OTHER TECH

I avoided the dial-up modem and Home PNA connection choices, using my existing Ethernet connection to get on the Net by plugging a USB-to-Ethernet adapter (not included) into the Entré's front-panel USB port. I entered the requested information, and in minutes the Entré had connected to its server, verified my access to the OpenGlobe site, and automatically installed a small library of Internet radio stations. My system listed several dozen stations, some of them available at multiple bit rates. (Kenwood projects that some 3,000-plus Internet radio stations will be accessible in the future.)

You can also use the setup menus to configure the system to your liking. For example, you can choose bit-rate defaults of 96, 128, 160, 192, or 320 kilobits per second (kbps) for MP3 ripping, identify the source components connected to the Entré's analog and digital audio inputs, and select security passwords and parental lockouts.

Entré to Music Once up and running - and without even connecting to anything but the Internet - the Entré's possibilities are impressive. I cruised through some of the MP3 files that come preinstalled on the hard drive and also ripped some of my own music, popping CDs in the Entré and recording them to the hard disk. For example, I ripped Lionel Hampton's Swingsation from CD to MP3 in only 8 minutes. I also moved MP3 data in the other direction, from the hard drive to CD-R/RW.

The sound quality of the discs depended entirely on the bit rate selected for ripping. In particular, the Entre's MP3 encoder provided good sound quality at 128 kbps and essentially transparent reproduction (compared with the original CD) at 192 kbps. For example, Swingsation's ultra-cool vibraphone lacked some transient crispness at 128 kbps but was nice and bouncy at 192 kbps. Similarly, the fabulous trumpet section sounded a tad brittle at 128 kbps but was properly mellow at the 192-kbps rate.

You could use the Entré's hard drive as a serious MP3 library. Its 20 gigabytes can hold about 400 CDs in MP3 format at the default bit rate of 128 kbps. Of course, the Entré also functions as a standalone CD player - and a darn good one at that. Discs like Swingsation sounded terrific played through its digital-to-analog converters.

The Duplicate function let me copy a CD to the system's hard drive as a temporary, otherwise inaccessible file, then burn a bit-accurate copy onto a CD-R/RW. It took about 37 minutes to copy the Wild Colonials' Fruit of Life, a 56-minute CD. The Entré read the disc in about 7 minutes but took another 30 minutes to write the copy. And I couldn't use the Entré for anything else during the write operation - that's a drag. MP3 ripping, on the other hand, is done in the background so you can perform other tasks.

You can only use blank "music" discs when recording CD-format tracks, but you can use the cheaper "data" blanks when recording MP3 files. Besides CDs, you can record music from external analog sources and store it on the hard disk or a CD-R or CD-RW in either MP3 or CD format. There's even an onscreen bar-graph level meter and up/down buttons to adjust analog-input recording levels. You can easily create compilation discs of CD or MP3 tracks from a variety of sources.

You can even use the Entré's USB ports to move MP3 files from the hard drive to a compatible portable player, such as the Compaq PA-1, Compaq PA-2, or Rio 600. Want to transfer MP3 files from a PC to the Entré? You can do that, too, but only if the computer and the Entré are connected via a Home PNA network. Log onto Kenwood's Web site and download the Entré desktop media manager.

With Internet radio stations, in most cases it took the Entré less than a minute to locate the server, buffer the data, and start playing. Some stations, however, although listed, could never be located. The sound quality depended, of course, on the bit rate of the streaming audio. Programs at 10 and 28 kbps were pretty raunchy, 56 kbps was listenable, and 96 kbps was pretty decent. The streaming was reliable through my Ethernet connection, but any Internet connection is prone to disruptions due to traffic at any particular time, and dial-up connections will suffer dropouts when either your network or the streaming server is overtaxed or congested.