Follow abi on twitter

Siren 4GB Edge - A Little Bit Rio

siren-edge-4gb.jpg

So what ever happened to the people at Rio after the break up? Two of them, one of which was a former Creative employee before Rio, started their own company making players under the Siren brand. The company designs their players from scratch, down to the UI, using the same industrial design firm as Rio once did. I have not had a chance to use one of these first hand, but with some Rio in there blood there may be some good stuff here. You can find their 4GB player at Walmart and on their site for $210, about forty buck less than other 4GB counterparts.

[Siren]

  • Submit this article to Del.icio.us
  • Submit this article to Reddit
  • Submit this article to Furl
  • Submit this article to StumbleUpon

Comments

608zz on May 24, 2006 2:02 AM

Four-GB, yet no OGG support. What is up with these companies?

Another question: Is this thing built very well? It looks like more shiny, cheap, Chinese plastic that some of Rio's flash devices were famous for. Also looks similar to that - uh what was that piece of crap called - oh yeah GoVideo Rave-MP. I hope they finally know what they're doing.

Cliff on May 24, 2006 8:39 AM

No ogg and replaceable battery instead of rechargeable :(

No like.

lacene on May 24, 2006 11:12 AM

no OGG, gapless, or cross-fading?....

however, if the ex-Rio guys are sincere in their attempt to further the Rio cause, I'll be interested to see what they come up with in the future...

608zz on July 2, 2006 10:56 AM

Cliff, if you needed a rechargeable battery for this device, they are available practically anywhere and are very inexpensive, not to mention easy to install.

jj on November 30, 2006 2:11 AM

whoa..that thing's design sucks..it looks so cheap.

Mason on February 17, 2007 3:52 PM

I have one. It's actually really nice.

Piffer on March 8, 2007 11:25 PM

I just got one, and I'm impressed with the sound quality, although I do have some really nice $100 Sony headphones.

Hmm so if I swap the battery with a rechargeable one, it will charge it via the USB?? hmm interesting.

Anyway, I'm happy with the player :-)

-Piffer

Eddie on March 20, 2007 4:23 PM

while it is connect to the USB port does it have to have the battery in it or should I take it out. I don't want to miss it up. I did just get it and am very new to using this 4GB Siren....

electronicsgurl4gb on March 26, 2007 8:27 PM

This looks like a pretty good MP3 player. What does everyone here say about it. Good? or Not Good? Please let me know. My friend wants an MP3 player with a battery that doesn't charge on the computer and she doesn't have a comp. So yeah. Tell me whatcha think! Thanx! Much appreciated! :-)

Darren on March 30, 2007 11:35 AM

I work at a service center, I have one of these on my bench, its cheap trash, dont but it. Not worth the money, or the frustration.

Joe on June 10, 2007 7:56 PM

Walmart has put it on sale for $99. It isn't bad; looks cheaply made, but it works, and that's the main thing. Lack of ogg support is disappointing, but for a cheap 4 gig player, it's worth $99

Joe on June 10, 2007 7:56 PM

Walmart has put it on sale for $99. It isn't bad; looks cheaply made, but it works, and that's the main thing. Lack of ogg support is disappointing, but for a cheap 4 gig player, it's worth $99

mburger@hotmail.com on June 24, 2007 7:59 PM

I got one today. I like it. It seems to be built well. It is easy to use ,and sounds great with the provided ear buds. You can arrange your music into folders any way you like. It has a five band adjustable equalizer, FM with twenty station presets. reception is average but good enough for most I think. For $99
what more do you expect?

Hopsing on August 8, 2007 10:08 PM

I'm returning mine. It will only read the tag info if you rip with Windows Media Player. If you ripped with any other software you will not see artist and album info. They say it is compatible with Mac OSX, but that it is not compatible with ITunes. So if you own a mac, you need windows media player to rip your cds. Tech support was quick to answer, but with unrelated info. After six emails I gave up. Not sure they could even read english.

mburger@hotmail.com on September 29, 2007 6:35 PM

I still like it..

It works and sounds fine..

Greg R. on April 11, 2008 12:32 PM

Got one from Microcenter's online site for $40. Menu button did NOT work and also it would only read first 10 tracks while playing (though screen showed 1007 tracks so it knows they're there, just won't play them, and no they are not .OGG or .AAC or any other unsupported format. Strictly .WMA and .MP3) and then lock up, couldn't advance, power down, nothing.

The player DOES sound nice on the 10 it will play so I'm hoping this is a 1 time bad experience and trying to get an exchange.

I'd love a Zune but our budget doesn't permit me to drop $150 or better to get a 30GB or bigger player (which is the size I *really* want..I have TONS of music)

Steve H. on May 8, 2008 5:02 PM

Just picked up one at MicroCenter for $30 -- seemed a good buy for a 4GB player. Disappointed to find that it has no "bookmark" support, as it's used primarily for listening to audio books (encoded as a single huge "track" in .mp3 format). Also found that when USB-connected to my Mac, "ejecting" the SIREN disk (Cmd-E) results in the Mac properly unmounting the disk, but then the Siren automatically and immediately re-establishes the connection and the SIREN icon re-appears on the desktop. A "clean" unmount can only be done by pulling the USB cable as soon as the disk icon disappears from the desktop!

Saabjock on June 21, 2008 10:21 PM

Great sound with upgraded headphones. Many calls to tech support dept without resolution. Player seems to have a mind of it's own as far as button push/selection goes...sometimes works other times not. RMAed the first one at MicroCenter's request for exact problem after two weeks. Second one is worst as far as button response goes. Wishing for a firmware update to fix this problem...but it's a cheap player, so I'm not complaining too hard.

SOMAYA on December 7, 2008 1:11 AM

I NEED A USB CABLE FOR THIS SIREN MODEL

Leave a comment

  • Name:
  • E-mail:
  • URL:
  • Remember info?

Type the characters you see in the picture above.


Top MP3 Players
abi Editor's Choice
  • SanDisk Sansa Clip
    SanDisk Sansa Clip

    The Clip has a fantastic little form factor; cheap in build quality but very rugged. The interface is simple and relatively straight forward. The features on the clip are more or less average, mostly identical to the Sansa Express. However, what earns this player a spot in Editor’s Choice is the superb sound quality; you will not find another player at this size and price that can match it. Read the full review or go ahead and buy it.

  • Samsung P3
    Samsung P2

    The Samsung P2 was a success and the P3 is a very welcome and substantial update. Samsung has paid close attention to users on P2 issues and made great strides in addressing and improving most of them. The best feature of the P3 is its native video support. Most content you thow at it will playback without conversion on the great looking screen. Stop by the Samsung P3 forums for more details or check out our indepth P3 review.

  • Microsoft Zune 120
    Samsung P2

    Sure, many of us are not big fans of the walled garden, but there are a lot of great things going on with the Zune- sturdy hardware, ultra easy to use user interface, and a media player that is worthy of editor’s choice. The best part of the Zune is the constant firmware and software updates virtually giving you a new device at each major refresh. You can check out the latest Zune 120 & 16 review or stop by our Zune forums for the latest.

  • Cowon iAudio D2
    Cowon iAudio D2

    The D2 is a fantastic sounding PMP with a very nice looking screen and a tone of features. One of the best features of the D2 is the SDHC slot allowing you to add another 32GB to this small wonder. The touch interface does not lend well to on the move operation, but it is not enough to keep it from being an editor’s choice. You can find usually find it at Amazon for the best price and before to check out the review.

  • Phonak Audéo PFE
    Phonak PFE

    Phonak Audéo PFE offer outstanding clarity and precision; natural, dynamic mids and treble, and decent bass for a single armature in-ear phone. They handle dense, complex music very well. The PFE work well with most acoustic and some electronic music genres, but bassheads might have to look at other alternatives. They're great for sports as well, since they fit very securely. Check out our review.