Rating: 
Summary: I love it!!
Review: I got mine last week, it was a late birthday present!! I was so excited to get it. It is small and light weight. The arm belt is great for when I go run on the treadmill and do other things at the gym. So far it is dureble and is still all together considering I have a 4 year old. It comes with the MuchMusic program but you don't have to use it. Just as long as you have Windows Media player (up to date one) it is easy to transfer al your favorite songs over to the player!! This MP3 player is a must!
Rating: 
Summary: More Like Zero Stars
Review: Wise man says MP3 player with MusicMatch Software and no device support is freakin useless!I was unable to connect with the player even though I installed the plug-ins provided with the player and off of MusicMatche's Web site. That'd be whatcha call wicked frustratin'! RCA's site does also state that there is an issue with loading the player from MusicMatch, but that they're willing to provide you an RCA USB reader at an additional cost - Thanks a bunch RCA! I'll be returning this Piece of C and doing my homework this time!
Rating:
Summary: value for the price
Review: I am using and enjoying this mp3 everyday when going to the gym.
it is a cool product for the price and the memory can be upgraded by memory card later, it lets you know what song is playing and you have alot of choices how you want your songs to be played. it is very light and comes with arm strap and i dont even feel I have it on durning workout. head phones are great too!
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: Customer Service is not a toll free number
Review: I know my situation probably is a rarity, I hope! But within a day the player had started acting up. The player simply turned itself off. I had checked the troubleshooting and it stated the only reason the power would go off is if the battery was low; that wasn't the case - I had used the battery that came with the player and also purchased a new battery, that didn't resolve the problem. Next suggestion said to reset the player, I did, that didn't solve the problem either. Well the next suggestion was to mail it in; however, I didn't want to give up that easily. So I formatted the media and upgraded the firmware - that too didn't work. I then called customer service - the number a 1-560 number, I was told was not a toll-free number, I had waited about half an hour at a cost to my own- only to receive a script out of the manual. The RCA Lyra sports a stylus design, I wouldn't mind having this player strapped to my risk during my daily run. The player's memory can be expanded via SD memory card - at a cost of about a hundred dollars for a 512 MB SD card. I wouldn't purchase the Lyra for memory capacity. The player itself cost a hundred dollars, add in a 512 MB SD card and the total comes up to two hundred dollars and you only get 640 MB. It would have be much better if you purchase an IPod at $299 ($269 for students) you get 15 GB (that over 23 times more memory for just 69 dollars more ) or a IPod Mini, a perfect combination portability and hard drive, for $249 ($229 for students) and 9 times the memory at 4 GB. If you have no desire to add memory to the player, as I do, this player is probably most economical for you. However, if you want to add memory, I would highly recommend you go straight to IPod or IPod mini or other MP3 player with a hard drive, instead, to get the most bang for you buck. The player comes with MusicMatch whic is a pretty decent software. Installation was a breeze and loading songs were relative fast and easy. Now only if the player would work! I have sent the player back to RCA at my own expense. This player has given me more headache than it's worth. If given a second chance I would not purchase this player again. I don't I'll purchase any else from RCA either. This is the only company I know that does not have a toll free number for it's customer service. RCA SHAPE UP!
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, worth the money.
Review: I recieved this player as a gift about 4 months ago, and it has worked perfectly to date. I would recommend it to someone searching for an inexpensive mp3 player, or someone with a relatively small music collection. The only problem I've ever had with it is its lack of a backlight.
Rating:
Summary: Only get 182 songs with 512 SD Card
Review: There is no documentation as to the Max size SD card that can be used with the Lyra1 128. I put in a 512MB SD card and it will recognize it and the amount of space but no matter how many songs I put on it, it will only play 182 songs including the ones on the internal 128. I have sent 3 emails to RCA customer service and they have refused to answer any of them, i.e. RCA has no customer service or they don't care!! I suggest you buy another product, preferably one from a company that has customer service.
Rating:
Summary: are you serious?!
Review: I found the Lyra to initally be pretty good. I am always on the go and kind of clumsy. I need an mp3 player to be durable. I will soon be purchasing a new mp3 player because my battery cover is now held on by tape. I dropped the player on carpet and the piece that locked the cover on, broke off. so I am very disappointed in the structure of the player, the size of the player is nice and conveniant and the buttons are easy to find but that is where it stops. The headphones are uncomfortable, who was in charge of that decision! I don't drive, so public transportation is key for me and I use my headphones all the time. I had to switch out the headset so my poor ears would be comfortable. It is really sad more thought was not put into this player.
Rating:
Summary: It's awesome!
Review: When I bought my first mp3 player, I was a little nervous about it. But the RCA Lyra showed me that I had nothing to be nervous about. It's so simple to use, everywhere from playing it to putting music on it. I recently also found out that it's waterproof. I left it in my pocket before it got washed and I remembered it when it was in the dryer. It didn't work at first, but after a day it works just fine!
Rating:
Summary: Nice Player, with a 184 Songs Limit
Review:
The RCA Lyra is cute and compact. It also sounds good. Unlike those multi-functions buttons on other models, the Lyra has separate buttons for Stop/Play/Forward/Backward; so they are easy to operate. As it's been mentioned in many of the reviews before, the battery door feels quite flimsy. I worry that it may break off each time I changed the battery. Battery life is very good using NiMH rechargeable.
One important point: It's great that this player accepts SD card for extra memory, but there is an undocumented limitation: I'm referring to the 128MB model. While the player can read from a 1GB SD card, however, a maximum of 184 songs can be recognized. The PC sees the SD card as an additional drive and you can stuff the 1GB card full with songs, but only the first 184 can be played! Say your typical song is 3-4MB a piece, then effectively, any extra memory above 512MB is not usable. That's a shame.
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