I'll preface this with the disclaimer that while this sort of was a competing product to the Rio Receiver, they have long since been discontinued, so I have no qualms about posting this to a Rio based board. We all share the same love of music, and this product facilitates that.

I got a Rio Receiver with my Dell PC a couple years back for free during a promotion. I've probably used it 10-15 times in that period, since it never would consistently work, and i got really sick of having to research how to get it running with new user created software since Rio released all of one update for it. It couldn't handle my huge file collection, it was dog slow, and couldn't be used from more than 3 feet away... to put it mildly i was very happy it didn't cost me anything.

I got really fed up a week ago when i just wanted to listen to some music before i went to bed one night, and it was working fine the day before, but when i turned it on, it wouldn't connect. That was the last straw.

I remember when the Slimp3 players were being made out of the guys garage... it was kindred to the first empegs in my mind... so i'd always wanted one, but they were too pricey for what they were. But the Reciever pushed me over the line and i placed a bid for one on ebay last week.

I plugged it in last night, and within 2 minutes i was listening to music. It just WORKED. And the interface is FAST. And i can use it from my couch! I'm in love with it. It does everything i've ever wanted the Receiver to do and then some. The web interface is completely idiot proof. I was sitting on my couch with my audrey queing up playlists in minutes. Wonderful. I set the alarm clock, and it woke me up this morning. Sweeeeet.

It doesn't bog down on my 60+ gigs of music at all, and i haven't had one skip which i often had with the receiver. The search function is faster than the empeg even. And on top of all that, the plug-in architecture allows for some really cool stuff... like the fact that i can use it as an interface to Shoutcast! All the web streaming audio that you could want at your finger tips. There's stock scrollers, weather lookups, anything you want to write in Perl, and there it is.

AND... probably the best thing... Kelly instantly used the web interface to start playing music. It's so simple i didn't have to explain it. The interface is consistent and easy to figure out.

I can't sing it's praises enough... i apologize for the long post, but i've wanted one of these things for years, and all of my skepticism about it went out the door last night. It's absolutely worth the money IMHO.

Anyone else on the board have one that wants to share some cool stuff?