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RCA RD2204 Lyra 64 MB MP3 Player

RCA RD2204 Lyra 64 MB MP3 Player

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: RCA Lyra
Review: I really love it! The ability to use your cigarette lighter socket and tape player is really cool. MP3 players have come a long way. They rock!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great Player, Dump the Real Jukebox!
Review: I received the 2204 player as a gift. It took me two hours to get the thing to work on my Windows XP. The card drive would ot install from the CD that was included with the player & the real jukebox crashed Windows XP each time I opened it up. I was worried becasue the literature says you absolutely cannot use anything but Real Player to load songs.

After about two hours and just before I chucked the thing out the window and bought an iPod, I went to the Lyra website, downloaded the drivers for the card drive & the drivers for Windows Media player & everything worked.

The machine is simple to use now that everything is talking to everything else. The interface is relatively intuitive.
The major drawback is the price of the media. [$$$] for a 64Mb flashcard! That's as much as a new Rio player & half the price of an iPod!

Would I choose this over the Rio or the iPod? I didn't even know about the Lyra before receiving it as a gift so I don't know. I was leaning toward the iPod. The Lyra seems to work fine and it suits my needs. I would have seriously considered this player based on the price and features.

I can recommend this player if it can be had at a low enough price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: what i think about lyra..
Review: i've had this player for at least a year know and i love it. i'm in high school so it wokrs perfect for the 45minute bus ride to and from school, gives me about enough time to listen to all the songs on the player at 128kbps around 18 songs or so. Only downside to this player is that it randomly puts the mp3's onto the player when transfering, i tend to borrow cd's from friends, record all the songs, then put them all onto the mp3 player and maybe add a few other songs i've gotten off of the web, i'll turn it on and have songs randomly placed, probebly a way to change this but this is only problem i've disliked about this, I think it was very worth the $250 that i paid for it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Happy and content
Review: I've just purchased the RCA Lyra and I must say that the sounds it puts out is awesome. downloading mp3 files onto my Lyra is as easy as drag and drop. I highly recommend this digital player because of it's user friendly interface.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Durable and Easy to Use
Review: If you plan on using a MP3 player while exercising, you need to get the Lyra. I freely admit that I am a klutz, and although I have dropped my player probably a good 50 times, it still functions without error and doesn't scratch or crack. The software is easy to use, allowing you to just drag songs from your desktop to the player. This allows you to completely switch all songs easily depending on your mood. Also, I recommend getting the car kit to go allow with this. The Lyra fits about 30 songs on it and I just plug it into my car. This means I have over 100 minutes of my favorite songs and don't have to switch CD's every couple songs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Durable and Easy to Use
Review: If you plan on using a MP3 player while exercising, you need to get the Lyra. I freely admit that I am a klutz, and although I have dropped my player probably a good 50 times, it still functions without error and doesn't scratch or crack. The software is easy to use, allowing you to just drag songs from your desktop to the player. This allows you to completely switch all songs easily depending on your mood. Also, I recommend getting the car kit to go allow with this. The Lyra fits about 30 songs on it and I just plug it into my car. This means I have over 100 minutes of my favorite songs and don't have to switch CD's every couple songs.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: rca is junk
Review: It takes 1 hour to fill the 64mb flash. If Real doesn't crash. You have to format the the memory card each time you use it, because you can't add or delete tracks off the memory. It uses an incripted mpx format mp3's (only 96-128 stereo) and real media (3...quality) must be converted. You can't drag and drop. The files have to be in the "play list". The batteries last 25min. There is no real "off" button. You buy it from RCA's website there is a 10 return policy and it takes 7+ days to mail it. And they won't take it back. The tech support can't handle anything other than "get new batteries". The install for the cardreader lockup the sys and [messed up] the regestry, had to sys restore from Ghost. Had to use install from another reader.
And the pres of RCA won't answer the e-mail I sent to his home AOL address. I will never buy RCA again.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: MP3 and RealAudio and WMA, oh my!
Review: It took me a while to figure out if I really wanted an MP3 player or CD Player that reads MP3 CDs. I opted for the Lyra MP3 player because (1) it uses CompactFlash (CF) memory and I already have CF memory for my digital cameras, and (2) not only can it handle MP3 and RealAudio files, it can also be upgraded (at no cost) to play Microsoft Windows Media Audio (WMA) files, which CD players that read MP3 can't do.

I was disappointed that the CF reader/writer used a parallel port. I tend to stay way from devices that attach to the parallel port and have piggy-back pass-through connectors. In this day and age, it should have come with a USB reader/writer. This caused this product to lose 1/2 star. What I discovered was that if you download the latest Lyra USB Drivers from the LyraZone.Com web site, I could use the my existing SanDisk USB CF reader/writer with the RCA software and Windows Media Player. That's a savings for $70!

That cause this product to lost the rest of the star is that it doesn't have an FM tuner. This is really just a pet-peeve of mine. Honestly, how hard (and expensive) would it be to put an FM tuner in this thing?

All in all, the Lyra is a great unit and performs as advertised.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Lyra is Great
Review: Let me tell you that I've had my Lyra for about three monthsnow and never had a single problem with it. The encrypted file formatmentioned earlier is only used on the flash card itself. It causes noproblems because the transfer software included (Real Jukebox) is made to use this type of format. All you need to do is click and drag your songs into another folder to transfer them onto the falsh card. Apart from that, the player has great features. You can change play mode, DSP (digital signal processing), and even the contrast of the LCD screen. The flash card is easy to eject and change and you can fit the whole thing in your pocket. It also has a cool looking illuminating light for dark areas. This package also comes with a DC power cord, a tape adapter and headphones. Even the batteries are in there! So, even though that the lyra only plays encryted file formats, it doesn't mean that you can't put your mp3's on it! Believe me, it is one of the easiest things to do on my computer. Buy one of these now. END

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not that good.
Review: Okay I bought this on a whim. It's been okay for that last few months. The version of the Real Juke Box it came with is buggy as ... and crashes often, mostly when moving files to the lyra. It's started skipping and popping on MP3's that otherwise work fine. Some tracks have pieces of other tracks mixed in OR parts of the song play backward. The CF card is fine. I'd recommend something else, like the NOMAD or RIO. I feel like I flushed my money down the toilet. RCA also has some of the worst support on their website. They should stick to making TV's. It's obvious they just wanted to crank out a product.


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