Price Paid:  $100.00 from www.mobshop.com

Summary:
While this is a little old it is still good. I use it mainly when i mow the lawn. BUt the battery compartment was mad to use with a Duracell Ultra, which is slightly bigger then other batteries. Just stuff a little piece of foil in the battery thingie. Nice and tiny. If you press on the headphones that came with it, it sounds like a concert in your head. Which is cool.But it hurts your ears.
Overall this is a good mp3 player.

to explain the weaknesses, Wasn't this the first mp3 player ever made????
Rio Was gonna build on that. Improve the weaknesses. And Make ones like the Rio 800

Strengths:
No skipping, Loooooooong battery life, good sound qaulity at 128 kbs. Tiny.

Weaknesses:
little bass. skips with normal batteries.

Price Paid:  $61.00 from eBay

Summary:
I had a rio 300 for about 3 days but it was stolen by a moron who didn't realize that a connection cable is required for songs to be added or deleted. I would recommend this to person who wants a small, portable device to play a few songs when needed. This is not recommended for a person who listens to music for 4 hours a day. The only problem was that the battery would shake and lose contact, which made the rio shut off. I fixed this by putting a dime in the battery slot (it kinda stuck out). I don't know what else I have to say.

Strengths:
expandability
sound quality
power usage

Weaknesses:
battery can shake and rio can turn off (I stuck a dime in it)
slow connection
no song identification

Similar Products Used:
rio 500

Price Paid:  $100.00

Summary:
No complaints regarding the Bass output whatsoever.Have a very good sound card and the sound output also depends on how well the MP3 was also.I have a great car stereo and for a portable player this unit is great and not costly like other models which leaves lots of room for upgrading!!!No problems with the transferring either,I have a fast hard drive which saeems to make the difference.

Strengths:
I bought the upgrable 32meg card,perfect for almost the same or a little more of a full cd.

Weaknesses:
Took about an hour to correct the settings in BIOS in order for the software to work so i could transfer files.

Price Paid:  $75.00 from Yahoo Auction

Summary:
Bought the soley for use when running, but it is so quiet it get drowned out everytime a car passes!

Tried using differnt headphones as suggested in other reviews, but then couldn't hear anything at all!

Otherwise good if limited but the lack of oomph really lets it down.

Also annoying is that when you swith it off it goes back to the start when you start playing again rather than picking up where you left off.

My minidisc player is much better in all respect except its
heavier and skips when I run.

Strengths:
Light weight, no skipping

Weaknesses:
Very quiet - even cracked up to full volume, no restart
you stopped facility

Similar Products Used:
Sharp Minidisc

Summary:
When I purchased my Rio MP3, I loved it. It is so convenient and small. The sound is terrific. However, I had a problem with the player skipping. I called the customer service number and was put into an automated system which kept me from ever talking to a human. I finally talked to a person and they told me to buy a new battery. This didn't fix the problem. They should have just offered to repair the unit. Now my player is sitting in a drawer when I could be enjoying it. Not good!

Strengths:
portability, size,clarity, ease of use

Weaknesses:
poor customer support