Rating: 
Summary: Save yourself the time/inconvenience--do not buy!
Review: Growing tired of working out with my straight 80's cassette player, which finally broke after using it for 14 years, I resolved to finally get a more high tech device--one that did not need me to take time out of my day to transfer CD/mp3 to cassette tape for my workout. I thought this would be perfect because of its size-the main reasons I need it are for working out and studying.
HOWEVER, I encountered some huge problems. Although the software was very easy, and the size/weight was right, the piece of garbage began to malfunction after the 1st day. The buttons for volume & track skipping were seriously cheap plastic that broke. Though I read in other reviews that the volume went up really high, my trashy "volume up" button just broke and wouldn't work at all. The battery also was so hard to get out that I had to just leave it in when I returned it to the store.
I may take these words back later, but I went back to the store and bought a Sony Minidisc for a few bucks (seriously, like three dollars) more than the Lyra. The buttons still seem cheap, but luckily they're not as dire as the Lyra situation. Also, I like the idea that I can get more than 120 minutes (like the Lyra) on each minidisc (up to 320 minutes with just a slight loss in music quality), and when I want to change music (from hyper workout music to mellow studying music), I don't have to go into my computer & change playlists, or pay big $ for a memory card--just change discs! At less than a couple bucks (literally) for each disc, you can't go wrong! Also, the battery problems with the Lyra are not there with the Sony Minidisc--it's true that it plays for 56 hours with one AA battery. I've probably used it for more than 22 hours and not even one bar has gone down on the battery picture. Sorry to use this to plug another product, but I wanted to let people know of their other options.
I just hope to save someone else the time and effort that I spent being excited and downloading music into this piece of garbage, then losing it all when I had to return it to the store--sorry to all the poor souls who buy this!
Rating: 
Summary: TOO MUCH FUN!
Review: This is my first gadget I've really bought except for my digital camera and it was super easy to figure out! The instructions are idiot proof and I had so much fun using it! The arm strap is very adjustable and comfortable to use when lifting weights or anything else! I love this!!
Rating:
Summary: STAY AWAY FROM RCA!
Review: I received this as a gift and had a horrible experience just trying to install the software and drivers on my PC. I have Windows ME and tried unsuccessfully for hours to get my PC to recognize it as a external drive. I tried installing the special drivers for Windows 98/ME/00 without any change. Kept locking up my PC and creating system errors. The troubleshooting guide put blame on Windows OE saying, 'you must make sure that you have all Windows updates installed first' which I also tried and it still failed. The installation guide troubleshooter actually said to contact Microsoft with any problems like its their fault RCA's product doesn't work. Since there was no customer service phone number provided, I went to RCA's website and tried their troubleshooting steps and still had no luck. I ended up emailing RCA and am still awaiting a response (said allow 3 days, its been 3 weeks). So I ended up returning it and getting a Digitalway MPIO FL100 128 MB player which has more options and only cost about $10 more. It took 3 minutes to install and about 10 minutes to load music and use. I also have a Creative Labs Nomad Zen 20g which I am very pleased with. So stay away from RCA! It should have 0 stars.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: I received this mp3 player for Christmas, and was suprised to see exactly how many tracks could fit in this tiny little thing! Although the armband is supposed to be for exercising, I like to attach it to my bedpost so that I can listen to music while I fall asleep. My sister received the larger 256mb Lyra with FM radio, and loves it as well. If you are looking for an MP3 player for someone who doesn't need anything fancy, the 128mb one is perfect.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BANG 4 YOUR BUCK!!!
Review: This is my first MP3 player, but I know it's one of the better ones. First, it didn't work on my imac OS, but that wasn't a problem 'cause we just bought a new dell with windows XP so we didn't even need to add the software 'cause XP comes with a newer version. Simple, I LOVE the lock feature to stop it from draining my battery. Speaking of the battery, I've played my 24 tracks like a HUNDRED times and it still is on the first part of the bettery life. VERY clear. cool casing, and the headphones are sleek. and it even comes with a great song!
At the bottom of the sea......do de do de dum dum...
Rating:
Summary: Nice!
Review: I just bought it from Target since I couldn't wait to own one and get into the 21st century. I got mine for 79$ 64 Meg. I am thinking of going back and getting the 128 Meg. I love it so far. Easy to operate. Great Armband. Loud. Easy to operate and an awesome first MP3 player. RCA rules.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth it!
Review: I purchased this product at Radioshack (for $110) a little over a month ago, and and first I was unbeleivably pleased. This machine held MOST of my music, it was small, and it was very simple to use. Without a memory card, it only held about 30 songs, therefor I bought a memory card for $75 which doubled my memory. Additionally, there is not backlight!Now it is worth $185 with the card and it only holds 67 songs. The machine started to turn off unintentionally, and the music was played with the vocalist being completely drowned out. I went back to Radioshack, and they gave me a new one. It isn't any better. I have been researching ipods and for $250, I could have 2500 songs! That is less than $75 more, and I'm sure the quality is better. Dont buy this product, because it was expensive for doing so little. I would go for the iPod!
Rating:
Summary: Lemon
Review: Got it home, the software was easy, downloaded tracks successfully, then it wouldn't stay on...I mean not for 20 seconds...tried new battery after new battery, but that wasn't the problem.
Funniest part was, when we returned it to Wal Mart, they simply wrapped it back up to put on the shelf for some other poor soul to bring home---they even left our downloaded tracks on it...
The good news: The good news is that it came with one kid's promotional song preloaded on it that played fine before we tried to put our own music on there. So if you just want to pay $90 to hear "Fish at the bottom of the sea"...go for it.
Rating:
Summary: Can't be any easier to use! Great price.
Review: First of all, I think Amazon.com site is great! This is the first place I look to see customer reviews before plunking down a chunk of change for electronics. ** Thanks to the many users of the site!!!! ** Just got mine's today (at "Wally World" for 94 bucks, no sales tax in Anchorage, Alaska). Can't think of any easier way to operate the player.
1. DO NOT NEED TO INSTALL THE LYRA SOFTWARE WITH WINDOWS XP unless you need to "rip" your CD's and don't already have a program that does that.
2. Once you plug in the USB cable, Windows treats the Lyra player as another drive. All you have to do is cut and paste MP3 and WMA files.
3. Can set up a playlist right on the player. Thought about getting the newer "Combo memory/MP3 players", but problem is that they are not expandable. Also with Rio players, you need to have another program/patch for Media player to transfer the music onto the player itself.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a great product.
Review: I bought this product yesterday and I am crazy about it. I bought it for $90 at Circuit City. It is a great product. I like the headphones and the armband, except for one thing. It would be nice if the armband had a clear plastic cover so you can see the song title and press the buttons like pause, stop, fwd., bwd, etc. while still keeping it covered. It would also be nice if the LCD screen had a backlight so you can read it in the dark. The volume is great, it goes so loud! It is so easy to just drag files to the player using Internet Explorer with Windows XP. MusicMatch software is very confusing. I can't figure it out. To convert CDs to MP3 files, I recommend dBpowerAMP at www.dbpoweramp.com. It is a very good product for converting files. It is a free download. It lets you choose many things, like compression size, and the destination file. Overall, this player is a very good player.
|
