Customer Reviews

RCA RP2480 Portable CD/MP3 Player

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I collect public domain old time radio shows from Internet enthusiasts' websites, which feature many hundreds of shows from the 1930's and 40's. Most of these are taken from old noisy transcriptions or network shows, with limited audio fidelity, and are encoded as 'low' as 16 kilobits resolution. This model RCA is one of the few portables that I have found that will play even 16 kbs Mp3 files (the manual claims the file encoding must be at least 32, but I find that 16, 22, or 24 kb encoding also play just fine.) Unfortunately it is true -- as stated in the manual -- that WMA files have to be 64 kbs, which leaves out many OTR files, but as far as I know, few (perhaps no) portables handle 16 kbs WMA files, though computer software can do so.

I am a professional sound engineer of many years' experience so I have been mystified by the negative reports about this player, written by users who have had very bad luck with their units. I have not had almost any of the problems reported by others. It is such a reliable player that I am now looking for a second one, or perhaps a later RCA model, to augment it. I also own an RCA RCD-148 CD/Mp3 boombox, pretty much the same thing but in a larger cabinet with radio tuner, amp, and speakers -- and have found it, too, to work very reliably, and to play almost any Mp3 file I have on CD-R, with no skips or discontinuities.

Here are the "problems" allegedly experienced by other amateur reviewers:

1. Hiss at all times? This is absolutely NOT the case with mine. Using either the phones supplied, or other better quality ones, I don't hear any line out hiss.

2. Bad sound, worse than other units? Not so! If the equalizer is set for flat reproduction, the sound is equivalent on high quality classical music CDs in my collection to any of my other regular portable CD players. Mp3 files sound absolutely the same as played back thru my Windows' computers.

3. Skipping? Not so in my unit. It takes effort to make it skip: banging on the lid will do it but this is also true of my other half-dozen CD-only portables. It seems no more sensitive to shaking than my Sony or Panasonic CD portable units.

4. Playing part of a CD audio or MP3 track, then quitting? Well, this has never once happened to me in more than a year of use with thousands of tracks played, on either CDs or CDRs.

5. Terrible battery life? Not really; I find it rather close to the claim in the manual. With a brand new pair of high grade alkaline batteries I can usually listen to one or two half-hour old time radio shows daily FOR THREE WEEKS to A MONTH before the batteries need to be replaced. Battery drain may be reduced -- as I use the machine -- by using an external headphone amp and keeping the RCA's volume level on the low side. I employ an inexpensive Koss three-band external equalizer/headphone driver since its graphic equalizer sliders are easier and quicker to use than the programmable equalizer in the RCA player (and have more control range.)

6. Not audiophile sound quality? Perhaps this is partly true. I find that when playing my finest quality classical music audio CDs that the RCA player has a noticeable sampling artefact at the start and close of some tracks, especially on old CDs made without dither. This would suggest that the D-A conversion and filtering is imperfect and not absolutely linear at the lowest part of the dynamic range, where sound levels drop below (say) -45 to -55 dB. For example, my Panasonic SX-SL270 handles the "fade in from black" of the very faintest music tracks seamlessly, while the RCA 2480 produces -- for a few milliseconds -- a slight faint crackle/thud until consistent sample amplitudes are at an appreciable volume. This is not noticeable DURING THE ACTUAL MUSIC but in the 'dead zones' in lead in/lead out tracks; with normal music playing I cannot hear any sampling artefacts at all. I find this inconsequential, and it does not seem to happen at all on Mp3 tracks (or at least the ones I have on CD-R.)

7. Low volume? Not at all; with the headphones supplied, I found the volume level generally higher than my Sony players, and quite sufficient for the music and radio programs that I have on CD. I can only imagine that people who like to play back (say) rap, with a driving, intense, extremely low-frequency bass down to perhaps 30 or 40 Hz would not find the dynamic range and power output of either the RCA's internal amp, or supplied phones, satisfactory; but portables do not handle this type of program material as well as high powered car or home stereo equipment operated from much higher current power sources than two little AA cells!

8. Instructions unclear? As far as I'm concerned, the supplied manual was a model of clarity, and the actual functionality (though somewhat cumbersome at first) is quite logical once you absorb the idea of what to do, step by step. The display provides more information than any other portable I've seen, and the ability to search the root and directories of CD-Rs containing huge numbers of files is quite exemplary and straightforward. I think the average VCR is an order of magnitude more complicated and confusing than this little device!

9. Unreliable. That is not true of the unit that I purchased. It worked correctly from the instant I put in the batteries and first disk; it still works fine a year later after hundreds and hundreds of hours' use.

I can only assume that people who have found this unit to be entirely UNsatisfactory have failed to observe the following conditions:

a. They haven't read the instructions;
b. They are using lousy batteries; maybe even carbon-zinc cheapies;
c. Their CDs are in TERRIBLE shape;
d. They have allowed the unit to become very dirty, so that the lens is not clean and clear;
e. They have subjected it to some severe physical damage, or left it in 100-degree sun for hours at a time (which will dry up the tiny capacitors on the circuit board);
f. They work for COMPETING COMPANIES (!) and are publishing disinformation to discourage people from considering this product;
g. Or -- let's face it -- they just don't know what they're talking about, have ridiculous expectations, and are almost never satisfied.

For the record, I have been a salesman of high end audio, have designed professional recording equipment, and have many years' background as a recording and audio engineer. The RCA is one of my more satisfactory items of home electronics; I recommend it to people who have expectations of actually receiving a product that lives up pretty well to its published specs (if not pleasing ignoramuses and clumsy folks with lousy, damaged CDs and the expectations that a $60 battery-operated portable will operate and sound like a multi-thousand dollar AC-operated device.)
- 8H Haggis

i'll keep the review short and to the point:

the construction of the player is quite sturdy, although i suppose if you tried hard enough you could break it. the buttons are nice and easy to get to, and feel like they could take a lot of pushing before going out. the display is very well thought out, but we'll get to that in a sec. the skip protection works amazingly well...i had to drop the player to get the CD to skip (not recommended :)), and i couldn't get the mp3 to skip at all. over all, a very good player.

now with the bad stuff:
no seperate line out and headphone jack (i don't care because i never used the line out anyway). the display isn't backlit, but then again, it only cost [$$]. the stock headphones might be good for some people (the sound quality isn't too bad), but the design of them hurt my ears. the CD player part is very very sensitive to scratches, or maybe it was Audio CD-R. i'm not sure. probably both. the last bad thing is it has some line noise at low volumes.

while, no, it's not an ipod, and you shouldn't expect it to be, it is very worth the money for anyone looking for a CD-mp3 player. definite recommend buy.

I am replacing this cd player now, but i have to say it was more than sufficent. It has lasted a year and a half though many falls, scorching heat, and being soaked a few times. I am well pleased with the fact that i can keep my entire rammstein collection on one cd, and still have room for a hundred more! The navigation was simplistic, the buttons never stuck, and after the above abuses, it still works, sorta. I don't know if i will buy another, but i do know that i wasnt disappointed by the one i own now.

I bought this cd player to replace my broken philips cd player because i broke the screen. At first the rca was good until i was using for 5 hours straight and the batteries died.My philips lasted at least 10 hours.The other reason i dont like it because any slight touch of the slide it pops right open. Last I hate the color. Other than those reasons the anti-skip is good,mp3 cds load fast, no promblems so far.

If I could have given this item 0 stars that's what I would have done. I purchased this item to replace my old RCA cd player that was skipping like crazy when I went out on my morning walks. So I liked the fact that this had MP3 so I could put more songs on one disk and then it also had Electronic Skip protection so I could actually hear the entire song. Well the first day I was thrilled, everything worked great. The next day it started skipping because the batteries were dying. Mind you I only walk half an hour a day and this was only the second day. Then all of a sudden the entire unit just shut off. It did this to me numerous times within the next few days. I was just walking along and the whole thing just shut off for no reason at all. I thought maybe I pressed something as I was walking, so I took it out of the case and held it in my hand, I pressed nothing and it just shut off again. I had enough and returned it to the store, then I went to a completely different store and bought it again. I thought okay maybe it was just that one that was messed up. Wrong!! The same exact problems, it would just shut off in the middle of the song with fresh new batteries. I was so upset I took it back and now I am on here trying to find another cd player to replace it. I was completely dissapointed. There is definitely something wrong with this model. I bought if for the skip protection, sure it doesn't skip but at least my other cd player actually let me hear the song! I also agree with the other posts about hearing the electric noise in the background. I will never by another RCA cd player again.

MINE WONT PLAY MY BURNED CD's!!!! It says that its "looking for files" for 10 minutes than shuts off. I dont understand, sound is weak, it wont play cd's, it was expensive when i got it too. If you want a good mp3 cd player...get the Rio Volt or just get an mp3 player or a cd player.

hey guys,
nothing much to speak about it, but its a good one i brought. although its cheap but u get more satisfaction for the money u pay.

I bought this to replace my Panasonic SL-SX271C CD player, which was a great product, except I dropped it one too many times. Now, I wish the Panasonic still worked properly. (For the record, I have not once dropped the RCA unit.)

First off, I never really used the headphones that came with the unit. I find the ear pieces to be too bulky, and instead use Sony MPR-A35 headphones. That's my preference. You might actually like these headphones.

I purchased an MP3-CD player so that I could compact my CD collection into a smaller amount of discs. This way, I could eliminate disc-swapping. At first, I had no MP3-CDs, so I used the player to play back audio CDs.

Quickly I discovered three annoying problems.

The audio randomly skips.
In somewhat regular intervals, there's a hiccup in the sound. This probably has to do with ESP Extreme, which I imagine prerecords segments of the music to memory in the event that the unit receives a massive jolt. The transition is not smooth enough, but it's best to leave it on. Since the unit doesn't seem to have any built-in shock absorption, the slightest taps and movements make the music skip like crazy.

The Open slider slides all too easily.
I listen to my music in mass transit. A lot of times, the hustle and bustle involved causes me to lightly tap the Open slider, causing the player to open, and frustratingly interrupting my listening pleasure. To counter this problem, I have applied a small piece of masking tape to the unit, so that it won't open unless I partially peel this piece of tape off. That shouldn't be necessary, and it makes the MP3-CD player look cheaper than it already is.

Batteries drain quickly.
I used the player only four times on its first set of batteries, listening to regular CDs. By comparison, my Panasonic player lasted significantly longer.

After the problems with skipping and such, I decided that maybe this player is geared specifically for MP3 playback, so I commenced with the burning. It does have a nice built-in file browsing system, though not unique to RCA. That's about all it has going for it.

I tried several MP3's with 128Kbps MP3s, and I was happy to hear that it was working... Up until about 25 seconds into the song, when the music suddenly stops, waits about 5 seconds, and then moves on to the next file.

What's wrong? I listen to pretty long songs (often at least 7 minutes apiece), so that may be a factor. Are the MP3's too big for the player? Do I need to compress these MP3s to the point where they're practically impossible to comprehend? The instructions say the playback bitrate can be anywhere between 32k and 320k, so that can't be the case. The play mode is Normal, not Intro. There's no comprehendable reason why this thing should not work.

Whatever the case may be, this mediocre CD player and useless MP3 player is about to go into my trash can, because I made the mistake of waiting too long to return it.

i originally wanted the sony psyc cd player, but i browsed around, saw this had mp3 capabilities, and bought this instead. i took it home, and before i opened it, i looked at the review on here. almost all of them said that the headphones suck, so i opened it and thought i would give them a try...TRUST ME, THEY SUCK!!! do not buy this unless you are looking more for features rather than sound quality - i ended up taking mine back b/c the sound sucked so much! i also got the sony psyc cd player - muuuccchhhh better!

When I saw this cd player in the images I found, I thought...that's pretty ugly, but it was cheap and it had exactly what I wanted. When the product got to my house I just was impressed, it wasn't pretty much as I imagined, it looks quite cool. Also, it works pretty well and with every MP3 cd I found :D. I would recommend you buy it...