Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a CD-ROM drive in my
   home digital music player?

A: If a digital music player includes a CD drive, its primary purpose is to 
   let you transfer CD music to the digital player's internal hard drive. 
   However, transferring music from a CD also involves entering database 
   information about the music, such as album title, artist, genre and track 
   names. 

   This information is either typed-in by you, or automatically downloaded 
   from the CDDB service on the Internet. Imagine trying to do this from the
   front panel controls of a digital music player! It's much easier to
   transfer songs on your PC where you have the benefit of a mouse, keyboard,
   monitor and jukebox software. 
   
   Since ripping and organizing your music is much easier and more efficient 
   on a PC, a CD-ROM in your digital music player is usually a redundant and
   expensive addition.

                            ********************

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a hard drive in my home
   digital music player?

A: Hard drive storage on a digital music player eliminates the need for a PC 
   and a network because it stores all of the digital music files inside the
   digital music player. There are several drawbacks to this. For example, 
   hard drives are always dropping in price for greater capacity, but are 
   difficult to swap on most digital music players—so you'll be buying 
   "last generation" storage at a premium price. 

   Also, it's difficult if not impossible to back up the digital music player
   hard drive—and if it crashes without a back up you'll lose all of your 
   songs! Lastly, many digital players with hard drives do not allow other 
   players in the home to share the same music library. So you end up with a 
   very big jukebox in the living room that is inaccessible to anyone else. 

   In contrast, with all of your music on a PC hard drive, you can upgrade the
   drive easily and inexpensively as you need more storage, you network the 
   music to multiple points in the home, and you can back up the drive with 
   common PC backup hardware such as tapes. PC hard drive storage for digital
   music is more efficient, less expensive and makes upgrading and maintenance
   much easier.

                            ********************

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a modem in my digital
   player?

A: A digital music player with a modem is usually intended to serve as a 
   "stand alone" system that does not need a PC to access the Internet to 
   download music, or access web-based radio stations. While this seems like
   a reasonable thing to do, there are some disadvantages to consider. 

   * First, for efficient management of downloading music from the Internet, 
     you'd need a video monitor to read web pages. This is something better 
     left to a PC. 
   * Second, your PC probably already has an Internet connection. So not only
     are you paying for a second modem in your digital music player, you're 
     also going to have to share the phone line with anyone who's already
     using the PC connection. 
   * Things get even more complicated if your PC has a high-speed cable or DSL
     connection. If your digital music player is equipped with a slower modem,
     it can't use the high-speed connection you're already paying for. If 
     you're using this to download megabytes of music, it can be quite time 
     consuming and frustrating.
   * And even if the digital player had a high-speed connection, it would have
     to be proprietary, un-shareable with your computers and inaccessible to 
     your Internet service provider. 
   * In contrast, leaving the Internet connection to your PC makes it
     convenient to use one high-speed source for accessing digital downloads.
     By streaming the music to an AudioTron on your home network, you can 
     listen to the PC digital library as well as stream Internet radio
     stations. 
   * With these considerations, a modem becomes just another redundant and 
     expensive addition to your digital player.

                            ********************

Q: What's the advantage of having a stand-alone player compared to a networked
   one?

A: Stand-alone digital music players typically contain a CD drive for
   transferring music from CD to an internal hard drive. Some also contain a 
   modem for connecting to the Internet radio stations, music downloads and
   CDDB song title access. 
   
   The main advantage of a stand-alone player is that it is totally self 
   contained and doesn't need a PC or a network, so anyone who does not
   already own a PC should consider this type of player. However, if you do 
   own a PC, you should consider the limitations before buying an all-in-one
   digital music player. 

   For example, since the CD player and hard drive are already part of your 
   PC, you're paying for them twice if you buy a digital player that includes
   these options. Also, your PC will let you more easily navigate the web for
   digital downloads and will let you run jukebox software for transferring 
   and managing your digital music library. 

   Backing up your PC hard drive lets you preserve your music library so it 
   won't be lost if the drive crashes (remember, the drive in the digital 
   music player is no more than a PC hard drive, so it too can crash and 
   lose your data.) 

   The cost of extra hardware makes a self-contained digital player much more
   expensive than a true network digital player like AudioTron, which avoids
   redundancy and expense. Once configured to interact with your home network,
   AudioTron provides a cost effective, elegant solution for enjoying all the
   music you own now, and a powerful, uncomplicated way to continually update
   your music library in the future. 

______________________________________________________________________________