Rating: 
Summary: I-Pod My A**
Review: I had been thinking about buying a portable mp3 player for quite some time and had narrowed my possible selections down to the I-Pod, the iRiver iHP 120 and the Lyra. After fully weighing my options, i chose the Lyra and i haven't looked back. The i-pod is $200 more with half the storage space and half the features, so what the hell is the point? Apple has alot of nerve charging what they charge for a product that is inferior to many others out there. the Lyra transfers files FAST (via USB2.0), creates on the fly playlists, has insane sound quality, stores EVERY file type (as a portable hard drive), comes with all the accesories you can ask for and has HUGE capacity (40GB). to all you i-pod shoppers, STOP, forget about being flashy, the RCA Lyra is the be-all, end-all mp3 player on the market
Rating:
Summary: It works well when you follow these tips
Review: I bought the RD2840 40GB Lyra jukebox when it first went out sale as exclusive at Circuit City. I've been quite happy with it.Pros: huge capacity (Windows reports 37.2GB total); low price; USB 2.0 High-Speed (=fast transfers!); drag-and-drop file transfers for both music and non-music; recognized by Windows as an external hard disk; graphic EQ plus a few presets; iPod-like interface; includes carrying case and car adapter; backlit LCD screen with adjustable backlight and contrast; good sound quality (after you replace the stock headphones); easy system software set-up (no reboot needed in XP); key lock via Menu button; line-out for hi-fi systems; ability to tag a song "Like" or "Dislike"; ability to import MusicMatch play lists; cute packaging box with handle. Cons: bulky (but surprisingly lighter than I'd expected); too thick; buttons can be unresponsive at times; cannot remember last song played after power down (really stupid! Who designed this thing?); quality seems ok but not as solid-feel as electronics from Sony or other Japanese brands; not much of a printed manual; web support almost non-existent (although you can download the latest firmware update). Overall I like the RD2840, a lot. I had iPod-envy but not any more. Sure it's bulkier and heavier than the iPod, but it's not really too heavy at under 10 oz., and comes with a decent carrying case, plus the value factor is just enormous. I'm not rich by any measure so I couldn't justify shelling out the iPod kind of money. Also, I wanted to use whatever jukebox I'd buy as an external hard drive, and the RCA products are the only ones that can function this way. (Nope, even the new Creative Labs Nomad NX can't double as an external drive. Besides, that product has a really brain-dead desktop program, and its internal drive breaks when you just walk. Avoid the Nomad NX!) Software installation was fast and required no restart, a rarity these days. I skipped installing MusicMatch, since I encode mostly in WMA using Windows Media Player. With native drag-and-drop support via USB 2.0 High-Speed, it's so easy and fast to transfer all sorts of files between your PC and the RD2840. You can use the RD2840 as a back-up hard disk. What happens is after you transfer the files, you *must* do a profiling via the system tray. This is VERY IMPORTANT to keep the RD2840 happy. The profiling process is actually quite fast if you do it after you transfer the files, before you unplug it from the PC. (You can also do it from the RD2840 itself, but it takes longer and consumes battery power.) The profiling basically recognizes all the MP3, MP3Pro and WMA files on the RD2840's hard disk and builds a database. If you don't profile each time after you transfer files, you get unpredictable behavior, which eventually will require a soft reset. (Yep, it has a reset whole, on the left side.) The player supports all MP3 tags, and the blue blacklit LCD screen shows you all the information about each music file. WMA support is flawless. (I don't have any MP3Pro files so I don't know how that works.) I encode all my music in bitrates from 64 kbps (for WMA) up to 192 kbps (for MP3), and the first time I set up the player, I transfered about 2GB of songs. The transfer process took about 5 minutes (I have USB 2.0 High-Speed ports on my laptop), and the profiling took less than a minute. I also copied some documents just to confirm that I could use the RD2840 as an external drive; again the transfer was fast over USB 2.0 High-Speed. So that was tip #1: always profile the RD2840 after downloading files to it. Tip #2 is, be sure to download the latest firmware from RCA's website. There's some confusion as to whether the current update actually does anything for this particular model. You should still download and install it anyway. Tip #3, to maximize battery life, you should always top off the charge by an hour or so. That's just the way LiIon batteries work. If you don't charge it fully, over time its performance will degrade. RCA says you can get 10 hours of play time out of this; I guess the actual battery life depends on how often you press the buttons, the encoding format and rate of your music, and other factors. I found that I get anywhere between 6 and 8 hours, more on the low end, though. Luckily, the AC adpater is pretty compact, and you get a car adapter in the package. The biggest annoyance is that the player can't remember where you were before you shut it off. That's really stupid. On the other hand, the scroll button would scroll slowly first, but if you keep holding it down for 2 seconds, it starts scrolling by page, pausing a bit between pages, which is really nice. The overall interface reminds me of the iPod's, although slightly less refined, but still usable even if you don't read the electronic manual. In summary, the RD2840 is a very capable MP3/WMA jukebox player as well as an external hard drive for Windows PCs. Mac support is rather limited, but Windows users will be happy especially if they heed my aforementioned suggestions.
Rating: 
Summary: Last brand "I" would buy.
Review: I didn't buy this player. My friend at work did. He asked me before he bought a hard drive MP3 player which one to buy. I'm still on the MP3 CD player bandwagon (hard drive MP3 players still cost too much for me). So I did some research and recommended to him the Rio Karma, as it had decent reviews and my MP3 CD player is the Rio SP100; with which I've had no problems in 3 years. However, the clerk at the store he went to talked him into the Lyra. He brought it into work and showed it off. So the first day at work he managed to get the player locked up twice, and I locked it up once. The reset button on this is just about impossible to reset. We had to find the smallest pin to reset it. I told him, "Don't worry, we'll go online and I'm sure there's a firmware update to take care of the errors." Not only was there no firmware update (as his player had the most recent version), but the RCA website was just one webpage of all their MP3 players bundled on one page; very confusing. On top of that, I noticed that after one day of use the paint on the buttons had already chipped off in two places. He was rather upset. I convinced him to return it and he got the Rio Karma. We got it back to his place, hooked it up, and he was ecstatic about all the cool features. As was I. The only thing I didn't like about the Rio Karma was the smaller capacity (20GB). That won't hold all my music (35GB) but holds his just fine. The last negative is that you cannot play music while charging the battery, HUGE letdown! My rating is only 1 star and that's for the high capacity. I have owned two other RCA products (a 20" TV, and a CD boombox) that broke within one year of use. Definitely NOT recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: Who says the French can't make decent products? OK, maybe their low-cost engineers in China designed this thing, and the product has some design flaws. Like the other guys mentioned, it does not remember which song you played last before shuting it down. I called tech support and they promised to look into adding it in a firm upgrade. Hope the geeks in France/China get some common sense! 40 gigabytes is a lot, yes! That's about 1200 CDs if you use wma format (64 bps?), according to RCA. Whew! No way any average joe has that many CDs. Or even if you got lots from file sharing networks before RIAA scared you away, that's still a lot of space to fill. USB 2.0 "high-speed" is great, and works right away on windows xp home edition. Setup takes probably just 5 minutes: install the system tray software, and then just plug and copy! One previous reviewer had it right: make sure you profile the player. It's really fast. With 500 songs it took just a few seconds, not minutes. So don't be afraid and profile the jukebox often. What else... External hard drive function... Backlighted LCD with blue background... Sound tracks switch fast without delay... Hey, this is pretty much a winner save for that "can't-remember-last-song" problem. Get it.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing value, more than adequate functionality
Review: I was hestitant to delve into the world of MP3 jukeboxes, as the technology is relatively new. However, I am a music fanatic and cannot live without it. I'm listening to it 24/7, in my car, at the gym, at work, etc. You can appreciate my frustration then when it comes to swapping CDs at the gym or in my car. Enter the RCA lyra. I have over 300 CDs and 6,500 songs on my harddrive. Moving them over was as quick and as easy as drag-and-drop from windows explorer. I personally hate Musicmatch Jukebox software and didn't even bother to install it. It's really unecessary in my eyes. Most other jukeboxes require special software to get you going, and to get a windows explorer interface for the Creative Nomad Zen you have to shell out 25 bucks for third-party software. Pros: Huge storage capacity, wicked 5-band graphic equalizer, line-out jack (most jukeboxes lack this!), large, bright display, comes with a plethora of accessories, top-notch volume level and sound quality, cool-ass case! Cons: Buttons can be a bit small and hard to find without looking, much bigger and bulkier than the Apple Ipod, internal battery only (crappy!) To be honest, I don't have enough good to say about this player. Taking your music with you is as easy as selecting the proper audio device - for portable use a set of good headphones is all you need (those RCA clip-on headphones are retarded - get a set of sony streetstyles: cheap, comfy and sound great!) For PC use, all you need is a USB cable - just connect and play your music through Winamp or another mp3 software device. The best part? I own a JVC MP3 car CD player with a stereo minijack input on the front of it. All you have to do is connect the Lyra to that jack with a line-out cable (not supplied, but easy to find) and you have all your music at the touch of a button! No more toting around bulky, expensive CDs! Size is the only advantage Ipod has over this thing. Sure, the Ipod's smaller, but the lyra has better sound, a better interface, more connectivity options, more accessories, 10gb more of storage capacity, more more more. I bought my Lyra brand new on Ebay for 200 bucks - that's almost 300 less than an Ipod. Give me one reason why I should've shelled out that much more for an arguably inferior product. Word of advice: Your Lyra will function much better and faster if you organize the HD with as many folders and subfolders as possible. The first time I fired it up I had all 6,000 songs in one folder and it took almost a minute to switch from song to song. Then I made 24 subfolders, one for each letter of the alphabet, and switch time was almost instantaneous. You don't have to worry about navigating through those folders on the lyra interface - regardless of the organization of the files, it still groups them by artist, genre, etc. In short, this is easily the best jukebox on the market for the money. Ipod doesn't even come close. As if all this wasn't enough, it functions as a removeable 40gb harddrive.... You can move anything with it, not just music. HIGHLY recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A great buy - but read this first!
Review: So, I read all of the mp3 player reviews and finally settled on the Lyra. I got the player, and had no problem plugging and playing (I have Windows XP and use iTunes for my music software). So several things to keep in mind -- I transferred all of my music using the drag and drop option, but noted that I couldn't find a number of my songs, until I looked under the artist name "Unknown". Evidently, iTunes (which is the program I use to rip my CDs to computer) doesn't save tracks with ID3v1 or v2 information and this is what Lyra uses to store music. So... I wound up downloading shareware (two good examples include Tag & Rename and Taggin' MP3s) to retag these files. Now that I know, this is a cinch. All of my files are organized well (they are in folders by artist and then by album) which means that they can be found when I browse very easily. (DO NOT make the mistake of using MusicMatch Jukebox to sync your files with the device -- if you do, looking for a song will take upwards of 15 seconds). Also make sure to update the operating software. Many of the bugs listed below have been fixed in the new release. I updated first thing before I ever used the player. Anyway, I love my player. I take it with me everywhere -- my kids now ask to listen to it in the car, and not the radio. Just be sure to pick up a MP3 tagging program along the way. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: I got my Lyra a few months ago and I regret having purchased it. Good: - Large capacity - Easy connectivity - the computer recognizes it as a portable drive without trouble Bad: - Terrible user interface. The only options you can change are screen contrast and backlight duration. - Unresponsive buttons. Seriously, did anybody at RCA actually try using one of these before they started selling them? I shouldn't have to press a button 5 or 6 times before something happens. - The unit crashes often (3-4 times a week) and can't be reset without carrying a tiny pin around with me. - !!! Unacceptable seek times. It shouldn't take the player 45 seconds to advance to the next song. Sometimes, even when I have the backlight set to stay on for 1 minute after the last button press, the light goes out before i get to hear the next song. Also, the player freezes while it is changing songs, so you can't adjust the volume or anything for that time. - The included headphones are terrible. Mine sound like crackling cellophane if i turn the volume past 50% - Heavy and bulky Summary: even if you are trying to save some coin by going with the RCA Lyra over the Ipod or Iriver or something similar, it isn't worth the hassle. Avoid this one!
Rating: 
Summary: defective!
Review: I bought a 40gb lyra and after 3 weeks I sold it. Why? It hangs.(you have to reset it using a pin-its really a hassle. so if you dont have a paperclip in your pocket, you can't use it) Uploading takes more than a minute. Its so bulky and heavy. Then one day it just broke---it just wont turn on. I had to return it and have it exchanged for a new unit. I bought an ipod. Now I'm contented
Rating:
Summary: Customer Service Woes
Review: I bought this unit shortly before christmas, and it was working beautifully until this week. It had an error message that I needed to reset it, in which it wouldn't. I called customer service and they were unable to get it started. They stated that I needed to send 60 bucks to oklahoma, the unit to texas, in which they would replace it with a Refurbished model. This is only 4 months old and barely used. MY whole MP3 collection is gone, and I didn't get an apology from the cust service rep. My time that I spent loading my music into itis wasted, MY money is wasted. I should have bought an IPOD.
Rating:
Summary: I lost EVERYTHING! DONT BUY
Review: I've had the Lyra for about five months. Today I lost everything. The player told me there was an error and that I had to profile the drive, so I did. When I tried to play a song, nothing. I opened the E:/ drive and found nothing still. To sum up, I lost 650 songs and every one of my essays, short stories, poems, recipes, pictures, videos, etc. EVERYTHING, Im still in disbelief... This doesnt need to happen to anyone else, dont buy this player and whatever player you choose back up your drive.
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