Home > Consumer Reviews > Turtle Beach AudioTron Digital Audio Player

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.