BELIEVE IT OR NOT, BEST VALUE FOR THE $$$
Written: Jun 15 '04 (Updated Jun 21 '04)
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Pros: Value, sound quality, nice display, easy operation and menu, package contents.
Cons: A little static 'pop' at the start of songs (sometimes), can't change the battery.
The Bottom Line: Bottom line, it's fits nicely between small capacity players and high end mega hard drive players.
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| DENGNY's Full Review: RCA Lyra RD2760 (1.5 GB) MP3 Player |
The idea of an MP3 player with more than the seemingly standard 128mb / 256mb (memory) and less than the 20gb / 40gb (hard drive) was appealing to me. Too little storage is no good because it then becomes a pain in the neck to constantly get fresh music on the player. And, the larger players even though they're getting better are just too expensive.
So, enter this player. Actually, a slightly impulsive purchase at Costco, it seemed like everything I was looking for ... 1.5 gb storage (6x 256mb) with a price tag of about $150. The Costco package comes with the following: the player, earphones, arm-strap case, wire for charging the player, and software. Plus, Costco will take back anything, at any time as long as you have a receipt. So, there's really no need for me to worry about the thing dying after 3 months (read some of the other reviews).
Let's start with a real quick physical description ... it's about 2.5" square and a little over an inch thick. The front panel has a 1 7/8" x 1" backlit 6-line display with four play control buttons (STOP, REV, FWD, ON/PAUSE). The left side has two volume control buttons and a lock button. The right side has an up/down/push-in selector, a menu button, and a headphone jack. Lastly, the bottom is where the USB connection is located.
Installation was extremely simple, however, the latest drivers and software version were NOT on the CD-ROM provided. As a matter of fact, I didn't even bother with the CD-ROM at all. I went to www.rca.com and found an up-to-date installation package, which had everything I needed. And, I already own a copy of MusicMatch, which right now is up to version 8.2 ... the version on the CD-ROM is 7.5. So, unless there's some other ancillary offer you'd like to take advantage of on the CD-ROM, don't even bother with it.
Once installation was complete and the computer rebooted, simply plugging the unit into any available USB port is not a recommended option. Unfortunately, the recommended port is either a primary port (on the root hub) or a secondary port on a powered USB hub. In other words, you either have to plug the unit directly into one of the ports on your computer, or you need a powered hub. Conversely, it's not recommended that you plug the unit into ... let's say, the USB port that's on your keyboard that's plugged into your monitor, that's plugged into the back of your computer. More than likely this is because when you plug the unit into a PRIMARY USB port or a POWERED hub, it immediately begins to self-charge the battery and secondary ports just don't have enough power to accomplish this. Although this may prove to some to be an inconvenience, it's actually a blessing in disguise because as you're working with the unit and have it attached to your computer, it's recharging itself.
So anyway, you plug the unit in and turn it on and magically a new drive becomes available on your computer but you're not ready just yet. Not only is the software that the unit comes with out of date, but so is the firmware (the files that reside on the player that actually run this device). So, RIGHT-CLICK on the 'Lyra' icon that's now in your system tray (that little area next to the clock in Windows), and select the menu option to update the player and then you're NOW ready to put files on the player.
Okay, so the software is installed, the firmware is upgraded, the unit's plugged in and turned on, and you see the new drive letter in 'My Computer'. Now, the player is operating just like an external storage device on your computer. I created a folder that said 'Rock N Roll' and then navigated into the folder so that I could drag and drop files in. That's really all there is to it to get music on the player.
There are two alternate methods of getting music on the player. The first is to is to use MusicMatch as your 'song handler'. With MusicMatch you can do things like apply 'volume leveling' to the tracks and create 'play lists'. To use this method you'll have to install an 'external player' plug-in within the MusicMatch software.
The second method is to use the File Synchronization function in the Lyra Software that came with the player. It's kind of like drag and drop, but not. Basically what you do here is create a source location on your hard drive and create a destination on your player. You populate the source location with files and then 'push' the synchronize button. The nice thing about this method is if you load files from another computer you can then automatically, based on the settings, make sure YOUR computer has the file loaded from the player. Sound a bit confusing?, then you better just just stick with the drag and drop method. If you're like me and just want the 'down and dirty' easy method file handling this is what you'll do.
NOTE: The player may be USB 2.0 compatible, but it is still somewhat slow with file transfer. What you may think is either your computer or the player 'locking-up' is in reality the player taking its time with the file transfer. I've noticed that when transferring more than one file, or when transferring larger files the player needs time to catch up. So, the best thing to is grab a bunch of files at one time, drop them into the player, and just walk away for a bit. This way you won't be inclined to think you need to either re-boot the player, or your computer.
Even though I choose the simplest method of getting files onto the player, I'm still a little organized about keeping songs in folders by artist. The player, through it's menu system, recognizes that you're keeping things somewhat organized by allowing you to 'drill' down through a number of folders until you get to your song. As a matter of fact, there's a function that creates a database of exactly what's stored on your player. Once completed, the player automatically let's you access your files by Artist, Album Title, Genre, Year, Playlist. This function only works great when it's got great information to work with. Therefore, if your file ID3 tags are in order you'll definitely make the most of this functionality. If they're not and all your songs are tagged 'Unknown Artist', 'Unknown Album', etc., you'll have only the physical file name itself as the means to access it unless you create a play-list file.
Sound quality is good with the headphones you get with the player. They're the kind that clip on to the top of your ear and basically just hang there. Not my favorite as far as comfort goes, but far better than most ear buds you get with other players. One very quirky thing the player does for some reason, is there's a tiny bit of static at the beginning of a song. It seems to me that this only happens when you're drilling down into a folder and you select a song for the first time. When I stop and repeat the same song or move to another song in the same folder, there's no static whatsoever and all is fine.
The maximum volume is adequate; I can't imagine wanting to listen to music any louder. Also there's a fully functional graphic equalizer, but I prefer to use one of the generous number of presets. One terrific feature is something called 'SmartEQ'. What it does it reads the music type from the ID3 tag, and then sets the equalizer accordingly. Again, this function relies solely on the completeness of the information in your ID3 tag, so...................
Unfortunately, at this time I'm not quite sure how much play time you'll get from a single charge. But, the more that little hard drive has to spin, the less you'll get as far as play time. Maybe creating a 'play-list' isn't such a bad idea after all. Or just load up the machine with songs and set it to 'SHUFFLE'.
Well, so far the player has got a lot of positives and very few negatives. Other than the little 'pop' of static at the start of some songs, the only other issue that I have is that you cannot change the rechargeable battery yourself ... you have to send it off to RCA for replacement. I'm sorry, but they should have come up with an easily accessible battery compartment so that the user could change it themselves if necessary.
The controls are simple and the menu system is intuitive once you get used to it. Is the player delicate? I'm assuming that any instrument with moving parts in it ... especially a hard drive ... is going to be delicate. But, the fact that they gave me an arm-strap case with it is a good indication that the folks at RCA are expecting at least a little physical activity when using this player.
Would I recommend it? Well, I've seen 128 mb players out there for about $100, and 256 mb players for as much as $199. The fact that I got a player that's 12x the capacity of a 128 mb player and 6x the capacity of a 256 mb player for $160, I'd say, 'Yes'. Plus, so far so good. The quirks that I've read about in other reviews I haven't experienced at all ... guess they've been addressed in the firmware updates. But, you never know. I'll keep you posted.
P.S. Other notable not mentioned ... It's MP3, WMA, and MP3Pro compatible. Maybe now I'll spring for the MP3Pro encoder plug-in for Nero Burning ROM so that I can fit even more songs on the player.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 160
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
DENGNY
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Dennis G
Location: Morris County, NJ
Reviews written: 85
Trusted by: 38 members
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