Rating: 
Summary: Good, with some fiddling
Review: I was able to get this on close-out at Sears for about $200. So far, overall I'm happy with it (after 2 weeks) and plan to keep it. Here's my 2 cents about it:Pros:
1. Great sound quality
2. Battery life does last at least 15 hours
3. Organizes well
4. Does resume to last song played--starts at the beginning of the song
5. Metal case, very solid feeling
6. Great accessories included (except the case) Cons
1. I play mostly WMA files, needed to upload quite a bit of firmware updates to make it work.
2. Needs to be reset now and then--but soft reset still keeps most of your settings (except backlight, equalizer settings)
3. Can get slow during shuffle mode
4. Can slow down when turning off I purchased this to use in the car with the Belkin Tunecast II. It serves its purpose well, has been reliable after setting up. A note about the Belkin Tunecasts, "II" seems to be slightly more amplified, but I'm not really that impressed with the clarity of either, as they both have quite a bit of distortion, at least driving around southern california.
Rating:
Summary: Good, with some fiddling
Review: I was able to get this on close-out at Sears for about $200. So far, overall I'm happy with it (after 2 weeks) and plan to keep it. Here's my 2 cents about it: Pros:
1. Great sound quality
2. Battery life does last at least 15 hours
3. Organizes well
4. Does resume to last song played--starts at the beginning of the song
5. Metal case, very solid feeling
6. Great accessories included (except the case) Cons
1. I play mostly WMA files, needed to upload quite a bit of firmware updates to make it work.
2. Needs to be reset now and then--but soft reset still keeps most of your settings (except backlight, equalizer settings)
3. Can get slow during shuffle mode
4. Can slow down when turning off I purchased this to use in the car with the Belkin Tunecast II. It serves its purpose well, has been reliable after setting up. A note about the Belkin Tunecasts, "II" seems to be slightly more amplified, but I'm not really that impressed with the clarity of either, as they both have quite a bit of distortion, at least driving around southern california.
Rating:
Summary: Works Fine With Windows XP
Review: I was looking for a MP3 player that had loads of space and was compact. I spend a lot of time in a car traveling, and wanted something to store my music without having to bring my discman, and all my cd's. I wanted this one, because of the room, and features. I was a little concerned about one of the reviews stating that they had trouble using it with windows XP, which I have on my laptop. But, I decided to give it a try anyway. So, far I love it. Easy set up, and the battery lasts a long time. I had no trouble at all getting the software set up on windows XP. The music software that you use with it, is a little complicated at first. I just fiddled around with it for a little while, but now I have it down on how to do it. After the songs are uploaded from the cd on the computer, it is a breeze to load it on to the MP3 player. I first uploaded my favorite band cd's, and are able to find all the songs under there category. I also love how compact it is. Now, I don't have to lug around all my cd's and discman. I highly recommend this too. I bought the 20GB one, but I am sure the 10GB one will work just as well, I just wanted the extra room.
Rating:
Summary: Great bang for the buck!
Review: I'd give this a five star review if it only had USB 2 or Firewire. The review of March 3 is dead wrong - you CAN drag and drop and you don't have to put the music into some wierd format either. It plays MP3's just fine. And it sounds full and rich, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazingly Poor Design
Review: I'm going to give this product its deserved kudos in the beginning here so I can saturate the rest of the review with the negative this product also deserves. The windows-friendly removable hard-drive design is nice, and this product is fairly cheap. Of course, it acts wonky and unpredictable. I would select a folder to play and it would refuse to just play the damned thing. After each song it would stop playing and change the mode to "repeat all". I have no clue why, either. USB 1.1 transfers are painful, and the transfer interface isn't exactly CONVENIENT for overnight transfers. Profiling the player takes an eternity, and you have to do it twice (unless i misunderstood how this thing works). It's absolutely spellbinding how user un-friendly the case is. what is this case? It's horrible. I can't fathom its purpose. I stare at it night after night, trying to explain to myself what human being could have possibly made such a piss-poor design decision. Ugly. Bulky. Hardly protective. Inhibitive. Obnoxious. Ridiculous. Why? I have some old socks I could have used that might have fit better. But (forgive me for jumping around) the worst aspect is definately the actual interface. There is no logical system. An iPod, or Rio Riot, has a system. Things are organized based on a hierarchy. Menus are layed out in a coherent pattern. This goes BEYOND learning curves, because accessing your music is just not convenient or intuitive. It's like standing on your head to work your coffee maker. I have no idea why you'd by this flaky piece of garbage. There are other products in the price range with a better reliability record as well as more features. Don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Poor Design
Review: I'm going to give this product its deserved kudos in the beginning here so I can saturate the rest of the review with the negative this product also deserves. The windows-friendly removable hard-drive design is nice, and this product is fairly cheap. Of course, it acts wonky and unpredictable. I would select a folder to play and it would refuse to just play the damned thing. After each song it would stop playing and change the mode to "repeat all". I have no clue why, either. USB 1.1 transfers are painful, and the transfer interface isn't exactly CONVENIENT for overnight transfers. Profiling the player takes an eternity, and you have to do it twice (unless i misunderstood how this thing works). It's absolutely spellbinding how user un-friendly the case is. what is this case? It's horrible. I can't fathom its purpose. I stare at it night after night, trying to explain to myself what human being could have possibly made such a piss-poor design decision. Ugly. Bulky. Hardly protective. Inhibitive. Obnoxious. Ridiculous. Why? I have some old socks I could have used that might have fit better. But (forgive me for jumping around) the worst aspect is definately the actual interface. There is no logical system. An iPod, or Rio Riot, has a system. Things are organized based on a hierarchy. Menus are layed out in a coherent pattern. This goes BEYOND learning curves, because accessing your music is just not convenient or intuitive. It's like standing on your head to work your coffee maker. I have no idea why you'd by this flaky piece of garbage. There are other products in the price range with a better reliability record as well as more features. Don't waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: I guess I lead a charmed life...
Review: I've had NONE of the problems with XP that others have mentioned... as for the one reviewer's difficulty with it being locked up, there's a reset button near the plug for the power cord - just shove a paperclip into the hole, should fix it. I did have trouble under my bro-in-law's win98 machine - once you unplug the unit from the USB port, you have to reboot the computer to get it to recognize the Lyra again. I've not had a chance to test this with XP, but I'm not expecting it to be a problem - I had the same prob under win98 for other hardware, such as zip drives. The unit does not sort by folder (I have an idea that other brands don't either), but it's very easy to set up playlists using the PC, and not too bad to create them on the fly using the Lyra. MusicMatch was the software I was already using, so there was hardly any learning curve for me. The only caution I would make is to make sure that your MP3s are saved with file names and info that will allow you to adequately ID the individual files, since the unit doesn't sort by folder. So far, I think this is by far the best value for the money - it's at least [$$] cheaper than the Nomad, and scads cheaper than the IPOD. Since they all use the same HD, I'm thinking there will be no problems with reliability that the others don't have, as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorting
Review: If you try to sort by genre, it drills down to artist. I haven't been able to get it to shuffle through the entire genre, only a particular artist.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent buy
Review: It's not perfect. Having to use Music Match to do tagging is an exercise in frustration. And the buttons are very sensitive, which is a good thing when you're working with them, but a bad one when you toss this into your pocket or bag, and suddenly it's playing a completely different song than the one you picked, or it's repeating them, or stopping completely. If they weren't going to be recessed, then some sort of protective cover might've been a good idea. But that's pretty much the end of my serious gripes. Anything else is just a matter of my not having taken the time to sit down and read all the info. And even so, I've done pretty well with it, so I can report that it's fairly user-friendly. The hook-up to my computer went very well, and XP recognized the device immediately. Whoever wrote that you have to be organized when you start working with Music Match is quite correct, but that's not a bad thing. If you want your music properly cataloged, do sit down and spend the time to check all the tags MM applies. They're frequently wrong, or misleading, and there's no consistency to the naming. For example, The Beatles appear variously as "The Beatles," "Beatles," "Beatles, The" and so forth. Thus, they show up on different places in your Artist search. That may be okay for an mp3 player that holds maybe 20 cuts, but for the Lyra, it can make a huge difference in how you listen. Take the time to regularize your file information when you start out, and stick to your organizing principles throughout the process of filling the HD, and you'll be a happier listener. The sound itself is very good. The device doesn't seem to be affected by jarring. It's quite heavy by comparison to other mp3 players, but of course a HD that size is going to weigh more than than 128k of memory. The controls are easy to learn, the display is fairly clear, and you can control how long the backlight stays on. Battery charge seems to last pretty well, though I come nowhere near the 10 hours mentioned by some users. I'd say 5 or 6 is closer to accurate for my unit. It's not a problem for me, though. You can play it while you're plugged in, and it recharges pretty quickly. I don't know if the more expensive devices are better than the Lyra. I do know that I'm happy with what I spent and what I got for my money, and that's about the best recommendation I can give.
Rating:
Summary: Too Perfect
Review: My Lyra worked out of the box, no problems with windows Xp as long as you follow the instructions. USB 1.1 is a litle slow but just leave it to transfer files over night and in the morning it will be done. Mp3pro playback is great because it gives more room to store other files. Summed up, the best you can get for the price you pay
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