Customer Reviews

RCA RD2840 Lyra HD Jukebox w/40 GB Hard Disc Drive

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I bought the RD2840 40GB Lyra jukebox when it first went out sale as exclusive at Circuit City. I've been quite happy with it.

Pros: huge capacity (Windows reports 37.2GB total); low price; USB 2.0 High-Speed (=fast transfers!); drag-and-drop file transfers for both music and non-music; recognized by Windows as an external hard disk; graphic EQ plus a few presets; iPod-like interface; includes carrying case and car adapter; backlit LCD screen with adjustable backlight and contrast; good sound quality (after you replace the stock headphones); easy system software set-up (no reboot needed in XP); key lock via Menu button; line-out for hi-fi systems; ability to tag a song "Like" or "Dislike"; ability to import MusicMatch play lists; cute packaging box with handle.

Cons: bulky (but surprisingly lighter than I'd expected); too thick; buttons can be unresponsive at times; cannot remember last song played after power down (really stupid! Who designed this thing?); quality seems ok but not as solid-feel as electronics from Sony or other Japanese brands; not much of a printed manual; web support almost non-existent (although you can download the latest firmware update).

Overall I like the RD2840, a lot. I had iPod-envy but not any more. Sure it's bulkier and heavier than the iPod, but it's not really too heavy at under 10 oz., and comes with a decent carrying case, plus the value factor is just enormous. I'm not rich by any measure so I couldn't justify shelling out the iPod kind of money. Also, I wanted to use whatever jukebox I'd buy as an external hard drive, and the RCA products are the only ones that can function this way. (Nope, even the new Creative Labs Nomad NX can't double as an external drive. Besides, that product has a really brain-dead desktop program, and its internal drive breaks when you just walk. Avoid the Nomad NX!)

Software installation was fast and required no restart, a rarity these days. I skipped installing MusicMatch, since I encode mostly in WMA using Windows Media Player. With native drag-and-drop support via USB 2.0 High-Speed, it's so easy and fast to transfer all sorts of files between your PC and the RD2840. You can use the RD2840 as a back-up hard disk. What happens is after you transfer the files, you *must* do a profiling via the system tray. This is VERY IMPORTANT to keep the RD2840 happy. The profiling process is actually quite fast if you do it after you transfer the files, before you unplug it from the PC. (You can also do it from the RD2840 itself, but it takes longer and consumes battery power.) The profiling basically recognizes all the MP3, MP3Pro and WMA files on the RD2840's hard disk and builds a database. If you don't profile each time after you transfer files, you get unpredictable behavior, which eventually will require a soft reset. (Yep, it has a reset whole, on the left side.)

The player supports all MP3 tags, and the blue blacklit LCD screen shows you all the information about each music file. WMA support is flawless. (I don't have any MP3Pro files so I don't know how that works.) I encode all my music in bitrates from 64 kbps (for WMA) up to 192 kbps (for MP3), and the first time I set up the player, I transfered about 2GB of songs. The transfer process took about 5 minutes (I have USB 2.0 High-Speed ports on my laptop), and the profiling took less than a minute. I also copied some documents just to confirm that I could use the RD2840 as an external drive; again the transfer was fast over USB 2.0 High-Speed.

So that was tip #1: always profile the RD2840 after downloading files to it. Tip #2 is, be sure to download the latest firmware from RCA's website. There's some confusion as to whether the current update actually does anything for this particular model. You should still download and install it anyway.

Tip #3, to maximize battery life, you should always top off the charge by an hour or so. That's just the way LiIon batteries work. If you don't charge it fully, over time its performance will degrade. RCA says you can get 10 hours of play time out of this; I guess the actual battery life depends on how often you press the buttons, the encoding format and rate of your music, and other factors. I found that I get anywhere between 6 and 8 hours, more on the low end, though. Luckily, the AC adpater is pretty compact, and you get a car adapter in the package.

The biggest annoyance is that the player can't remember where you were before you shut it off. That's really stupid. On the other hand, the scroll button would scroll slowly first, but if you keep holding it down for 2 seconds, it starts scrolling by page, pausing a bit between pages, which is really nice. The overall interface reminds me of the iPod's, although slightly less refined, but still usable even if you don't read the electronic manual.

In summary, the RD2840 is a very capable MP3/WMA jukebox player as well as an external hard drive for Windows PCs. Mac support is rather limited, but Windows users will be happy especially if they heed my aforementioned suggestions.

After reading several reviews of this product - some good and some not so good, I was a little reluctant. I bit the bullet and shelled out $300 or so and was very glad I did. Now, I've only had this for 2 weeks, but this thing has brought me immense joy.

I must say that many of the "complaints" I've read have some truth to them, but the way I look at life is this: If I stay at a beautiful hotel with an indoor swimming pool, king size down beds, free room service and a gorgeous ocean side view - I'm not going to complain because I don't like the color of the shower curtain. Get it?

The biggest competition, of course, is Apple's IPOD. Yes, it's better, but it's about twice the price. My friend has an IPOD and he tried to talk me into saving for one but he failed. He then conceded that my RCA Lyra was "pretty nice" after I showed it to him. For those who have never seen/held this unit, many complaints are that it's "big and bulky". Horse Hockey. O.K. - compared to the IPOD it is, but that's like saying compared to a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes is a crappy car. This thing fits very snuggly in my shirt pocket, yet this is unnecessary since it comes with a carrying case that allows me to wear it on my belt. Oh, did someone say accessories?? In addition to the carrying case, you get all the equipment to hook it up to your home stereo system and your car stereo (provided you have a cassette deck). The ac adaptor/charger is very lightweight and you can listen via AC power while the unit is recharging. You can also use the thing as a spare hard drive.

As far as ease of setup/transfer, I found it to be incredibly easy. If you can transfer a file to a floppy on your computer, you can transfer music easily to this thing. So far I've played MP3, MP3PRO and WMA files - I'm not sure exactly what it will and will not play but the above are good enough for me.

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but to quicken the time it takes the player to get from song to song (rarely longer than 2 seconds for me), you should put your music in as many folders and subfolders as possible - rather than putting your whole collection under one folder.

I also like the shuffle feature - mainly because you can shuffle by artist, or folder. So if I'm in a Classical mood, the shuffle will only shuffle music in my classical folder and skip stuff like Aerosmith.

The buttons can be a little tricky, and the transfer rate can be slow (at least that's what a lot of people think), but these are very minor in my judgement. My unit freezes about once per day, but a paper clip fixes that very easily (that's the one accessory I had to buy myself! Darn! :-) )

The latest firmware fixes the problem of the unit not remembering where it was when it shut off (another big complaint from people).

I did find making the playlists a little tricky, but I found a support group on Yahoo's web site, and I was able to figure it out.

If you have tons of cds and want to get them out of your living room and have tons of music at your fingertips, this is the unit for you (I have about 23gb filled - about 7,000 songs).

Kudos to RCA!!!!

I've owned all three 40GB players available today: Creative Zen, RCA Lyra, Apple iPod. This is the review I wish I had read before I started shopping. It was a originally more comprehensive but I had to trim it to 1000 words.

For the most part, the Creative Zen has the best features of the three, as well as the best price. It sounds like a no brainer except for the fact that these things break like crazy! If you read some of the other reviews on here, you'll see a few people mention that their headphone jack shorted out when they dropped the player....well mine shorted out while the player was sitting on my desk not moving at all. I don't know a single person who bought one of these players and didn't have their headphone jack malfunction! Many reviewers suggest buying an extended warranty because of this problem. I would most definitely agree with them on that one, but personally I don't have the patience to wait a few weeks every time the player decides to stop working. Those warrantees are supposed to be purchased just in case something goes wrong; not because something most likely will! The Lyra from the moment it came out of the box to the moment it stopped working for no apparent reason, four hours later, was on the whole a piece of junk. That said...on to the comparisons.

PRICE: As just about every anti-iPod reviewer mentions, THE IPOD IS MORE EXPENSIVE AND DOES PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THING. The iPod is basically the BMW of mp3 players...the other mp3 player work like, and cost about as much as a Kia. They all do basically the same thing, but the cheaper ones are cheaper for a reason!

SIZE: All three players are smaller than a walkman, so it's kind of silly to even discuss this, but it seems to be a hot topic in the other reviews. From largest to smallest the players are ranked as follows: Lyra, Zen, iPod. The Lyra is the only one of the three which will not fit easily in your pocket. It is the widest /longest /heaviest of the bunch, and personally, I hated the way it felt in my hand. The Zen and the iPod were both a pleasure to hold.

CONTROLS/NAVIGATION: iPod gets first place here simple because it's touch sensitive navigation wheel allows you to get from the first album in your collection to the last in seconds and it stops on a dime anywhere in between. The Zen's controls are very good however it takes longer to scroll through your entire collection and when it really starts moving fast, it continues scrolling after you release the button sometimes skipping past another 50-75 albums! The Lyra had decent navigation, but the buttons had to be pushed more than once before they responded almost half of the time! The Zen and the iPod can be operated easily with one hand.

PLAYLISTS/SONG RATING: The Zen wins here without a doubt. It is the only one of the three where you can create, edit (even while it's playing) and SAVE multiple play lists on the player itself without connecting it to a computer. The iPod allows you to make ONE play list on the fly, which cannot be edited or saved.

The Lyra allows you to tag songs you like or don't like and it makes play lists of each...yes, it makes a playlist of songs that you tell it you DO NOT LIKE...if that doesn't explain what's wrong with this product, nothing will! The iPod allows you to rate songs 1-5 stars on the player, and then make a play list automatically based on those ratings when connected to a computer.

BATTERY: Again, Zen is the winner here. Not only does it offer a battery that lasts 14 hours instead of iPod and Lyra's 8 hour batt. it is also the only player of the three where you can remove and replace the battery when it deteriorates with age as all rechargeables do. It should be noted that the battery times I listed are the official times given by the manufacturers. The Zen actually lasts about 10 hours the other two go between 5 and 6 before needing a charge.

SCREEN: The Zen not only has the biggest screen of the bunch, it also scrolls the album title in the directory screen allowing you to see the whole thing instead of just the first few words.

TRANSFER TO PLAYER: All three units use USB 2.0, the iPod also can be used with Firewire.

TRANSFER FROM PLAYER: The Zen allows you to transfer music freely from your player to any computer loaded with it's software. The iPod does not allow this however third party software that can be purchased and used to pull songs from the iPod. In all honest, the Lyra broke before I could find out if you can pull songs off of it. </P>

SOFTWARE: iTunes is easy to use and offers tons of ways to organize your music. Creative Media Manager takes a lot of getting used to but is decent once you figure it out. Musicmatch, which comes with the Lyra is garbage. It`s slow, difficult to figure out at times, and constantly badgers you to buy the upgrade to its premium version.

EXTRAS: The only one that actually has extra features is the iPod which comes loaded with 4 different games, the ability to read text documents that are stored on the hard drive on the player's screen, a date book, and an address book. The Lyra's ONLY advantage over the other players is the fact that it comes with a complete car kit (charger/tape adapter)....which is pretty nice, but useless when the player turns itself into a paperweight after just a few hours. All three players come with a case....iPod's is the only one which does not give you access to the player's controls when it's in the case.

Hope this helped.

In late October RCA released a software update for the RD2840 that fixed two problems: 1. the RD2840 can remember where it left off before shutdown, so when you turn it on, it goes right back to the last song played -- and the start-up time has been significantly shortened. 2. it no longer crashes when playing certain (ill-ripped?) MP3 songs. I maintain my "5-star" rating because it's been such a joy to use. I still envy iPod's nice form factor a bit, but for my money, I got a player that gives very good sound, plays MP3/MP3Pro/WMA, the most popular compressed audio formats in the world, and doubles as a USB 2.0 High Speed external hard drive with plug-and-play when you use it with Windows XP and Windows 2000. Dude, you can't beat this deal! The software update now makes the player "perfect" in function.

I've owned this for over a week. Here are my comments:

Cons:
Not a real "con" but the packaging for this thing was amazing. It was sealed so tightly they clearly didn't want anything bumping it. The plastic it came in was very hard to cut through and once cut, it was sharp. I sliced myself in my eagerness to get the Lyra out of its packaging so beware! Another "con" is the lack of documentation. While I was impressed that what was included came in multiple languages, it was not much. You have to print off the User's Guide at http://www.rca.com/documents/RD2825_2840UsersGuideENGLISH_702125_25.pdf. It would have been nice if there were some preliminary instructions included. I know that some electronic devices must charge for a full 24 hours before you use them. In any case, I think the first charge took 3 hours or less, which is not long to wait. It's also too bad that the software included was MusicMatch rather than just some simple editor for editing your own playlists. Lastly, the "thumbstick" on it takes some getting used to. Instead of pushing down on it left or right, you learn to sway the thumbstick left or right and then once you get the hang of it you're set.

Pros:
The price is great considering what you get for it. The box contained: the Lyra (40GB!), a USB cable, headphones, an AC charger, a power adaptor for the car, a cassette adaptor for the car, a case for the Lyra, and stereo cables for connecting it to a stereo. And, the AC adaptor that plugs into your wall socket is horizontal rather than the typical bulky charger that takes up a lot of wall socket space. That was smart thinking. The real pro for this is that you install the drivers off the disk in a couple of minutes and then plug in your device and it is recognized as another drive on your system. Copying via the USB cable is extremely fast, I can transfer a CD of average length in 15-20 seconds.

In short, for under $300, you get an immense amount of power at your fingertips. The device supports many audio formats and even it it doesn't, it also serves as a portable hard drive that you can put anything on and take it with you!

I didn't buy this player. My friend at work did. He asked me before he bought a hard drive MP3 player which one to buy. I'm still on the MP3 CD player bandwagon (hard drive MP3 players still cost too much for me). So I did some research and recommended to him the Rio Karma, as it had decent reviews and my MP3 CD player is the Rio SP100; with which I've had no problems in 3 years.

However, the clerk at the store he went to talked him into the Lyra. He brought it into work and showed it off. So the first day at work he managed to get the player locked up twice, and I locked it up once. The reset button on this is just about impossible to reset. We had to find the smallest pin to reset it.

I told him, "Don't worry, we'll go online and I'm sure there's a firmware update to take care of the errors." Not only was there no firmware update (as his player had the most recent version), but the RCA website was just one webpage of all their MP3 players bundled on one page; very confusing.

On top of that, I noticed that after one day of use the paint on the buttons had already chipped off in two places. He was rather upset. I convinced him to return it and he got the Rio Karma. We got it back to his place, hooked it up, and he was ecstatic about all the cool features. As was I. The only thing I didn't like about the Rio Karma was the smaller capacity (20GB). That won't hold all my music (35GB) but holds his just fine.

The last negative is that you cannot play music while charging the battery, HUGE letdown!

My rating is only 1 star and that's for the high capacity. I have owned two other RCA products (a 20" TV, and a CD boombox) that broke within one year of use. Definitely NOT recommended.

So, I read all of the mp3 player reviews and finally settled on the Lyra. I got the player, and had no problem plugging and playing (I have Windows XP and use iTunes for my music software).

So several things to keep in mind -- I transferred all of my music using the drag and drop option, but noted that I couldn't find a number of my songs, until I looked under the artist name "Unknown". Evidently, iTunes (which is the program I use to rip my CDs to computer) doesn't save tracks with ID3v1 or v2 information and this is what Lyra uses to store music.

So... I wound up downloading shareware (two good examples include Tag & Rename and Taggin' MP3s) to retag these files. Now that I know, this is a cinch. All of my files are organized well (they are in folders by artist and then by album) which means that they can be found when I browse very easily. (DO NOT make the mistake of using MusicMatch Jukebox to sync your files with the device -- if you do, looking for a song will take upwards of 15 seconds).

Also make sure to update the operating software. Many of the bugs listed below have been fixed in the new release. I updated first thing before I ever used the player.

Anyway, I love my player. I take it with me everywhere -- my kids now ask to listen to it in the car, and not the radio.

Just be sure to pick up a MP3 tagging program along the way.

Enjoy!

I got the RCA to replace an old MTV Evolution 128mb player I had lost, and figured if I'm going to upgrade, I'm going to UPGRADE. The day I got it I had 1000 tracks on it and took it to work with me to play with on my downtime, and show it to a coworker. He could not believe that it held 40GB. He said he had to have one and went out to the electronics store in town and ended up getting an iPod instead, (the salesman told him iPod was MUCH better.) Now we both have 40GB jukeboxes, and it was time to compare.

Song Navigation:
iPod remembers where you left off; RCA does not
RCA controls are much easier to use, iPod is touchy, too much for my taste and you had to remove it from the case.
Winner- RCA

Size:
RCA is a bit bigger then the iPod and harder to slip in a pocket.
Winner- iPod

Extras:
With my RCA, I got a carrying case, cheep-o headphones, tape deck adapter, audio input cables, usb cable, ac adapter, and a cigarette lighter adapter. With his iPod he got, even cheaper ear buds, and an usb cable.
Winner- RCA

Price:
Take a look for yourself. (And he had to buy all the extras)
Winner:
RCA

Overall:
The RCA has done everything I wanted it to do, yea it would be nice if it remembered where you were, (not good for audio books,) but my coworker told me he wished he had got the RCA. I am glad I got the RCA and do not want the iPod.
Winner -RCA

I was hestitant to delve into the world of MP3 jukeboxes, as the technology is relatively new. However, I am a music fanatic and cannot live without it. I'm listening to it 24/7, in my car, at the gym, at work, etc. You can appreciate my frustration then when it comes to swapping CDs at the gym or in my car. Enter the RCA lyra.

I have over 300 CDs and 6,500 songs on my harddrive. Moving them over was as quick and as easy as drag-and-drop from windows explorer. I personally hate Musicmatch Jukebox software and didn't even bother to install it. It's really unecessary in my eyes. Most other jukeboxes require special software to get you going, and to get a windows explorer interface for the Creative Nomad Zen you have to shell out 25 bucks for third-party software.

Pros: Huge storage capacity, wicked 5-band graphic equalizer, line-out jack (most jukeboxes lack this!), large, bright display, comes with a plethora of accessories, top-notch volume level and sound quality, cool-ass case!

Cons: Buttons can be a bit small and hard to find without looking, much bigger and bulkier than the Apple Ipod, internal battery only (crappy!)

To be honest, I don't have enough good to say about this player. Taking your music with you is as easy as selecting the proper audio device - for portable use a set of good headphones is all you need (those RCA clip-on headphones are retarded - get a set of sony streetstyles: cheap, comfy and sound great!) For PC use, all you need is a USB cable - just connect and play your music through Winamp or another mp3 software device. The best part?

I own a JVC MP3 car CD player with a stereo minijack input on the front of it. All you have to do is connect the Lyra to that jack with a line-out cable (not supplied, but easy to find) and you have all your music at the touch of a button! No more toting around bulky, expensive CDs!

Size is the only advantage Ipod has over this thing. Sure, the Ipod's smaller, but the lyra has better sound, a better interface, more connectivity options, more accessories, 10gb more of storage capacity, more more more. I bought my Lyra brand new on Ebay for 200 bucks - that's almost 300 less than an Ipod. Give me one reason why I should've shelled out that much more for an arguably inferior product.

Word of advice: Your Lyra will function much better and faster if you organize the HD with as many folders and subfolders as possible. The first time I fired it up I had all 6,000 songs in one folder and it took almost a minute to switch from song to song. Then I made 24 subfolders, one for each letter of the alphabet, and switch time was almost instantaneous. You don't have to worry about navigating through those folders on the lyra interface - regardless of the organization of the files, it still groups them by artist, genre, etc.

In short, this is easily the best jukebox on the market for the money. Ipod doesn't even come close. As if all this wasn't enough, it functions as a removeable 40gb harddrive.... You can move anything with it, not just music.

HIGHLY recommended.

Once again RCA has proven that they are still in the High-Quality Audio Business. The RD2840 is compact, sleek, shiny, and powerful! Although it's larger than the ipod, it still fits nicely into the palm of your hand while delivering exceptional sound quality (even through the included "ear-clips" earphones). RCA puts both the zen (creative) and the ipod (apple) to shame with it's ingenuous idea to allow transferring of files using it like an external hard drive (no cumbersome software to install on every computer you need to use it with! *That was the selling point for me). And, while zen includes generic earbuds, RCA included some amazing headphones which simply clip over your ears comfortably, while delivering crystal clear, premium quality sound. And just look at the price! Almost half the price of a 40GB ipod! The accessories also prevail against the rivals; everything you need to make your audio experience totally portable and every part is high-quality! Bravo RCA!