The only thing I do with my empeg is play music on it.

How boring. :)

But in seriousness, yes, the Empeg was made to play music, and there will probably be devices showing up which do that with similar features to the Empeg. But as has been hypothesized elsewhere on the board, those devices are VERY likely to:

a) not have Ethernet
b) not be removable
c) be integrated with the manufacturers' other audio products (the way CD changers are)

Furthermore, they will likely be tied to Digital Rights Management in some way. And it seemed to me they depended on you inserting a CD right into the player and ripping it rather than being able to rip your own CD's on your PC and transfer them. If this is incorrect, someone please shed some light... I mean if the unit isn't removable, how else do the tunes get onto the HD?

So even when you take away the geek features and hackability, I find it difficult to believe anything like the Empeg will appear on the market. I can't seem to find the thread that talked about the upcoming HD-based players, but it didn't look like any of them were going anywhere in the Empeg's direction.

Hmm... maybe I WILL scrape together the cash for a backup...

-Tony
MkII #554