This thing is AWESOME - respect all you little MP3's...

So far, I've had this player for just under 3 years. I think it is by far, the best mp3 cd player ever, and I will tell you why in a few different categories...

DURABILITY:
This is yet another area this player gleams in! Hell, I've had this thing for just under 3 years, and trust me, this thing has been dropped on the ground (cement and carpet), slid across the floor, tossed across the room (to someone else, who caught it...) and just overall tossed up and down and shaken so many times, it makes my head spin, and yet it still works to a tee. Its almost scary to think that this player might even work half a decade after I bought it! Not many people can say they've kept a CD player or MP3 player that long. So YES, this player is amazing in the durabilty section!

SOUND:
The sound is one of the most important areas, I feel, that any music playing device needs to shine in. The RCA RP2485 CD Player, in my opinion, does awefully well in this area. The "max" volume is 30, which is pretty good. It depends a great deal on the head phones your using too, but the ones that come with the player are very good. On "max" I can set my headphones down, while the cd player is playing a song, walk across the room and still make out the song in it's entirety...even the words. The EQ's on the unit are great too! There are 5 different settings...Flat, Bass Boost, Rock, Pop, and Jazz. I usually play around with them a little, but I have found that Rock and Jazz are generally better for, say, Rap/Hip-Hop if your looking to hear the artist...where as Pop is good for Rock songs or country, to kind've even things out. They all change the music in their own little ways, so experiment with them.

FEATURES:
There is, of course, EQ's or DSP, but also, shuffle has its own button. You can lock the keys, and in the menu you can make your own playlist within the cd. You can also Repeat the song, disc, or depending on how you burn your MP3/Data CD's, folders. There is also a unique feature, MP3 AutoPlay, which acts as a sort've anti-skip. Also, you can turn off the annoying 'beep' sond that you get every time you press a button. The great thing about the player, I've found, is that no matter what order you burn the MP3/Data CD in, it alphabeticalizes them! Also, it remembers what you were doing on the last CD you played...like if you had repeat song and MP3 AutoPlay on and you were listening to a certain song, it remembers where you were at, even if it is just a regular Audio CD.

PROGRAM:
A program came with the player, and if I recall right, it was Musicmatch Jukebox. Now, I dislike that program in the case of burning MP3 cd's because you can't have WMA songs, which are smaller than MP3's, on the cd. That is why I use Nero StartSmart. You can burn a data cd, which is basically the same thing as an MP3 cd. So needless to say, I frisbee'd the program CD that came with it.

OTHER:
The player actually looks nice too. The screen shows the name of the song, unlike some MP3 CD players which don't put the songs in alphabetical order, and only show the number in which they were burned to the CD. The menu's are easy to navigate also.

OVERALL:
Overall, this player has the sound, the looks, and some great features. This a great MP3 CD Player for a great price (I got mine at Wal-Mart for $45!). The program that comes with it sucks, but over 99% of the people who get this are bound to have either Nero or Windows Media Player, so thats not a problem. The only thing that is wrong about this is that we are in the age now where almost everyone has an MP3 player. You can store more, they're lighter, and they have a backlight (which sadly, this is the only thing this player is missing). But if you can deal with all of those things, and still don't care, this player is a great player indeed! And with a Data CD, you can burn about 150 songs to a CD - about 650 MB (with 192 Kbs, song length average 4 mins - 5.5 MB ea), where as those smaller iPod shuffles which have 512 MB....