Geartest.com Diamond/S3 Rio 300 personal MP3 player real world review [2]

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Diamond/S3 Rio 300 personal MP3 player [2]

The unit is about the same size as a deck of playing cards, is light and can easily fit in a shirt pocket. A one-line LCD display indicates the current track you are listenng to , the volume level, battery power, and audio sample rate (the frequency with which the MP3 software encodes information from the original source; the higher the audio sample rate, the better the quality of the MP3 recording).

The main controls (Play/Pause/Power On, Stop/Power Off, Fast Forward, Rewind) are located on the front of the unit, placed at the four poles of a circular pad. This intelligent bit of design allows you to operate the Rio one-handed, using a thumb.

Arranged in a ring around the control pad are: a pair of buttons to increase or decrease volume, a random play button, a repeat button, and a looped play button that lets you select a particular segment of a track for continuous repetition.

The top of the Rio sports three buttons for infrequently-used features.

The Menu button calls up a display of the tracks stored in the 32 MB of integrated memory, and up to 64 MB of removeable flash memory (not included in the standard Rio package, and therefore not tested). The Rio's onboard memory holds about half an hour of near-CD quality music, which is just right for short commutes.

The EQ button lets you select five different sound modes, optimized for different musical styles, such as rock, classical, dance, etc.

The Intro button plays the first 10 seconds of each track stored in the Rio's memory.

The side of the Rio houses the Hold switch, which locks out the unit's controls to prevent accidental activation, shutdown, or unintended mode changes.

The Rio connects to a computer through the parallel port. The parallel port is where the printer is usually attached to a computer, and Diamond has included a "pass-through" cable that lets you attach both the Rio and a printer (or any other parallel port device) to your computer at the same time.

Included with the Rio is an MP3 software bundle. The first package is the Rio Manager software that lets you organize and transfer MP3 files from your computer to the Rio. The second is the light version of Muscimatch's MP3 creation software, MusicMatch LE, that lets you encode or "rip" your own MP3 files from your CD collection. Both packages are pretty straightforward to use and satisfactorily perform their tasks.

The Rio turned out to be quite a durable device, having been dropped, fumbled or otherwise abused during daily use. Over the course of testing, the unit survived full-force run-ins with a wide variety of hard surfaces, including asphalt, concrete, marble, steel, and thick ice on frozen lakes. It also stood up well to the hottest of summer weather and winter conditions that went south of 30 below zero.

But the Rio isn't all music to the ears.

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