to the complexity of the process. Check out this link for more info. IMO it's well worth it. I use EAC to rip, and LAME to encode to VBR.
 
I've heard Sony is making an MP3 CD player. It may already be out there.... I owned a sony discman for years before giving it to my then GF when I got my Rio. I've had my Rio for about a year now, and I'm fairly happy with it. I think I need to upgrade the firmware though. Anyway, I would look into the Sony player as they tend to make quality products.

If you can get your friend to part with his player for like $60 or $50, then you would be getting a steal.

Ryan
 
advice from a fellow NIN fan... can't say no to that.

The me that you know doesn't come around much.
That part of me isn't here anymore.

Thanks for the info... I'll check out Sony's line.
 
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