austonia
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2002
- Posts
- 3,392
- Likes
- 16
I received a Rio Nitrus yesterday and have been playing with it since.
The Bad
- Volume buttons are awful. tiny, close together, no "click" when you depress them, they wiggle, and generally feel cheap and prone to failure. What's really dumb is that there is a nice big thumb scroller that has absolutely no function while a track is playing. This should control volume, or at least, as an option. I am trying to get Rio to add this by posting on riovolution.com where several Rio engineers frequent. Would be a huge improvement.
- Sound quality is acceptable, but nothing to brag about. I had the same experience with the Karma. You basically need to use the EQ to make it sound decent. After EQ'ing up the midrange I find a much better experience. On other players I prefer to never use an EQ.
- There is some light crackle between tracks. That includes when left alone playing and when forwarding to the next or previous track. It is noticable.
- Power output is not as strong as I would like. I usually have the level set between 17 and 20, out of 20. You can however use the EQ to jack up the audio level as much as 10db in any of 5 bands. I find this compensates OK when I want more volume. Keep in mind I like to listen to music Loud for a more enveloping experience.
- Rio software is required. Rio Music Manager isn't terrible, but its not great either. With my iPod and iTunes, I can simply drag and drop from Explorer to iTunes and it will load to the iPod. With RMM, that is not possible. First it must scan all your music locations and then you can transfer to and from Nitrus with RMM only. Scanning took about 2 hours for 31k tracks. In comparison, my PC mp3 manager software (Dapyx) can scan all in about half that time. I have heard that with Microsoft Powertoys plug-inm this allows drag and dropping to Nitrus from Explorer.
- MP3 and WMA codecs only. Rio engineers have stated there is no demand for additional codecs on this player and there will not be any additions made to it.
- Rio Taxi program is required for transferring data files to the player. Some players like iPod need a program for loading music but not for loading data. Nitrus and Karma need apps for all uploading and downloading to the players.
The Good
- Damn small and light. Not even noticeable in your pocket. Less then half the weight of an iPod, and the difference is definately noticable. I got this unit primarily for gym use and other activities. I have used the iPod at the gym, and its just too bulky and heavy for nylon gym shorts.
- Screen is great. not huge, but big enough and detailed. a definate improvement over competing micro-players like Creative Muvo2.
- Riostick and the scroll wheel for control and selecting are both effective and easy to use.
- Battery life is incredible at 15-18 hours.
- Stlying. Personally, i love the design. The wedge shape is perfect for pockets. Black is my preferred color (or absence therof). The form is simple and efficient (with the exception of the badly placed, badly implemented volume buttons).
- Sound quality is acceptable with a few tweaks.
- 5-band parametric EQ for customizing. You need it, too.
- Extra features include Bookmark and Stopwatch functions.
Overall
I like it, and it was a good purchase ($130 AR over Turkery Day weekend from Buy.com) for me. Rio got it about 90% right on this player, and it should be a fine solution for active use. However, I cannot suggest this as someone's primary MP3 player. There are too many little issues and there are better sounding players out there. I do think it is a great "other" MP3 player for anyone's collection, if you are willing to make the additional investment... it is fairly cheap as these things go.
The Bad
- Volume buttons are awful. tiny, close together, no "click" when you depress them, they wiggle, and generally feel cheap and prone to failure. What's really dumb is that there is a nice big thumb scroller that has absolutely no function while a track is playing. This should control volume, or at least, as an option. I am trying to get Rio to add this by posting on riovolution.com where several Rio engineers frequent. Would be a huge improvement.
- Sound quality is acceptable, but nothing to brag about. I had the same experience with the Karma. You basically need to use the EQ to make it sound decent. After EQ'ing up the midrange I find a much better experience. On other players I prefer to never use an EQ.
- There is some light crackle between tracks. That includes when left alone playing and when forwarding to the next or previous track. It is noticable.
- Power output is not as strong as I would like. I usually have the level set between 17 and 20, out of 20. You can however use the EQ to jack up the audio level as much as 10db in any of 5 bands. I find this compensates OK when I want more volume. Keep in mind I like to listen to music Loud for a more enveloping experience.
- Rio software is required. Rio Music Manager isn't terrible, but its not great either. With my iPod and iTunes, I can simply drag and drop from Explorer to iTunes and it will load to the iPod. With RMM, that is not possible. First it must scan all your music locations and then you can transfer to and from Nitrus with RMM only. Scanning took about 2 hours for 31k tracks. In comparison, my PC mp3 manager software (Dapyx) can scan all in about half that time. I have heard that with Microsoft Powertoys plug-inm this allows drag and dropping to Nitrus from Explorer.
- MP3 and WMA codecs only. Rio engineers have stated there is no demand for additional codecs on this player and there will not be any additions made to it.
- Rio Taxi program is required for transferring data files to the player. Some players like iPod need a program for loading music but not for loading data. Nitrus and Karma need apps for all uploading and downloading to the players.
The Good
- Damn small and light. Not even noticeable in your pocket. Less then half the weight of an iPod, and the difference is definately noticable. I got this unit primarily for gym use and other activities. I have used the iPod at the gym, and its just too bulky and heavy for nylon gym shorts.
- Screen is great. not huge, but big enough and detailed. a definate improvement over competing micro-players like Creative Muvo2.
- Riostick and the scroll wheel for control and selecting are both effective and easy to use.
- Battery life is incredible at 15-18 hours.
- Stlying. Personally, i love the design. The wedge shape is perfect for pockets. Black is my preferred color (or absence therof). The form is simple and efficient (with the exception of the badly placed, badly implemented volume buttons).
- Sound quality is acceptable with a few tweaks.
- 5-band parametric EQ for customizing. You need it, too.
- Extra features include Bookmark and Stopwatch functions.
Overall
I like it, and it was a good purchase ($130 AR over Turkery Day weekend from Buy.com) for me. Rio got it about 90% right on this player, and it should be a fine solution for active use. However, I cannot suggest this as someone's primary MP3 player. There are too many little issues and there are better sounding players out there. I do think it is a great "other" MP3 player for anyone's collection, if you are willing to make the additional investment... it is fairly cheap as these things go.
