I was seriously considering building my own MP-3 player, to the point of being within a few days of starting to order parts. But, being of an organized sort of mindset, I started listing the problems that had to be solved, and some of them were totally insurmountable given the resources available to me.

Jfranke, the software aspect of the project alone would absolutely bury you should you attempt to create something truly useful. You have to have a way of databasing the titles, then be able to sort on various parameters so you can put the music you want to hear into a playlist. Oh, yeah, you have to design some sort of playlist function too. Don't forget you'll need some sort of user interface... Stabilized power supply.... hard drives large enough and rugged enough to be useful... how do you get the music into the unit... by the time you're done, you'll have vastly more money in the project than buying an empeg, particularly if you value your time at anything more than minimum wage. Oh, hell, even at a dollar an hour you'll have more time invested than an empeg would cost you. Hugo and crew saved me from a terribly expensive mistake.

On the other hand, if you've got the time, and place a great value on the personal satisfaction you would attain by completing such a project, have at it. I'm guessing that the empeg crew has literally tens of thousands of man hours invested in developing this unit. That's a pretty big head start!

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"