Product Description

The RioVolt SP90 is the simple solution for anyone looking for a versatile portable CD player. The RioVolt SP90 plays CDs with MP3 and WMA files as well as standard audio CDs. That means you can fit over 20 hours of your favorite music onto a single CD. Plus, the large LCD makes it easy to navigate through song titles and menus. With 120 seconds of skip protection and a battery life of over 15 hours, it delivers the rock solid performance you've come to expect from Rio Digital Audio.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52185 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: RioVolt
• Model: SP90
• Original language: English

Features

• Plays standard audio CDs as well as MP3- and WMA-encoded discs (potential for over 20 hours of music on 1 disc)
• Electronic shock protection up to 120 seconds
• Supports ID3 tags and audio CD title display (CD Text)
• 15-hour battery life using only 2 AA batteries
• Easy navigation on large LCD. Resume Play feature.

From the Manufacturer
The RioVolt SP90 is the simple solution for anyone looking for a versatile portable CD player. The RioVolt SP90 plays CDs encoded with MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, as well as standard audio CDs from either CD-R or CD-RW discs. By supporting both MP3 and WMA formats, the RioVolt SP90 gives you the freedom to choose the quality and play time you desire, depending on the bit rate and compression method used during the recording. A CD full of WMA tracks can hold more than 20 hours of music!

The unit offers full ID3 tag support as well as CD Text, convenient encoding found on most new audio CDs. Plus, the large LCD simplifies navigation through song titles and menus. With 120 seconds of skip protection, adjustable EQ, repeat and shuffle play modes, programmable playlists, and a battery life of 15 hours, the SP90 delivers the rock-solid performance you've come to expect from Rio Digital Audio. A CD burner is recommended for full recording flexibility.

Customer Reviews

The SP90 can be flash upgraded!
If you want a blue SP100 without a remote and backlight, just flash upgrade your SP90 with the SP100 firmware. Just download the SP100 firmware and do the following:

1. Rename the IMP-100.HEX file to SP-90.HEX
2. With a Hex editor, open this firmware file and change the IMP-100 to SP-90 in the first line and resave the file.
3. Burn a cd with this new SP-90.HEX file in the root directory.
4. Place the cd in the player and turn it on.

You now have a blue SP-100 that supports playlists, has shorter gaps between songs, user eq setting, faster load times, etc. And from now on, you can just flash this player with any SP-100 upgrade without having to edit the firmware as you had to do this one time.

The SP-90 is a GREAT BUY now that you know it can be upgraded.

Compared To RioVolt SP100
Well, for the price this is a great player, but here are some things the SP100 has and this doesn't:

1. Most important: firmware upgrades. This feature has a lot of power and it gives the older unit a lot of new features, like playing playlists and improved programming, and it's actually very important, because if there will be a future audio codec that will be popular like OGG vorbis or even MP3 Pro, and if it will replace regular MP3, then you can be sure that Sonic Blue will have a firmware upgrade for your player. (By the way, the best place to download the upgrades are from the iriver site (which is the original company that menufactures the RioVolt), and not the RioVolt site becuase the iriver upgrades work fine on the 'Volt and they come out much faster. Lately the Rio team hasn't released any upgrades at all, but the iriver team is releasing them all the time.

2. Remote control: I don't use the SP100's remote much, but I do use it a little, and it's very convenient for walking on the street and just skipping over the tracks you don't like without taking the unit out of your backpack.

3. LCD backlight: very important for me, as I use the player a lot at the Army at night and it's pretty useless without the backlight, because then I can't browse for the album I want to play.

Anyway, you should get this player if you can't afford the extra money for the SP100, but if you have about $175 to spare you should buy the new SP250, which has an 8 MB buffer and a really neat LCD display and FM radio, a charger, NIMh battries, and improved features AND it supports firmware upgrades as well, and in general is much improved over the SP100 as well as the SP90. It is the perfect player, if you can afford the price!

Excellent MP3 Player, I did upgrade too
Well I guess it's my turn for a review. I purchased this for... from Amazon.... I mainly wanted it for the mp3 feature.... I particularly did not like the head phones; they were average to say the least. The sp90 could use more bass. It has a preset bass level, but it's useless. I decided to upgrade the firmware to the sp100 2.10 version just for the heck of it. I really didn't experience problems w/ mine before doing it. I experimented a little and shook it to see how much it would skip and compared it after I upgraded the firmware. I put the upgrade disc in and it took maybe 10-15 seconds to upgrade. I immediately place a cd in and started shaking and doing the same thing I did w/ the player when the original firmware was installed. Believe it or not, it only skipped once compared to it skipping everytime from that height w/ the original firmware; I dropped it about 3.5 feet onto my bed. I'm happy w/ my purchase, especially for the price I paid.... Just burn the image on cd and insert the disc in the player. *Note, try this at your own risk, I won't be held liable; I'm just helping out. I'm told it already worked for a couple of people I sent it to. File size is 335kb. I hope this helps. Please vote on this so that other people can benefit.