Turtle Beach AudioTron Digital Audio Player

by Turtle Beach

Product Details

Product Manual [182kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 10.5 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005RHGN
• Item model number: TBS-3505-01R
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Turtle Beach AudioTron transforms your PC into a powerful jukebox for your entire home. AudioTron uses your home network to play streaming audio from a networked Internet connection and digital music files from a PC hard drive. With the PC as your digital music library you can easily manage your music collection, create custom playlists, and find any song you want without having to search through a pile of CDs.

The Turtle Beach AudioTron connects to your PC via either an Ethernet or HPNA (home phone line) network. If you already have a home network AudioTron is easy to set up--a comprehensive setup utility helps you get started and analyzes your network configuration. (If you need to set up your home network, read our networking buying guide to learn how to get started.)

To run the AudioTron, you'll need a PC with at least a Pentium 233 MHz processor and 64 MB RAM, running either Windows 98 SE, 2000, Me, NT 4.0 SP6 or later, or XP. The PC should have sufficient hard disk space for storage of your digital music files and have an Internet connection to take advantage of streaming audio.

The AudioTron includes a phone cable for the HPNA connection and a CAT 5 cable for the Ethernet connection. It also includes a stereo RCA-to-RCA cable for connecting the analog audio outputs to powered speakers or a stereo receiver. The IR (infrared) remote provides access to all playback functions, including up to 20 presets that can be customized to instantly launch your favorite songs or Internet radio stations.

The included AudioStation jukebox software can convert your CDs to digital audio files, as well as operate with jukebox programs compatible with music files in the MP3, WMA, and WAV formats and ID3 tags in version 1.0, 1.1, or 2.3 format.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent digital audio receiver, July 15, 2002

By 

L. Hower (Providence, RI (USA)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Turtle Beach AudioTron Digital Audio Player (Electronics)

Very pleased with my AudioTron, makes the most of an existing home network and archives of MP3s. Far cheaper than hard drive-based digital audio receivers, the AudioTron has excellent sound quality, solid construction, and is generally easy to use. Only took me about 15 minutes to setup, making connections to my reciever and network hub.

PROS:
- Bright, easy to read LCD display
- Solid construction of case & controls, rack-mountable
- Digital audio out (optical SPDIF)
- Web interface is quite good, makes device accessible throughout your home
- Excellent sound quality, particularly when using digital out and higher bit-rate MP3s (192 kbps+)
- Great phone support from Turtle Beach, software updates
- Adjustable pre-buffering to eliminate interuption of music stream and reduce latency

CONS:
- Included remote feels a bit [flimsy], has too many buttons allocated to preset "favorites" while lacking important functionality like accessing "Options" menu
- Bundled Audiostation software has a lot of functionality, but a bit buggy (I experienced some difficulty using CD ripping features, but plenty of other software available which provides similar functionality)
- Connecting to a wireless 802.11b network requires additional hardware since device only has Ethernet 10Base-T connection

All in all, an excellent and truly networked device. Offers more functionality that similar devices (like Rio Digital Receiver) and looks right at home w/ your other stereo components.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AT is the best device of its type, October 28, 2002

By 

David A. Braun (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turtle Beach AudioTron Digital Audio Player (Electronics)

The comments against the Audiotron telling people to get the SliMP3 instead contained many factually incorrect statements.

- You do not upload music to the AT - it reads the songs directly over the network much like the SliMP3 does. The AT does however read the song tag information when you turn it on so that it can give you the ability to easily pick songs by title, artist, album, genre, etc.

- The AT has a 40x2 backlit LCD display. The SliMP3's display does appear to be better I will agree. The device however is aesthetically poor IMO - look for yourself - search the net for SliMP3.

- The AT's "song limit" is approximately 30,000 songs. This is because it stores the tag data for each song. This corrosponds to 2000 or more CDs worth of music.

- The Audiotron plays MP3s, Windows Media Files, and WAV files - which is more than can be said for the SliMP3.

- The Audiotron can play internet radio stations in shoutcast, icecast, or windows media format. Again, this is more than the SliMP3 can do.

- The Audiotron is the same width as and fits in with standard stereo components. Again, look at the SliMP3 yourself - it ain't pretty.

- The Audiotron not only has RCA (standard) audio outputs - it also has a digital (optical) output which the SliMP3 does not.

IMO the display quality is about the only thing that the SliMP3 has going for it. The Audiotron does more and gets constant updates from it's maker (Turtle Beach) improving it's functionality.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to play your MP3s on your audio system? Buy this!, September 24, 2002

By 

Neil Roseman (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turtle Beach AudioTron Digital Audio Player (Electronics)

I love the audiotron. I now have access to the 100 GB of my music library that is now encoded as MP3 files. Setup was simple -- a little network monkeying was required, but I was up and listening in about an hour. The web interface to the device is simple (even better with 3.0 of the firmware)and has everything you need. Sound is great, and it looks swell next to my NAD separates. Plays mp3s, wma, and streaming radio.

Having all of your library accesible this way can really change the way you listen to music, for the better. I haven't used the other, similar devices now available. But, it's hard to imagine the value/money of Audiotron being exceeded. The bundled ripping software is quite good (but you favorite program will work fine, too)

If it has any cons it is that you can't directly use it with a wireless network (not a problem in my case as I already had my listening area wired) and it seems to get a bit hot with extended playing.

If you have a large MP3 library, and you listen you to music through a good audio system, you need this component.