With the holidays approaching, you're no doubt preparing for the accompanying festivities. Sure, there's the decorating of the house with strings of lights and adorning Fido with reindeer antlers. But your real goal for the holidays is creating the PERFECT party mix for your upcoming bash. You've just created a lengthy music mix on your PC, carefully ripping tracks from some of your favorite CDs and downloading a few you don't already have. Everything is falling into place until it dawns on you - how will you actually play all this stuff? Do you create multiple CDs for all the rooms of your house? Do you turn the music up so loud at your stereo that people outside can scarcely hear it while your guests in the living room are getting a headache?

The above example may be unique, but if you're a digital audiophile you know there are myriad ways to play music away from the PC. By far, the dominant method today is what Apple has dubbed "Rip, Mix, Burn" - creating CDs from digital audio files that reside on a computer's hard drive. It sounds easy enough, but the process can be onerous even for music enthusiasts. Assuming you already have a CDR/RW drive in your PC, it can take as long as twenty minutes to create a CD (depending on which model drive you have). Once you've created a CD, you need to "lock" it in order to play it on your stereo system. This means that if you want to change the CD in any way, you need to throw it out and burn another. Which brings us to the next issue - having a slew of CDs with different tracks on them located in your living room, bed room, or maybe in the wife's car. Oh, and don't forget to label them so you know just what it is you've created. While this means of getting music from the PC to the stereo or automobile is functional, it is a half-step approach to the ultimate solution.

Within the last year, a number of manufacturers have introduced Digital Audio Receivers (DARs) to address the shortcomings of ripping, mixing and burning. These devices are networked to the PC, accessing digital media directly from the source. Because DARs are networked, you can change tracks without going back to the PC - an important distinction from some products that are merely one-way transmitters. Since most people use the PC to access new music, it has become the de facto digital media hub in the home. Indeed, more than 3 billion MP3s were downloaded from various file-sharing services in the month of September alone, and it is not uncommon for digital audio enthusiasts to purchase an additional hard drive solely for storing MP3s.

DARs alleviate the need to burn a CD. Connected to any home stereo system that accepts standard audio inputs, they simply access files directly from the PC and play them through your stereo in full fidelity. Want to add a song to a playlist? The change is instantly reflected at the device. Back to our party scenario -- now you can play some of your holiday favorites in one room and get down to Diana Ross in another with the PC as the single source. And some of the more advanced models allow for live streaming Internet audio from thousands of available sources - something you just can't do with a CD.

If you think a Digital Audio Receiver sounds like a good way to go, you'll want to do your homework on which solution is best for your particular situation. You can choose wired or wireless - some models leverage a PC’s storage and processor, while others are stand-alone units.  Some models even allow you to interact with content at the device. Of equal importance is the content consideration - do you only want to listen to MP3s that you rip and download, or do you also want access to streaming Internet content services that expose you to new music based on your preferences? Whichever model you choose, you're sure to enjoy the convenience and flexibility that DARs allow. Now all you've got to worry about is getting enough food for that party!

Mike Maser is Vice President of Marketing for SimpleDevices, Inc. SimpleDevices ( www.simpledevices.com ) has developed a multi-device software platform for delivering digital media throughout the home. Mike has over seven years of experience in technology marketing with companies such as Intel Corporation and NextOffice. He can be contacted via email at mike@simpledevices.com

Simple Devices, Inc. will be providing a SimpleFi as the prize for the next HomeToys Gadget Giveaway due online January 1/02. With SimpleFi you can stream CD-quality, digital audio wirelessly from your home PC or the Internet to your existing high fidelity equipment.