Actually, I disagree with the statement about the Apex 660 DVD/MP3 player... I bought a bunch of stereo equipment about 3 weeks ago and the Apex is my secondary dvd player I bought for playing MP3's. I went with all Yamaha components including the DV-C6280 5 carousel DVD changer for movies, and the Apex 660 for MP3. I might add that I flashed the rom on the Apex and got rid of the macrovision and region codes, which for some reason, made the CDR format more forgiving which allows me to play CDR's recorded in either Joliet or the reccommended ISO9660 mode1 format. I must say, I was quite surprised with the quality of the Apex, but then again, I had very low expectations of it due to the reviews I had heard of people trying to watch movies and do "dvd" things with it. It works flawlessly as a CD/CDR/MP3 player and that is all I wanted it to do. Look at it this way, with the prices of portable MP3 players going over $200 in most cases, is it really too much to pay $140 for a home MP3 player with an onscreen "browser" of sorts to play MP3's at home? I decided it was a good value for what I wanted it to do and got it. I have converted all my albums to mp3 and get about 140 songs per disk at around 160bps. I watch movies on the Yamaha....
For info on flashing the rom, go here--->>>
http://209.216.233.229:8080/forum/list.php?f=17
It's all subjective based on your expectations of it and what you want to spend. If you want top quality for $140 to watch dolby 5.1 and movies and CD and CDR and MP3; all with excellent quality, you'll be dissappointed. I get what I want from mine, check it out. I don't make recommendations about products unless I really believe in them.