S3/Diamond Rio 600 Review

Many people didn't want to buy the Rio 300, as it was such a new and groundbreaking device. The Rio 600 is a 3rd generation device, and it certainly shows. First off, the physical casing of the Rio is a lot tougher than on the original. I’m also very glad that the battery is enclosed in the unit; this time it isn’t dogged with the same battery flap damage as the original was. As for using the device, it’s intuitive and a pleasure to operate.

Even though it's been some time since the original Rio was released, the 600 features the same memory as the 300. The expense of flash memory makes adding storage too expensive. Luckily, other aspects of technology have progressed enough to make up for this shortcoming.

Thanks to the WMA format, more music at better quality can be stored on the device. The Rio 600 itself is a fantastic little product, and the included Rio Audio Software is very powerful and easy to use. But, and this is a big but, after a certain amount use, the Rio Audio Manager software locks out the CD ripping and encoding ability, rendering one of the main functions useless. After forking out for the Rio, I feel cheated that the encoding software needs to be paid for as an extra. If I found out that I needed to pay NVIDIA extra for working drivers after just paying through the nose for the fastest graphics card, I would not be happy.

I find it hard to overlook the fact that Diamond has chosen to supply use-limited software with the Rio; however, there is no denying that the Rio 600 is the best yet, and clearly a wise choice for anyone in the market for a new music player.

--Peter Bridger

Skip To Page 1 Introduction 2 Rio 600 Overview 3 Rio 600 Overview - Continued 4 Rio Audio Manager 5 Audio Compression Explained 6 Audio Compression Explained - Continued 7 WMA Vs. MP3 8 WMA Vs. MP3 - 2 9 WMA Vs. MP3 -3 • 10 Conclusion

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