Rating: 
Summary: ideal physical size and storage
Review: Before settling for this, tried two others, but ever since got this, it has just stayed with me. I can easily tuck it into any pocket, file transfer is trivial, it feels light yet not cheap piece of plastic/metal. Bettery life is excellent, sound quality is good and the buttons are well laid out. The only problem was making playlists which I have yet to figure out!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, Lightweight & Compact Personal MP3 Player!
Review: I am amazed by the number of people that have given negative reviews to the RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player. I purchased mine a few months ago and absolutely love it! I currently have about 20 CD's worth of music in MP3 format copied onto mine, with a lot of room left to store even more. (I prefer MP3 files storing music at 96 or 128 kbps instead of 64 kbps.) The best thing about the player is its size: it's compact and weighs next to nothing. I used to carry a slim, portable CD player along with a case of just over 20 CD's that all together weighed at least 5 pounds that I would fumble through while commuting to & from work. That doesn't sound like much, but day after day and week after week of carrying that (along with other things) all adds up to getting a stiff shoulder. Also, having to deal with carefully not scratching CD's while transferring them between the case and the CD player on the go becomes tiresome and frustrating, and discouraged me from bothering to use it in the first place, in spite of the fact that I was carrying the stuff around with me. (Essentially just a lot of dead weight.)
Not so with the RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player! At home, I have recorded a bunch of CD's onto my personal PC into MP3 format that I have then effortlessly copied onto the RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player. On the go, I just whip out the earphones, open the soft case so that I can select from my stored music and press 'play'! It's so easy and takes so little time to set up on the fly (or change to a different CD altogether) that I am now almost always listening to some great music on almost every commute! My only real complaint about the player is the earphones that came with it. They are the type that rest over each earlobe, but aren't physically connected to one another. They would sometimes pinch my ears and in a noisy environment they wouldn't blot out enough of the interfering outside noise. I instead purchased separately a set of earphones designed to connect to one another behind the neck when worn. These don't pinch my earlobes and press more firmly against my ears so that the music can drown out unwanted outside noise.
The only other downside to the RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player is that only a trained technician is qualified to replace the battery, similar to the overpriced Apple iPod. I don't know how long the battery will last in mine, but as far as I'm concerned, what I have spent on mine has been well worth it to allow me to effortlessly listen to whatever I want to listen to in any environment. All in all, I highly recommend the RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player to anyone who enjoys listening to their personal favorite music while commuting, not being bothered by uncontrollable outside noise, not bothering anyone else who might be in close proximity and not having to fumble with a much heavier portable CD player and a collection of CD's. Consequently, I rate the RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player with a resounding 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars. It may not be a perfect personal MP3 player, but it sure does make listening to music on the go extremely lightweight and easy!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your $
Review: I bought this player ($160 at my local Costco) for my husband for Father's Day. We spent many hours trying to get the software to work, and I never did get songs transfered to the player. Also I couldn't find a way to delete files from the player (it comes preloaded with some music--most of which was not our taste). The users manual is terrible, there are no support phone numbers, and the RCA website just refers you to the manual. I will be returning this player and buying another brand.
Rating:
Summary: iPOD Killer
Review: I have an iPOD which is an expensive brick compared to this beauty. This is small, lightweight, great interface, and holds more songs than I could possibly want to hear. No need for writing to Flash cards...the USB 2.0 i/f loaded this baby fast.
Finally the right functionality at the right price. It will be the last MP3 player I'll buy. Sounds great with my Sony headphones too.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Potential, Great Disappointment
Review: I purchased the Lyra 1.5 GB player as a replacement for my recently defunct iPod. I wasn't expecting it to be as wonderful as iPod, but it did offer the storage capacity I wanted, and the price was right. The RCA site specified that the player was Mac compatible, an important feature for me. The player has a nice look and feel, and my Mac recognized the Lyra hard drive as soon as I connected it. I was even able to drag MP3 files from iTunes to the Lyra drive. What I was NOT able to do was organize the songs in any meaningful way. The instruction manual that comes with the product is very poor. The word "Mac" does not even appear in it. The online support did not provide any Mac assistance either. Eventually, I gave up and took the player with the included software over to a PC. The installation and setup was a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, but once it was complete, the PC running XP recognized the player. According to the manual, using MusicMatch on a PC is the way to go. Again, I could easily transfer songs, but no matter what I tried, I could not organize songs on the player. The manual says there are a couple of ways to create playlists--either before or after you transfer tunes. Again, no online support; the RCA website just parroted the manual, which really is awful. I even downloaded the newest Lyra fixes from the RCA site, but nothing worked. It's nice to know that the player will hold 375 songs, but it would be much nicer if you could organize those songs in some way. I purchased my Lyra player locally (they matched the amazon/jandr.com price), and I will be returning it shortly.
Rating:
Summary: Great Potential, Great Disappointment
Review: I purchased the Lyra 1.5 GB player as a replacement for my recently defunct iPod. I wasn't expecting it to be as wonderful as iPod, but it did offer the storage capacity I wanted, and the price was right. The RCA site specified that the player was Mac compatible, an important feature for me. The player has a nice look and feel, and my Mac recognized the Lyra hard drive as soon as I connected it. I was even able to drag MP3 files from iTunes to the Lyra drive. What I was NOT able to do was organize the songs in any meaningful way. The instruction manual that comes with the product is very poor. The word "Mac" does not even appear in it. The online support did not provide any Mac assistance either. Eventually, I gave up and took the player with the included software over to a PC. The installation and setup was a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, but once it was complete, the PC running XP recognized the player. According to the manual, using MusicMatch on a PC is the way to go. Again, I could easily transfer songs, but no matter what I tried, I could not organize songs on the player. The manual says there are a couple of ways to create playlists--either before or after you transfer tunes. Again, no online support; the RCA website just parroted the manual, which really is awful. I even downloaded the newest Lyra fixes from the RCA site, but nothing worked. It's nice to know that the player will hold 375 songs, but it would be much nicer if you could organize those songs in some way. I purchased my Lyra player locally (they matched the amazon/jandr.com price), and I will be returning it shortly.
Rating:
Summary: Worst mp3 player on the market
Review: I purchased the RCA lyra mini-jukebox six months ago for $200 and it has entirely and completely died on me. I contacted RCA about a replacement and they were unhelpful and unfriendly in addressing my problem. Their only solution was to pay $60 to have the unit replaced, with no guarantee of how long the unit would last after that. I would never purchase this product again, as it was slow, had terrible sound quality, was difficult to use while doing anything active, and came with terrible software. I will never purchase anything RCA made again, and I hope readers of this will never purchase this product.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed!
Review: I was very excited for this product and purchased it the very day it was released. At first glance, the size of the player and the clarity of the screen was impressive...and the menu is quite loaded with features (comparable to the iPOD). To my dismay however, the product crashed constantly and I had to use a paper clip to reset the system at least 20x within the first few days of using the product. When the Lyra *did* work, my music skipped or would erratically play my mp3s really fast (as if chipmunks were singing). Also, there was a lag time of at least 5 seconds between tracks which really got irritating after a while as I like my music to flow smoothly. Dead air just ruins the mood. I reckon the tiny 1.5 harddrive is working too hard. Oh, and the controls are not very ergonomic. You have to fiddle with the buttons a bit in order to get in the swing of things. Lastly, RCA lacks a technical support forum or knowledgebase about these issues. Needless to say, I do not recommend this player. I returned it after 10 days.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'll admit that the storage capacity is nice and the price fits my budget, but the product is inferior in every meaning of the word.1. The audio driver (ie: sound quality) is cheap. Infact the volume doesn't even go very loud. And at the very top range of the volume, music becomes slightly distorted. In addition, the bass and depth of the sound is poor. For a technology that should excell past the quality of CD players, my old Sony CD walkman does a better job than the RCA. Much better. 2. I own a Mac and this thing is NOT mac compatable, dispite the "mac compatable" label and the mac logo on the side of the box. You can drag and drop songs onto the player with a mac, but you cannot update the firmware, you cannot organize the songs, and mac's "sync" program does not reconize it as a device; even though this program is compatable with cell phones, mp3 players, iPods, PDA's, etc. Not only that, but there is NO mac support online....NONE. All I can say is that I am disappointed with my purchase and I wish i had an iPod right now (even though they are more expensive, at this point I think it would have been worth it).
Rating:
Summary: Not Flash Based!
Review: Just a word of caution- this device does not have flash-based memory, but rather a micro hard drive. Think of it more as a small-capacity Ipod.
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