Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good... but it has its quirks
Review: After looking ay many different types of MP3 and WMA players, I settled on the RCA Lyra 128MB model. I liked it small size, 128MB of internal memory (most other models only have 64MB), and the fact that it is expandable with SD/MMC cards. I would have preferred that the unit use Compact Flash cards, but that would have made the player larger. My other choice would have been the Ipod, but I did not feel like dropping [the money] for a MP3 player. My main intention when I bought it was to use it for running and general listening. I have read several bad reviews regarding the included armband, but I was surprised on how nicely designed it actually was. The main criticism of the arm band was that it was too small to fit around the upper arm above the triceps. Now I am a very big guy with big muscular arms, and I have absolutely no problem using the arm band. I encountered some difficulties trying to get the music into the player at first. Windows XP recognized right away without having me installing any drivers, but the copying and pasting of files to the player through the My Documents application did not work. The player keep scrolling through the songs and would not play any of them except for the annoying "Under the Sea" song that was included with the player. I then used Windows Media Player to move the files, and then the player worked without any problems. I have been running with the player several times, and the only problem that I have encountered was once I could not get the player started. I would hit the play button, but that would only just cause it to pause. After a few minutes of frustratingly playing with it, I increased the volume and Whala! It started working normally again. Overall, it has been a good player, but with a few quirks. I think that you will find that all of the MP3 players have their quirks.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for the money
Review: I didn't think I'd need a new dedicated MP3 player since I already have a few Pocket PCs, but as I took up jogging, I needed something small and wearable. Then one day I saw a guy jogging with the Lyra, so I said what the heck, it was on sale at CC, so I bought it. What a good decision! The French designed Chinese made MP3 player has very good sound, which is probably the most important thing with an MP3 player. Of course, getting the files in is probably even more important, otherwise what's the point, right? Here I use it with my Fujitsu laptop running XP. I used Windows Media Player to load the internal 128MB with almost 3 hours of my all-time favorites (some in WMA and others in MP3), then I bought a Panasonic 256MB SD card which I'll use to store music that I'll change often. I haven't tried any MP3Pro files, since I don't have any encoded in that format, but with WMA you can save 50% in storage vs. MP3 and get the same quality music. I just don't want to convert my MP3s to WMAs, plus storage is cheap. But it's good to have a player so versatile and having such good sound. I also like the buttons "last" and "next"; finally the French are doing something that makes sense! Like I said, it's made in China, so don't expect the Japanese kind of high-tech finish, but the player seems durable enough for my newly started jogging career. Best of all, as many others have pointed out, a totally great price for an expandable MP3 player.
Rating:
Summary: What A Gem!!
Review: I got this little gem about 2 weeks ago and I love it. It's compact and lightweight and downloading was a breeze on Windows Media player. I fit 65 songs in a matter of minutes. The only thing that I find a bit disappointing is that it doesn't have is a backlit it would come in handy since I like to listen to music at night. The armband is very useful during my workouts and I happen to find the volume level exceptional. One thing I would like to be able to do is download songs straight from napster onto my player so if anyone knows how to do that please let me know. I ideally wanted a ipod but I didn't really want to spend that kind of money so this is a great substitute and I highly recommend this item.
Rating:
Summary: Minidisk [is bad] - roll on multi-format diskless players
Review: I have an iRock 128mB player onto which I can fit about 28 tracks. With the RCA out of the box I loaded 28 tracks, mixed mp3 and wma and had 60mB to spare. Wow!
Using MusicMatch Jukebox I was unpacked, loaded up (downloaded a patch ...that took all of 5 seconds), and playing tunes in around 10 minutes.
It has great sound quality, with different settings for music style; it is tiny, so you won't notice it in a breast pocket (the armband is a bit too tourniquet-like for me); and it has easy, obvious controls.
I do prefer the earbuds from the iRock to the ear-clip phones because they sound great and you can wind them around the player and still fit it all into that breast pocket.
A great buy even if the idiot where I bought it said it was CompactFlash compatible (it isn't - though I suppose a 128mB SD/MMC card would boost the capacity to around 70 wma-format songs). Update: adding a 128mB MMC card gave me over 100 wma-format tracks. Awesome!
Rating:
Summary: Great deal for the price
Review: I have been looking for a good mp3 player for my girlfriend who runs a lot. I was going to buy the Rio s35s becasue of its arm band and sporty look and capability, untill I found this at my local Wal-mart. The price was almost half of what the Rio s35s. I have read reviews that the arm band on the Rio is cheap. The arm band for Lyra fits into a pouch instead of being cliped to the back of it like the Rio. Transfering mp3 is a snap. It comes with Musicmatch and you can use that but it is really easier then that. You can use Windows Explorer and just drag files over to the Lyra drive when it is hooked up to computer. Simple. Also instead of haveing Musicmatch number your songs you can right click on a song and rename it then put a number in front of it. Simple again instead of having Musicmatch do it. I have nothing against Musicmatch, but I find it easier to just drag files over to the Lyra drive. Pros:
Price is CHEAP!!!! compared to other brands.
Easy to use.
Small compact. Armband with pouch.
Good sound.
128MB built in plus can add another 128 MB to that. Cons:
Headphones are little strange but have good sound.(This is my opinion. I prefer a different style, but they do have good sound.)
Rating:
Summary: Not the most gorgeous, but I love it
Review: My husband wanted to get me an MP3 player so I finally decided on this one because of it's itty bitty size, clear cut design, button placement (I have acrylic nails and those 4-way joy stick buttons can be a nightmare!) and enclosed carrying strap/case. I love it. It's easy to put songs on and operate. My gripes are that it stores the songs in the order it wants, not how you want them or put them on so I usually listen to it on Random. I tried numbering the tracks before their name when I loaded them but that didn't work. I haven't used the expansion slot yet because I only load about 2 hours worth of music on at a time. The carrying case is boring blue but comfortable and it needs a plastic window because you can only get to the volume buttons (on the side) easily. Sometimes I try to Skip and instead I Pause because I'm pressing through the fabric at where I think the button is. Lastly, I don't like the battery life indicater. I use rechargeables so cost isn't an issue but after one song on a freshly charged battery the indicater goes down to half and stays like that for a long time until it finally just turns off. I don't use the provided headphones because I love my 12 year old Sony's. I do recommend also getting a Belkin transmitter (about $30) so you can play it through your car stereo.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: My Rio 500 kicked the bucket recently, and I was in the market for a new MP3 player. For me, I wanted the smallest MP3 player with the largest memory, and also an ability to expand the memory. I selected the RCA Lyra 128mb player because it looked like a perfect match to what I wanted. I just got it, and I am totally AMAZED by this player. The Lyra measures about 2" x 2" x 0.75". It is incredibly light, even with the single AAA battery inside. The AAA will supposedly last about 10 hours of playing. The buttons are very nicely placed, with the volume set as up/down buttons on the side. The earphones that come with the unit are suprisingly good in terms of sound quality. The front screen has a very large LCD screen that displays the filename and time elapsed. I use Windows XP Home Edition, and literally just plugged the USB cable in, and XP did the rest. It saw the RCA Lyra as a 128 meg removeable drive! I simply dragged and dropped my favorite tunes into the RCA Lyra with Windows Explorer, and that's all I had to do. I was blown away by the ease to transfer the music files! The player does come with Music Match manager, but if you use XP, you won't even need it. As if that wasn't good enough, the Lyra comes with a DSP button on the top, which lets you adjust the sound of the music. The possible settings are: flat, bass, pop, rock, and jazz. The sound quality is crystal clear also on this player. The Lyra accepts SD memory cards, meaning you can pop in a 256mb card, to get a whopping total of 384 megs of storage space. For this price, this player is an absolute steal! This is absolutely one of the best purchases I've ever made.
Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for? Not in this case
Review: This is definately one of the better MP3 players on the market. The sound is incredible and the battery life is insurpassed for its weight. I just got it and I'm more than pleased. (you can get this for 87.34 at walmart :P.) Which brings me to my next point...
There are no mp3 players around with this kind of price. There aren't as many features as some others, but come on. It's less than $100. If that doesn't make you buy it, the sound is incredible (I have $20 or $30 streetstyle headphones). Pros : VERY inexpencive, light, easy to use, fairly speedy song uploads, and I could go on. Cons: The headphones it comes with are fairly cheap, but not horrible and songs seem to fade in at the beginning, but still... for the bargain shopper This is a MUST BUY
Rating:
Summary: Just shy of perfect
Review: I LOVE this little thing! It is perfect for running or an form of exercise. Here are some of the pros and cons of it: Pros: ·Crystal clear MP3's
·Excellent headphones
·Comes with DSP settings
·Comes with a cool song, "At The Bottom Of The Sea"
·Extra extra long battery life (well over 15 hr. on 1 AAA battery)
·Clear LCD
·Expandable memory
·Tiny and lightweight
·Cheaper than other digital audio players
·Can hold any file type
·Great wristband
·Easy to install
·Comes with ID3man, a program that names your songs correctly Cons:
·No backlight for nighttime use
·Display only scrolls once
·WMA files pop or click
·Songs slightly fade in As I was writing this, I was listening to it!
Rating:
Summary: Music Match? Who needs it!
Review: This is a nice little MP3 player from RCA. Does what it's supposed to do at reasonable cost. But, I DON'T LIKE MUSIC MATCH! And, you don't have to use it to load MP3 files onto your Lyra player. On My Computer on your PC you'll see a list of your drives: A, B, C, D, etc. When you use the USB connector to attach your Lyra to your PC, it becomes a drive on your computer. Look for it, and you can just copy & paste or drag your MP3 files onto the drive and into your Lyra player. Soooooo much easier than using Music Match, and you don't get yet another piece of software clogging up your hard drive. Not sure how My Computer will list the Lyra drive on all Windows operating systems, so you may have have to plug in and reboot before your machine will display the drive. So, load the Lyra software and driver files from the Lyra CD, but skip the Music Match software load if, like me, you detest using software like that. Happy listening.
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