Product Description

The Rio Digital Audio Receiver is the simple solution to turning your personal computer into your personal digital audio jukebox. The Rio Receiver streams music from your PC to any room in your house by simply plugging into an available phone jack. It works with your existing speakers and uses your home's existing phone lines to transfer MP3 or WMA music files and playlists anywhere in your house. The digital audio is sent over your existing phone lines without interfering with your phone service. Download music from the Internet onto your PC, create Playlists of your favorite CDs, and enjoy them with your Rio Receiver. You can sort music by artist, title, album or genre and customize the Rio Receiver's interface to view only information important to you. All you need - is PC with Windows'98 or higher, Rio Digital Audio Connector Card (HPNA) and (optionally) PNA Networking or Ethernet networking for PC.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20212 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Diamond
• Model: 90260096
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4, Windows NT 5, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server, Windows
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Features

• Stream CD-quality digital audio to any room with an available phone jack
• Connect to stereo system or use as a standalone receiver
• Sort music by artist, title, album or genre and create custom playlists
• Compatible with existing audio software like RealNetworks Jukebox and MusicMatch Jukebox
• Digital audio sent over your existing phone lines without interfering with your phone service--also works with Ethernet network; includes Rio Digital Audio Connector PCI card for connecting to home phoneline network

Amazon.com Product Description
The Rio Digital Audio Receiver streams music directly from your PC to any room in your house via existing phone lines through a home phoneline network (PNA) or via an Ethernet network. It works with your existing speakers and stereo setup to transfer MP3 and WMA files at up to 10 megabits per second without interrupting the regular use of your phone line. The receiver can simultaneously stream different music selections to different rooms wherever an additional receiver is located.

The Rio Receiver features a large LCD display that shows song, album, and artist name, bit rate, and total playing time. Play functions include play, pause, stop, fast forward, and reverse within a song, and skipping backward and forward as well as repeat and random. The Rio Receiver also comes with a remote control.

You can sort music by artist, title, album, or genre and then customize the Rio Receiver's interface to view your playlists. It is compatible with existing digital audio software such as RealNetworks Jukebox and MusicMatch Jukebox.

Using a standard telephone line, the Rio Receiver operates on a separate frequency from your telephone or modem, allowing you to use your telephone line normally without interference from your Rio Receiver. The receiver requires connection to a home PNA from your PC, or use of the included Rio Digital Audio Connector PCI card installed into your PC.

The Rio Receiver also supports 10 Mbps Ethernet. You can connect the receiver to your existing Ethernet hub with a standard Category 5 Ethernet cable, or directly to a host computer using an Ethernet crossover cable.

The Rio Receiver requires a desktop PC running Windows 98, 98SE, 2000, or Me on an Intel Pentium MMX with 200 MHz processor at minimum. You can connect the Rio Receiver into a stereo system via RCA jack connection. It also has an integrated amplifier that allows the Rio Receiver to act as a stand-alone component using external speakers (either bare-wire bookshelf speakers or powered speakers with a 1/8-inch jack).

Included with the receiver is the Rio Digital Audio Remote, a 15-foot standard phone cord, a 6-foot standard phone cord, a 6-foot RCA cable, and a software installation CD-ROM that includes the Audio Receiver Manager software. The optional Rio Digital Audio Connector PCI card is also available if you do not already have a home PNA.

Customer Reviews

Works great with FreeBSD/JReceiver
I have four of these being served by JReceiver on a FreeBSD 5.0 box. Two are on a CAT5-wired network while two are using Netgear XE102 powerline/ethernet bridges. My only complaint is the display size; it's too small. It would have been nice to also output the display to video. I rip all of my CDs to a big disk on the FreeBSD box. These are also exported using Samba so all the Windows boxes can use it as well. I think the Rio Receiver is a great product for the money.

Good product gone bad
I own three of these. I also own three AudioTron (Turtlebeach) units. Sonic Blue missed the mark on several points:
1. You MUST run THEIR software on your server.
2. You MUST log in ( and stay logged in)to the server for their software to work (it SHOULDN'T, but does!).
3. They don't pay any attention to Track Numbers on an album. It allways play in ALPHA order. This will not do!
4. They don't have digital out.
5. They abandoned the product, even though you can still get them (as of 5/1/03) they are NOT supported and will NEVER have an patches.

The thing that they DID get right is that the unit has it's own 10 watt amplifier (if you choose to use it). And the the analog audio quality is much better than that of the AudioTron. (But the AudioTron has digital out).

At current prices...these are worth the price. At the retail price...they died horribly. But realize that the price is low because the product died a horrible death and is not supported.

If you do get one - just remember to have your Ripping software create an M3U playlist for each album. Then you have the unit play in album order.

Excellent purchase
I have had a rio receiver for a few months now and could not be more pleased. I can't remember the last time my old carousel cd player has been powered up.
My setup: I have my receiver connected to my home stereo through the rca jacks. I stream my mp3's to my rio through a dlink wireless router (713p I think) and have a wireless to ethernet bridge from SMC on my rio. This configuration works great and I do not have any problem with drop outs.

I have ripped all of my cd's to my computer, and used a program to generate playlists. This is one of my only gripes about the receiver: if you want to play albums with the correct track order, you need to use playlists, as selecting music by the album will play the songs in alphabetical order. It doesn't bother me because I have the playlists. The only other thing that I would complain about is the tiny display. You either have to learn the menus if you want to use the remote, or just select the music on the receiver itself so you are close enough to see what you are doing.

Some very cool things about this receiver: there are a number of open source free programs out there for it! There are some programs that let you listen to shoutcast internet radio streams, and they work very well if you have a broadband connection. There are other programs that let you choose your music through a web server, however I feel that takes away from what the receiver is meant to do: let you choose your music at your stereo, not your computer.

These units can be found easily for under a hundred dollars right now, and when you compare that to the price of the audiotron, the streamium, the slimp3, or any similar product there is no reason not to go with this!