A portable MP3 player is much more convenient than a portable CD player for carrying around your favorite tunes. But for most MP3 players you need a computer to load your music into the player’s memory.

The RCA Rip & Go Digital Music Studio takes the computer out of the MP3 equation. The 160-watt bookshelf stereo system has a five-disc CD player and an AM-FM radio tuner plus a detachable MP3 player on top.

With the touch of a button, the MP3 player can record radio broadcasts for replay later or copy tunes as they play on the CD player. Once the recordings are made, the user disconnects the MP3 player from the system, plugs in a pair of earbuds and is ready to take music on the road.

I tested a Rip & Go, and as a bookshelf stereo it provides rich, powerful sound. The portable MP3 player also sounds great. And though creating recordings on the MP3 player is not as smooth and quick as doing the same things on a computer, the Rip & Go might be a good option for someone who doesn’t have a computer.

The Rip & Go was very easy to set up. Connecting the speakers and antennas and loading AAA batteries into the remote control and the MP3 player took only about 10 minutes. The unit has a good FM tuner, and it did a very nice job of scanning for available FM stations and automatically assigning them to spots in its station preset system.

The CD player was also easy to use. The CD compartment has five slots for music discs, and it’s set up so the user can load or change the four idle CDs while one CD is playing. The unit will play commercially-purchased CDs as well as CD-R, CD-RW, MP3 and Windows Media (WMA) discs.

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