Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good, But Not Great
Review: I received this mp3 player for my birthday in 2003. It comes with everything you need and its quite easy to set up. Most computers will detect it automatically, and the software that comes with it is very helpful, which includes a smaller version of MusicMatch Jukebox. The headphones I got with it were okay if you plan on using the included arm strap, but I decided to use different ones because the arm strap was uncomfortable and the cord was too short to reach my pocket. The tuner presets worked out alright.
For some reason they designed it so you can only change the volume level while a song is playing, so if you pause your music or are just starting it up, you are not able to lower the volume if need be.
I also noticed if you weren't using the arm strap and you accidentally bumped the mp3 player, it cut out all of a sudden and turned off. This was especially annoying when you are listening to a song and when it cuts out and you start it up again, you are back at the song you were at the last time you manually turned the device off. I didn't think I would bump into it that much, but I surprised myself many times.
128mb memory is great, as is WMA playback. I also like the expansion slot, you can add much more memory without spending an arm and a leg. The transfer rate with USB 1.1 wasn't the best, and there is no support for USB 2.0.
Overall, an okay product for its price, but there are better mp3 players out there.
Rating: 
Summary: problems with the rewind button
Review: In principle I think this is a great product.But I've tried to buy it twice, and both times the rewind button didn't work. The 'press and hold' feature on the rewind just jumps to the beginning of the track, rather than running quickly backwards through the track as it should do. This is an important feature for me, since I want to use the player for language learning. So I've had to return the product twice, and doubt I'll bother to try again. Maybe there was just a single batch that has this problem, rather than being every single player on the market. I don't know.
Rating:
Summary: Great product for the price
Review: I picked this player up a few days ago from Walmart to replace an old intel player I had. I mostly wanted it for going back and forth to class and the occasional roadtrip. I'd done a bit of research and read reviews and this seemed like a great product that was easy to use - and it definitely is. I came home in a rush and wanted to add on songs before I had to leave 15 minutes later, I had the player full in about 5 minutes - no problems whatsoever. My computer (WIN XP) recognized the device immediately. One of the reasons I decided on this player was because you don't necessarily need to use the programs included, you can go to your My Computer folder and the Lyra shows up as an additional drive, and you can simply drag your files into the folder. It works like a charm. In MP3 format I'm able to fit about 25-30 songs, depending on quality. I just loaded it with WMA files and was able to fit 38 songs at 128kbps quality and the sound is perfect, next time I'm going to bump it down to 96kbps. I was real hesitant about the headphones included, I usually stick to earbuds or the wraparound style that Sony has. I really do like the ones included though. The sound on them is great and they feel secure on my ears. I also like that when I get to class I'm able to just clip them onto the neck of my shirt and don't have to worry about stuffing them in my pocket or having them around my neck. It's nice that they included the armband/case with the Lyra, while most of the time it will be in my pocket I know I will take it on my bike with me when the weather gets nice. And the actual case does remove from the armstrap, you are even able to use the loop on the case to attach it to your belt. There's two things I don't really like about the Lyra and they could be easily added by RCA if they chose, so I gave it four stars. 1. The casing is plastic, it should be more durable, especially if RCA intends this to be a sport player. 2. No backlight, this isn't a huge drawback, but it seems like such a simple thing it should be included automatically. Overall great player and I would definitely purchase it again and recommend it to my friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing but cool
Review: This is an awesome mp3 player. Easy to get mp3s off the internet and to put CD tracks on it. It takes no time to transfer music onto the player!! Everyone should have one!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good For The Price
Review: This is a good player for the price. I am a soldier stationed in the Middle East and wanted something compact, cheap and with no moving parts to take with me. This player fit the bill. Pros-
1. It is cheap, small and rugid. Works well in the heat.
2. It holds a lot of music. Depends on the compression.
3. I can expand the memory. I have a 128 and 256 SD card with different music and swap them out. I leave the things I listen to the most on the player itself. Also, I use it to transfer data (and that is any file type there is, including viruses, so be careful, and you can scan this device for viruses) if I need to, between different computers. As soon as I can get my hands on a 1 Gig SD (if one exists), I am going to buy one (the computer accesses the card like a removable drive).
4. Works on every computer I own. I use I-Music to make my MP3s, so I didn't have to use the software that came with it. But I had no problem hooking it up to - An Apple G4 Desktop PCI Graphics, An Apple 12inch G4 Notebook, A Dell C600 Laptop, An old '386 SX machine (this took some work, though), Windows 2000, XP, ME, NT and 98SE. It does take some work on the machines to get them to recognize the device, but this has more to do with the operating system than it does the player. It was also recognized on a laptop running VM Ware or Virtual PC using a Linux Operating System (with the USB drivers installed). Cons-
1. Battery life - I use reusable batteries, 'nuff said. 2. I didn't like all the plastic, but it is still holding up, so this is a minor problem. When it breaks, I'll just buy another one. (Cheap, OKAY!)
3. No backlight.
4. You can't play just one track over and over unless it is programmed, and the track programming takes a lot of work to get down.
5. The earphones that come with it are not very good. Bought a set I like better. That's it. As I stated above, it is cheap. You get what you pay for, and yet, for the price, I think you are getting quite a bit with this little player.
Rating:
Summary: THIS IS SO DURABLE...
Review: I just wanted to share that my husband accidently left his RCA Lyra in his pocket after exercising and it got washed in the washing machine. It came out and played perfectly! You would never know. That is as durable as they come.
Rating:
Summary: Very impressive performance at under $100
Review: Having been a "holdout" for the last couple of years at getting an mp3 compact unit, my resistance finally folded when the cost of the RCA Lyra dropped under $90. Like many here, I researched several different players and decided upon this one for two simple reasons: 1) Sound quality of RCA products that I have purchased previously. RCA does a terrific job of audio fidelity and this unit is terrific at rendering the highs/lows and everything in between. 2) Expandability through the use of SD cards. Most mp3 players that are under $100 do NOT have expandability, and this one does through the use of secure digital cards. Since my digital camera also uses this media, I already had a card that could become dual purpose. I've had the unit for over one month and it works just as advertised. It is recognized as an external hard drive by my Dell Windows XP computer - no special software needed, just plug and play - and I can drag Windows Media files directly into the unit (via USB port) or onto an SD card and insert the card directly into the Lyra. The music starts without any other configuration. At 128 bit rate, the unit (without an additional sd card) holds about 30 songs of average length. I then used my computer to convert some cds to the WMA 64 bit rate and was able to increase the number of files on the basic Lyra (again, without any additional memory) by about 60%. I've since added a 256 mb sd card (I would recommend Panasonic, since they are made in Japan - not in China, which has quality control problems) and now my unit holds well over 120 songs - about 7 hours worth in a unit that is about the size of three AA batteries side by side. Amazing. In terms of battery life, one AAA battery - which is all that is needed - lasts about 6 to 7 hours. I particularly like the supplied arm band carrying strap...perfect for walking, hiking, running. I use the unit every day to exercise with and it has significantly increased my pleasure - when listening to music tracks one forgets about the time and effort when you are out walking or jogging. I've ALREADY gotten my money's worth and I think that if you're in the market for this type of unit, you'd be hard pressed to replicate the quality of audio, the size, and the expandability with anything other than this Lyra. A terrific little gem that EXCEEDED my expectations - which were fairly high.
Rating:
Summary: I love this cute little fella
Review: This has to be the smallest and lightest player on the market. It weighs next to nothing, even with the AAA battery and has about the size of a matchbox. Installation was a breeze on my Windows ME system and the computer recognizes the player as a separate drive when connected via the usb cable. If a sd card is in the slot, this too is a separate drive (eg. drives E and F). I don't even use the included musicmatch software, I just drag and drop the mp3-files onto a sd card and pop it into the player. How much easier can it get? A nice feature, which my old player didn't have, is that it remembers the last song that was played when you shut it off and continues from there.
Oh, by the way, the sound is great too, although I don't use the included headphones.
The only potential problem I can see so far is that the battery compartment lid seems to be a little shaky and might break when not handled carefully.
Rating:
Summary: Stay away from the Lyra and ALL RCA/Thomson products
Review: When I bought this I had forgotten the horrible experience I had with an RCA e-Book reader three years ago. I've had no end of trouble with it, and as usual, RCA provides no customer support. There is no telephone number to call in the product literature and sending them an e-mail is just as effective as sending my cat an e-mail. Stay way from this Lyra, and stay away from RCA products in general. It will lower your stress level! I wish Amazon would let me give this ZERO stars, but one star is the lowest rating Amazon will allow.
Rating:
Summary: SUPER !
Review: I just purchased this product last week but i am very pleased with it . i did not buy it from amazon ( its a couple of dollars cheaper at wal-mart) but i found the reviews very helpfull . the sound is clear , crisp and better than my old diskman in sound . it has expandable memory , so when you get tired of the 2-4 hour limit you can add on ( although its pricey) its great for traveling with , its about the size of a small pager , light too . I had no problems installing it although i found it alot easier to just upload my music with windows media player than the musicmacth . once i had my files lined up it took about 5 mins to upload the music to my player ! great ! the usb port is a little loose from the time i opened it , so i would call that the one drawback . word of advice , if you buy it register online so that you get the 1 year waranty because these things are known for the broken batery door syndrom . i would deffinatly reccomend this to anyone who considers quality a plus with out spending the money . if you a big music guru go for the ipod .
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