Customer Reviews

RCA Lyra 64 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I recently purchased one of these and so far really like it.
-The armband is wonderful. Spandex material with velcro means it hugs my arm tight without cutting off circulation. Plus it's small enough that it doesn't get in the way when I'm doing arm exercises.
-The 64MB holds enough for my 75-90 minute workout, especially if I use 96kb instead of 128kb encoding for the mp3s. I do plan to get an add-on 64 meg card just because I have a gift certificate to use up.
-The button locking feature is key. At first I forgot to lock it, and when I'd adjust the armband, I'd accidentally hit 'stop' or 'next'. With the buttons lock I set it playing and no problems.
-I didn't even bother with any of the software it came with. Straight out of the box I plugged it into Windows 2000, it recognized the 'USB drive' and I dragged and dropped a CD of mp3s over. Easy as that. No need for the Musicmatch.

However:
-The headphones it comes with are awkward. I purchased a $5 pair of ear-buds and that works great.
-The volume doesn't go quite high enough. I like it to blast so that I can't hear any outside noise. This only goes up to very loud, and not deafening loud.

I bought this mp3 player for three reasons. The price, the brand (RCA) and the portability. I hated space eating, annoying, hassling Cd-rs. I had a pile of them, Chris's favorites 1-89. I don't like all artists songs or one genre. I have a top 40 than i get sick of them and make a new cd-r of my new favorites. But with this i just delete and the just drag and drop. This little hand held unit has some BIG sound in volume and quality, all from a single aaa battery. It stores many songs. But the secret is to use windows media player to convert the songs kbs a lower rate. I have all my songs at 64kbs it takes about 1.8 of a mb per song. I can fit mabout 2 hours of music and dont even notice a change in quality. I love it and its well worth the money.

The player itself works fantastically. It produces plenty of volume to keep away distractions during my workout and is small enough to stay out of the way.

Two problems:
1. I wasn't able to sync this Lyra with my computer. Granted, my machine runs on Windows ME...I had to take it to a buddy's computer to load music using his XP machine.

2. The earphones that come with the Lyra are [bad]. Like a previous reviewer, I use a pair of ear buds and they work just fine.

Overall, a good buy.

I love this little player - it works great, lightweight, the arm band is perfect for jogging, and I do like the ear phones that clip over your ear like glasses.

I have Win XP and I just have to plug the player in and it's recognized as a media device. Then I just drag and drop files into the player with Windows explorer. I didn't even bother laoding the software that came with it.

I've had it for a week, and the battery level display shows about 40% power.

I hope this player lasts for a long time, because I love it, and it makes jogging more fun. If I encode my mp3's at 80kbits, I can fit about 30 songs on it.

I bought this for my daughter for christmas and in less thn 1 month she complained that she needed to wiggle the headset plug to get good audio. I disassembled the unit to find that there was poor solder joints on the headset jack. RCA, if you want to keep any reputation, we need better quality from you!

This was my first MP3 player. I went inexpensive (Wal-Mart $68) because I had no idea if I'd like it. Like others, the first thing I noticed was the battery door. It's so flimsy, I'm worried it won't last long. Other than that, I have no real complaints. The player is amazingly small; it's great for your pocket or just to hold in your hand. The headphones are somewhat awkward, I ended up picking up a set of ear-buds, but I would probably have gotten used to the ones included. The display is rather large and scrolls the song title and composer. It was easy to load music onto the player. I just 'drag-and-dropped' all my WMA (CD) files onto the player from my computer using Windows. I had to use Windows Media Player to load the MP3s, but that was easy enough. I would not bother installing any of the software (on XP, at least, which recongized the player as a storage drive). I stopped trying to figure out MusicMatch after an hour. The 64 MB isn't going to hold a ton of songs. If that's what you're looking for, I would suggest paying the extra $20 or so and get the 128 MB player. Of course, you can buy a SmartDisc and upgrade this drive; I already have.

Well, it's a great lil machine. It's compact and fits right into my back pocket. I just have to remember not to sit on it. There are a couple downfalls to it though. One is that it doesn't have a backlight on it. That would come in handy in so many ways. And the other one is that it battery doesn't last long at all. Sucks up the juice waayyyy too fast. Or maybe it's just me because I use mine a daily basis, but still. But other than that it's a great little tool. I like it!

I like it. Issues - it's difficult to adjust the controls while using the arm band.

I am impressed with its maximum volume, especially considering that it uses 1 AAA battery. I replaced an old Samsung Yepp that used 2 batteries, and I wasn't impressed with its volume range.

I didn't bother installing any of the bundled software. I didn't have any problems setting up on XP.

I use a huge SD card, so I have no issues with file size. I currently use variable bitrate WMA files and 128 bit MP3's without trouble. I wish the Lyra was USB 2, but I won't complain for the price.

Well, the first reviewer doesn't know the difference from a tag and a file name... d'oh! Just drag the files from an iTunes playlist and they will get copied to the device in the "proper" order. Using the Finder will alpha sort if you don't include track numbers in the file name. I use a rename script in iTunes to add the track numbers to the mp3 file names so they stay in album order in my dvd/mps player. The files name ALWAYS get truncated - iTunes just adds a text file to map the long names on the player. If this mounted in iTunes - I'd give it five stars. I also use audion for mp3Pro. Solid product - I added a 256MB SD card and Sony h.ear clip phones....

Maybe it's just my particular unit or it's the SD card I have but every other time I try to play a large file off my SD card, the Lyra crashes. This occurs at least half the time I try to use the MP3 player. I have discovered, through trial and error, my own remedy (as the manual is pretty useless and there is very little effective troubleshooting assistance provided). I have to take out the SD card, take out my battery. Reinsert the SD card, reinsert the battery. Turn it on. Take the battery out again after it crashes. Put the battery back in. Turn it on. Take the SD card out. Put it back in. Repeat above (not necessarily in that order) until such time as the Lyra actually plays the file.Also, there is no driver for Windows ME. The manual claims that there is, but when you try to load it, there isn't one. I e-mailed RCA customer support. Their response: There isn't one. They may offer one in the future.How likely is it that they will create a new driver for a product that is being replaced with newer models?In fact, I can't download any files to my RCA at all --since I have no driver. Fortunately, my digital camera (the WONDERFUL Casio Z4) uses the same SD card so I can actually use the camera's software and cradle to upload MP3 files to the SD card and then use the SD card with my MP3 player. Really, though, it doesn't say much for the RCA Lyra when I can't use it without using a digital camera as an interface to my computer.While I'm complaining:The manual is a thin booklet that offers very little information.It doesn't play the latest file formats.It eats batteries.The unit feels cheap (it has a plastic housing).The battery compartment door looks like it's going to fall off any minute now (and I only had this unit for a few weeks).The display is not backlit so you can't use it in the dark (or heavy shade, for that matter).On the other hand, the volume gets pretty high.It's tiny and very light.

Addendum: A couple of months later, it just died. It kept freezing up more frequently and the control buttons kept getting harder to use (you had to start pressing them harder and harder).