Home > Consumer Reviews > RCA Lyra 1.5 GB MP3 Player

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.

This little magic box is almost perfect. I wish it had a FM tuner, but other than that is is pretty mcuh flawless. The bass could use some help, but you can't have everything. The people who said it crashes....If you profile it (MusicMatch 8.0 will profile it after every transfer) you shouldn't have a problem. Alot of people I work with ask a million questions everytimne they see me in the gym with it attached to my arm. I love it!!!!!

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!

This was the first MP3 player I bought. The price was fair, and it's small enough to carry while you jog - it even comes with a strap to attach it to your arm. I haven't noticed any flaws in it. It has a screen so you can see what is playing ahead of time. You can upgrade the memory cheaply if you want to be able to add more songs. It's very simple to add songs to the player - a simple cord (that comes with the unit) attaches to a USB in your computer and to the back of the little player. It plays all mp3s, so if you have a converter, you can rip your cds into your computer, convert them from cda to mp3, and add those to your player. Or, you can visit some of the pay download sites like [...] or any other one that offers downloadable mp3s. I do wish now that I had something a little bigger. I often worry about losing this since it's so small. But I'd say if you want an iPod or something similar - this is really a good place to start to see how often you'll even use an mp3 player. I've had mine a LONG time - way before iPod ever came out (or at least way before I ever heard of it), and my Lyra is still running strong. However, I hardly ever use it. I thought I'd use it all the time, and I hardly ever do.

It would change modes while transfering and creat an error. After a system restore it is possible music files changed and would not play and froz MP3 Player. After battery drain it worked but computer would not connect to it. Check on two other computers at parents house and same thing. Right on time before warranty. Lucky!