Wow. It is too complicated and we don't like to deal with it so therefore we'll leave it out...

I was going to suggest that maybe they're using one of those MP3 codec chips and therefore it can't do encoding in anything apart from MP3 but they've got a combo CPU/DSP chip running it...

The box is aimed at the "I want to spend <blah> amount of money and get a box that just does what its supposed to" which I guess it does. Insert CD, rip, play and repeat as necessary.