Hey im Rich, a student from southampton. Main interests are computers aaaaand metal \m/.
Thats me ...
Hey im Rich, a student from southampton. Main interests are computers aaaaand metal \m/.
Thats me pretty much summed up right there - lazy student, pokes computers by day, goes to gigs by night. Sometimes i work but only when its absolutely necessary.
Member since:03.09.2006
Reviews:4
Members who trust:2
As with all mp3 players with capacities over 5gb, the Rio Carbon 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 and the screen and control placed simply, logicaly and clearly marked. Gone is the fiddly little joystick of previous Rio models, replaced by a standard but far more effective button layout consisting of the usual play/pause, stop, skip and select commandswith the addition of a menu button on the side of the player. It is also relevant perhaps to mention that this is far simpler than the ipods 'Touch Pad', which is more for novelty value than practicality.
The screen is backlit in pale white, and while playing manages to display the volume, the play back settings (repeat, shuffle etc.), the artist, album, track title, the file format, bitrate, size and even a progress bar all at the same time without seeming cluttered or over-complicated. Although the writing on the smaller details is a bit small and may not be recomended for older users.
I am a big fan of the menu system, after having had numerous players with confusing ways of sorting your music. After you disconnect the Carbon from your PC, you can watch the onscreen progress bar as the player organises your music and builds up a library based on each tracks ID3 tag. Thats what windows media player and most other media players with library facilities use to display title, artist, album, date etc. When its done sorting, which only takes a minute or two, the menu navigation ro individual albums and tracks is as simple as selecting to list all the songs on the player, the albums or artists in alphabetical order. From artists you can select individual albums then tracks, the same from the album listing. The menu is easily accessed at any time with the menus button on the side of the player, beneath the volume control, and also includes various other settings including the graphical equaliser.
As far as sound quality is concerned, i have yet to notice any flaws even over hi-fi speakers rather than earphones. The player always delivers a crisp and clear sound, the specifics can be easily tweaked using the graphic EQ or one of its many presets ranging from pop and rock to classical and jazz settings. That said, while the quality is not noticeably lacking, it struggles to top average.
Overall, with the Carbon, Rio delivers all the playing functionality and style of its more expensive competitors as well as a superior user interface and a smaller, lighter player. The only qualms i would raise with it is its lack of special features compared to the ipod (podcating etc.) and the the screen protection could be reinforced better. The screen on my last one of these was cracked when i sat down with in it my back pocket - not a wise manouver but none the less one it should be able to survive. For the price compared to the capacity, size and quality of this product, the Carbon is definatly a strong contender against the ipod and highly recommanded to anyone looking for a quality mp3 player but doesnt want to pay the extortionate prices charged by Apples monopoly on portable digital audio.
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that wasc a good first review , thanks for treading my review too .
scream4bruce 22.10.2006 22:11
Great first review!
tranx 08.10.2006 15:32
Don't know much and with 6Gb suppose it might be able to store videos fotos and other files? and how much does it cost? - maybe even more info would help - great review though
Sep 4th, 2006
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