I thought the name "Rave" sounded familiar--the first MP3 player I had was a Rave with 128MB Flash memory and an FM radio--cool beans for 1998! Go Video now offers four different MP3 players all with backlit LCD displays, FM radios (with the ability to record the radio), a built-in mic for voice memo recording, a five-band graphic equalizer for tweaking the tone to match your music, USB 2.0 interface and cable, ear buds, arm strap and carrying clip, and driver software if you need it. They all use the ubiquitous Windows Media Player software on either Mac or PC where you convert MP3 files to .WMA files, build playlists, and "synchronize" your Rave's music content with your music collection on your computer. On the Mac, the unit shows up as another hard drive on the desktop and you can drag and backup files on it--any files even text or pictures.

For review I received the (pictured right) silver and black ARC 5.0 ($249), the top of the line model with a five GB hard drive (166 hours of music at 64kBps) and rechargeable battery (10 hours max). How many songs you can store separates the four models from each other with the ARC 2.5 ($199) using a 2.5 GB drive (83 hours); the AMP 128 ($99) and AMP 256 ($129) models (pictured lower left) with 128MB (4 Hours) and 256MB (8 hours) storage respectively. Both Amp models are expandable up to 1GB by the addition of a SD or MMC memory card.

Once I mastered the Windows Media controls on my PC, it was easy to "rip" from my CD collection to make .WMA file versions of my favorite songs so they could quickly load into the Rave MP via the fast USB 2.0 interface. I found the unit to work perfectly and the sound quality as good as data compressed music files can sound. The included ear buds work great and so did my studio headphones I prefer to use at home. I like the FM radio feature and the equalizer but I found the volume control a little touchy. I also like the on/off switch locking feature, the easy-to-read display, and the intuitive navigation controls--you don't really need to read the directions to get grooving right away. Can I keep this one? For more, visit www.govideo.com.