Customer Reviews

RCA RS2052 Compact Bookshelf System with Lyra 128 MB MP3 Player

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

 

 

First off, I bought the unit about a week ago and am still putting it through it's paces...

Audio wise the 2052 is pretty good, delivering crisp treble response and rich bass. Lack of a subwoofer would preclude it from being used as the hub of a home theatre system, but for general listening it is pretty good. The EQ allows five settings; flat, pop, rock, jazz, and custom. Custom merely means you can manually adjust the bass and treble settings.

The tuner is pretty standard for a modern stereo system. 32 presets, FM/AM. The timer record function, not really prominent in any of the literature I had read prior to purchase, is a fairly unique feature. This unit will record either live or at a specified time (much like a vcr) directly to the included personal MP3 player. While the other sources allow bitrates of 128kbps, the stereo only will encode at 96kbps. A wire FM antenna and loop AM antenna are both included.

The CD changer is a fairly unique design. I describe it as a 5-disc accordion. When you press the eject button, all five discs become easily accessable. You can open the "accordion" while one disc is playing and change the other four. The unit will play CD-R and CD-RW encoded with either MP3 files or WMA files. According to the enclosed literature (and I have had no opportunity to test this) the unit correctly handles DRM issues with Windows Media files. It is important to note that the unit will rip CD's directly to MP3 files and store them on the included player, but only does so at single-speed. If you are looking simply to rip CD's to MP3 files, there are much faster computer based solutions than this unit.

Another underreported feature is the SD card slot on the front of the unit. Similar to the CD player, the SD card slot will allow you to play MP3 / WMA files directly from a SD card up to 1GB. (The manual specifies up to 1GB, I have no access to or ability to test a 2GB card.) While playing MP3 / WMA files, the unit scrolls Title and Artist information from the ID3 tag. It is important to note, the unit only records to the MP3 player, and not to the SD card.

The MP3 player is a fairly generic 128MB portable Lyra player. I have been searching for an extra player to use with the unit, it seems it is exclusive to this unit. The MP3 player has a built in USB fold-up connector that docks into the top of the stereo unit. The stereo will play files directly from the MP3 player. As far as my tests can tell, the USB connector on the top of the device will only recognize the included Lyra MP3 player (although the manual hints that a 256MB version of the player might be in development or available as an accessory.) The MP3 player easily connects to your Windows / Mac / Linux based machine for download / upload of files.

Auxillary connections are available for DVD player / any other type of outside device. The unit will record from the auxillary device to the MP3 player at 128kbps. There is also a complex multi-function remote (as a side note, the remote works on the same codes as the Norcent DP300 DVD player... I found this out first hand. If you are intending to use both units together, this would be good to know.)

Overall, good (but not great) sound quality. I tend to use the MP3 player and SD card slot to listen to podcasts in the mornings, but other applications are certainly possible. If you are interested either in being able to play lots of MP3 media, or having a device that will record MP3's without needing a computer, the RCA RS2052 is for you.

After doing a fair amount of research, I ended up buying this unit based upon a few core features:

1. You can play songs directly from an SD memory card.

2. You can play CDs with MP3 files, so you can cram about 11 hours onto each of the 5 CDs it holds for a total of about 55 hours of continuous music.

3. You can change the CDs while the unit is playing, so you can get even more than 55 hours of continuous music.

4. You can record almost anything directly to the included Lyra MP3 player. This includes recording from a CD, the radio, or from the AUX Line-In.

I had seen the unit in person, and saw that the MP3 connector was a regular USB port... so I decided to experiment with it.

What I found was that the USB port at the top of the unit accepted just about any USB storage device with a regular USB cable.

For example, I plugged in a simple 1GB flash (Jump) drive. It played... AND RECORDED to the drive. I then plugged in an 8-in-one memory card reader and plugged in an SD card. Once again, it allowed me to play AND record to the memory card.

This means that although as the product description and some reviewers stated that you cannot record to the SD slot in the unit, you can easily plug a regular memory card reader into the USB port, then record to the SD card... or Compact Flash... or whatever other cards you may have... or to a USB flash drive.

This means that this unit is highly expandable. As USB storage gets bigger and cheaper, it means you can bring your PC MP3 library directly to your stereo.

The only drawback is that with such a large potential library of digital music, you may find organizing the songs to be a bit more complex. The navigation is pretty basic, but it does allow you to select and play either folders, sub folders or individual songs.

This was a Christmas present for a 10 year old who wanted a little stereo in her room, and an MP3 player. I was hoping to get two in one with this item, but I am disappointed in the MP3 player. It does work, and sounds OK, but the menu and instructions for it are baffling. This morning I recorded one of her songs onto it from the RCA stereo (after 2 tries), but it doesn't shut off the recording when you hit the stop button, and now there is a few seconds of the next song on the MP3 player, and you would think I could easily delete it. No, I can't. The instruction booklet has never been put away because you always have to refer to it to work this system. It is not intuitive at all. The book does tell you how to delete files, but doesn't explain how to get to the file to delete. It is very irritating to me, and I am currently looking for a regular MP3 player to replace it. Plus the RCA MP3 player that comes with it is 128MB and isn't too overwhelming in style and features. I have been able to record 6 songs to it, but the first second or two of the songs get cut off because there is no way (that I have found) to start the song and recording simultaneously. Pausing the song and hitting record don't work. Often it takes 3 or 4 pushes to get the record button to register I want it to record and the song has already started.
AS for the stereo, it is fine, plays the CD's well and I can't complain about that. It looks like a neat system with its own style, but just don't buy it to get the MP3 with it. It wasn't worth the headache for me.

I bought this as a gift for my 14 year old daughter, and she loves it! I did find another Lyra mp3 player for my son, and I was glad to find it because it had the computer software (musicmatch jukebox), which was not included with the unit. Also not included was the carrying case for the mp3 player,listed on this site as being included, but not listed on the contents of the box. Also, the mp3 player is not expandable as far as adding memory to it, unlike the Lyra mp3 player I was able to buy for 39.99.

The first day we had the stereo, the display went blank, and stayed that way for a day or so. Then it mysteriously came back on after many attempts to get it back on (sleep mode?)There was no reference to how to deal with this in the manual. The online support site is useless, so I hope we don't have any other problems with it.

Set up was quick and easy. It is compact, and the accordian-type cd door is a nice novelty. My daughter is very happy with it. It's easy to use and she can do it on her own without any help from mom.

Pros: Supports upto 20Gb of a USB Mass Storage device, free mp3 player for the kids.

Cons: No Mp3 ripping only Live recording (from any source).

This is a great system to keep the PC out of the picture, no more Stereo jacks to your Audio component, no more wasting a computer to hear music.

Just get a (or two) USB based storage device like the 6GB MicroGem or GigaBank(CF HD based) and drop all your music, the system will search all mp3 or wma in the USB device and will play it any way you want to (shuffle, one by one) you can even browse the folders to select a song.

It took me a long time to settle on this unit, but I'm glad I did. It's got a bunch of great features that you can read about here, and a few others maybe not mentioned. I have an iRiver mp3 player, and I can plug it into this stereo via the USB and play it through the stereo. It gets better though - since the stereo recognizes the file structure of the mp3 player, I can use the remote control to skip around playlists and tracks on my own mp3 player. And of course, you can do the same thing with the little mp3 player it comes with.

The sound that this unit puts out is fantastic; pretty powerful bass, and clear mids and highs. Plenty of volume too - it won't shake walls, but you can have a pretty large party going on in the room its in, and it can certainly be heard above it.

hm, where to begin? i got this for Christmas this past year. i set it up, and loved the sound. however, i soon found some problems.
1. takes too long to change cd's already inside the stereo. have read about various stereo units using this "accordion" disc change mechanism, and this is a common problem. i wish that they would go back to making the carousel versions, even if they do take up more space. but maybe you can live with this.
2. is inconsistent reading mix cd's from the computer. sometimes it plays just fine, but several times, i'd put in my favorite cd, and after a few minutes of whirring sounds in the drive area, it would go to the next cd and act like my cd wasn't there entirely. sometimes i could get it to work if i pushed it again and waited out the long process of the cd being read. sometimes i couldn't. i use iTunes alot for my music downloading, so alot of my songs are on CD-R's. i wasn't willing to gamble. this was within a week of me getting this stereo.
other than that, the radio was fine, remote was pretty good, and i didn't bother with the mp3 player after running into problems recording onto it. i didn't get it for the mp3 player, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. if you don't use CD-R's, go for it. i wish i could find another stereo that looked this good and played better.

I love this stereo , best purchase I have made in a long time. Love the rich sound and how it has a mp3 attachment. NICE.

I got this as a Christmas gift in 2005, so it is out of warranty. It had been used less than 100 hrs. when the CD player stopped working, leaving my CDs stuck inside. When I called the number for authorized repairs, I got a recording telling me it was too cheap to repair. I then emailed, asking for a repair service; never got a reply. I took it to a local shop, and was told the whole CD system was broken, and the part would cost him 180.00, without labor. This unit cost my daughter 170.00, which is no small amount of money.