Home > Consumer Reviews > RCA RP2488 "Slim Design" Portable CD/MP3 Player with SmarTrax (Silver)

I bought this player and ripped my entire CD collection to 96kbps mp3PRO-format discs. I chose this over something like an RCA Lyra player since the cost was substantially less, and justifies the inconvenience of having many CD's rather than all music stored on a single hard drive.

The good:
- Supports mp3PRO format.
- Large back-lit video display.
- mp3 and mp3PRO discs are read quickly upon start-up.
- Wired remote allows you to "lock" the buttons on the player, put the player in a case without worrying about the buttons being hit as you move, hang the remote out of the case, and control the player from the remote.
- Comes with power adaptor that will allow you save your batteries, and re-charge your batteries (if you buy re-chargables, not supplied with unit) when the unit is off.
- Has various intro, repeat, and shuffle modes.
- Has bass boost, surround sound, and "normal" output modes, all of which I use depending upon the sound source.
- When fast-forwarding through a song, your hear the song being played "quickly", allowing you to stop where you want easily.
- Unit appears to be quality-built; buttons "feel" like they'll last a long time.
- Excellent shock-protection; I have NOT yet had the unit skip on me no matter how much I move the unit around.
- Has separate remote and line-out jacks
- I'm happy with the mp3PRO sound quality

The bad:
- Once in a while, the unit will just stop playing and must be turned off/on to re-set it. Almost never with fresh batteries, more frequently as the batteries discharge.
- Switching between songs is slow when playing an mp3/mp3PRO disc.
- (reference what I said above about locking the unit and using the remote) If you turn the unit off when it's locked, you can't re-start it from the remote. You must take it from its case, un-lock it, start it playing again, re-lock it, and put it back in the case.

Features I wish it had (not sure if any other units do, just things it doesn't have that I wish it did)
- Toggle between time elapsed/time remaining (it shows only time elapsed)
- Immediately jump to next folder (have to press "next song" button repeatedly to do this)

Summary: not perfect, but still recommended

i thought it was a really good cd player.the skip protection is good. but finding the mp3 files are hard to find by folder is hard but just search through the songs are easy enough. the music match software is hard to work with(the thing i hated was that if your walking with it, you can't put the hold button on while playing like you can in sony

Quantity THREE size AAA batteries power this RCA CD/MP3 player.

The count (3) of batteries required is enough to make one search
elsewhere for a long-lived portable player. Getting two AAA's is
difficult enough when you're stranded. Where to scrounge around
for the essential THIRD one? You'll either be buying a second
blister pack of two cells (ntiul you return to base, where you
providentially would have STOCKPILED AAA's on sale...), or you'll
'make do' with a lame third battery from the original set of 3.

The other drwaback besides the odd number (3) of necessary cells
is the lack of P-O-W-E-R for sustained performance. From a AA you
can get considerably more stored electricity than from a AAA. Why
settle for a slim player that isn't BULKY but runs dry fast?

Before you jump ship from RCA to other pickings, DO please recall
that there exist other RCA models which offer both CD, MP3, and a
unique feature (exclusive to some RCA-brand players, but not all)
The feature to look for is called SmartTrax (a trademark of RCA).
With the SmartTrax key or control button you can navigate without
much effort or brain-power through the available MP3 selections.

Beware: some newer-generation RCA combo CD/MP3 players no longer
include the SmartTrax jog key. Do not assume that all RCA's have
SmartTrax included. Happy hunting within the RCA universe. Enjoy.