USB ports

[GA Russell]

I receive catalogues from Audio Advisor. 

Recently I have seen stereo components with USB and ethernet ports.

Is there any purpose for these other than plugging them into your computer or the internet?

[Dave Garrett]

Depending on the specific component, USB ports can also be used to connect to external storage devices (portable hard drives or flash drives). I have 2TB and 1TB portable drives that I have connected to my Blu-ray player via the USB port. I mainly use them to stream locally-stored video files to the player, but have also used them to stream music files as well.

[GA Russell]

Thanks, Dave.  That hadn't occurred to me.

[greggery peccary]

My Rotel has a USB-A port that allows me to connect and Apple device.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I have a Raspberry Pi music player that I output to my Marantz integrated amp using USB. It sounds really good too. It's extremely easy to playback my digitized music library now.