Introductions…
The Diamond Rio 600… A wonder of mans ingenuity, Sexy, elegant and highly sophisticated. This little beauty was one of the first in the Rio MP3 Revolution and with its endless array of options is it surprising that it was such a hit?
My personal experience…
I ... Read review
Advantages: Small compact, smart, tastey, and interchangeable covers make it personal. Disadvantages: Battery wares down extreamly quickly.
Introductions…
The Diamond Rio 600… A wonder of mans ingenuity, Sexy, elegant and highly sophisticated. This little beauty was one of the first in the Rio MP3 Revolution and with its endless array of options is it surprising that it was such a hit?
My personal experience…
I personally purchased a Rio 600 just over a year ago now, MP3’s had just started to become popular and the Rio 600 ... ...it look less complicated the Rio 600 works via an internal menu. In other words, you push the menu then scroll through the options much as you would on a mobile phone – See my op on the Nokia 3310.
The Features…
Ok, so lets have a look through the features the Rio 600. Firstly there is the main control button, located at the top of the Player, Controlling things such as the on/off control and the hold option. Yes ... more
Introductions… The Diamond Rio 600… A wonder of mans ingenuity, Sexy, elegant and highly sophisticated. This little beauty was one of the first in the Rio MP3 Revolution and with its endless array of options is it surprising that it was such a hit?
My personal experience… I personally purchased a Rio 600 just over a year ago now, MP3’s had just started to become popular and the Rio 600 was an advancement in technology rarely seen before. Whilst it appears simple, and by today’s advancements I suppose it is, it really is more than its appearance might lead you to believe. In order to make it look less complicated the Rio 600 works via an internal menu. In other words, you push the menu then scroll through the options much as you would on a mobile phone – See my op on the Nokia 3310.
The Features… Ok, so lets have a look through the features the Rio 600. Firstly there is the main control button, located at the top of the Player, Controlling things such as the on/off control and the hold option. Yes I no, this may sound basic, but this brings me nicely onto my favourite feature of the Rio 600. When the Player is switched on, as opposed to opening the play dialogue strait away, it shows you the Stats Menu – From this menu you can determine the amount of memory you have left on your Player, whether or not it has detected an extension (into the PC) and the full details of the Player. It then skips automatically to the next menu, the Battery level is displayed here in easy to read format. A percentage power is give, not to mention an illustration and an estimated playtime left. Other features include the easy to access Volume control; Play/Pause Button, Stop button and Next/previous track buttons.
The Main Display… Displayed at the top of the screen are the song details – things such as the song titles/ artist’s name/ song duration/ record label etc. In the centre the song Title is displayed in full screen. Below that is the information to do with the status of the player i.e. the track number, the volume, and the period of time for which the song has been playing.
The Menu… -AUDIO… This section is dedicated to making your music sound better. From this section you can select the style of music you are playing, depending on your selection the Rio 600 changes the way in which the music is played accordingly. You can choose from the following options – Normal, Jazz, Rock, Classic, Book, Rap, Flat, Custom. No, Book is not a mistake; you really can store digital Books on your Rio 600 MP3 Player. How unbelievable is that?!
-PLAYER From this menu the following things can be selected- -Play Options, From here you can choose to make your player play a song continuously or just repeat once, you could even set it to loop all the tracks. You can even have the Rio 600 play the tracks in a Random order to give you some variety. -Delete Tracks, Well this is pretty self-explanatory, a quick simple easy to understand way of removing unwanted Tracks. -Play list, Here you can create a play list, edit an existing play list, choose from a number of existing play lists or remove an unwanted Play list.
What is a Play list…? A play list is a group of songs put together by you in a specific order that is set for you to listen to.
-PREFS -Power Saving, here you can select the time it takes before The Rio 600 goes into sleep mode, you can set it to sleep after not being used from 1minute to 9 minutes. -Display, Here the Backlight options are featured. You can select the duration of time that the backlight is on for when a button is pressed. -Time/Date, Yes, your Rio even stores and keeps the exact time and date for you. Using this option you can change the time and date to fit in with things such as daylight savings.
-ABOUT This section tells you everything that the starting menu does, but you can take longer to view it and analyse its content.
Additional Features… I know, I know, your probably thinking yeah right, what other features could there possibly be, well this is a very unique venture in the music industry, but the Rio 600 offers the Option of Interchangeable front covers so you can change the look of your MP3 player when ever you feel like it without it costing the earth. This Gadget is shear brilliance.
Ease of use… The Rio 600 couldn’t be easier to use, it really is child’s play. I have never regretted for one minute purchasing it. Transferring songs to it couldn’t be easier as it comes complete with a full software Package “Rio Audio Manager 3” Everything can be accessed easily using that. The cable that also comes with the software can be plugged into the back of the PC via one of the USB Ports.
DC’s Final Thought… An excellent product with a 5 star rating, I believe the Rio 600 is available between £100 and £150 in most good electronics stores. With Regards to getting Music from the Net to your MP3 player I would suggest sites such as “http://www.audiogalaxy.com, http://www.kazaa.com or http://www.winmx.com.
Thanx for reading and I hope to hear from you soon, Regards, Desolate_Cash
Site Reference.. http://www.audiogalaxy.com http://www.kazza.com http://www.winmx.com http://www.rioport.com
Advantages: small, light, xcellent sound quality, great software, proven to work, upgradable memory Disadvantages: have to hunt down a good deal, gets a little shabby with age (only for the image conscience)
Having read some of the other reviews on this product I felt that I had to get a point across to other potential buyers. Many people seemed a bit miffed about the memory space on this item (32mb as standard). Well they have every right to be a bit miffed although I must defend this hardware. You see, I have a Rio600, yes just the basic model, but with 128mb of memory all for 95 pounds. How I hear you say. Well the secret is, as is for all technology, ... ...mine off of Amazon with the free 96mb because it had been out a while and customer reviews had filter through that there wasn't enough memory. And so special offers begin to show themselves as companies fear they will be left with a product that no one wants. Waiting also helps to make sure that you'll get a product with fewer software glitches which in this day and age is a good thing as often computer items and other things like this are usually ...
yahtonie 09.09.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Rio 600 64 MB
Advantages: Lovely looking, great features Disadvantages: One drop resulted in total failure
...we’ll get to the Diamond Rio 600 in just a moment – there are plenty of things you need to know first. So, MP3, what’s that all about eh? Basically, an MP3 (MPEG 3) file is a compressed version of an everyday song. An MP3 player (whether it’s a portable one or one installed on your PC such as Winamp or Windows media player) can read these special files and de-code them to play the music. Very clever and more importantly much ... ...player. The Diamond Rio 600 is on the whole a pretty wonderful little piece of kit and when I say little I am not joking. This thing is actually slightly smaller than a pack of cigarettes and it’s lighter than even some of the smallest mobile phones. This straight away makes it a portable option that’s even more convenient than a Walkman or a minidisc player. It acts like a Walkman, Discman or minidisc player too. There’s very little ...
MR.COATES 24.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Rio 600 64 MB
Advantages: Looks, Weight, battery length, sound quality, backlight. Disadvantages: Cost of memory, lack of in-built memory.
...had to say about the rio 600. With its sleek design and easily readable display in any light, the rio 600 is a strong contender in the ever growing market of mp3 players.
When i first heard about and saw the rio 600 i couldn't wait for it to be released in the uk. The rio 600 is the first mp3 player i have bought, and even though the record companies have banned napster from allowing people to file share, there is still a growing number of mp3's ... ...adds extra features to the rio and allows it to play more file types. With the rio you can set it to random, continuous, program a playlist, and all the usual things you would expect to find. You are also able to adjust both the treble and the bass. With a fast file transfer from PC to mp3 player you won't be left waiting around for songs to transfer! It roughly takes only 5-10 secs per song to upload onto the mp3 player! The Rio 600 is connected ...
TomDi 28.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Rio 600 64 MB
Advantages: Good looking long history of quality players Disadvantages: Breaks often ?
...that’s write my nice new RIO is broken again. Well that’s what I was saying a couple of months ago. I bought the player from Dixons (rem: to take out the insurance) it worked well infact brill, love mountain biking (CHECK OUT MY REVIEWS) and the player enjoyed the hills, I’m an avid climber and it worked well taped to my arm strap when climbing.
As you can see I put my player through a lot of crap (literally in the case of mountain ... ...if I fall off it could be in pieces and costing as much as it did I thought I’d better be able to replace it. Having had no crashes and no falls while climbing (I only bolder, not the cliff thing), I’ve still had the player fail twice, once I think it was the ear phone piece that went the other was a complete nack- the screen just went blank and complete stop. I was glad I had insurance! After the second time and been a bit mif’t ...
Eatcha 27.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Rio 600 64 MB
Advantages: Great sound, superb headphones, ease of use. Disadvantages: Memory, could be bigger at outset.
...the mp3 player the "DIAMOND RIO 600" has taken me by complete surprise. It is a technology that I have wanted for a while worth the wait, I should say so.
The ease of use of this mid range mp3 player (£149 - £169) has to be experienced to be believed. It is very light and ergonomically designed, it has a simple LCD (Backlit) display and although has only 32 Mb Flash memory, this can be extended, initially to 64 Mb and then to 372 Mb. Which in layman's ... ...there.
Other things: The Rio 600 has been designed so that you can of course extend the memory, but that is not all it has been designed to play MP3 and WMA but you will be able to upgrade to other formats as and when they are contrived/released.
Disadvantages:
Well its the memory size, if you are PC literate you will know that it is the most expensive thing to buy, so the cost of the backpack to extend to 64 MB music storage or 2 hrs of music ...
clanmac4 28.12.2000 (24.01.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Rio 600 64 MB
Battery level indication, hold button, bass & treble control, pause function, digital volume control
Tone Control
Yes
Equaliser
Equalizer Type
Digital graphic
Equaliser Factory Preset Qty
7
Equaliser User Preset Qty
1
Equaliser Factory Presets
Normal, Book, Rap, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Flat
Digital player (recorder)
Supported Digital Audio Standards
WMA, MP3
ID3 Tags Support
Built-in
Playback Modes
Skip playback, repeat all, random play / shuffle, one track repeat, A-B repeat, skip playback, repeat all, random play / shuffle, one track repeat
Edit Functions
Erase
Supported Bit Rate
16 - 320Kbps
Response Bandwidth
20 - 20000 Hz
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
95 dB
Features
PC Connection via USB
Headphones
Headphones Type
Headphones - binaural - over-the-ear
Connectivity Technology
Wired
Sound Output Mode
Stereo
Connections
Connector Type
1 x headphones ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
1 x USB, 1 x headphones / remote control ( mini-phone 3.5mm )
1 x USB
System requirements
OS Required
Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 2000
Min Processor Type
Intel Pentium
Min Processor Speed
166 MHz
Min RAM Size
32 MB
Min Hard Drive Space
35 MB
Peripheral / Interface Devices
USB port
Manufacturer's product description
Rio shatters the personal sound barrier with customizable features and high-end audio you simply cannot get anywhere else! Capture and playback up to 1 hour of digital-quality music from the Internet or your CDs. Seize your audio, master your mix, retool your memory, even select your faceplate color - it's radical freedom of choice. Rio 600 supports the dominant audio formats like MP3 and Windows Media, and can be upgraded to emerging digital standards so you can keep your Rio up-to-date. It holds 1 hour of digital quality music (32MB) or 16 hours of spoken word. Rio 600 features the following play modes: repeat one track, all tracks, or random play. Rio 600 has no moving parts so you can take the Rio anywhere and it'll never skip a beat. Featherweight ergonomic design and large, easy-to-read LCD make it perfect for extreme listening activities.
