The Rio software shares MP3 from the PC's, right? So if you are on the PC - why use it to control the Rio - why not just play the MP3's on the PC?

Same reasons I'd play the MP3s on the Empeg before I'd play them on the PC:

- Better sound quality (output stage circuitry is better on the player than on the PC).

- In my case, the PC is using a separate audio system than the stereo components. The stereo stuff gets the better amps/speakers. The PC gets the tiny little speakers just for playing games. I realize that in some households, this situation is reversed.

- No RAM or CPU cycles used up on the PC for decoding the MP3 (although in the case of the Receiver, I'm sure there's some of that used for the server software).

- When you use WinAmp to play the MP3s on the PC, then other sounds (e-mail notifications, game sounds, etc.) don't get played because the sound card is in use by WinAmp. Playing your music on a separate device allows you to have the PC sounds still work while you're listening to the music. (This can be worked-around by certain soundcard drivers that allow multiple apps to use the sound card, and it's also fixed in Windows 2000 by default.)

___________
Tony Fabris