OK, I can pick all songs from a certain artist, or all songs from a certain genre, or all the songs from a certain year. But what if I want all the rock songs from 1993. Can it do that?

You can't search on two different fields dynamically. You could only search on 1993 or rock, but not both. But if you chose to create a playlist ahead of time, made up of songs which fit that criteria, then it would be just a few clicks to select that playlist.

It sounds like you need a clearer picture of how the playlists work to understand it. Here is a link to a description I gave to some other people who were asking similar questions. It's not as arcane as you might think. It's really easy to find the music you want on the empeg, using a combination of searching and playlists. Considering the number of songs you can store on an Empeg, and considering the relatively limited user interface (small screen and just a few buttons on a remote), you'd be surprised how easy it is to get to the stuff you like. What makes it so easy is the fact that the playlists are freeform and arbitrary, and you can build/name them however you like in Emplode.

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Tony Fabris