Customer Reviews

RCA RP2450 Portable CD/MP3 Player

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's the way it goes. I went to Wal-mart the first time. In a moment of extravagance I bought the Sony Walkman CD/MP3 for 125 bucks. Got home. Volume on the darn thing stunk.Couldn't read CDR-Ws either. Overwhelmed with Buyer's Remorse. Went back to the store. Got my money back. Bought the RCA CD/Mp3 player for 79 bucks. Along with the CD player I got a nice set of headphones that are better than the usual throw-ins and I got an AC Auto adapter. I didn't get a AC/DC adapter for around the house though. Okay, still a good deal because Sony didn't give me the auto adapter and their headphones were el cheapo. Now here comes the good part. I more or less thought I was going to get less because I paid less. The old axiom, you get what you paid for. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The sound was fantastic. And the volume was there. Could inflict pain if I wanted to. Clear,crisp and nice deep bass. Great sound. Much easier to read too. Popped a CD-RW in the baby and bang. No problem. Great sound. Tried the WMA format. Worked great. They even threw in the Jukebox software too. Listen,people, I've been burned by Riovolt and Sony. RCA delivers at 45 bucks less than Sony. Now I've only had the player for a day. Tomorrow I might sing a different song, but I don't think so. This baby and I will color the drab landscape of Brownsville with a sweet Mozart.

I couldn't find many reviews on this one, the RCA RP2450 but have had good luck with RCA in the past. I burned a cd-rw with some mp3's as soom as I got it home. It takes about 15 sec to read the disc I was using to test it (about 12 songs on it). One sone would not play (I did not realize it, but it was recorded at 256kb), but the rest played nicely. One 128 kb song had some blips that did not show up when played under Winamp, but I got a different copy of the song, still at 128kb and it worked fine. 160 and 192kb songs went without a hitch. The rechargeable NiMH batteries I use last about 8.5 hours of constant use, which is pretty good. The sound quality is good, as are the included headphones. I didn't try the car kit since it's a cassette and I've got a cd player in my vehicle. ...

RCA isn't Sony. For what it's worth, in my book, Sony produces some very excellent quality products. But, when I saw that this RCA mp3 player was $$ cheaper than the Sony one (translating into a 30% cheaper price), I decided to give the RCA a try. I've been pleasantly surprised!

I won't go through the specs -- it's a CD/mp3 player that does what one would expect. The build of the RCA player is great -- the headphone jack and DC jack look pretty sturdy and even reinforced. This has been a problem with some of the Aiwa walkmans that I've had in the past -- they would develop connection problems so that I had to twist and torque the headphone plug, otherwise I would only get the left sound channel.

Though there is no physical "hold" button, there is a menu option that allows one to set this. The interface is pretty good, in that I don't have to be looking at the player to recognize the buttons. This is useful for when the player is in my bag or I don't want to take my eyes off of the road while in my car.

I've had no problems with the mp3 playback, either. The player takes maybe a half minute to initially read through an entire mp3 disc, but it's very quick to switch between tracks after that. The player allows one to browse through the files in the directory structure that one determines when the disc is burned. Furthermore, Musicmatch 6.1 is included.

In summary, this player has decent sound, has a good, simple interface, and appears pretty durable. It's a great bargain, too!

This WAS a nice cd player. I got mine with a very handy car kit. The problems started soon after though. It will not read most of my MP3 cds that other players will read. It also tends to lock up and creates a buzzing sound. Overall I am NOT impressed and I am looking to a different brand for a replacement!

My nephew purchased a RCA RP2450 and I was so impressed with the sound that I bought my own. I have had this player for approximently six months now and all in all I am happy with it. It has very good volume with decent bass and three different bass boost levels. I have made 2 CD's with about 200 songs on each at all different bit rates and out of all those songs it has only failed to read six. It has yet to skip even once (hard to believe but true) - even in the car which has really impressed me. Neither my nephew or I have had any trouble with our players and we have both had them for about six months.
The only con is that it doesn't come with an AC adaptor - although usually if I am using this unit I am on the go. I do wish that I would have done a little more research on portable MP3 players before I bought this one. ... It would have been nice to have had FM radio to go along with the CD player capabilities. ...

Just purchased the RCA CD/MP3 Model RP 2450C unit primarily for playing my MP3 files burned to a CD-R @ 128kbps. The unit can not play a single song without skipping even when laying flat on a table with ESPX turned on. However, I have been able to determine a slight pattern. Every song skips at about 12 seconds then at 1:09 etc... Seems to be relatively consistent. The CD-R's are clean and play fine on other players. Very disappointed.

I've tried a bunch of mp3 cd players - they all skip. I see where others have referenced testing mp3 players for skipping by shaking, bouncing etc. From my own testing, that isn't going to cause even a cheap player to skip. You can shake it, bounce it, and beat on it and most any anti-skip player won't skip. However, the minute you put it in your car and head down the road you will know. Maybe it is a combination of the vibrations and the bouncing - that I don't know. So why do I say all this. This RCA model doesn't skip!!! Believe me when I say my truck can make any cd player skip. Sometimes I think it makes my own brain skip. After a week of everyday use I have yet to hear even one skip. The only bad thing I mention on this one is the car cassette adapter sounds extremely tinny - no bass. Luckily I had another one that sounds just fine with this unit. Unit also has easy to read display and super easy navigation. And oh yeah, you can turn off that annoying beep sound when you hit any navigation buttons ( a great option).

...I'm pretty sure the only difference is that the rp2452 has no car-kit.

I purchased this MP3/CD player expecting a lot. I guess that was a mistake.
Main Flaws:
-No support for multisession CDs
-Crash Prone (As if the OS was made by Microsoft)
-The lid is wobbly
-*BIGGEST FLAW*: if you're scrolling through the tracks on an MP3 cd, it takes almost a minute (seemingly decades) to load the song you've chosen. You get used to it, but it's almost like torture when you're waiting.
Main Strengths:
-*BIGGEST STRENGTH*: Anti-skip. It is amazing. RCA got something right, oh so right. This thing never skips. Ever.
-Sound Quality: Clear, crisp sound. Much better than playing mp3s on your computer at home.
-Remote: Perfect size, has a volume control, start/stop, hold(there is no hold on the actual CD player), skip forwards/backwards, has a nice clip too. I guess I'm nitpicking when I say that the cord's a little bit too long.
-Solid Design
-Bass Boost (DSP): It makes a big difference.
-Playlist maker: I assume it's good, I don't really use it though.
-Comes with a stereo connector for RCA connections, as in part of a home stereo.

Overall, it's pretty good, but you could do better with your money. It's limited featureset is far from perfect.

After owning this item for many years, I can say it's given me plenty of good use. It does occasionally have problems with skipping (a very harsh quick buzzing noise) or garbling, but more often than not it works perfectly fine.

One important note: this unit prefers CDRs to be recorded using "Mode 2/XA". Many cdr burning programs default to Mode 1, but in Nero you can choose Mode 2/XA. Mode 1 CDRs may not play very well, if at all, so beware of this. It's possible newer RCA models will have the same issue.

If you can find this unit used or in a discount bin for cheap, grab it.

Bought this model recently...

Pros:
Good sound
Easy use and navigation with ID3 function
Price is right
The headsets are better than they appear.

Cons:
Doesn't play many MP3 files combinations. I had to burn and reburn combinations of files and folders that would play. If you have patience with CD burning, this is an OK buy.
Battery life is far less than advertised...but isn't that the case with most devices?
Couldn't get the car stereo adaptor to work.

Overall I should have purchased a regular MP3 player.