Customer Reviews

RCA RD2800 10 GB Lyra Jukebox

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Wow wow wow!!! I am utterly amazed at this piece of gear! This is my third hard-disk based mp3 player. I owned both the Archos Jukebox Recorder and the Treo 10, both of which had to be returned do to a whole host of issues including sound quality, lack of playlist support on the treo etc. The Lyra Jukebox smokes these two players, no comparison.

Construction:

The RCA Lyra Jukebox is very different than the other two players I have owned. The first thing I noticed was how this device's construction is flawless, even upon close inspection the build quality is far far better than either the archos or treo. Grade: 100

Sound Quality:

I loaded 500 megs of mp3s on the Lyra in 9 minutes and plugged in the headphones Wow! The sound quality is way better than either archos or treo. Also unlike those two other players there is no hiss or other unwanted noises during operation, It is a true pleasure listening to my Mp3s with this outstanding sound quality. Grade: 95

Headphones:

Finally a company has realized it is important to include some decent headphones with a hard disk based mp3 player, I am keeping this headphone
Grade: 90

Usability:

The Lyra is recognized as an external drive so transferring of MP3s and other files is a breeze. The User Interface on the Lyra is very easy to use and a vast improvement over both the treo and archosc. Grade: 95

Accessories:
You get everything you need with the player from decent headphones, to a cable to connect to the line out on the lyra to your home stereo, to a cassete adapter for your car, to a power adapter for in the car, and finally to a decent case with a sturdy belt clip. Grade: 95

Overall:
I think at this price point the RCA Lyra Jukebox cannot be beat. The Ipod is probably better in many facets but it is not worth twice as much. I finally have an excellent sounding, easy to use hard disk based mp3 player. Grade: 95

Well, having tried over 4 different mp3 players over the past 2 months, there's a lot that I can say about the RCA Lyra Jukebox.

Over all, it has impressed me in many ways. Sound quality is spectacular, battery life and recharge time is awesome, size and weight are great, and the DSP Equlization (5-band) is terrific. And since it comes with virtually ever adapter and cable you would need to hook it up, either in the car or at home, it leaves very little for you to need to buy as an accessory. So as far as the essentials, RCA definitly has it covered well.

But when it comes down to details, there are many little things that the Lyra Jukebox lacks. For example, there is no battery life indicator on the unit! Come on now! Also, the case that comes with the unit is pretty horrendous. Doesn't offer anything in terms of protection. Another little feature that might be bothersome to many (especially myself) is the fact that the LCD backlight will not stay on when the unit is plugged into the wall. Also, there is a slight delay between switching tracks, a big no-no for us who work in the DJ world.

Perhaps the worst (or best feature, depending on how you look at it), is the navigation system used in the software. Unless you have all your mp3 ID3s tagged, forget about trying to browse by filename. The unit features awesome support for browsing by artist, album, title, genre, and even playlists. But the unit will not sort alphebatically if you browse by filename (something many of us are used to).

So overall, I gave this unit a 5 rating because it has impressed me with the basic essentials. And since RCA has provided the ability for this unit's software to be upgraded, I would hope that in time, RCA fixes the little issues that many of us would get bothered by.

I think this jukebox is the best out there. I did extensive research before I bought it and even though it does not have a 20GB drive like some out there; it does have MP3Pro capability that lets you download a lot of music.
Yes, with USB1.1 it is not the speediest but that is why it has 10GB drive. You download a lot of music once and then just update it once in a while instead of using 64 or 128MB player that you have to update every day.
One thing that I really did not like about it is the case it comes with. It is horrible. It does not fit perfectly and really offers no protection to the most of the unit. Only back side is protected. No cover for the screen, buttons, or connector plugs. I think that RCA should offer a leather pouch type case that has clear plastic windows for screen and buttons and easily removable belt clip. Something like some of the cell phone cases. That way screen is protected and you can still press buttons and control the unit.

I picked up one of these thinking it would have support for mp3PRO -- but I was sloppy and didn't read the fine print. It's "mp3PRO ready"... meaning it's ready for a firmware update that isn't done yet. Other than that it has been decent to me.

On the plus side:
* Lot of storage
* Doesn't need any software to load - just appears as a drive letter in Win2000. I love that.
* The accompanying headphones are better than most portables - still not truly high quality though.
* Decent price for the storage

On the minus side:
* No mp3PRO support yet
* System crashes a lot with seemingly average jostling - I can't walk to the post office with it in my pocket without the system crashing. It's ok if tossed in a backpack though.
* Audible interference buzz - when the drive light flashes, you can hear it causing a bit of buzz in the headphones.
* The USB port is pretty obscure - I could not find a cable that matches the super small port. If you want to use it at home and work, you either have to carry the cable each way or maybe order another one from RCA

Another point which I have noticed is common with hard-drive based MP3 players, but surpised me when I got this was that ther battery is build in - so there is no way to carry a spare. With 10 gigs of storage, I had visions of extended listening "in the field" but that's just not possible. I love my rechargable AAs but they don't help here.

I have since purchased a 10GB iPod -- also uses a built-in battery -- which is otherwise vastly superior to the RCA, but at a higher price point. I'd recommend saving up for the iPod if you want a high capacity MP3 player if you have the means - but, in a crunch the RCA is not too bad.

This is my first jukebox purchase. It is a great piece of equipment. Installation was without incident on my XP machine. I had some trouble transferring files with Explorer. If I tried to move a corrupted file the file transfer would bomb under Explorer. I use a wonderful shareware application that handles such events and proceeds to the next file in the queue.

The jukebox supports the new MP3PRO file format. I have the latest version of MusicMatch (7.2) (MusicMatch 6.1 is included) which supports track ripping in this format. MP3Pro provides greater audio fidelity at half the file size. This 10G drive will now get you more bang for the buck with this new file format. I am in the process of transferring my CD collection to a digital format so I can get rid of the huge space requirements for keeping 600 CD's at arm's reach. Sound quality is excellent and it provides several DSP settings to tailor the sound to your liking. You can connect the jukebox to your home stereo with the supplied cable. It also comes with a car kit which I will probably not use.
In summary, I think this is a great product. I will probably buy a second for the other half of my CD collection.

I bought this from Amazon in early July because 1-- the IPOD was TOO MUCH money and 2 -- all the other PC compatible HD players looked cheap (eg - Archos) and/or too big (eg - Nomad)....

I have not been dissapointed. The product is not perfect, but the build and sound quality, as indicated in other reviews, are absolutely top grade. The real proof of build quality was when I was walking in the Best Buy parking lot, had just skipped a couple songs forward (meaning HD access was active) and DROPPED the unit from chest height to the pavement. It has a few dings...but no other indication of any damage. Works great. I dropped a RioVolt MP3 CD player, from a lower height onto pavement, and the unit was trashed....this is a very well built product.

OTHER - Battery life works as advertised. Firmware upgrades are diminishing the "hang" problem (it's pretty rare now) and have already added a battery indicator. Can FF/RW thru selections, but there is not a bookmark I have found -- shut it off and you are back to the beginning of the selection. Weakest part of product is clearly the silly case that comes with it.

Would buy again without reservation

Unit functioned and sounded great for the first 4 months. After adding 5G of files the unit stopped functioning and the PC-based repair utility failed to fix the problem. Customer support information is scarce from the 3 or 4 web sites that the RCA site will direct you too. No phone numbers are listed anywhere. My player is dead and will have to be disposed of. I will check out the vendor's web site first before purchase from now on. I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER PRODUCT FROM RCA OR ITS SUBSIDIARIES.

I bought this item here on Amazon and used the free shipping. I got my Lyra Jukebox in 3 days only! Awsome Service from Amazon. I've been looking around for the best music jukebox for awile now, and I'm happy I went with the Lyra Jukebox rd2800. 10 gig is a lots of space!. I've never seen this product before and when I got it, I was surprised how nicely built and compact this is. Sound quality is superb. I pluged it into my PC, and XP took care of the rest. I used MusicMatch 7 Plus to convert all my MP3's to MP3pro's, just drag and drop to the jukebox after that. I also used it to store some of my files so I was able to format my PC and clean it up. It came with everything, even a car kit and the head phones are not the cheap ones either. I'm very happy with it and you will be too if you decide to buy the Lyra Jukebox. And I'm sure you will also be satisfied with the service from Amazon.

It works fine and sounds fine, but the USB connection is WAY too slow. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by Firewire, but 10 Gigs going through USB 1.1 is so ... annoying.

The iPod, which costs just a little more, is far far more elegant and far far faster.

the jukebox has great sound but locks up too often. rca needs to correct this problem to make the lyra jukebox a viable usable system. otherwise i could not recommend it to anyone.

if any rca people are reading this...please fix the jukebox!!