say, i'm on the road or i'm having computer problems... and i have some new cd's... there are just times when i will want to be able to play a cd...

Yes, and the Empeg perfectly supports connecting to a CD player. Even a CD changer. It has perfectly good line-level inputs and outputs, so you can choose which order the components are connected. Many empeg owners do precisely this, combining the Empeg with a CD player so that they get the best of both worlds.

The only thing the Empeg doesn't do is offer CD changer controls because those are proprietary.

Although I have to tell you, now that I actually own the Empeg, I don't miss the CD player at all. I'm perfectly happy with MP3s only.

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Tony Fabris