I think what's happening to you is the standard "I don't want to give up my existing CD stereo" resistance to the idea of owning an empeg. It's one of the reasons this player was hard to market. Some people just aren't ready to give up CDs yet. It is this market segment that they made the PhatNoise for.

If I understand this thread correctly, you haven't actually gotten one in your hands yet. As Doug said, wait until you've gotten it and played with it on your desk for a while. Once you've messed with it for a few days, you'll completely forget everything you said here, and you'll wonder why you ever thought it would be a good idea to turn it into a CD changer. You'll see the advantages of having it be your main (perhaps only) head-unit.

Ask anyone here who's used the player for any length of time, especially anyone who's previously owned any other in-car MP3 product. It doesn't matter if they came from a PhatNoise, or a portable-plugged-into-the-stereo rig, or even if they came up with their own trunk-mounted PC. Everyone will say the same thing: The empeg is fanstastic, and it works best the way that it was intended: Up front, in your dash, as your main stereo. Nothing else compares.