over 65 mb mp3 players

I've had this MP3 player for a little over a month now, which I think is adequate time to evaluate it. I purchased it at my local Target. I previously owned a Virgin Pulse 64 MB MP3 Player--it was too clunky, used (flimsy) smartmedia for expansion, and had weird issues with the buttons, so I exchanged it for the Lyra. What a difference fifty bucks makes.

For the price, I think this little player is pretty tough to beat. It included all the features important to me--FM tuner, expandability (non-smartmedia, please), good sound, small size, and an armband. I principally work out in a gym either running on the treadmill or using an elliptical trainer, and the belt clip on the Virgin pulse just wasn't working for me. The armband packaged with this mp3 player stays where I put it and doesn't pinch unless I accidentally cinch it too tightly. It doesn't allow access to the buttons through the armband, but it is easy to get in and out of one-handed if I want to fast-forward or switch to radio mode. The headphones sound pretty good for OEM headphones. Their design is a little unusual--they clip directly to my ears, but I've come to like them as well, as they stay put and also do not pinch. The FM tuner is a *little* on the weak side, but I prinicpally use it to tune to the audio tracks of the TVs at my gym, and it works perfectly for that. It is pretty efficient with the batteries--I picked up some rechargeables to use with it, so I'm not buying lots of batteries.

The software is passable--a word to the wise, just install the MusicMatch software and skip the rest unless you're interested in signing up for a bunch of pay services. Unlike the older revisions, I do not have to convert my MP3 files for use with this player--just drag and drop in Windows if I see fit!

I had this inexpensive little mp3 player from November until January, and in that time, boy was it great! The size of it is the most striking feature. You could literally make a fist around it and it would be completely covered. The transfer of music to the player was very simple and musicmatch wasn't a problem at all to use. The headphones that came with the model did their job without much fuss. My only two gripes that I had with the player was that there was a barely audible whine when it was playing songs, especially on WMA formatted songs, and the joystick control button kept getting knocked into when I was excercizing, thereby fast-forwarding and skipping tracks unexpectedly. All in all, I was very impressed and satisfied with the player, until it broke. Three months after I bought it (just past the 90 day store warranty at circuit city) the volume button got stuck on the up position, constantly maxing out the volume. This annoyed me to no end, so I sent the player back to Thomson (RCA's parent-company) in February... Four months later in the middle of June, I got a refund for the damn thing. Finally! I can't say I'm completely peeved though, things could have turned out much worse. So anyway, if you're still reading this be warned: You get what you pay for, so spend a little extra on another sturdier model and save yourself several months of disappointment.

I received the RCA Lyra rd1080 as a bday present from my wife and it worked fine for over a year. Last week, the volume control, which many other reviewers are complaining about, broke for no apparent reason. The volume now only works going up and as a result is stuck on 50. It seems like there is something broken as there is no "click" when pressing down. Up until now, I have been reasonably happy with the mp3 player and have even recommended it to others. I use it moderately, usually only hooked up to my car stereo through a cassette deck adapter. However, 1 year is not the lifespan I expect from a very expensive gift - my Sony Walkman (10 years old) is still kicking. I haven't tried calling the service desk, but since the unit is over a year old, I'm not expecting much. Landfills are full of electronic items that have become useless due to one poorly made part. It's disgusting. I'll update this if I get satisfactory results when contacting RCA.