RCA Lyra RD2850 (20 GB) MP3 Player

INTRO

MP3's and MP3 players have been around for a few years now. When MP3's first became popular i bought an MP3 player that worked just like a portable cd player would, you would burn your MP3 files to a cd then, put the cd in the player and you could listen to your MP3 files like that. Technology in the last 3 years has progressed so rapidly and Apple has revolutionized the way we listen to music with the Apple iPod, but, the iPod has quite a bit of competition now, with what seem like every company releasing an MP3 player. I decided not to jump on the iPod bandwagon but opted to join the RCA MP3 revolution instead. I purchased the RCA Lyra 2850, 20gb MP3 player, did I make the right decision?

SO WHY RCA OVER APPLE?

It would seem as though Apple has really got the market with the Apple IPod. When you mention MP3's to anyone their immediate thought is always going to be IPod, just like people always call all hot tubs Jacuzzi's even though that is a brand name! There are many good MP3 players out there, and that makes it very hard to choose which MP3 player is going to be right for you.

While doing a search on Ebay for MP3 Players I stumbled across the RCA Lyra 2850. My first thoughts were that this looked like a very sleek, dare i say it "sexy" MP3 player. It's silver casing and large 2.1" screen and 20gb hard drive really caught my attention not to mention the price of this unit $150 (half the cost of the equivalent 20gb IPod). I decided to do some more research into this MP3 player and was quite impressed with all of the specs, so I decided to part with my cash and buy the 2850.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX

So what comes in the box? You get a bunch of accessories with the RCA Lyra. You get the charger, a USB cable so you can connect to your computer, headphones, a car adapter so you can charge your 2850 in your car and you also get a tape adapter so if your car is equipped with a tape player you can listen to your MP3's through your car stereo (or you can use an FM transmitter if you do not have a tape deck in your car) You also get all of the required software so you can transfer your music to your new 2850.

Music Match Jukebox is the software that comes packed with the RCA Lyra, and it makes it very easy to transfer all of your music. You can have the software search your computer for Music files that are already on your computer or the software has a cd rip feature. The CD Rip option is very cool. You can put your favorite cd into your cd drive on your computer and Music Match Jukebox will convert the songs on the cd to MP3 Format for you. Not only will it convert everything to MP3 it will also Tag all of your songs with the correct artist, song title, genre and year of release, and it will sort all of the music files for you, into the categories listed above.

The RCA Lyra is capable of playing back almost all of the popular music formats including MP3, WMA, WMA DRM and MP3 PRO formats. The only format this player and all other players cannot play is the ITUNES format which is exclusive to the IPod. This MP3 Player even comes equipped with a built in FM radio. You can record your favorite songs from the radio and the player will convert the file into MP3 Format which is a very cool feature indeed.

Transferring the files is super easy and super quick. All you have to do is connect the MP3 Player to your computer with the USB cable that is included in the box and Music Match Jukebox will automatically recognize the MP3 Playe