RCA Lyra RD1021A Digital Audio Player

July 13, 2024

Front face of the RCA Lyra digital media player.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s a handful of companies tried to take advantage of the digital music revolution by releasing various pocket sized music players.  RCA produced a number of different models including the RD1021A which was a palm sized player with 64MB of internal memory as well as a card slot for an SD expansion card.  This specimen was in good condition, other than the Volume - button seemed to be sunk in and non-operational. 

RCA Lyra case back showing model number.
RCA Lyra case top showing headphone port and buttons.
Side profile of the RCA Lyra showing the battery door and volume buttons.

Opening up the case and exposing the guts the problem with the volume button was immediately obvious, the switch has been displaced from the pads.  Luckily it was still inside the unit and hadn't shorted anything out, and even more fortunate, the pads were all in tact for the switch.

RCA Lyra internals, showing that the pad for volume down is missing the switch.

The lower left shows an empty pad for the volume button.

The volume down button soldered back into place.

Soldered back into place and secure!

With the RCA Lyra reassembled it was time to test out the player.  I was surprised by the sound quality of the onboard DSP, it seemed to do a nice job across the range of frequencies in the music that I used for a test.  All buttons now were solid, and the unit was ready to go!

Back together and working great!