Rating: 
Summary: Having Troubles Deciding? You're NOT alone!
Review: After checking the prices and reviews of other manufacturers' MP3 players, I bought the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 Player a few days ago and believe that I have sufficient experience with it to share several thoughts that you will hopefully find helpful in your quest.1.) I agree with virtually everything that is cited in the AMAZON.com review for the RCA LYRA RD2201 MP3 Player. Essentially, it is a thorough, objective, and accurate review. READ IT! 2.) Prices appear to be fluid-- effectively coming DOWN. The stores and the web cites are competing and running their specials. You can almost count on a price this week changing within the next week or two. This will make your choices harder if you are basing a significant part of your decision on price comparisons. Waiting for a "better deal" can be good, but there is such a thing as "waiting too long". Newer models are replacing those of today and are offering more features to confuse you! You must be careful to compare "apples to apples". One of the biggest differences among players is the "amount" and "type" of memory. A player equipped with 64 MB will naturally cost more than one equipped with 8MB or 32MB. CompactFLASH or Smartmedia Cards serve as the storage media. Technically, there doesn't seem to be any discernable advantage of one media type over the other. However, there can be a price variation of about $10 between the two depending on where you buy them. In retail stores, the prices appear to be the same. However, SmartMedia Cards appear to cost a little less on internet sites-- possibly due to a growing preference for them. BOTTOM LINE-- the internet sites can save you $20 to $30 over retail store prices. 3.) There is a lot most of us will probably never understand or realize about "formatting" of the storage media that can cause disappointment when planning to use it with "other" products as well (i.e. Digital Camera, Multiple Media Reader/Writer, etc). Each device seems to use its own format which makes the storage media incompatible with the other products. If you're lucky, you have two products that use the same format. How would you positively know until you try it? That's when the disappointment sets in! At least the RIO MP3 Player tells you this on their packaging if you know to look for it. I believe that "formatting" will always be an issue since everyone is attempting to protect their technology or end-product. The music industry serves as a good example. As hard as it is to accept this fact, DON'T AGONIZE OVER IT! 4.) When comparing features of MP3 Players, remain REALISTIC about your needs and intended uses. It is easy to "try" to make the product do more than it is intended to do. Until music is sold as less expensive CompactFLASH and SmartMedia Cards presumably compatible with your MP3 Player of choice, remember that the MP3 Player is not supposed to give you all sorts of versatility for hours of music listening pleasure and variety at a low cost through a simple change of the storage media. If this is what you want, then you should buy a compact Disc Player/Recorder! The MP3 Player provides you with a portable, lightweight product that contains NO MOVING PARTS and needs minimal accessories (if any). This makes the product more reliable and offers SKIP-FREE music listening pleasure-- great for active people. It serves as a good stop-gap product to occupy your time while using public/commercial transportation or during lunch break. It is not necessarily practical for that long vacation automobile drive where you will have to listen to the same music over and over again until you can get to your computer and change the song list. If economy is not a priority, you could purchase multiple 64MB CompactFLASH Cards to take with you for easy changeout. IF YOU DO THIS, I SHOULD INVEST IN THE COMPANY'S STOCK! 5.) The MP3 Player should not be expected to be all things to all people. I suppose that a RADIO function or a VOICE RECORDER function would be useful-- neither of which can be found in the RCA LYRA Model RD2201. How much do I really need it to store 300 telephone numbers and addresses? Isn't that what Electronic Pocket Organizers are for? Fortunately, the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 Player does not come with such a feature! Perhaps it would be more advantageous for the Organizers to include a MP3 player function for those that have the need (and the money) for such products! 6.) Contrary to the AMAZON.com review, I find the headphones to be one of the better quality versons packaged with the MP3 Players. In part, I suppose it depends on your preferences. I prefer the full, one-piece headphone that comes with the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 even though it is less compact than an ear-bud, foldable style. As AMAZON.com stated in their review, you can always purchase another style of headphones or even use your favorites from another product. THANK GOODNESS THE HEADPHONE PLUGS WERE STANDARDIZED YEARS AGO! 7.) It is important to hold the various manufacturers' MP3 players in your hand and sample the pushbuttons/displays. I find that the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 fits comfortably in my hand and provides controls that can be operated single-handedly. I attribute this phenomenon to its "larger size" when compared to other MP3 Players. Someone referred to it as "the bar of soap" which is a suitable description. It is more rectangular than square like its competitors. It is also as much as twice as thick as some of its more compact competitors which I think is a good characteristic. Therefore, it doesn't fit as comfortably in a pocket as its competitors. I find that thin products usually require two hands to operate them since they have controls located in odd places. I also find it more difficult to cradle square shaped objects than rectangular shaped objects in one hand-- depending on the dimensions. 8.) Initially it bothered me that the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 Player does not have a "HOLD" button to prevent unintentional activation of its controls. However, the controls appear to have been designed with this issue in mind. The buttons require a genuine, intentional activation to get a response. The unit seems to ignore rapid, light activations of the buttons. This may be one reason that both AMAZON.com and I experienced the need to push buttons a second time to activate the desired function. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I can see where it can be irritating at times. 9.) The only EQUALIZER setting that is worth anything on the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 Player is the "customizable" version. You can do some really good things with the feature. Minimal impacts to the music are distinguishable with the five other preset Equalizer settings. This is disappointing-- particularly since the "customizable" version must be reprogrammed EVERY TIME the CompactFLASH Card has been altered to make changes to the play list files. Frustrating? THIS IS WHERE SOME BUILT-IN EPROM MEMORY WOULD BE HELPFUL! 10.) Don't let the WEIGHT figures fool you! The RCA LYRA Model RD2201 is relatively lightweight until the two AA-Batteries are installed. Obviously, a product that utilizes only one AA-Battery or possibly disc/puck type batteries found in calculators will weigh less. Then again, they are probably thinner and more squarely shaped. YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT! 11.) The parallel port computer cable for the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 Player involves more than that. It includes two "pigtails"-- one to be plugged into the keyboard or mouse port and one to be plugged into a printer cable. These "pigtails" make the cable arrangement unwieldy. A federal case does not need to be made of this issue! Just the same, it's something you should know about. It seems advantageous to have a separate storage media reader/writer which comes standard with the RCA LYRA Model RD2201 Player. It serves as an external drive for your computer-- limited only by the amount of CompactFLASH memory inserted. 12.) There doesn't appear to be any reason to perform hand-stands and cart-wheels over the RealJukeBox software. I don't have much experience with comparable software programs. The software does the job. Contrary to the AMAZON.com review, I am not so sure that the files are strictly MPX-- an extension that "protects" the file from duplication. The "options" can be set to less protective extensions. Of course, RealJukeBox is quick to flash WARNING notices on your screen to advise you of the potential consequences for doing so. As I recall, RealG2 files require less space than MP3 files. Even a little savings adds up. Any time storage space can be saved, this is an advantage. Chalk one up for RCA!
Rating:
Summary: RCA Lyra
Review: For between this price you can get the lyra which you can hold up to 64 minutes of music on it. This is pretty cheap. The volume goes up to 50. The earphones that come with it by RCA are loud and the voulume is good. The Lyra isn't tiny but its not huge like walkmans. I love my Lyra and I bet you will too. ô¿ô ===
Rating:
Summary: Fancy That
Review: For relatively cheap you can get this puppy! It holds 64 minutes of music. The headphones I got were nice comfortable and were loud. I love my Lyra!
Rating: 
Summary: Help Me!
Review: I am trying to decide whether i should bu a 32MB Lyra, a 32MB Pine D music, or the Diamond Rio 600.Pleas e-mail me at cashmoneybrada1@aol.com if u have any opinions on these products.
Rating:
Summary: Lyra is awesome!
Review: I got my Lyra for my birthday this year, and I use it everywhere. The two best uses I found for it are that you can work out with it, because it doesn't skip like a CD, and you can hook it up to your home/car stereo. That way, you can listen to MP3's anywhere! I agree, the headphones are probably the best pair I have ever gotten, and I use them with everything. Probably the greatest thing about Lyra when compared to other players is that it is expandable. You can get larger compactflash cards to upgrade it and listen to more music!
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless proprietary trash
Review: I got one of these as a gift along with tha rest of my team at a former job. I can say with certainty that I'm glad I did not [PAY] for this piece of junk. Every so often I figure I'll dig it out and see if I can make some use of it again, and soon find out just how much of a waste of time that is. These days it's evem worse that it had been when it was new. Sure, you can [IN THEORY] upgrade the firmware, but that's only if you have [precisely] the sort of system configuration the developers thought you were allowed to have. Since this is from Thompson/RCA, who own the Frauenhoffer patent the MP3 format uses for encoding, and therefore have a vested interest in proprietary formats, they will likely [never] support the competing OGG Vorbis format. Tough luck if that's what you've been encoding all your vinyl recordings in. Also, since it's so anal about how you upload your music to it, it seems you can't even use a newer card without some weird formatting utility for ity. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Worthless proprietary trash
Review: I got one of these as a gift along with tha rest of my team at a former job. I can say with certainty that I'm glad I did not [PAY] for this piece of junk. Every so often I figure I'll dig it out and see if I can make some use of it again, and soon find out just how much of a waste of time that is. These days it's evem worse that it had been when it was new. Sure, you can [IN THEORY] upgrade the firmware, but that's only if you have [precisely] the sort of system configuration the developers thought you were allowed to have. Since this is from Thompson/RCA, who own the Frauenhoffer patent the MP3 format uses for encoding, and therefore have a vested interest in proprietary formats, they will likely [never] support the competing OGG Vorbis format. Tough luck if that's what you've been encoding all your vinyl recordings in. Also, since it's so anal about how you upload your music to it, it seems you can't even use a newer card without some weird formatting utility for ity. (...)
Rating:
Summary: this is an awsome mp3 player
Review: i jusy got this for christmas and it rocks before christmas i peeked and saw it and it looked cheap but then when i got it i couldint believe it it has its own equalizer and the sound is just great over all this is the mp3 player u want to buy if your in da market for one.
Rating:
Summary: This is one great entry level MP3 player!
Review: I own two of these babies, I bought them as "refubished" online from an auction company. They have never failed to amaze and please me. They are fully supported by MusicMatch tm computer software, so downloading mp3 to it is a snap! I have used up to a 256 compact flash card in them and they work great! I even compress my old time radio shows down to 16 kbits , so I can listen to literally hours of old radio shows while driving. I use rechargeable batteries, and carry spares if they run low. Buy an extra USB reader/writer and your set for life. The b/w lcd screen scrolls the name of the tunes and or whatever the titles my be, and with 5 different modes and 6 dsp settings, you can't go wrong. I only wish I could have purchased these "Brand New" because they brand the case with a great big "R" on the back.
Rating:
Summary: This is one great entry level MP3 player!
Review: I own two of these babies, I bought them as "refubished" online from an auction company. They have never failed to amaze and please me. They are fully supported by MusicMatch tm computer software, so downloading mp3 to it is a snap! I have used up to a 256 compact flash card in them and they work great! I even compress my old time radio shows down to 16 kbits , so I can listen to literally hours of old radio shows while driving. I use rechargeable batteries, and carry spares if they run low. Buy an extra USB reader/writer and your set for life. The b/w lcd screen scrolls the name of the tunes and or whatever the titles my be, and with 5 different modes and 6 dsp settings, you can't go wrong. I only wish I could have purchased these "Brand New" because they brand the case with a great big "R" on the back.
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