Rio S30s Sport MP3 player

There was a time in my youth when I was like any teenager (round about when I was 14) - I listened exclusively to a choice few tracks pulled from each of the 7 or so albums I knew existed. Wait, you still do that? Your favorite musicians weep for you. Albums are made to be listened to as entire albums! *shakes fist*

Anyway, back then, this is the guy I listened to all my music on. I have fond memories. So do many of the people reviewing on Amazon, and this guy who did a formal review for CNET back in 2003. Never mind that it has just 64MB OF INTERNAL MEMORY; this guy is rugged as hell, never skipped like my goddamned CD player, and was (relatively) tiny at the time. 

More info (and pics) after the jump.

Lets get back to that 64 MB of internal memory for a second. To put that in perspective, I took a random album from my music library these days (Mirrored by Battles), to see how big just one album is: 74 MB. That's at 192kbs too, not that high quality when compared to some of the lossless formats out there. I distinctly remember sitting in a dark room staring at my computer screen for hours trying to compress my songs ever more so I could fit as much as possible on my player. I should mention that the Rio DOES have expandable memory through an SD card slot, but want to know how much memory the SD card I found inside had? 30.4 MB - I literally laughed out loud when I saw that.

It came with its own pair of headphones, and software for music management software which I have vague memories of being horrible. But they're going used for $25 on Amazon, so really, they're not that bad when its all said and done. I had reservations about taking this one apart (because, hey, I might use it again someday?) but then I found what must have been my sister's old exact same model in a drawer and now I don't feel so bad, hah.

With the back cover removed. You'll notice the SD slot, and the battery cave.

A look at the buttons along the top. The menu switch toggled between the other options hidden within: an FM transmitter, a stopwatch, and simple EQ settings.

The only screw I could find.

But it turns out there was a second, hidden screw (see below) which I didn't find until I literally ripped the case open

Ain't it cute? Its like a trick easter egg you'd give to an engineer just to see him smile.

Turns out there were three circuit boards stacked on top of each other. The one we see (pried off, on the left) worked with the SD slot, the bottom one you'll see in a few pics worked with the buttons on the front of the unit, and the middle one you see exposed does everything else (including holding the screen).

With the middle circuit board removed.

Oh hey, look what I found. I think its a spider's nest? Uh... neat I guess.

Interesting that the last circuit board was held on by 4 screws, while the entire case needed just 2.

That's cool - they labeled each button on the circuit board itself. Why, I don't know, but it looks cool.

Top molded piece, with the buttons that it held.

I think this is the first time I've seen this technique of getting the buttons to attach to the case/ have springiness built in. Its just long, thin arms attached at two points (see detail shot below) that naturally flex.

Thought I'd show you the screen too. We've seen this before though - the screen was added to the mold prior to injecting the molten plastic in, which then adhered to the screen via holes in the rim which the plastic flowed through and beaded on the other side.

There we go. A nice, simple, quick teardown, with some nostalgia to boot. What kind of old MP3 players did you guys used to use?