I don't think that would be a smart move. The Rio brand is extremely strong - and with a $10m advertising campaign recently announced, it's going to get stronger. Consider that Rio is the only brand EVER to attract a co-branding deal with Nike.

I don't think the brand is associated with poor products - the Rio 500 is still my choice of portable player (and not just because they gave me one *grin*) - and forthcoming products are going to take the world by storm. In common with empeg, S3 don't sacrifice features for cost - the Rio Receiver, for example, has Burr Brown DAC's which could easily have been substituted for cheaper components on such a low cost product.

This is turning into a commercial - I'll shut up

Rob