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RCA RP2480 Portable CD/MP3 Player

RCA RP2480 Portable CD/MP3 Player

List Price: $69.99
Your Price: $49.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: FEATURES=EXCELLLENT, AUDIO QUALITY=BAD
Review: .
Pros: Has all the features I could expect from a MP3/WMA player, i.e.: you can do a mix and match of MP3s & WMAs of even different bit rates within a same folder and it will play it!

"Functionnalywise" I give it 9/10

Cons: The unit does not play loud enough (tried with several types of headphones)

NO BACKLIT! -> forget about the benefits of the ID tag feature in the dark...

VERY ANNOYING ELECTRICAL NOISE IN HEADPHONES AT LOW VOLUME.

I often used the player in bed at low volume. In that particular case, you can easily hear an electrical noise generated by the circuitry of the player. For that only reason, I have returned the unit to the store because music quality is more important than the features. I can't think of a product affected by such a problem was released on the market.

...sorry RCA, you have to work harder on the noise reduction design before convincing me...

With these cons fixed, this product would beat all competition at that price!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Terrific, it plays WMA too!!!
Review: First, I didn't expect much of it, as it is really cheap. When I first tried, I became impressed. The quality of the sound, the fact it plays WMA files, its design, the headphones really different from the ones I've already used are just few features of this excellent player. I recommend it, it's no waste of your money.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Don't Buy This
Review: I bought this CD player about a couple weeks ago because i needed an mp3 cd player cause i got a computer for Christmas. Overall i was pleased with this cd player. It plays every mp3 cd ive ever made with no skipping. including my wma discs with over 200 songs. i really dont care for those headphones though. and that musicmatch software is about worthless compared to windows media player 9. it also sounds like it is logging on to the internet when you turn it on. also dont get me started on that buzzing sound when listen on low volume. it needs a lot of improvements but for the price i paid i feel i still got a good deal.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: How I feel about this device?
Review: I bought this CD player about a couple weeks ago because i needed an mp3 cd player cause i got a computer for Christmas. Overall i was pleased with this cd player. It plays every mp3 cd ive ever made with no skipping. including my wma discs with over 200 songs. i really dont care for those headphones though. and that musicmatch software is about worthless compared to windows media player 9. it also sounds like it is logging on to the internet when you turn it on. also dont get me started on that buzzing sound when listen on low volume. it needs a lot of improvements but for the price i paid i feel i still got a good deal.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Money Wasted
Review: I bought this cd player because it had the 2 features I needed: mp3 playback and car kit. The car kit works, but I had to go through extra steps with knowledgeable friends because the poor manual has almost no instructions. Worse is mp3 playback - 1 out of 5 songs CANNOT be read. When that happens, the player simply freezes, and you have to unplug the AC adapter and replug it in. I use this mainly for my car, and I have had to unplug the adapter from the cig lighter, plug it back in, turn on the power, select the music and hit play, too many times, WHILE DRIVING. And that will only last maybe 20 minutes, and I have to go through the same steps again.

My conclusions is the cd player is extremely unreliable in the mp3 playback department. I have had enough, and this player is going back to the store.

AVOID.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Some major problems
Review: I bought this cd player because it had the 2 features I needed: mp3 playback and car kit. The car kit works, but I had to go through extra steps with knowledgeable friends because the poor manual has almost no instructions. Worse is mp3 playback - 1 out of 5 songs CANNOT be read. When that happens, the player simply freezes, and you have to unplug the AC adapter and replug it in. I use this mainly for my car, and I have had to unplug the adapter from the cig lighter, plug it back in, turn on the power, select the music and hit play, too many times, WHILE DRIVING. And that will only last maybe 20 minutes, and I have to go through the same steps again.

My conclusions is the cd player is extremely unreliable in the mp3 playback department. I have had enough, and this player is going back to the store.

AVOID.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Somewhere between heaven and hell
Review: I bought this cd player to replace my broken philips cd player because i broke the screen. At first the rca was good until i was using for 5 hours straight and the batteries died.My philips lasted at least 10 hours.The other reason i dont like it because any slight touch of the slide it pops right open. Last I hate the color. Other than those reasons the anti-skip is good,mp3 cds load fast, no promblems so far.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not For Audiofiles
Review: I bought this CD player, and wasn't expecting it to be perfect, being from RCA. I love the MP3 on this CD player because it is easy to read, and you can scroll through the list and pick which songs that you like. There is one major problem with this CD player though - whenever playing an MP3 cd or a standard audio CD, a loud buzzing noise occurs. Even when you turn the volume high, anytime the music you are listening to gets quiet, you can hear the noise. I have very high quality headphones, and I can still hear the buzzing. It is extremely annoying, especially when trying to listen to classical music. I took the same audio CD and put it into my old sony CD player, and it worked perfectly, without any buzzing. Also, it is great that you can choose from modes of DSP like Jazz, Pop Classical, etc, but the bass boost mode provides hardly any bass. I play the Cello, and when I went to put on Mozart, I was stunned when I found I could not hear them because the bass was not adequate. I woud not buy this aga

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Money Wasted
Review: I bought this to replace my Panasonic SL-SX271C CD player, which was a great product, except I dropped it one too many times. Now, I wish the Panasonic still worked properly. (For the record, I have not once dropped the RCA unit.)

First off, I never really used the headphones that came with the unit. I find the ear pieces to be too bulky, and instead use Sony MPR-A35 headphones. That's my preference. You might actually like these headphones.

I purchased an MP3-CD player so that I could compact my CD collection into a smaller amount of discs. This way, I could eliminate disc-swapping. At first, I had no MP3-CDs, so I used the player to play back audio CDs.

Quickly I discovered three annoying problems.

The audio randomly skips.
In somewhat regular intervals, there's a hiccup in the sound. This probably has to do with ESP Extreme, which I imagine prerecords segments of the music to memory in the event that the unit receives a massive jolt. The transition is not smooth enough, but it's best to leave it on. Since the unit doesn't seem to have any built-in shock absorption, the slightest taps and movements make the music skip like crazy.

The Open slider slides all too easily.
I listen to my music in mass transit. A lot of times, the hustle and bustle involved causes me to lightly tap the Open slider, causing the player to open, and frustratingly interrupting my listening pleasure. To counter this problem, I have applied a small piece of masking tape to the unit, so that it won't open unless I partially peel this piece of tape off. That shouldn't be necessary, and it makes the MP3-CD player look cheaper than it already is.

Batteries drain quickly.
I used the player only four times on its first set of batteries, listening to regular CDs. By comparison, my Panasonic player lasted significantly longer.

After the problems with skipping and such, I decided that maybe this player is geared specifically for MP3 playback, so I commenced with the burning. It does have a nice built-in file browsing system, though not unique to RCA. That's about all it has going for it.

I tried several MP3's with 128Kbps MP3s, and I was happy to hear that it was working... Up until about 25 seconds into the song, when the music suddenly stops, waits about 5 seconds, and then moves on to the next file.

What's wrong? I listen to pretty long songs (often at least 7 minutes apiece), so that may be a factor. Are the MP3's too big for the player? Do I need to compress these MP3s to the point where they're practically impossible to comprehend? The instructions say the playback bitrate can be anywhere between 32k and 320k, so that can't be the case. The play mode is Normal, not Intro. There's no comprehendable reason why this thing should not work.

Whatever the case may be, this mediocre CD player and useless MP3 player is about to go into my trash can, because I made the mistake of waiting too long to return it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Useless Garbage
Review: I bought this unit because of it's purported MP3 features and also the price was right and I liked the design. The player has great sound -- WHEN IT WORKS. I bought one during the Christmas holiday and in less than a week had to return it for a replacement because the thing would not play even on fresh batteries. Ok, no problem, was willing to try again. Well, I had the same problem after less than a month.
Not to mention this junk player eats up batteries like candy. I'm lucky if I get 8 hours out of it before the player refuses to read discs, even if the battery indicator only is short one bar. Further, I get error messages saying "door open" when the door is securely shut, and it takes several minutes to "read" the file system of my MP3's. Adding insult to injury, the least little bump will make the player shut off or freeze in the middle of playing, starting the whole long start-up process again. This is totally unacceptable and RCA should definitely recall this product. Thankfully the player comes with a one year warranty, so this sucker is definitely getting shipped back to the manufacturer.


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