I've had my EM-500 for about 3 months now, and am VERY pleased. It's everything I could have hoped for. The only two drawbacks that come to mind are the 16 megs of installed memory and the lack of compatibility with compact flash devices. The screen and sound are fantastic.
Speed is good.
It's worked flawlessly right out of the box. The subscription entitles you to download any 2 audiobooks per month at no charge. And don't forget you're getting no less than 24 audio books over that period, and Audible also throws in a 28 meg MMC card, so you get a little extra storage right out of the box. Copyright 2001 INT Media Group, Incorporated All Rights Reserved.