RCA Lyra RD2212 review (256MB)

Along with Audible.com content, the RCA Lyra RD2212 supports MP3 and WMA music formats, including purchased DRM-protected files, although it's not formally PlaysForSure certified. You can browse files by folder or by a separate menu option that takes you to a screen where tracks are arranged by ID3 tag info such as artist, album, and so forth. Unfortunately, navigating through the interface in this way is time-consuming, as new pages are slow to load. Playback options include shuffle and repeat, and the player offers an on-the-go playlist function called My Selections. If you tire of your digital content, you can tune in to the FM radio, which includes 20 presets. You can also record FM to MP3 format, but there's no mic for voice recording.

Beyond music playback, the RCA Lyra RD2212 provides a stopwatch, a calorie counter, and a pulse-rate monitor to aid you in your fitness routine. You can enter your personal information, such as age and weight, for the calorie tool or place a finger on the small pulse monitor on the top of the unit to get a pulse reading. In cursory testing, both functions seemed to be fairly accurate, but we wouldn't depend on them for serious data.

When we started putting the RCA Lyra RD2212 through its paces, we were greeted with another design issue. The player's battery-compartment door is held on with a screw mechanism to help protect it from spills. Unfortunately, the catch broke off during testing in CNET Labs, so we resorted to tape to hold the cover together. This doesn't speak well of build quality. Fortunately, the player makes up for it with solid sound. Even through the included headphones, there was little distortion and a barely noticeable background hiss. Tunes were even richer and cleaner through our reference Shure E4c earbuds. In a noisy gym, we found it handy using a dedicated DSP button to punch up the audio with Flat, Bass, Pop, Rock, and Jazz enhancement modes. The FM tuner is clear and has a nice option for switching to mono to cut down on distortion. As we mentioned before, battery life is also impressive, squeezing out 47.1 hours of tunes. Transfer times via USB 2.0 are slightly below average at 1.6MB per second.