first i want to make it clear that i never heared the "thing"
but i do have some expirience in mp3 stuff !
i myself am a mp3 user and i think it's a revolutionary thing but ...
THAT'S NOT Hi-Fi !!!
it's probubly perfect for casual listeners but that's not it !

I purchased a Diamond Rio from Best Buy not too long ago for right around $200. I must say that I'm rather dissapointed. Although the product "performs as advertised", the sound quality is rather sparce. This is by no means the fault of mp3 compression, a tune on my personal computer sounded nearly perfect, where as on the RIO is sounded dull and tinny. I think this is due to the one AA battery design, the unit simply does not have enough "kick" to provide the bass that music need. And dont even try attaching large higher quality headphones to the unit as you will have to strain to hear a thing.
To make a long story short, if you need a device to record audio and take it on the go conviently with good sound, my advice: Get a Minidisc player. My minidisc player is hands down twice as good as the rio.

Love the MP3 format...as a result I have not bought a CD in over a year! This portable version makes it possible for me to take the 5+ hours of music I have on computer on the road with me to listen anywhere possible.
Music compression is good and sometimes very good (near CD-quality) when you compress the music at 128 kbits. I was very impressed with the simplicity of the machine. The only drawbacks comes from its lack of memory (32 megs) and of bass, which can be remedied a bit with the EQ setting being on ROCK and a nice set of speakers which reproduce bass well.

Love the machine, love the price I paid ($147.50), love the ease of use. WOuld definitely recommend this product to someone.

Had my Rio for just over 2 weeks now and it keeps getting even better. I've also got an Sony portable MD and it's been confined to the cupboard since my Rio arrived.
I registered the MusicMatch Jukebox software which came with it (a steal at $29.95) and have over 700 mp3s from my personal CD collection (itself over 1000 CDs!) on my hard disk. They are all 128K stereo and I can't hear the difference from my MD. I bought a 16Mb SmartMedia card with the Rio and will get a 32Mb when they are available at reasonable prices!!

Overall, I rate the Rio extremely highly. I've enjoyed compilations and found some great software as well (see my website at http://www.grim-reaper.freeserve.co.uk/ for the links).

The only critism I have is the lack of bass, Rio needs a bassboost function (maybe an external device?). The new accessories look cool as well (leather case, headphone remote) see http://www.diamondmm.com/products/current/rio-acc.cfm for full details. I'll definitely be getting these when they're available in the UK.

Finally, a wish list: backlit LCD, artist/title scrolling display, ability to buy a second cable (home and work), more RAM ;)

The diamond rio is good, but it does not have a good enough EQ, the MP3s are good but the Rio lacks giving them the "kick". On my PC I use Winamp 2.10 with its Equalizer and my good speakers it easily passes my HI-FI. Diamond should put a better EQ on the damn thing.

It's cute! It's happnin'! It's ever soooo popular! Just think of all those extra hours its going to take to record music that's compressed anyway. Gee wiz kids, is it worth propping up a terrible product just because it justifies even more computer interaction. I'm certain that the PC play heavily into recorded music's future, but this little gadget blows chunks. I was on a red-eye (flight) from Florida when I saw a college kid using one and I asked him if I could try it. He said "Sure, these things are great". Sounded worse than my cheap Koss walkman walkman. He then went on and on about how cool it was. And of course it had everything to do with being a PC periferral. BFD! It still sounds like crap. If it doesn't move the sonic marker ahead any, why support it with you dads money. If you like to record digitally, then try MD. Sony's MiniDisc blows the rio (and MP3 for that matter) out of the water. Once you've matured, you'll grow to appreciate music so much that you'll never diss it with the likes of MP3 technology. Compression is Suppression!!!!!

I'm curious to know if the folks who gave the Rio a one speaker rating, based on sound quality, were using the headphones (choke) that came with the Rio. They are terrible. When using a decent set of headphones, however, the sound quality is pretty good. Not audiophile, not stunning, but very very good.
When you consider the ease of use, I think this product deserves a solid four speakers. It's much lighter than a discman, and there are no skips, which is great if you're a jogger/walker wanting music on the go.

I, too, wish it came with more memory, but the new Rio now comes standard with 64MB (upgradeable to 128), so that should make it more attractive. I think they could have done away with the repeat and A-B features and instead included more EQ options.

Still, it's a good first effort. It'll be interesting to see how this product line matures.

I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of an MP3 portable- for almost a year, and almost bought one from Korea but thought better about spending the $500 that would have cost. The Rio is a great foist effort- and it's still the only commercially available unit until MPMan and Nomad are shipped (imminently, they claim). Both those units will have larger capacity, and storage capability beyond MP3 files as well, so if I purchase one of those two (which I probably will), I can finally be free from the goddamn Iomega Zip drives.
Unfortunately, Diamond's Rio will most likely never support Windows NT; Creative and Eiger promise it but it's vapor as of this momemnt.

I was very interested in the rio when I heard about it. I herad that a friend's friend had one, naturally I wanted to try it out. I've been using the mp3 format for quite some time, maybe 2 and a half years now, I have a CDR and discman which makes the format great. However, the RIO sucks. It sounds terrible, like if you made a speaker out of a tin can. The DIGITAL equipment that diamond used is fine but the ANALOG parts are cheap crap. I'm waiting for a portable with good ANALOG circuitry as well.
DIAMOND Can keep it's rio. I'm waiting for a portable that will do the format justice.

It sounds like some of the reviewers here didn't objectively review the product. They just had a quick listen, Mp3 playback depends on the compression scheme used on the songs AND the what quality setting the Rio was on, you can put it to half quality to get more songs on the memory card. Which I wouldn't do personally. Secondly, what does compression do? It compresses the actual wave file, like it compresses a normal non-audio file there may involve some loss of low frequency (stuff you can't hear) or bass. But all in all thats to be expected. Plus theres a new revision of the MP3 Codec every so often so it can only get better, and hopefully have more options for those who'd sacrifice file size for increased quality.
Overall the Rio is a decent product for people on the go or that excercise a lot and like to listen to music because:

1) It can never skip.
2) The audio quality is satisfactory on high quality setting.
3) If you have a decent pair of headphones it's more then satisfactory for most users.

This is a first generation product, and anyone into technology will tell you that you should expect some quirks in its infancy. Many people here should have already known that if they were expecting hardcore audioquality from a first generation product.


Cons:
Memory card is much too small.
Needs a good EQ.
Could use a better DSP.
Not a lot of bass.
First generation product.

Towards the future, newer MP3 may be able to uncompress the MP3 segments in real time to play the quality it was recorded in. So there would 'be no loss'.