Welcome, you'll have to let us know if you think that you paid too much after your player is all setup.

You should verify that the firmware and software are up to date. You can find links to the latest software using the Quick Links at the top of this page. If you haven't already done so, check out the Empeg FAQ. It is very well done and a huge help (thank you Mr. Fabris).

For the player software, you'll want to use the latest developer image (v2.0 final). This will allow you to add 3rd party software to your player. You'll also need to download the latest version of Emplode for PC or jEmplode for multiple OS. For 3rd party software, download Hijack. It provides a myriad of tweaks and modifications to the player that you are going to want.

I'll wait for those more capable than myself to answer the question on encoding. Different strategies exist for encoding. There is a great FAQ entry on this. There have been several discussions on the topic of lossless vs lossy encoding on the BBS. You may find them by searching for OGG or FLAC.

Personally, I rip using audiograbber with the latest version of LAME. I encode to mp3s at 320 kbps VBR or CBR.

One thing to remember, the player software really shines when your music is tagged properly so tag early and tag often. I use Tag&Rename and its allmusic lookup for this.