Escient FireBall E-40 - digital multimedia receiver / CD recorder

Simple, TV-based user interface; solid CD burning and ripping; high-end looks and build; many A/V and data ports; Gracenote/CDDB song-title lookup; 40GB hard drive.

Very pricey; no music-file transfers from PC; lacks Ethernet port; setup can be fussy.

Well-heeled technophiles will love this convergence device, but for everyone else, it's overkill.

Simple, TV-based user interface; solid CD burning and ripping; high-end looks and build; many A/V and data ports; Gracenote/CDDB song-title lookup; 40GB hard drive.

Very pricey; no music-file transfers from PC; lacks Ethernet port; setup can be fussy.

Well-heeled technophiles will love this convergence device, but for everyone else, it's overkill.