The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
Good skip protection and sound quality
In our testing, the Rio Volt did a fine job with a wide variety of CD-Rs and CD-RWs, finding and playing both MP3 and WMA files alike. With the unit clipped firmly to our hip, we encountered a few skips while walking down the street. But once we turned up the ESP antiskip protection to 180 seconds (hold down the Menu button to access the preferences), the unit was practically impervious to jolts and jostling, with eight minutes of skip protection for MP3/WMA CDs and three minutes for audio CDs. This is the first MP3 CD player that we've seen with an FM tuner, which delivered good reception with its digital tuning and supports preset stations. Sound quality for audio CDs, WMA files, and MP3s was good, although there was an ever-so-slight background hiss, which many people probably won't even notice.
With some lower-end portable MP3 CD players available for less than $100, the Rio Volt SP250's $179.95 price places it firmly at the high end of this market. However, its power, flexibility, and ease of use more than justify this cost.
What You'll Pay
- Set Price Alert
