Rio Riot: Big Music for Big Pockets

If you can't bear to be away from your music--any of it--consider SonicBlue's Rio Riot, a new digital music player with a 20GB hard drive that can squeeze in about 5000 4-minute MP3 songs (encoded at 128 kilobits per second). Unfortunately, I had trouble squeezing the 10-ounce, 5.4-by-3.6-by-1.4-inch player comfortably into my pocket--unlike the 6.5-ounce, 4-by-2.4-by 0.8 inch Apple IPod, which sells for a buck less than the $400 Riot. In exchange for its bulk, however, the Riot offers four times the storage and a couple of features the IPod lacks, including an FM tuner, support for Windows Media Audio files, and compatibility with both PCs and Macs. Long-Playing Battery

In our tests, the Riot--with its included headphones--delivered powerful, rich sound with good range, and we could further refine the tones by adjusting the player's two-band equalizer. We were able to play music continuously for about the 10 hours that SonicBlue says the built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasts between charges. Like the IPod and other hard-drive players, the Riot plays music from a buffer, which prevents the songs from skipping if you shake or drop the unit.