I have recently invested in a Fireball (Escient) and a couple of Sony M333ES CD Changers (I have avery understanding wife!!). I really like the system as it includes music management and the ability to store music on a hard drive, which I intend to use to store the some 400 LP's that I ammassed before the invention of CD's. It also has a new PC utililty called pipeline which enables my PC to talk to the fireball, I generate all the playlists and groups on the PC and then sync them with the fireball. It also will let you use a 10/100 CAT5 connection to my LAN and the outside world using a USB/Netwok Adapter (Belkin works with the fireball, some others do not), rather than the limited rate HPNA interface (which also is possible with the fireball). Lastly it also has access to a number of internet radio staions, not as many as over a PC, however I do not have a PC in the family room and do not want to have to go into the office to change stations (a real couch potato!!). Yes the fireball is expensive compared with some of the other products out there, especially when you understand that the CD changers that you had are not compatable with it and that you will have to change them.
This is one of those new technologies, just like CD's and DVD's that will increase in popularity and number of features and reduce in price as the years go on.
