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Turtle
Beach Audiotron Review
By flung
WhiningDog.NET
7/31/2002
1. Introduction
Very rarely does something actually age with grace.
In fact most things in life lose half their value the minute you walk
out the door with it. Turtle Beach's Audiotron Digital Music Player is
one such item that continues to grow with its age. It's a product that
has been out nearly two years now and with every firmware release, Turtle
Beach continues to surprise us. They continually refine the product and
make it worth every penny that I originally spent on it. Thus today, I'm
going to spend some time going over the Audiotron and also look into some
of the new features that have recently been added to the music player
that make it worth a second look to those who want to have a way to play
their mp3's in any room in the house that is connected to their LAN. It's
a different type of review that you may find from other sites actually:
I write this review after owning the product for the last 8 months as
opposed to using it only for a few days so I've had plenty of time to
ring it through.
2. The Player and Specifics
Turtle Beach bills the Audiotron as a "Smart
Stereo Component". I'm not too sure about that claim since it's really
only as smart as the person configuring the network and device. In fact
before the recent upgrade, setting up the Audiotron was actually a bit
of a pain using the built in software but I'll get into that later. Basically
the Audiotron is about the size of a thin DVD player component and actually
looks like a preamp or something to that effect. In actuality, this device
acts as a conduit to your entire mp3 music collection on your local area
network (LAN). Through the Audiotron, you can search and find all the
mp3's that you have shared on the network and then play it through your
own home stereo system. This solves the problem that some people face
when they want to hear their collection of music but through the tinny
sounds of their computer system.
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The Audiotron Digital Music Player
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2.1 Features
Here are some other details of the music player
as seen on the Turtle Beach website:
- Plays digital audio stored on networked PCs and
Network Attached Storage devices.
- Plays Internet radio streaming audio in MP3 and
Windows Media formats.
- Plays digital music files in MP3, Windows Media
(WMA) and WAV formats.
- Supports music libraries of more than 30,000
songs.
- Works with Ethernet 10/100 and HPNA 2.0 networks.
- Analog and digital optical S/PDIF audio
outputs for audiophile music quality.
- Integrated web server for PC control via web
browser.
- Remote Control lets you assign up to 20 preset
buttons for instantly accessing your favorite songs and Internet radio
stations.
- Familiar CD-style controls, including random
play, repeat play and song grouping.
So how does it look when placed into a stereo
system - pretty nice if I do say so myself! The Audiotron was designed to
fit right into your system without making it look like a computer device
of any sort. It doesn't necessarily draw attention to itself and in many
ways, that's the way you want it IMHO. Now if you have the systems that
have the chrome/metallic/silver look, then you're out of luck. The Audiotron
has a black finish that fits with most common stereo components out there.
Of all the features listed above, the basic job
of the Audiotron is to play music streamed from other sources. Thus this
is either your digital music library on your network or Internet radio
stations approved for usage by Turtle Beach.
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