Avoid the cheese, get the breakbeat version
346849
Some of the cuts of this song are, well, Kraft CHeese and Macaroni. If you know what I mean. It won't have the girl going me-ya-whatever. It's boo-hiss. Remember, breakbeat. THAT track goes off.
2153183
UPDATE:  I recently installed Internet Explorer 7 on my computer, and now Musicmatch fails to run.  As stated in the review, you can still use all of your other audio programs through the Lyra, but the remote control only worked with Musicmatch v. 7.5.  As such, the remote control is now useless, which is too bad because it was a nifty feature.  Also, as stated in my review, you could have Musicmatch play through the Lyra while your other audio programs play through the computer.  Unfortunately, without Musicmatch working, this can't be done.  The Lyra is still a good device to connect your computer to the stereo, and the sound quality is quite good, but this is a pretty big loss of functionality.

The original review is as follows:

I've tried a number of "wireless" products in order to get music from my computer to my stereo without any wires.  Unfortunately, most either have horrible sound quality or cost way too much.  And I really cannot justify paying over $150 to play my MP3s on a device that runs its own music player where I must be semi-absent from my computer in order to play.  So I came across this product, and I am a huge fan.  Naturally, there are a few cons to this product, but they are soooo miniscule, that I just don't understand the couple of negative reviews (which actually made me reconsider purchasing this item... and it's a good thing I still bought it).  So, the inevitable list of pros and cons:

Pros:
- Plays all sounds off of the computer, not just particular program sounds (i.e. I can wirelessly stream, and also use the music manager of my choice).
- The quality of the sound is equivalent (if not better) to plugging my stereo into my computer.
- Almost no interference, and the rare interference is limited to a click here and there.
- The universal remote is a very nice addition, and works very well with Musicmatch.
- The signal strength is very strong.
- Both receiver and transmitter are quite small.
- A previous reviewer said that you cannot listen to one thing on your stereo and another on your computer.  Not fully true.  All you have to do is set up Musicmatch to play on the Lyra, and set up your computer's audio configuration to use the soundcard, and use a different music program to play music on your computer.  As such, you can play two things at once.

Cons:
- The remote control doesn't work with all music players.  For instance, it does not work with Realplayer or Microsoft Media Player (not that I mind much, honestly, since the audio from any player still comes through.  It's therefore quite irrelevant when I'm at my computer).
- When plugged in, all sound goes through the Lyra, and not the computer speakers.  However, you can change this manually if you want to, so it's not a big deal.
- I'm not sure this is completely true, but I upgraded to a newer version of Musicmatch than came with the product, and the remote control seemed to not work with it except for skip forward/back.  So I reinstalled the older version, and it worked.  So I don't know if the newer version doesn't support the remote control as much, but I have to say, there's no reason to care.  The newer version of Musicmatch doesn't offer anything really new.
- The remote control does not seem to do anything for Rhapsody other than turn it on.  Which, naturally, isn't very helpful unless you're at your computer, and completely defeats the purpose.

Otherwise, I'm completely amazed by the quality of the audio for such a low price.  I really don't understand the negative reviews of this product.  All my negatives are so unimportant.  Sound quality may be an issue for the extreme audiophiles, but I can't imagine that these same people would be happy with a direct wired connection between their computers and their stereos.
3364981
This is a great Catch I have a huge appreciation of the old school thanks to artist like Pac (Rip) however I will admit for the human beatbox there are only two songs that seem to be a prty favorite and they are "Just like a Friend" and the Legend Legond "Vapors" unilike the negative reveiws you may read if you want to spend more money and have a more true understanding of the HUMAN BEATBOX then get his albums and skip this however if you want a mix for a house party this is the set!!!
1522800
EDIT - I have created a more detailed explanation/follow up of my review in the associated comments section. There I go into more detail as to why I consider the 24>16 thing to be a giant waste of time.  Feel free to chime in!

This review is coming from someone who has both the Beatles USB box set and the Stereo Box Set released a few months earlier.  I purchased the USB box set though I KNEW deep down that the simple differences between a 24-bit recording and the 16-bit dithering from that recording would be completely undetectable to human ears.  Now owning both, I can say with full confidence that I shouldn't have bothered.

Here's the thing - we humans are naturally suggestible. It's called expectation bias, placebo effect, whatever you want to call it. We will almost always think wine from a nice bottle with a high price tag will taste better than the SAME wine from a 7-11 with a twist off top. It's not that we're idiots, we're human. Our brain decides what it SHOULD like better and then makes it happen for us.  When it comes to audio these tendencies are amplified. People waste millions on superfluous junk WANTING to believe that it makes their audio experience richer. When they pay the bill and plug it in, their brain justifies the purchase.

Releasing the 24-bit FLAC files of the Beatles remastered stereo catalog is a shameless attempt at double-dipping the same people who bought the Stereo Box Set a few months earlier. Other customers have verified that these are from the same masters used to cut the 16 bit stereo disc.  The fact is, in double blind tests, people simply CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE between 16 bit resolution (~65,536 bit step values) and 24-bit (16,777,216 step values.) Again, we see the numbers, we WANT to believe they sound better, but to ask your speakers or heck, your eardrums to REALLY sense that level of microscopic difference is a pipe dream.

I know other reviewers have claimed to score 100% on double blind tests discerning these 24 bit files from the 16 bit equivalents.  Either they're using horribly-configured tests, or they're exaggerating things, I promise you.  For an EXPERT listener to discern a difference on even a small percentage of these recordings, they would need to be listening at absolute ear-bleeding volume levels, lest the differences be totally obliterated in the analog "dithering" process imposed by your volume knob.

So if you have yet to take the plunge on the Beatles remasters, go for the USB.  It's compact and it sounds great.

If you already have the Stereo set, skip this.  It sounds just as great.  That is, unless you like purposefully paying more for wine out of a nice bottle.
2055043
Do NOT attempt to buy this in pieces, as they're chunked out here, unless you only want the music.  The speaker is excellent, but the pieces cut off so jarringly, you're in danger of falling on the floor when they do.  1-4 are NOT! self-contained units.  Also, I was forced to download iTunes to get the whole album--fine, because I wanted it as one unit.  But...it's not!  All tracks continue to play individually.  I actually had to import them all into Audacity to make it into 1 unified file.  STUPID.  It still has blips where the cuts were, but maybe I can edit these down over time.  The point is, I shouldn't have to.  A ridiculous blot on an otherwise excellent recording.
4335149
The reason I'm posting this review is because I bought this DVD based on Mercy Oceans' review saying that the music is "elevator music."  It's not that I like elevator music, it's just that elevator music can be ignored, and this music has too much of a beat to be ignored.  So, if you find music with a boring repetitious beat annoying, be forewarned: This not only isn't nice classical music, it's not neutral either.  I've adopted the same solution as the previously mentioned reviewer; MUTE it and listen to something else.  The workout itself is fine, although I'm sure I was missing some of the nuances with the mute button on.  I do recommend this workout unless you dislike music with a steady thump.  Also, I don't know if it's just the camera angle, but the instructor seems to have very large thighs for a ballet dancer.  I was probably focusing on the wrong things because of the MUTE situation.
2235952
I bought this CD based on how cool the samples sound when played for only 20 seconds. I was extremely disappointed to find that little changes in any track from those 20 second sound-bytes, and the best way I can sum up my experience was "YAWN!" I kept waiting for a track to build, to bring in some new rhythms, sounds, melodies, ANYTHING but the constant boom-boom-boom.
Having said all that, I gave my copy of this CD to a friend and she LOVES it! No big surprise, there are a ton of 5-star reviews of Prototype 4 to accompany this 2-star bashing; music is a purely subjective experience. Who would like this CD and other Fontaine releases: those who enjoy straight-forward BEATS, lots of bass-heavy thumping, not much melody, nothing too complex, nothing high pitched, and no emotional expression. On the other hand, if you want a more mentally and emotionally engaging type of sound that changes and evolves and uses synchopation and interwoven streams of sound, do NOT get this CD or you'll be as annoyed by it as I was! For progressive/deep trance that melts in your mind and heart, not in your stomach (an admittedly lame reference to heavy bass lines :~p), try Dave Seaman's Buenos Aires, Deep Dish's Moscow, or Max Graham's Transport. No cheese but a lot more interesting.
1059421
Sorry people, but I really felt I had to warn you about this one.

I was particularly excited about this Defected release; there were plenty of great house jams released in the preceding months, but very few of them made it onto Goa 09.
There are some pretty standard hits from the last year like Gomi's "Glad I Found You", ATFC's "Bad Habit", and Quentin Harris' "My Joy"... but these four or five tracks are just the same old original versions or extended club mixes, nothing new... What's worse is the other popular songs that were absolutely BUTCHERED. Who wouldn't love a sweet new remix of "Diamond Life" or "Wondrous"? Well let me tell you Vega and Clark's originals would be a much better use of the space. In fact, some of these reinterpretations of great songs are almost insulting. -Harsh, I know, but I just spent hours going through this HUGE mix (42 tracks!!!) and I'll tell you, I kept only 11 of them, which I guess isn't too too bad considering how truly valuable a single great song can be...

So YES, there are a few gems!  -Now I can't guess if you've heard 'em a million times or will hate every note,
but these are the ones I'm really grateful for...

"How Do I Let Go (CW Remix)"  -count on Charles Webster to deliver that curious combo of funky chillness just when you need it most.

"Sun Will Shine"  -probably my favorite track, I can't believe I'd never heard this one, just has that classic/catchy feel to it.

"Can't Stop (Joey Negro Dub)"  -requires some patience but Joey Negro funks things up with a delightfully dark and different piano jam in the middle.

"Block Party"  -sooo awesome once you get to the good stuff, that being an unbelievably uplifting sax and very unique electrojazzfunk flavor.

"Music Talking"  -just a great classic catchy feel-good oldskool/nuskool song that makes me smile while chair dancing.

**** These few masterpieces aside, I'd still say not worth it. Most of the tracks are just too long and have these awful 3 minute build-ups and intros that just don't go anywhere. Its just too much time and money for 80% annoying repetitive noise and stuff you've already heard, when theres so much great stuff to be discovered elsewhere.
1739494
Got this for my gal for Valentine's day.  It's as light and nice as they say, with killer sound.  We use 128 bit samples and therefore can fit about an hour's worth of CD quality sound.  Watch out about the "expandable" claim if you see it anywhere in the product description -- it is not.  It comes with 2 32M cards, and that's all that can fit in there.  I bought one extra 32M card, believing I could go to 90 minutes of play time, and it's worthless (at over $...!!) unless you want to share half a set with another iPAQ owner, or unless you want to pre-record a bunch of different sets and you won't be anywhere near your pc for awhile.  But that would get mucho expensive, like $... per tune!
The software I find pretty convoluted.  We're on a better groove now, building a library of playlists; but that first one was really confusing to me, and I'm a programmer and a musician and I like to think I know my way around a menu.  The USB download time is just fine, once you get it going, like 5 minutes per 32M card.  You have to design the card's contents separately, one at a time, although playback is seamless.  Also, although it refused to let me grab a tune from my own freakin' CD that I once paid good royalties for, it had no trouble using the exact same tune when I got it from a certain well-known, pirated, illegal MP3 site whose name rhymes with Krappster -- what's that about?
Bottom line: the player is 5-star, the PC software is less than 3-star.  There's some Windows Media Player interface I have yet to mess with; maybe that's the trick, we'll see.  Peace.
3037300
Amazon warns you that the CD comes with a security vulnerability. What they don't tell you is that you can't even *play* this CD on a computer without using the bundled software. It's anti-piracy garbage, which means you can't play it, or rip it, without using Sony's onboard junk which creates "licensed" files rather than normal MP3's. I wasted hours figuring out why all the tracks were coming through jumpy and skippy; why the CD plays fine on a CD player, but jitters and garbles on the PC. Now I find I can't even use the files it produces on my portable player.

It's lovely music, a very interesting change of direction for BRMC. But this CD is BS.
482799
There can be no argument that these are some of the most important recordings in the history of music, the joyous sound of a new musical vocabulary being created - 5 stars.  I haven't heard the competing set, but I found the sound better than other reviews here had led me to expect - 4 stars.  The booklet is fine - 5 stars.  The package design leaves glue all over the CDs, and even after thorough cleaning one track on my disc 4 remains unplayable - zero stars.  Sony have not bothered to respond to my email of complaint about this - minus 1 stars.  Average it all out and you get 3 stars.

Get this set, but only if you can check out the CDs first, then immediately transfer them to standard jewel cases.
3503242
I heard this playing at one of my favorite record stores and immediately picked up the original USA press on CD.  Brought it home and stuck it in the CD player.  I immediately noticed distortion on a few tracks.  A year later, I picked up the SACD by Analogue Productions and wala!  The distortions were gone.

Figured I pick up the 10th Anniversary Clear Edition.  Horrendous quality control.  Ticks and crackling on a new record (I cleaned before playing).  Track 1 on Side B gave me a heart attack when I saw my stylus do the boggie dance.  Somehow, there was a 'bump' and each time the stylus hit the bump, it looked like it was doing some form of breakdance.

That's twice that the original release has let me down (CD & 10th Anniv Etd).  I gave the record away to a mate so he could 'frame' it up.  You are better off with the 12" vinyl by Analogue Productions.
4442035
A track by track breakdown. Not in exact order, because I can't remember the order.
19-2000 soul child remix - bouncy ... techno. ok for a listen, but i really don't like it. it's in that icebreakers commercial with that stupid high pitched whistle.
19-2000 wiseguys remix - awful boring talentless techno. just terrible.
latin simone remix - not really a remix, but a different version. this is the latin simone song from the original cd - exact same music - however the vocals are in english and sung by damon albarn (2-d). his voice doesn't fit the music as well as the original guy, and he doesn't raise his voice well at some points either (QUE PASA CONTIGO!?!?!), but it's still a great track.
The Sounder - A random rap song by a random rapper. Not a bad song, and the rapper is skilled, but I don't like his voice too much. Decent song if you're into rap.
Clint Eastwood remix - Clint Eastwood, but with the Del tha funkee Homosapien's (Russell) rap portion sung by the rapper who does The Sounder. The beats are changed slightly to accomodate this guy, and it's not that bad either. Decent for certain.
Faust - Decent listen, with some japanese lyrics, but not too special. Cool though.
Ghost Train - Great track - initially. I've gotten tired of it recently. But it's still decent.
12D3 - Awesome song. Simple guitars, wonderful vocals by damon albarn, comprehensible yet nonsensical lyrics...all the things that make the gorillaz great.
Hip Albatross - My favorite song on the cd. Simple rhythm and low key vocals, very sample heavy. At almost all points during the song are samples from Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead being played, often just zombies groan. Really great song, just laid back low key great music. I love the opening - helicopter blades whirling, the sample from Dawn of the Dead of that guy saying, "Every body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill." And then the quirky guitar notes first come up...ooh, it's awesome.
So, it's an average cd with its ups and downs. If you're a bigtime gorillaz fan like me, grab it for certain; otherwise you may just want to get the hot tracks in mp3 form.
The two very appealing parts about I haven't mentioned are very cool art, both on the case and in the inside booklet, and also the price is nice - only ten bucks. Radiohead's I might Be Wrong live recordings cd with like 8 or 9 tracks was set at full album price, which stresses the wallet of any music fan.
But one last point - this is only my opinion. Because of the wide ranging types of music here, it'll appeal to anyone. There are two techno songs, two rap songs, one almost acoustic rock song, three miscellaneous. It's certain you'll find something here you'll like.
3711600
What I like:
1) price
2) super light weight
3) FM radio
4) Good sound quality
5) The GUI is good enough
6) Stopwatch

What I don't like:
1) tracks are played alphabetically - so you have to edit file names and add 01,02, etc. to the start of file names that haven't been set up with this in mind.  Note if you use Windows Media Player (free!) to rip CD tracks, the correct track numbers are automatically inserted into the track name so when these tracks are transfered to the Zen, they will be in correct order.  If you use the supplied Zen Media Lite software to rip tracks, the track names will remain unchanged, so because they are played alphabetically, they could be in the wrong order.  A free utility (named Reorganize!) mentioned on the Zen support site will lessen some of the manual effort needed to rename tracks with numeric prefixes, or if you have the time & patience you can use good old Windows Explorer to hunt down each track & manually rename them.
2) No gapless playback - if you listen to opera, etc. this will drive you nuts when you "hear" about a half second of silence between contiguous tracks. According to my research very few players by any manufacturer support gapless playback - so a new generation IPod may be your best bet if your musical tastes include "continuous" music.  There is also an open source firmware download from Rockbox that supposedly works on a variety of players (not the Zen Stone plus)  that supposedly will support gapless playback - and will also probably void your warranty & disable other features (like FM radio)
3) Microphone is ultra low quality
4) Non USB based charger is an expensive option (like most manufacturers) so if you travel, prepare to spend extra for this
5) Blah battery life: I only get 6 hours at the most
633448
The file you get from Amazon is a 208 kbps (VBR) which, under normal circumstances, should sound great. The problem is that this specific copy of the song has 'clicking' throughout, present both on the download and in Cloud Player. It's very noticeable on a song like this and ruins an otherwise perfectly good song. Find another version.
901028
I've been wailing on one of those for over 10 years.  Back when I bought it, it was only ten bucks.  One thing I'll say is that their sound is almost on par with a Zildjian Oriental China Trash.  Their overall character is a bit more powerful with more attack, and significantly louder than a Zildjian.  I also own a Zildjian oriental china trash, and I'd say I throw this one in the mix almost just as often.

As for it's downfalls, it has several.  For one, the shape of the bell is absolutely obnoxious when trying to set it up.  Plan on using the smallest wingnut you have when putting in on the stand.  The cymbals are quite fragile as well.  They tend to crack on the top pretty easily.  I have cracked both a 12" and 18" variety.  That said, this cymbal has such a trashy sound I think the crack made the 12" sound a bit better for metal settings.

I mostly use this in metal and punk music, although I'm sure it'd sound great in other styles.  I definitely highly recommend it for the price.  It's definitely worth more than $30.
1717666
I did an A/B comparison of the audio quality with my SoundBlaster Live! sound card in my PC using good headphones (Sony MDR-84's). Even with the bass boost and equalizer tweaked, both the low and high end are weaker. The high end is more like a cassette tape player. It's not awful, but the difference is very noticeable. If you like sharp clarity and rumbling bass, you're going to be disappointed. At least there's no background noise at all. According to my research, this Sony has good audio quality compared to other players. It's sad that there just aren't any truly hi-fi MP3 players. The manufacturers seem to assume that they'll never be used with real headphones. Sigh.

If you pause before scanning, it scans much faster (2 minutes per second). This is very important for finding your place in long audio book files. The manual doesn't make this feature clear, so you're welcome.

You can scan backwards past the beginning of one MP3 into the end of the previous one. This makes finding your place in an audio book much faster.

It sorts files by file name and allows the files in a single folder to be played in order regardless of the order they were copied to the player. It remembers where you were when you power it off, but unfortunately, it does not remember where you left off if you switch from an audio book in one folder to, say, music in another, and then back to the book. It should automatically remember your place in each folder. It doesn't. There's no bookmarking.

It does NOT do that annoying fade in/out thing that makes you miss several words of an audio book when you pause.

I really like the two user-defined equalizer presets. I have one set for music with high and low end increased, and the other set for audio books with the low end reduced. It's very nice to be able to easily switch subject matter without having to manually adjust the EQ.

It's not much of a video player. Of the 12 .wmv videos I copied to it, only 4 played. You'll have to re-compress most videos to make them compatible, which is very time-consuming.

Update: After 8 months of heavy use, the battery is still lasting about 2 days, and I'm not religious about turning it off when not in use. I've dropped it 2 feet onto hard floors a couple of times with no damage.

There are several minor bugs in the software. It's gotten stuck about a dozen times after scanning. When this happens, it keeps playing but none of the buttons will work. It can be unstuck by scanning in the same direction again. It has frozen up once or twice and had to be turned off and back on to fix it. I haven't had to use the reset button yet. There's a minor bug in the file system. Two or three times it kept using an old folder name after that folder was deleted and a new folder added. These are minor annoyances, but if I were running Sony, I'd put a bit more time and money into debugging.