Beware of the software, otherwise a good player
Written: Apr 06 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Great Sound , EQ, Random play modes, "play from where you left off" feature,expandable memory.
Cons: Software, drivers, no customer support.
The Bottom Line: Avoid it if you're not comfortable "self installing" it on your computer and moving files about. Great little player, buggy problematic software.
|
|
|
| jupiter444's Full Review: RCA Lyra RD1021 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
First off let me say I'm a retailer and handle many different brands of players. I did a stock appraisal for sales of RCA brand MP3 players, mainly the models 1021, 1022 and the 1028 and out of 77 units sold in Feb.....69 came back as "can't install" "won't recognise", "froze up computer halfway through transferring" etc type problems.
I own a 1021 and a 1028 ( girlfriend's) and, simply put, if you install the Musicmatch software on a computer with XP you are going to very likely have these problems. RCA's drivers themselves are badly written but this can be solved ( improved )by download firmware upgrades at rca.com. Best idea is simply DO NOT INSTALL the software. Period. If you let XP detect it by itself, then drag and drop files from you music folder to the "removable drive X" using MY COMPUTER you should be relatively trouble-free. Or if you have a new tower that has an SD card-reader built in ( and an SD card), transfer your MP3's & WMA's to that, then insert into the player..
In a nutshell, if you're looking for simple no hassle plug and plug and/or are not comfortable moving files around your computer you should avoid ALL the RCA MP3 product line..get a Creative or I River instead.
As a player ( IF you are able to get files onto it) it is quite good though. Very good sound, good (but hard to put on headphones) EQ, random play modes and clear screen..plus the unit "picks up where you left off" instead of always starting on the first song when you turn it back on ( Creative Muvo's do that )
RCA has no customer support... period. There is no store Rep either for Thompson (RCA parent company). Just a voice mail that always goes un-answered.
Overall, the player gets an 8 out of 10, the connectivity, drivers and RCA's lack of help..a solid "0"...well, maybe a "1" since they did go to the trouble of trying to fix the problems by making Firmware upgrades. A good sounding product hobbled by inept software , IMHO
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 70
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jupiter444
|
|
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.