RCA Lyra RD1020

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  David Carnoy
• Reviewed on: 10/23/2002
• Updated on: 10/24/2002

After the oversized debacle that was the original Lyra MP3 player, RCA has been creating more attractive, inexpensive units that are targeted toward mainstream consumers. While the 64MB RD1020 may not be one of the slickest-looking or most feature-rich MP3 players around, there's enough here to make it worth considering for its relatively modest price.After the oversized debacle that was the original Lyra MP3 player, RCA has been creating more attractive, inexpensive units that are targeted toward mainstream consumers. While the 64MB RD1020 may not be one of the slickest-looking or most feature-rich MP3 players around, there's enough here to make it worth considering for its relatively modest price.

Design
At 2.6 ounces with two AAA batteries installed, the 1020--with its reasonably attractive, white-and-blue, boxy design--doesn't exactly scream expensive or cutting-edge, and it isn't the smallest digital audio player around. The buttons are well placed, with the volume controls, the Sound Mode button, and the button-lock switch easily accessible from the sides of the unit. If we had a minor complaint, it's with the triangular stop, forward, reverse, and mode buttons on the front of the unit; they're a tad small and feel a little chintzy. And while we liked the included hard-plastic carrying case with a belt clip, it felt slightly loose when attached; we wish that it clamped a bit tighter.

The LCD is surprisingly primitive, with no backlight and no support for ID3 tags. Instead of song information, you just see the bit rate, the elapsed time, the track number, the volume level, the sound and playback settings, and a rudimentary battery-life indicator.

Features
As noted, the player has 64MB of built-in memory and a Secure Digital/MultiMedia Memory card slot on its top for adding more storage. All in all, however, the feature set is pretty basic: you get repeat and random modes, programming capabilities, a button-lock switch, and five equalizer presets.

MusicMatch Jukebox manages your digital music collection (ripping, playlists, and organization) and transfers MP3 and WMA tracks to the Lyra over USB 1.1, the same connection used by other flash-based players. If you don't plan on buying an expansion card, you'll probably want to use WMA tracks ripped at 64Kbps to get more tunes on the device, as WMA offers a superior compression scheme to that of MP3. Sorry, Mac users--no iTunes support is offered. For that, you need to step over to the $129 RD1080, which also offers support for RCA's great-sounding MP3Pro format.

Performance
We had no complaints about sound quality. The included neck-band-style headphones are decent, and the unit plays loud and sounds fine, although its 75dB signal-to-noise ratio is less than stellar; anything higher than 90dB is considered very good.

Transfer speeds, while not sluggish, were a bit slower than those of certain other MP3 players that we've tested. We transferred 17MB of tunes from Sonic Youth's Murray Street to the device in 91 seconds, which translates into a speed of 0.19MB per second. In comparison, Samsung's YEPP YP-90S transfers files twice as fast.

We managed to match the rated battery life of 12 hours, which is slightly above average for flash-based MP3 players these days. No rechargeable batteries are included, but you do get two alkaline AAAs to start you off.

In the final analysis, the $99 Lyra RD1020 isn't going to wow MP3 enthusiasts, but its reasonably attractive cosmetics and included expansion slot make it worth considering if you can find it for closer to $80. RCA also makes the step-up $129 Lyra RD1070, which comes with 128MB of built-in memory. In addition, you might want to check out the aforementioned, smaller RD1080, which may be RCA's best deal on a flash-based player.

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