Good, but not reliable
Written: Jul 27 '05
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Pros: Small, easy to use, can add memory, battery life is great.
Cons: Not reliable, customer service is bad.
The Bottom Line: A must have for people who want music on the go.
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| drsebelove's Full Review: RCA Lyra RD1021 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
I got this at my local Fred Meyer for about $65.00. Seemed like a good deal at the time, but thing ended up dying on me about 4 months later, but about that later. I was very excited when I first got it, I rushed home, threw in the start up cd into my computer, plugged in my Lyra, and was rolling 10mins later after, some simple installation and clicking and dragging. Getting the thing setup was a little confusing but after some playing around with it, I got it setup. Then it became a simple click and drag, and I was ready to go.
Though I was disappointed to discover that it could only hold 20 songs, which for me isn't enough (my music library is about 200 songs). My friend told me that I could convert the MP3 files to WMA files, which he claimed would double the memory space, which it did, (I got 37 songs on their, you must download a converter though, search on Google), but I sacrificed music quality, not allot though, not enough to really notice. I was still not satisfied with the amount of memory, so I decided to invest in a SD memory card (128MB double the amount on the MP3 player)which cost me $15.00. This was great I plugged that in and just added more tunes to my player, now I had 102 songs on it. Which is enough for me.
Another great thing about this is that you don't need to charge it, just pop in a AAA battery every couple weeks and your ready to go. Anyway about 4 months later it just died on me. So I contacted RCA (Via email), they said to check for damage, their was none, they said to change the battery, no help, they said to return it, lost receipt. (I had thrown out the other stuff, and warranty by accident, I will never do that again). So now I was stuck with a broken MP3 player, I guess I should have expected this (it was cheap), So now I needed to get a new Mp3 player.
Anyway I have heard good reviews about this product from other people, who say that it is reliable, and others who have had the same problem as me. So I am not sure what to make of it, maybe I got a dud, maybe it's a marketing scheme either way, I recommend this for you just because it's a incredible deal. I will review the various parts of this MP3 player below.
Ease of use:8/10-Computer setup is kind of complicated. Rest is a breeze.
Features:8/10-Simple, very easy to use. Includes basic play, pause, next, last, volume control and hold which is very useful feature, so you don't accidentally skip your favorite song mid work out, or jog, etc... Not as advanced a Ipod, but good enough to get by.
Weight:10/10-This thing is incredibly light, you barely even realize you have it.
Audio:8/10-It's sound is clean and crisp at a normal level, but if turned up all the way it gets fuzzy (this may be partly due to my headset, I recommend you purchase a decent pair when purchasing any Mp3, or cd player, I would look into Boss a very reputable company).
Service:5/10-I would like to say something nice about RCA's service, but theirs nothing nice to say. When I emailed them all my information they emailed me back asking all the same questions, then they said they couldn't help me so they gave me some one else's email this happened twice more. They just don't care.
Reliabilty:5/10-The fact that it died on me 4 months after purchase makes one wonder.
On the whole I like this product, had it not broken on me I would have given it a much higher rating. I recommend it, but tread carefully.
Extra: If your a serious music junky, get a 1GB SD memory card, for $80 dollars, holds an insane amount of music!!!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 65
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
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Epinions.com ID:
drsebelove
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Reviews written: 3
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