RCA Lyra - Digital Audio on the Go

Portable MP3/WMA/RA player, cigarette lighter power adapter, cassette adapter... sounds good. However, an MP3 audio encryption "feature" makes this player less convenient than it should be.

RCA's Lyra Personal Digital Player, as noted in our report elsewhere in this section on portable MP3 players, is one of the most full-featured digital audio walkabouts. In addition to a digital signal processor that delivers better-than-average sound, with settings optimized for rock, pop, jazz and even a 5-band graphic EQ for defining your own settings, the unit provides the sort of versatility that will make it a useful addition to your lifestyle, not just your computer. It won't skip while you're jogging and the inclusion of car cassette and power adapters and the use of standard AA batteries makes this US$199 (C$369) unit extremely versatile.

The package includes the player (about 4 1/2" H, 2 1/2" W, 7/8" D), set of headphones, a USB adapter for your computer, a 64MB CompactFlash removable memory card, a car cassette adapter, a cigarette lighter power adapter and the obligatory CD of applications, drivers and sample files. The unit accepts standard AA batteries, and comes packed with a set of Duracell Ultras. A battery charger with rechargeable NiMH batteries is available as a US$29.95 option. Alternately, a US$14.95 AC adapter option converts the Lyra itself into a NiMH battery charger.The player includes a CompactFlash (CF) expansion slot. CF media offers greater expansion capabilities than the tiny "SmartMedia" SSFD cards used by some competing devices. You can eject the memory card from the player and insert it into the included USB-connected adapter for your PC or Mac. Then, you launch one of the two provided utilities that allows you to manage your MP3 songs, uploading, deleting and arranging the tunes for your player.

The package comes with RealJukeBox and MusicMatch Jukebox. We preferred the latter, and found it generally easier to use for converting existing audio tracks from CDs or other sources to the digital formats supported by the Lyra. The fact that it truncated our file names to 16 characters was an odd limitation, as the Lyra itself supports filenames up to 58 characters long.

The Lyra currently supports three main audio formats: MPx (an encrypted variant of MP3), RealAudio G2 and Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. Windows Media is by far the best supported format, and is the only one that allows "drag-and-drop" functionality. More on this later.

It's no wonder the MusicMatch software is the Lyra's "recommended" jukebox/conversion utility. To put it bluntly, RealJukebox sucks! The program locked up more than once during our tests and couldn't even transfer some of our existing RealAudio 1.0/2.0 files (that played perfectly in RealJukeBox and RealPlayer) to the Lyra. What's up with that?

An updated set of LYRA USB Drivers (or a nearly identical set of system-level drivers for Windows or the Mac from SCM Micro, which manufactures the USB adapter) allows the USB adapter to mount the CF media as a standard storage device visible from the Windows Explorer or Mac desktop. This software allows you to copy WMA files directly to the CF media in drag-and-drop fashion. With the updated software on the LyraZone website, the unit supports Windows 95, 98, Me, NT and Windows 2000 and G3 or newer Macs. (Non USB-capable PCs must use an optional parallel port Compact Flash adapter instead of the supplied USB module.)

However, even with new software, MP3 files cannot be directly transferred from this CompactFlash media via the USB adapter -- you still have to use one of the supplied conversion programs. The problem is caused by the fact that the Lyra firmware does not support unencrypted MP3 audio files. Indeed, the Lyra does not play MP3 files at all -- rather, it uses RealJukebox or MusicMatch to scramble the files into .MPX files (encrypted with the serial number of the CF card being used, apparently) which the Lyra can then play.

Thus, you have to use the awkward (and, in our view, unnecessarily complicated) audio management software to re-encode and transfer existing libraries of your MP3 music to the player. This process also adds an extra level of complexity for those who already keep their files on their PC's hard drive in MP3 format. This is especially frustrating, considering that the Lyra's firmware, which is stored on the CF media, is clearly to blame and could easily be updated to remove this limitation. It's yet another example of a "feature" designed to appease the recording industry, that inconveniences users as a result.

Fortunately, this issue does not exist with songs in Windows Media Audio format. You can simply drag-and-drop WMA files onto the Compact Flash card "drive" and then pop the CF card out, insert it into the Lyra and hit "play." This is, we think, the way a portable digital audio player ought to work.

The Lyra's WMA support also means the unit is directly supported by Windows Media Player 7's "Portable Device" option. But this feature, too, is flawed. MP3 files (supported by Media Player 7) are transferred, but they don't play correctly. Essentially, it forces you to save your files in WMA format. We can understand Microsoft's motivation for this "feature," by why is RCA playing along?

The Mac is supported by the Lyra, but just barely. The included CD lacks Mac drivers and applications; you must download them from the Internet, but the address given in our Lyra package's documentation was wrong. (It's actually http://www.lyrazone.com/musicmatch2.html.) The Mac version of MusicMatch lacks the ability to record CDs and the option to convert and play WMA files -- all features present in the Windows version. It also lacks the "internet radio stations" feature available to Windows users. You can't even double-click an audio file to open it in MusicMatch. In essence, the Mac is missing the Lyra's best feature -- its seamless WMA support.

Sound Quality

The sound quality of the Lyra is generally excellent, however there are a few issues. The player exhibits a moderate amount of background noise when playing some -- but not all -- converted files. It appears to be most severe when the source file is an MP3 with a bit-rate higher than the Lyra's standard 128K/sec. and the destination file is in WMA format. As well, the player was prone to fairly loud popping noises when switching between audio formats between songs. This is typically accompanied by a delay of a few seconds, as the unit loads the necessary decoders for the various formats.

Conclusion

At least for Windows users, the Lyra's ability to handle MP3, Windows Media and RealPlayer files right out of the box makes it one of the most flexible players on the market. We also liked its cassette-deck adapter, which allows the player to be conveniently used in the car.

However, the Lyra's awkward MP3 encryption "feature" is a significant enough limitation to the way we think these players ought to work (drag and drop, copy and go...) that it earns this otherwise top-notch player a recommended rating only if you already use and appreciate the advantages of the WMA format. For those seeking a player primarily for playing back standard MP3s, it's not the best choice.

For Further Reading:

• Press Release - RCA MP3 lineup now includes K@zoo!, next generation Lyra, and MP3/CD.
• Audio Players - MP3 players for the car and the geek on the go.
• LyraZone.com - Product information about the Lyra.
• Windowsmedia.com - A list of other digital audio players.
• ttscoa.tripod.com - "Planet Lyra," an unofficial FAQ site.
• Update: read our review of the Lyra2.