December 24 - January 14 2001

The evolution of Music by Alessandro Cancian I was having lunch in a downtown restaurant some time ago, and at a nearby table were some teenagers who were munching on french fries and chatting about music. One of the girls was explaining how she had managed to download, using Napster, the latest song by her favourite singer. Although Ricky Martin is not exactly my kind of musical star, the discussion caught my attention for a specific reason. One of the guys was showing around the birthday gift his girlfriend had given him: a Rio 600 portable digital player. My curiousity derived from the fact that just a few days earlier SonicBlue (ex S3), the company behind the Rio products thanks to its acquisition of Diamond Multimedia, had sent me one, which was still sitting on my desk. Rio 600 is the successor of a product that had raised many expectations in the world of digital music, Rio 500, and the first characteristic I noted was the personality of the new player. Designed with a curved shape that fits well in the palm of the hand, the Rio 600, in addition to the features sported by its predecessors, has a touch of modernity, such as the possibility of changing the various faceplates, following the trend of cell phones, to match your preferred style. You could choose between eight different colours, such as RioTone Purple, Copper. It looks as if Diamond revitalized its product line keeping in great consideration the expectations of the so-called Generation Y, right from the price. The $169 (U.S.) represents a pleasant novelty, destined to open up a teenage market, probably untapped due to almost unaffordable prices. Differently from its predecessor, the Rio 600 has a simplified control panel where a grey round button handles all the players functions. Although the idea seems interesting, in my opinion the inside curve of the button limits its accessibility, especially for those among us with less-than slender fingers. A single switch on top of the player controls both the Power and the Hold mode but design is not the only good note. The new Diamond player, in fact, has an improved battery management, now allowing, according to manufacturers specifications, almost 11.5 hours of continuous playback. Moreover, the LCD display equipping the player gives a fairly precise measure of battery status. The Rio 600 is perfectly compatible both with PC platforms (Win 98 and 2000) and Macs (OS 8.5 or later), insofar as the computers are equipped with a USB port. In my case, compared with the Rio 500, file transfer was faster. But surprises are not over yet, since the Diamond player is now able to reproduce Windows Media audio files as well as MP3 files, a choice addressing the evolution of digital music. The 2.4 ounces comes with a standard set of earphones, far superior in quality to those given with the previous model, and perfectly moulded to fit the shape of the ears. Sound reproduction quality is not only due to good earphones, but also to a refining in EQ capability, easily accessible from the settings menu. The installation of USB drivers was a breeze, and after restarting I was ready to load the player with my favourite songs. The Rio 600 comes with 32Mb of base memory, included in the "Backpack" module with the battery, and this limits somewhat its file storage capacity. Despite the possibility of increasing memory by purchasing "Backpack" modules, available in 64 Mb or 32 Mb versions and quite cumbersome to carry, the solution offered by the Rio 500 (that had a memory slot for expansion cards) still seems the best. The bundled software includes a copy of Rio Audio Manager for the PC version and of SoundJam MP for the Mac platform, which enable users to create or modify their list of preferred songs to be downloaded to the Diamond player. Thanks to these software packages, converting ones collection of musical CDs to digital format is very simple, and the available options can surely satisfy many tastes. The many interesting accessories available separately include, in addition to extra memory and the various "faceplates," an FM tuner. In conclusion the Rio 600, even with some limitations, surely represents a pleasant novelty against the various models currently available on the market, especially as its price makes it a perfect gift for any occasion. For further information please visit www.sonicblue.com

 

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