Creative Labs Rhomba 256 MB MP3 Player

[Archived in $100 - $200, Creative Labs, MP3 Players und Accessories, Products]

Manufacturer: Creative Labs
Price at amazon.com: Used & new from $117.50

List price $199.99



Product Features:

• No software needed - USB plug and play
• Large, cool blue backlit split LCD for easy navigation
• No power adapter needed - Lithium-ion battery recharges via USB
• FM stereo tuner und FM recorder
• Up to 16 hours of voice recording

Product Description:

The Creative Rhomba is a feature-packed MP3 player at a terrific price. With FM and voice recorder built-in, as well,it will keep you entertained anytime, anywhere. Its high quality, skip-free playback will satisfy the most demandingmusic lover. Plug it into any USB computer port, drag and drop music and other files, and go! It can be used totransport document, photos and other data files from PC to PC as well.

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: New to MP3 Rating:
Being new to MP3s I really had no idea what to get, but after ALOT of research and questions I decided on this player. It has all the features I wanted, like the voice-recorder, and the ability to record from FM tuner (which I like the best). So many times I have heard songs on the radio and wished to record them, now i can with just a simple push of a button. The workings of this player took some time to figure out, but i think i have it down, without the help of a manual or instructions. This player is really VERY easy to use.

The Creative MediaSource software is GREAT!! Makes it super easy to transfer tracks to and from the player. Also nice for converting files to different formats for recording. I've even played my DVD movies on my computer with it (great pic and sound quality).

I have only had this player for about a month but have used it often and tested all of the features more than once. No problems so far (knock on wood).

All-in-all this player is super "user-friendly", even for 'Newbies' like me. It's sleek, small, has a very readable back-lit display (adjustable), nice buttons, and great sound quality (i've hooked it up to external speakers and couldn't believe how loud i put it before any distortion).
There is so much more i could say, could rave for days, but they only give so much room for the review.

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Comment: poor implementation of a good idea Rating:
The combination of FM radio, Voice Recorder and less importantly WMA/MP3 player in a small form factor appealed to me and, knowing the risks of such a behaviour, I became an early adopter.

Good things first: the device looks nice, isn't too big - barely bigger than the original Muvo - and, the stock earphones sound are relatively decent. But... but... even after setting the FM mode to Europe (why in the world is Creative shipping such a device with inappropriate default local parameters when they do attempt to maintain three different regional web sites for their slightly different product lines?) FM reception remains of very high quality. The signal to noise ratio is reminiscent of an early 80s turntable, tuning isn't very stable, "best" reception seems to be achieved about 0.05 Mhz above the official frequency, the dynamic range seems a bit compressed, the auto-scan misses 90% of the stations a cheap tuner gets, etc... All of this conspire to create an overall disappointing FM listening experience. Radio recording is therefore intrinsically limited.

The battery life is closer to 8 hours than 14. Voice recording is acceptable, no more. MP3 playback is good (but who has bad MP3 sound nowadays?). Creative Media Source is a big improvement over the useless stuff Creative used to ship with its device.

If Creative doesn't address some of the FM issues by a firmware update - if that is possible - the Rhomba will disappoint me.

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Comment: Don't buy this Product !!!!, Rating:
read the reviews on the Internet the same way you are reading now. When I went to the store I have been misled by the salesman. He told me that the creative is a great brand and no one returned the product so far. He told me " if it was a bad product creative would have taken it of the shelf by now". I bought the product and it stop working after TWO DAYS" not responding at all. I talked to the customer support and they ask me to send the product to them. It takes along..... time to get it back believe me I havent got the mine yet. Dealing with their customer support is hell. remember I warned you "Dont buy this product"

Posted at November 11, 2003 06:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)