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Rio Audio has come up with the Carbon model. And I bought one.
When I went to look for an MP3 player, I had three priorities in mind.
Firstly it had to have a decent storage capacity.
The Rio Carbon has a 5Gb hard drive, which is capable of accepting in the region of 2500 songs compressed ... Read review
Advantages: Size, capacity, ease of use Disadvantages: Not a 'trendy' i-Pod
...i-Pod, but better.
Rio Audio has come up with the Carbon model. And I bought one.
When I went to look for an MP3 player, I had three priorities in mind.
Firstly it had to have a decent storage capacity.
The Rio Carbon has a 5Gb hard drive, which is capable of accepting in the region of 2500 songs compressed via WMA (or about 1250 at MP3). This sounds a lot, and in reality it is a lot, but don't go expecting to ... ...which, by far, was the Rio Carbon.
Its size is about 3 inches 'square' and about half and inch deep, which is big enough to notice when you put it in the palm of your hand, but small enough to put in just about any pocket without causing problems. And I say 'square' as an example only. The machine is actually tapered on all sides, which gives it an elegant and sophisticated appearance, something that is woefully lacking in all the other players ... more
For the past few years, Apple has worked ferociously on its i-Pod range, bring out more models than you can shake a stick at. This has left then with a near monopoly on the MP3 player market, aided in no small part by their i-Tunes website, which is often lauded as the best music download site on the net, only being compatible with the aforementioned i-Pod. And I am sure that many people have bought an i-Pod on the strength of this alone. But the truth is, that there are more and more websites coming on to the market that will allow the use of more and more brands of MP3 player. This, in itself, should be enough to threaten the position of Apple in this market, were it not for the fact that the i-Pod has become more a fashion accessory than a music machine. This is a difficult situation for any manufacturer to combat, so a new machine needs to be not only as good as the i-Pod, but better. Rio Audio has come up with the Carbon model. And I bought one. When I went to look for an MP3 player, I had three priorities in mind.
Firstly it had to have a decent storage capacity. The Rio Carbon has a 5Gb hard drive, which is capable of accepting in the region of 2500 songs compressed via WMA (or about 1250 at MP3). This sounds a lot, and in reality it is a lot, but don't go expecting to get that many on the hard drive. In fact, what most of the literature on these machines seems to include in flea-sized print is that these capacity figures are for songs of approximately 4 minutes in length at 128kbps. You can increase the number by having shorter songs, or using a faster recording speed. So if you particularly like classical symphonies, don't expect to be able to get thousands of them on any player. So far, I have downloaded 205 songs onto the Carbon, and have used 796Mb of drive space, so these figures do tend to work out.
Secondly, it had to be easy to carry. One of the main things that put me off the i-Pod was the size and shape. Admittedly it hardly compares to the bulk of the old Sony walkmans of 20 years ago, but you still couldn't put it in you jeans' pocket and sit comfortably on the bus for long periods. I looked at some players which were barely bigger than a pen top, and almost bought one of them, but mostly they failed on my first criteria. The few that didn't seem so small that it would be too easy to drop them and not notice. That left about three real contenders, the nicest of which, by far, was the Rio Carbon. Its size is about 3 inches 'square' and about half and inch deep, which is big enough to notice when you put it in the palm of your hand, but small enough to put in just about any pocket without causing problems. And I say 'square' as an example only. The machine is actually tapered on all sides, which gives it an elegant and sophisticated appearance, something that is woefully lacking in all the other players on the market at the moment.
Finally, my other criteria for buying an MP3 player was easy of use. On this score, most of the players in the shops seem very much the same when it comes to ease of download. All seem to use USB 2.0 connectivity, which gives a really good transfer speed, and the Carbon even allows you to charge the batteries via a USB port. The Rio Carbon comes with the added bonus of having its own music manager software, which is absolutely excellent and so simple to use that even a dullard like me can master it within a few goes. And, of course, the Rio Carbon also accepts downloads via Windows Media Player, although I haven't needed to use this facility, so good is the music manager. The other main reason for using this facility is the synchronisation aspect which allows you to choose all, or some of your music collection to download from you computer and recognises whether you already have the song on the player, preventing duplication. As for the player itself, the buttons are kept to a minimum by multitasking them with the Menu facility. The volume control is a small wheel along the top edge of the machine which also doubles as a scroll wheel when in menu mode. In menu mode, the player allows you to choose what tracks you play based upon artist, album, genre and playlists. Of course, you can also choose to just play all the songs, and it even allows you to randomise this if you so wish. The Carbon's menu also allows you to change the graphic equaliser for a better sound, should you want to, with presets and an equaliser-off setting to help. Not that anyone other than the serious music officianado would complain at the sound that comes from the machine in the first place which is comparable to most small music players. On top of all this, there are options for Bookmarks, voice memoing etc that the real technophiles will find very amusing.
Other things you might want to know about the Carbon are:-
It is Windows and Mac compatible. I use Windows myself and had absolutely no problem installing the software on my computer.
The battery is internal, which could be a problem if you go on extra-long journeys, but with a play-life of around 20 hours, it should be sufficient for a plane flight to Hong Kong, let alone a commute into work in the morning.
The charger for the machine comes in the box and is a little different from the norm. It actually comes as two parts. There is the main charger body, and the prongs to turn it into a plug. And there are three sets of these prong supplied (UK, Europe, US) which I thought was a very thoughtful touch by Rio, considering this is a machine which is made for travel.
You also get a USB-FireWire cable which is used for downloading and charging, and a pouch to put the machine in to prevent knocks and scratches.
PROBLEMS There are two main gripes that I have found with the machine. Firstly, the pouch mentioned above is hopeless. I would much prefer to have a proper carry case for my player, and am in the process of looking for one.
Secondly, as appears the trend nowadays, there are no written instructions in the box. The supplied software CD does have a very comprehensive and easy to understand manual, in PDF format, that you can print out, but would it be asking too much of manufacturers of this type of goods to include at least the basics of how to get started in a paper document.
VERDICT The Rio Carbon 5Gb music player is a versatile, easy to use machine, which mixes good looks with functionality. At around £130 it fits nicely in its own niche, with very few direct contenders at the moment. With the right sort of publicity and recommendation, this machine could very easily make in-roads into the Apple monopoly.
Advantages: It's not an ipod Disadvantages: it's not an ipod
...music is easy with the Rio Music Manager. (supplied)This programme allows you to set the music genre etc with a whole list of them, 98% of which I've never even heard of! (What the hell is NEGERPUNK?Sweetcorn Dub? It must be my age.) When playing music you can then select to play music by artist, album, genre or playlist. So plenty of ways to decide what to listen to. You can also use windows explorer to transfer your music, but this is less flexible ... ...amount of time, sorry no facts and figures to give you, but it's short enough to not bother me. (I have the attention span of a goldfish so if it took too long I'd be pacing up and down! ) I tend to download my music whilst doing other stuff on the internet.
I use Roxio Creative CD to convert my music CD's to MP3 and find that even at its best compression setting the sound is great. This is helped by the graphic equaliser on the player which has ...
dave8999 14.09.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Rio Carbon 5 GB
Advantages: Great player. Large hard disk and small physical size. Great battery life Disadvantages: wider than most. Bad case, and no other third party cases. Back scratches easily.
I bought this for £129.99 from amazon.co.uk. It is an excellent player, with many great functions. I have not tested the audible playback, but it cannot be faulted for mp3 playback. It will play both VBR and CBR mp3's and WMA's, although my music collection is only MP3s. As it is registered in windows as a removable hard disk automatically, and mp3 files can be dragged and dropped into the player, unlike either the ipod or the micro, this player ... ...allows it to work with many digital camera leads etc, and so when your travelling you can put your entire MP3 collection on here and share it with others without a CD with drivers (the Ipod is notoriously hard to get music off if your computer loses its data.
Compared to the 2nd gen ipod mini (owned by my sister) this player is both smaller and lighter. It has a small scroll wheel for control, and although the interface isn't as polished as the ...
leoedin 10.07.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rio Carbon 5 GB
Advantages: Small, slim, compact, 20 hr battery life, 5GB memory, price... the list is endless... Disadvantages: Perhaps not as durable as it could be.
...believe nobody has reviewed the rio carbon yet. Is it some kind of hidden gem? I purchased mine a couple of months ago and it's my baby! I love it to pieces and it's great to have an mp3 player which the whole world doesn't own... In other words it's not an ipod... I really don't understand why anybody would chose an ipod over it... It's miles better.
So why is the rio carbon possibly the best mp3 player in the world? Well for starters it has a ... ...mp3 players, great if like me you enjoy a bit of travelling and don't want to have to charge it every five seconds. Also it's much smaller than other mp3s, it's so slim and easy to handle. There's a scroll button for easily locating your fave tracks and a button which takes you to the menu... what more could you need. It's so easy to use it couldn't possibly be better designed. There's also a very useful lock function.
Then there's the memory and ...
K_a_t_y 04.07.2005 (05.07.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rio Carbon 5 GB
Advantages: easy to use, looks good, good value for size + memory, great battery life, nice leather case + earphones Disadvantages: none
...but she now wants a Rio after borrowing mine for the day! Battery life is really excellent and is still at 20 hours even after 6 months regular use ( ive heard ipods lose their batter life quite quickly)
overall i think it is excellent value for money and well worth considering as an alternative to an Ipod. ...
susan-a 21.12.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rio Carbon 5 GB
Advantages: slim, compact, stylish, easy to use and plenty memory Disadvantages: none that I have come across yet
I received this MP3 player for christmas, and I have to say I think it is fabulous. It is very compact and so easy to use.
Contained in the box is your player, USB cable for downloading, software to manage your library, battery charger, carrying case, ear phones and even adapters for Europe and America for the charger.
The menu is so simple to use, you can search by artist, album, track, year or even genre of music or simply play all of your tracks.
... ...handy for little messages as reminders. There is a stopwatch and a section which tells you how much memory you have used. I currently have 39 tracks on my player and have only used 191 MB of 4769, so you can see the capacity it has to hold a vast library.
The rechargeable batteries also have a long life, with upto 20 hours playback between charges.
The music manager software is very easy to use, you only need to drag and drop.
As this is my first ...
sandy180 28.12.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rio Carbon 5 GB
Sound Quality
Ease of Use
Look & Design
Range of Features
Value for Money
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Advantages: Small, light, faily durable, large capacity considering the size and has an intuitive and easy-to-use menu system Disadvantages: Danger of screen damage, small screen
As with all mp3 players with capacities over 5gb, the RioCarbon will inevitably be compared to its more popular counterpart, the Ipod Mini. Having owned both, i have to say that there is absolutely no doubt as to which player should come out on top. The Carbon is smaller, lighter, more robust, easier to use and in my opinion, contrary to the millions of fashionable accessorizers out there, far more stylish. Not to mention the obvious price difference.
Starting with the outward look of the thing, only its relatively unknown brand could possibly be sniffed at. The design is both sleek and practical with a rubber shock absorber around the edge, a volume wheel on the corner (ridiculously useful when the player is in your pocket and can be used to scroll faster through the menus), the headphone and USB connections on the top ...
Advantages: Added Extras, Great Price, Good Storage Space Disadvantages: Radio is a little crackely, but this is nothing too serious
I have owned my Samsung YH-920 since October 2004. Originally I bought a 20GB Ipod and it was dead on arival, I exchanged it for another Ipod and again it broke within 10 days of owning it. This little gem was on offer at the time for the amazing price of £179, and absolute bargain compared to the £219 I paid for my Ipod of exactly the same size. Plus the fact that the Samsung came with a case, docking station, radio and remote control all extras the Ipod comes without.
The silver interface, with white sides. A large LCD screen and a square button in the centre to navigate. The look is fairly simple, but not quite as boring as the Ipod.
ADVANTAGES:-
1. What a bargain, compaired to other Mp3 players of the same price range (Ipod Mini, Zen Micro, RioCarbon) i got 20 GB of storage instead of 4 or 5GB, can't go wrong!
2 ...
Playlist, random play / shuffle, all tracks repeat, one track repeat
External Hard Drive Function
Built-in
Headphones
Headphones Type
Headphones - binaural - ear-bud
Connectivity Technology
Wired
Sound Output Mode
Stereo
Connections
Connector Type
1 x headphones ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
1 x USB
1 x DC power input
System requirements
OS Required
Apple MacOS X 10.2 or later, Microsoft Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP
Peripheral / Interface Devices
CD-ROM, USB port
System Requirements Details
Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP - Pentium II - 233 MHz - RAM 64 MB - HD 35 MB
Manufacturer's product description
The Rio Carbon 5GB is the next generation compact player with power and performance. Rio Carbon 5GB is perfect for the music lover with a few hundred CDs or someone starting out their digital audio collection who wants room to grow. The ultra slim design goes anywhere, and its superb battery life of up to 20 hours continues long after mini-powered players have died. With it's built-in voice memo recorder you can quickly capture your thoughts and organize your ideas. And like all Rio players, the Rio Carbon uses simple menus and intuitive controls for easy one-handed operation. In the box with your Carbon is a USB cable for downloading music as well as battery charging from your computer. Also included is an AC power adapter and carrying case.
