The RipGO! is powered by Cirrus Logic's Maverick ARM processor. This is not the first device that we have looked at that is powered by the Maverick. The Maverick ARM processor was also used in the Turtle Beach AudioTron that we looked at in a recent Tom's Hardware article: Music Across Your Home Network? - AudioTron .

As you can see in this close-up, the RipGO! is a little bit larger than you might have expected, but it is still smaller than most other portable CD players. The RipGO! has right-sized, large buttons and a big display, two features that a lot of other units lack.

When examining the RipGO! close-up, you'll see that the unit is bigger than you might have expected. This is partly due to the fact that it is a double-duty device and it just simply takes more electronics in order to make it work. Measuring in at 5" x 4" x 1", we didn't find the unit large, but if you were lugging it around with you for a run, you might find that it weighs more and is more bulky than other devices. The RipGO!, in many ways, is better suited for use in a car or on an airplane than for fitness-related situations. The RipGO! has no belt clip or carrying case, so the mobile function of the device is somewhat limited.

The RipGO! has what we would consider large, right-sized buttons on the top, which are nice, but it doesn't have any type of remote control on the headphone cord, so you have to control the unit using these buttons. The RipGO! has full MP3 ID tag support, and titles appear on the easy-to-read display located on the top of the unit. We found the display on the unit to be very helpful for providing feedback about the mode in which the RipGO! is being used.

The RipGO!'s user interface is very graphical and provides a lot of information. When a song is playing, for instance, you can see the track name, track time, sampling rate, volume level, equalizer setting, and battery life. We liked the amount of visual feedback on the display and found it to be better than a lot of other units that we have seen. The interface provides all of the features found in most player units, such as: Skip Track; Skip Forward; Skip Backward; Shuffle Play; and Repeat. Due in part to the large display, navigating directories and tagging songs for playback was easy to do and not as cumbersome as it has been with other units we have tested in the past. You can adjust the contrast of the display and, as a bonus, the display is back-lit.

The RipGO! includes seven factory equalizer presets: Normal; Techno; Rock; Jazz; Pop; Salsa; and Classic. You cannot define your own equalization settings for use with the RipGO!. We found that the defined presets do cover a wide variety of equalization; still, it would have been on our wish list to be able to define our own.