Something to Rave About
Written: Jan 15 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Sound, Price, Features, Intuitive Interface, Great "earbuds"
Cons: Small Buttons, No FM tuner
|
|
|
| banker74's Full Review: Rio Rave MP2050 MP3 Player |
I must preface this review by saying that this is the first MP3 player I've owned. That being said, I still think from everything I've read and heard that this is one of the best ones out there. I bought the product through the emusic.com promotion that gives a free RaveMP 2000 and Real Jukebox (Full Version) with the purchase of $50 worth of MP3's from their site. For those who don't know, the RaveMP 2000 comes with 32MB of flash memory expandable up to 64, while the RaveMP 2100 (the retail version you get, I believe, if you buy through most of the merchants besides emusic.com) has a whopping 64MB flash memory, expandable up to 96. FYI, most of my songs are around 3 megs, so this one can hold about 8-10 CD quality songs. About twice that if you drop down to FM quality.
In any case, the site said 4-6 weeks for delivery, but it arrived in 5 days. I opened the box, took out the unit, put in the included battery (nice touch), plugged in the Sennheiser MX4 earbuds and pressed play. The unit came preloaded with a Frank Black song and the sound was fantastic. My point in the story is that it was a complete no brainer to operate. I'd read some stories about the instructions being poor, but in my opinion their isn't much to know.
Of course I needed to get some of my MP3's on my Rave. I plugged in the included communication cable to the parallel port and then loaded the software, which took but a minute or two to install. I subsequently located some MP3's that I already had on my computer. It was an incredibly intuitive interface. Browse (as if in windows explorer), click on the song(s) you want to upload, and click the "send to RaveMP" button on the toolbar. Presto. It was that simple.
To test the unit, I took to the boardwalk and went for a jog. I must say the included Sennheiser MX4's are fantastic earbuds worth extra mention(seen them selling for $25 by themselves.) No matter how much I shook my head they wouldn't come loose or fall out. They are a bit larger than the Sony earbuds I had from years past and stayed in place much better. In any case, the jog revealed my only gripe. That is the buttons. They are all rather small and close together (see picture at http://www.ravemp.com ), and my large clutzy fingers couldn't seem to press the right ones while I was jogging. I'd try to raise or lower the volume, and would instead skip to the beginning or end of the song. The fact that it was dark out might have had something to do with it. Besides this, however, I was completely satisfied. For any sports enthusiasts that like their music this unit is a must have (and again, those earbuds are just great.) In addition to being light, the belt-clip kept the unit very secure. I can envision this unit being great for not only jogging, but the gym, mountain biking, etc.
The RaveMp has a number of other features, like voice recording, Phone Numbers and Memos that can all be downloaded to the player (all of which I doubt the majority of users will ever touch, so I won't waste your time with those functions.)
In a nutshell, I'm thrilled with the product. I've already convinced at least 5 people to buy it because they've seen just how great it is. Even if I had to buy the retail version (with 64 megs) for about $200, knowing what I know now I still think it would be a deal.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
banker74
|
|
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.