Thanks...I guess I just don't know what a "portable hard-drive" is.
In any case, the big thing I think I'm learning is that people are not going crazy/happy about all the wonderful hi-rez music that's available - that sounds *much* better than one can get with CDs on a truly great player. So far anyway (and admittedly with a very limited sample), it seems more people are focused on ripping CDs. And - *I'm assuming* - this is because of convenience, the desire not to have CD cases around, etc. If I'm right about this, I think a Modwright player may be just the right thing for me. Maybe I'm wrong, though. This is a forum for pretty serious audiophiles, and it's hard for me to believe they would be moving to computer audio just because of convenience.