I gifted myself two of the BeoSound 2 mp3 players last week (😁). They came together with one table charger and no other equipment, e. g. no software cd. Luckily, I found an old 2 GB Sandisk SD card in a drawer, music from over 20 years ago on it. I put it into the card slot, trying both of the players, but no music would be played. I was experimenting a bit with the units and the charger, connecting the latter via its usb plug to my Mac mini. It was not recognized in the Finder or in iTunes. When I put one of the players on the charger, having connected the A8 earphones to it and the SD card in place, it flashed red. I took it off from the charger and then back on it again. The charger displayed a solid red, which means, according to the manual, "downloading" or "usb mode". I thought it to be a malfunction, because where should the "download" come from? However, after a while I took the player up, and, surprisingly, I heard music playing out of the earphones. I could operate all functions of the player and the card is working in both players. I must say, I find the sound of the BS 2 very impressing. I found a foto shop in my city, offering Mini SD cards with 512 MB (there are old cameras still operating, which also cannot use SD cards with higher storage data capacity like the BS 2). I could not withstand and bought one (which included the SD card adapter). At home, I formatted the card in one of the BS 2 players. After that, I put it in a card reader, being displayed as "Beosound2" on the screen, then filling it via drop-and-drag with album folders from iTunes. I plugged it back in a BS 2 and - nothing. After a while, I thought about trying again putting the player with the earphones and the card attached on the charger. The charger flashed again red, I took the player off, then back on it again - solid red light shining. Putting on the earphones and hitting "Go", it played the albums on the card. The music will be played, independently of the BS 2 being in BeoPlayer or iTunes mode. I did not try the described method without usb connection of the charger. I am waiting for another new 2 GB SD card I ordered, with which I will try that option. According to the manual, using "usb mode", a usb connection to a computer is prerequisite. Now, does somebody know what is happening? It seems as if the player needs the docking station in usb mode to get an initial access to the music files. Is the player doing something or is it the docking station, maybe both? And what role plays the usb connection, the station not being recognized by the Mac? For the time being, I could tend to believe that there is ancient B&O magic in play 😉. Kind regards, Rolf