Rating: 
Summary: Great little player but hard to find!
Review: The fact that everyone was sold out of this MP3 player was just another indication of how popular it was/is. We ended up finding it on auction. After much research we decided on the Lyra 2 because of all the good reviews. The price tag was nice also. With 64MB it consistently holds about 15-17 songs for us. Because of the particular software used and encoding process it does take a bit of time to download songs to the player. Not a problem since the card is big enough to hold many songs. Plus, we intend to by even larger MB flash cards so it's not really an issue for us. Downloading is a snap. We have Windows XP, went to lyrazone.com, downloaded all patches and updates and the Music Match software has worked great for us. No real problems except it does tend to freeze up every now and then. I imagine the upgrade you can purchase would solve this problem and we do intend to upgrade MM at some point simply for the benefits that come with it. The Lyra 2 comes with nice street style (they sit behind the head not on top) headphones that are not only comfortable but have a very nice sound. There is a volume control on the headphone cord itself which is quite handy. There is also an adapter that attaches between the player and the headphones. It allows you to adjust the volume and advance songs without having to mess with the actual player after it is attached to your belt/shorts/etc. The included headphones work well for, say, biking but I would recommend earbuds for jogging, weight training, etc. When doing strength training we use earbuds because they stay on better. We also own a pair of large headphones and we use these when cleaning, lounging, etc. The combination provides full stereo sound that will knock your socks off. It also has a bass feature which works nicely and several play features. The radio is decent enough at picking up STRONG local channels but I doubt many people buy this for it's FM band qualities. It's a neat little bonus though. It comes with an adapter for the car that plays off your tape player and plugs into the cigarette lighter to save on batteries. We have used this in the car and, while you have to turn the volume quite high, it does work nicely and is a GREAT feature in our opinion. All in all this is a great MP3 player and well worth the price. We've been using it for workouts and lounging about and have been very happy with the performance of it. Rechargeable batteries are really a must if usage is high. I would definitely recommend picking one of these little gems up. And, spend the extra money to get the 64MB card. The 32MB will probably do nothing but frustrate you.
Rating:
Summary: Great little player but hard to find!
Review: The fact that everyone was sold out of this MP3 player was just another indication of how popular it was/is. We ended up finding it on auction. After much research we decided on the Lyra 2 because of all the good reviews. The price tag was nice also. With 64MB it consistently holds about 15-17 songs for us. Because of the particular software used and encoding process it does take a bit of time to download songs to the player. Not a problem since the card is big enough to hold many songs. Plus, we intend to by even larger MB flash cards so it's not really an issue for us. Downloading is a snap. We have Windows XP, went to lyrazone.com, downloaded all patches and updates and the Music Match software has worked great for us. No real problems except it does tend to freeze up every now and then. I imagine the upgrade you can purchase would solve this problem and we do intend to upgrade MM at some point simply for the benefits that come with it. The Lyra 2 comes with nice street style (they sit behind the head not on top) headphones that are not only comfortable but have a very nice sound. There is a volume control on the headphone cord itself which is quite handy. There is also an adapter that attaches between the player and the headphones. It allows you to adjust the volume and advance songs without having to mess with the actual player after it is attached to your belt/shorts/etc. The included headphones work well for, say, biking but I would recommend earbuds for jogging, weight training, etc. When doing strength training we use earbuds because they stay on better. We also own a pair of large headphones and we use these when cleaning, lounging, etc. The combination provides full stereo sound that will knock your socks off. It also has a bass feature which works nicely and several play features. The radio is decent enough at picking up STRONG local channels but I doubt many people buy this for it's FM band qualities. It's a neat little bonus though. It comes with an adapter for the car that plays off your tape player and plugs into the cigarette lighter to save on batteries. We have used this in the car and, while you have to turn the volume quite high, it does work nicely and is a GREAT feature in our opinion. All in all this is a great MP3 player and well worth the price. We've been using it for workouts and lounging about and have been very happy with the performance of it. Rechargeable batteries are really a must if usage is high. I would definitely recommend picking one of these little gems up. And, spend the extra money to get the 64MB card. The 32MB will probably do nothing but frustrate you.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly useless garbage
Review: The Lyra 2 offered what I really wanted...the ability to listen to the radio or digital music in one compact package. The reality, is that this does neither well. The radio reception is absolutely terrible, and I live 40 miles from NYC. MP3 files can only be recordered in RCA's encrypted format (no Windows drag and drop), and it takes (literally) 2-3 minutes to transfer a single song; a 12-song playlist takes nearly 30 minutes. That wouldn't be too bad, I suppose, if the unit consistently played the music...but 2 out of 3 times the unit displays an error message when you try to listen to a newly created playlist. "XYZ bad" or "ABC missing"...whatever. I use only the supplied hardware and software, and have a PIII-700 computer supporting the transfers. My advice: if the radio is what's swinging you toward this unit, don't bother...it's hardly worth it. I'm going to use a greyscale Ipaq 3150 Pocket PC instead..., which offers far easier file transfers, better sound, and rock-solid operating software. The Lyra 2 is a complete waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: A solid product!
Review: The Lyra is a true 5 star product. MP3's ripped at bitrates higher than 128 can be resampled to 128, 96, 64...... when writing to the flash card. I've already purchased another 64MB card for variety. Four CD's on two (64MB) cards at 128kbps. Battery life is decient and controls are easy to use.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: The only one I know with an FM radio.
Works very well, very reasonable in battery usage.
Uses only external memory and therefore slightly slow in initiation, but this allows a faster transfer rate with the computer and doesn't use your batteries to do that.
A 128mb Compact Flash actually works with it, and gives 4 full CDs at 94.
Very recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Paradoxical Player
Review: The player's quality is good, the features excellent. Playing songs from the Compact flash card is easy and convenient.
Here is the problem: How to get the songs on the card. RCA / Thomson Multimedia implemented a 'security' mechanism that allows you to transfer files (MP3/G2/WMA) only with the music management system delivered with the player. It takes - on my computers - 45 to 50 minutes to load one (1!) hour (64MB) onto the card. Since Compact Flash Cards cannot be considered as cheap removable media one has to 'reuse' the card. Given this fact 45 minutes to download music to the card is unacceptable. I am curious about the second generation of the iPod. Until then I will rarely listen to music with my Lyra2 since I don't have the time to download new titles to the card.
Rating:
Summary: Better than expected!
Review: This MP3 player came with more features and peripherals than expected. It is easy to use and the MusicMatch Jukebox software has been great for copying files to memory cards. Any reviews that mention trouble with the software are end-user problems. It is light weight, does not use rechargeable batteries too quickly and I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Its AWESOME!!!!
Review: This mp3 player is just awesome. When i first opened the box it was soo easy to instal it . It comes 2 softwares, music match box and Realjukebox . It takes like 5 seconds to get a song on it. It can hold about 20 songs. It also has an awesome remote that looks awesome and is almost too easy too use . this comes with an external drive so that means u can take the memory out of it and put it into the Docking station and put songs on it. This is a must get mp3 player. its worth every penny. the only problem with it is that sometimes u cant receive signals from ur favorite radio station but other than that its a beauty!
Rating:
Summary: Unable to send playlist to device...
Review: Very excited when the Lyra2 arrived -- small, lightweight and aesthically okay. Immediately installed the software, created my playlist, but then tried to send the playlist to the device... nothing. Didn't work. Followed all of the instructions, read the troubleshooting, rebooted, downloaded upgrades, and even re-installed everything. Still no luck. The software/computer is not recognizing the CompactFlash despite that the light is on on the device. So today I spent a good hour speaking with a very concerned technician at Lyra/RCA. We tried everything... still won't work. Very sad. He's completely miffed. So this puppy is being returned.
Rating:
Summary: Great product and good price
Review: What can I say, I love this device. I have avoided using the supplied software (realjukebox, musicmatch) by draging and droping 64K WMA files directly to the CF folder. If you try and use MP3 files they will not play correctly as they need to have some type of encryption done to them in order to play on the lyra2 (musicmatch and realplayer do this on the fly) I also have NOT been able to get my 170Meg Microdrive to work with the device, there are some threads about RCA disabling this feature due to power issues. You can also change the graphics display on the device. (google search for lyra and splash-screen)
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