Change the way you listen to music forever
Written: Dec 19 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Superb execution, great UI, rock solid, economical, excellent support of user community
Cons: Marginal DAC (optional use), MP3s must have uniform ID tags, requires PC and networking skills
The Bottom Line: Recommended for anyone that wants to access their music digitally over a network. It is an excellent, solid, well executed product backed by a great development team.
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| andyn's Full Review: Voyetra Turtle Beach AudioTron-101 (TBS-3505-01R) ... |
If you think about it, the CD was just a digital extension of the LP record – you load up a CD and listen to tracks, just like an LP. A five CD changer is just a glorified record changer.
The AudioTron is radically different. It is the first network-based audio component to add to your home stereo that puts all of your music digitally at your fingertips via a home network. The result?
1. Instant access to all of your music. No more loading CDs, filing jewel boxes, wondering what to listen to next, being limited to 5 CDs in a carousel, etc
2. Automatic categorization of your music by genre, artist, etc and the ability to play any album, artist, custom playlists, or any portion of your collection in sequence or randomly
3. Adds an easy-to-use User Interface to your stereo system for music access that feels like an audio component – not a PC
4. Uses standard MP3 encoded files (and also supports Microsoft WMF files)
5. Easily access Internet-based radio stations
6. Access your music collection anywhere else in your home by simply extending your network and adding another AudioTron.
7. Delivers on the promise of basically changing the way you listen to music at home forever.
The AudioTron looks like a simple 17” audio component that contains a two-line display, a few buttons, and a remote control. Inside it is running Windows CE (though you’d never know it) and contains no hard drive – it uses any PC on your home network for storage, which is a huge plus for both practical and economic reasons. On the back panel are connections for 10-baseT Ethernet (there is now a more-expensive version that supports both Ethernet and HPNA phone line networking) and both analog line and Toslink digital outputs.
When you first connect the AudioTron to your home network, it automatically searches your network for MP3 and WMF files, reads their ID tags, and uses them to build its own music database. The plus: you don’t have to do anything. Minus: Your tags better be in near perfect order – though software is available to help here. Initialization is completed.
You now have full access to your music collection thru simple menus and using one knob. The “User Interface” (UI) has been refined through active input from users and is now very simple to use – my wife even prefers it over grabbing a CD. Besides easily selecting and “drilling down” individual tracks, albums, artists, genres, playlists, etc it is also easy to build ad-hoc groups and play any of it randomly. Although I am very PC literate, I very much prefer the AudioTron’s UI for listening to music over using a PC and mouse – after using the AudioTron, the thought of connecting a PC to my home stereo to select tunes is just wrong.
Audio quality can be excellent – it’s all a function of MP3 ripping and encoding, which you do on your PC – not on the AudioTron. The key is to use a decent bit rate – I have found “variable bit rate” MP3’s with a “Quality 2” setting consume about 170kbs or so and result in quality that’s right up there with the original CDs. About the only weakness in the AudioTron is its internal DAC: if you use the Toslink digital output this is not an issue; if you need the analog line outputs I highly recommend buying an external DAC. Then sit back and truly enjoy.
A couple of notes:
1) The AudioTron (list $299) competes with “music server” jukeboxes such as the HP de100c ($1,000), ZapStation ($1,299), and Rio Central ($1,500) that contain a CD drive to rip CDs and a hard drive to store tunes. I think the all-in-one approach totally misses the boat. I’d much rather rip CDs on my PC where I can choose how to do it (and you only do it once), use inexpensive disk space anywhere on my home network that I can upgrade easily, and, most important, use a home network to distribute my music wherever I want. These appliances may look appealing but are overpriced and no where near as flexible – how easy and economic is it to add a second one if you want to access music in another room, for example?
2) That being said, setting up an AudioTron as your digital music server is not a simple task, but it’s definitely doable - I’m living proof. Get ready to invest the time to network an AudioTron to your PC and the Internet as well through a home router, get enough disk space on your PC to store your tunes, and rip and properly tag your CDs.
3) Turtle Beach, the makers of the AudioTron, support an excellent web user community that they actually listen to. The result? Not only excellent support, but new software releases that can be downloaded to the AudioTron to add new, user-suggested features.
I have lived with my AudioTron since August 2001. My wife & I don’t pull out CDs anymore, we just spin a simple dial. I’ve become re-acquainted with tunes that were long lost. We listen to quality Internet audio programs. I have extended my entire music collection to other rooms in my home (I now own three AudioTrons). And my neighbor, who is not a techie, saw mine, bought one, and got it running.
I now experience the future of listening to music - and it’s the AudioTron. I am NOT connected with Turtle Beach in any way nor own their stock; I’m just a very pleased customer and know a great, break-thru product when I have one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 265
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Epinions.com ID:
andyn
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Location: Sarasota, FL
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Industry marketing analyst with over 20 years experience in hi-tech.
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