SONICblue’s Rio Central: Deluxe Living Room MP3 System
 SONICblue Rio Central |
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by Alan Sheckter, SmartTV & Sound news editor
SONICblue’s Rio Central advanced digital audio center targets the most demanding MP3 enthusiasts. The $1500 box, which requires no PC, is designed for the living room and enables music lovers to store more than 650 CDs of material on its 40GB hard drive. It’s also a music manager, offering consumers the ability to not only store and play CDs and digital music files, but to create unlimited playlists and transfer music from a PC (via a USB or network connection). The USB port also enables users to share music with portable players.
In addition, Rio Central’s CD-RW drive allows users to burn CDs. CD information, including artist, album and song title are automatically assigned to each file as it’s recorded to facilitate archive searches. A built-in 56KB modem can also dial out to retrieve information from the Internet.
Rio Central supports audio formats such as MP3 and WMA, but SONICblue said it can be upgraded to support emerging digital standards.
SONICBlue also recently announced the Rio EX 1000, what it calls the industry’s first name-brand executive shelf stereo system with MP3/CD playback. The system is designed to let users listen to CD-R and CD-RW discs containing MP3 files on its 120-watt speaker system. It is priced at $300.