There are some really 'fun' and simple ways to convert your music from CD format to hard drives. The way I would do this is AA. Find the best absolutely no cost limit what you can imagine without regard to the time it takes and image absolutly what you want. BB. Consider the absolute minimim .. totally at the edge of giving up on the idea and nearly not doing it.. level of minimal work .. CC. Decide where you lie between those limits. That's a part of the puzzle. One facet from each of us will describe a part of the 'diamond' of idea we all have. They're all different diamond like ideas. Music is easy to play on a computer without loading the computer down. The basics of lots of music at your command for free using Winamp or VLC as the player and free software to convert CD's to hard drive audio is simple. A CD copy shop might do the entire job of 200 CDs for $200 or less. I had a shop once and I would do the job for that price. What woudl happen is all of your CD's would be loaded by hand or machine so the computer can read them and copy their data, music, to the hard drive. Each hard drive can be huge or small. It can be a portable, push into a carrier, where it can be hidden, or locked. These are common $14 items and each hard drive can be slid into the computer from the outside. Each HD can have separate music or one hard drive can have all of your music. At this point you have music available. Now playing it is as simple as choosing which albums or which tracks or if you want to make or download, for free, your own playlists which run , for free on Winamp or VLC. Those players will play a playlist of your music or they will simply play whatever you have on the har drive and they'll play it in any order , all day and night or at various volumes, But the basics is that it's simple and you'll have all your music right at your fingertips with no cost except the computer and some help from your own questions or a professional. copying CD's to hard drive is dumb simple. For $200 you can buy an automatic disc loader for CD copying and let it run for you and then sell it when you're done. Or you can pop in a CD every few minutes and do it yourself by hand. Or pay a CD copy company to do it for you. They have the auto loading device. It can run at night and the entire job might be done in the morning and your hard drive(s) will have all of your music ready to play. The basics are the same no matter if you use an ipod, a computer, or a cell phone. The limits are how closly are you wanting to be involved with the technology. Personally I would want it to play, quietly ni the background without me knowing it was there. Other people get 'ready' to rock and can't wait to program the tracks and make a date of it. This behavior pattern is the 'high and low' of the experience you want to experience back at AA, BB, and CC. Let us know a bit more about you, where you live (big city or not) And what you plan to do with your music.. what does it mean to you? IF it's simply about protecting your investment then an external USB hard drive is the easiest way to handle it but it's also and easy way to break it. Note: You'll want to have at least 1 backup of all of your work. So that means 2 hard drives, full, of music. Not at all expensive or hard to do. But you have to back up. You will need a plan and a good plan because it's a big project , unless someone does it for you, and you don't want to live through it more than one time I'm pretty sure. Good luck. I'll look back on you. Andre

A follow up: I am extremely happy with this wireless Logitech DJ. Piece of cake to set up. No problem from the Denon to the slave amp and beyond. Very, very nice remote. I am amazed that I can use the remote to select any song and hear it anywhere around the house (speakers in kitchen, and outside are on same system). WOW. Easy to navigate my 4000+ song library by artist, genre, album, etc. Even plays existing playlists with option to edit playlists on the fly. All with the remote. Very cool. I do think the USB connecting wires could be longer, especially because of the directives to place the streaming unit X feet away from the desktop computer AND from any existing router (sheesh, then give me more than 5 feet to work with already!). I had to relocate some things to eliminate noise. And I get a rare hiccup in the stream. No biggie. Rearranging my USB connections to make this puppy a direct connect out the desktop (rather than hub) may help that. The negatives (short wireless range and only one receiver at a time) are not factors for me in my setup. So it is perfect for what I wanted. Getting Windows Media Player to learn and save Live365 Internet stations was a little dicey for me. Trying to merge Live365 Internet radio (new to me) and the Logitech DJ (also new to me) with the Windows Media Player was a stumble. Had to save stations one by one. But I now can scroll through 27 saved stations on the remote - from Mississippi blues to Reggae dancehall to Celtic traditional to South American classical guitar. Thousands more out there to add if I want. Wonderful. Fabulous. I'm loving this! Almost happy the last local classical radio station folded and led me into this journey. Best $89 I've spent in a long, long time. And thank you Steve for your help.

Most iPods (and most better MP3 players) will have a line-out connection similar to the one your CD player had. Should be a matter of just plugging in the iPod. Another option, if you already have a wireless network in your house, is an Apple Airport Express, which will receive the iTunes signal from your PC and provide a line-out jack which you could then plug into the speaker selector. However, that will still require you to select tunes from the PC. Whether that's more convenient or better than selecting them on the iPod is up to you and your installation.

The short answer is yes you can. Look for a stereo a/v receiver. You will want a seperate system so that you have enough connections. Recommend looking at Harmon Kardon for around $500 you can buy a decent one. Harmon Kardon sells an IPOD dock that will integrate with the receiver and in some cases allow viewing of music on a connected video monitor/tv. All laptops can be connected via the line out/headphone jack using a mini to RCA connector. In addition you can also buy a USB device to allow digital connection via optical cable to the receiver. Depending on your XM radio you will likely need to get a dock, most all of the portable radios have a home dock option that will easily allow connection to the receiver. Most XM radio channels are broadcast in 2 -channel meaning you only get left/right sound, that being said all modern receivers will have a built in sound setting to give a simulated surround sound effect coming out of 5 to 7 speakers.