Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I purchased this item with high expectations: just set up a wireless network in my home, sold my CD Jukebox, and was ready to stream mp3s from my PC to my stereo. Let me preface my comments by saying I'm a pretty adept computer user: I've had both Macs and PCs for 15 years now.
This product was the most frustrating piece of equipment that I've ever tried to install. Nothing that I did would get it to work. I even had my desktop support friend from work come to the house and try to get this to work -- no dice. After exhausting the manual and their online FAQ and troubleshooting page, I found out that they DON'T HAVE TELEPHONE SUPPORT OF ANY KIND. In disbelief, I emailed them asking for help. I received a reply 2 days later with a laundry list of questions and an apology for not having phone support. Needless to say, I returned this item. I hope this review prevents somebody else from the frustration that I experienced trying to get this to work. Turtle Beach ought to be ashamed for not having phone support.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I purchased this item with high expectations: just set up a wireless network in my home, sold my CD Jukebox, and was ready to stream mp3s from my PC to my stereo. Let me preface my comments by saying I'm a pretty adept computer user: I've had both Macs and PCs for 15 years now.
This product was the most frustrating piece of equipment that I've ever tried to install. Nothing that I did would get it to work. I even had my desktop support friend from work come to the house and try to get this to work -- no dice. After exhausting the manual and their online FAQ and troubleshooting page, I found out that they DON'T HAVE TELEPHONE SUPPORT OF ANY KIND. In disbelief, I emailed them asking for help. I received a reply 2 days later with a laundry list of questions and an apology for not having phone support. Needless to say, I returned this item. I hope this review prevents somebody else from the frustration that I experienced trying to get this to work. Turtle Beach ought to be ashamed for not having phone support.
Rating: 
Summary: AudioTron Is An OUSTANDING Product
Review: I still can't believe it: I bought this on a lark, plugged it into my home Ethernet and into my stereo. Punched a few buttons, and it SEARCHED all the PCs on my home network, and let me play these MP3s through my main stereo system.And you can control it from your browser across the network. Firmware upgrades are issued regularly, and not just to fix bugs, but to add new functionality. This is one stupendously engineered product. Awesome. One of the few pieces of electronics gear that I've purchased in the past couple of years that EXCEEDED my expectations, and in which I have not found flaws even after months of extended use. If you're in the market for this type of device, you will not go wrong with the AudioTron. Disclosure: I have no relationship, monetary or otherwise, with Turtle Beach or any Turtle Beach employees.
Rating: 
Summary: A great device, but it's days are numbered
Review: I've had my AudioTron for about a year or so now. It is a great device in many ways, especially considering it was one of the first of its kind. But I think it's quickly becoming outdated, and with the competition growing consumers are going to be less likely to overlook some of its more annoying quirks. Pros:
- Great sound quality through digital output.
- Relatively easy to set up for the average consumer.
- Fits nicely with most other stereo equipment. Cons:
- Poor analog audio output quality.
- Slow. It is slow to respond when using the remote or the built-in buttons. And the web server is frustratingly slow, especially when playing processor intensive VBR MP3s. They really should have invested in a more powerful processor inside.
- Unstable. If there is any kind of hiccup or even bottleneck on your network, the unit seems to ungracefully freeze. It is even more sensitive while playing internet radio/streaming audio, which are usually not 100% reliable so you're bound to freeze up eventually. And the only way to recover from these freezes are to go to the unit and power it off and on from the switch in the back.
- The LCD screen is just too small to read from most distances. I am seriously considering replacing it with a SLIMP3 soon. It's a little less friendly for the average consumer right now, and it doesn't have digital outputs, but it's much faster and more flexible - and has a very nice large display.
Rating:
Summary: A great device, but it's days are numbered
Review: I've had my AudioTron for about a year or so now. It is a great device in many ways, especially considering it was one of the first of its kind. But I think it's quickly becoming outdated, and with the competition growing consumers are going to be less likely to overlook some of its more annoying quirks. Pros:
- Great sound quality through digital output.
- Relatively easy to set up for the average consumer.
- Fits nicely with most other stereo equipment. Cons:
- Poor analog audio output quality.
- Slow. It is slow to respond when using the remote or the built-in buttons. And the web server is frustratingly slow, especially when playing processor intensive VBR MP3s. They really should have invested in a more powerful processor inside.
- Unstable. If there is any kind of hiccup or even bottleneck on your network, the unit seems to ungracefully freeze. It is even more sensitive while playing internet radio/streaming audio, which are usually not 100% reliable so you're bound to freeze up eventually. And the only way to recover from these freezes are to go to the unit and power it off and on from the switch in the back.
- The LCD screen is just too small to read from most distances. I am seriously considering replacing it with a SLIMP3 soon. It's a little less friendly for the average consumer right now, and it doesn't have digital outputs, but it's much faster and more flexible - and has a very nice large display.
Rating:
Summary: Digital audio over your home network
Review: If you have a home network and know something about networking, the Audiotron is an affordable digital audio controller that can sit in your stereo rack. It took me about 2 hours to run the wires and configure network security so the Audiotron had access to the gigabytes worth of MP3s on one of my servers. Now, I can control play lists and the receiver from my computer, and my wife can do the same from a distant part of the apartment via a web interface through the wireless network. The Audiotron provides a digital optical output to your A/V receiver, so the MP3 files get decoded using your high-end A/V receiver's digital-to-analog converter. Even 128 kbps MP3s sound fantastic on my system although a friend could notice the difference when using 192 kbps MP3s. The Rio Audio Receiver is about [price] cheaper but it lacks digital output (so you get poorer analog output) and looks less sturdy and complimentary to your other audio components. Turtle Beach provides a set-up utility and a simple web interface to the Audiotron. 3rd party authors have created 2 additional clients (PC/Mac/etc) that can control the Audiotron. Also, the firmware gets updated regularly. The web interface has already gotten much better when moving from version 2 to version 3. The controls on the Audiotron's front panel are fairly intuitive and the LED screen is easy to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Networking novices beware
Review: If you're a networking pro, ignore this review. I'm in the uncomfortable position of having a killer network in my house (that is running just fine), but it was installed by someone else. The set up instructions aren't helpful when things don't work as they should. In one case, it asked me to select my network type (ethernet or HPNA) and as I tried one, it said "our system has detected you have Ethernet and it's not working", so I (for kicks) tried HPNA and guess what? The system detected that I had that too. Worst of all-- Turtle Beach provides little to no support (you can send them an email which they'll answer in 2-3 days or you can comb the postings, which don't include some simple troubleshooting problems). For such a high priced product, I expect a little more help than what they're providing. Their recording actually says "in order to serve you better, we no longer offer phone technical support". So now I'm bribing a friend who is more computer savvy than I to come over & get this running. I'm sure once it works, I'll think it's great. At this point, I'm a little frustrated.
Rating:
Summary: AudioTron will revolutionize your music experince
Review: Originally, I bought one for my basement, but when I got it I decided to keep it in my livingroom and get another one for my basement. This is such an impressive device; easy to use, not too complicated setup; great interface. It really makes your life easier when it comes to listening to music.
Nothing like selecting "All Songs" -> "Random" and sit back and listen to all the songs you have in your library. In my case around ~1800 songs. Or select a specific artist or genre like "Easy Listening" and sit back and relax.
You can also create your own playlists so you can play just your favorites for a special occasion.
It beats changing CD any day!
Rating:
Summary: AT is the best device of its type
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Poor design, nice implementation
Review: The idea is great, play all the MP3's on your PC through your stereo system. If you've already got your home networked, the Audiotron hardware installation is no problem. The configuration instructions were extremely confusing, but by trial and error I got it working. Once up, it sounds super and looks sharp on the shelf with the stereo. Here's the glitch, each time the Audiotron loses power it must download the titles of all your MP3's. This takes about 30 minutes for my library (250 CDs). So what's the problem you ask? The power winks off at my house about once a week. Unless you walk by the Audiotron every morning to see if it's still on, you'll find it dead when you sit down to listen to music. Too bad it doesn't power back on after an outage automatically, but it doesn't. I have two little Rio Receivers as well (no longer in production) which get a lot more use than this gadget. They boot up in about a minute. It's a real shame the Audiotron doesn't do the same.
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