It's better to learn how to get into alpha state yourself. That way, you won't need a walkman, tape and batteries all the time Absolutely. The technology is known as "Entrainment", meaning that if you listen to a 10hz over a period of time, your mind will become accostumed to that frequency, and accessing or even living in that state of mind will turn into an unconcious habit.
You probably know that buddhist monks use the opposite of a brainwave generator: silence.
You mean Zen monks--it also takes them 20 years or more to reach a state we can reach in 20 minutes with proper use of brainwave entrainment. Actually, Buddhist monks use all sorts of sounds to entrain their minds, such as very low, frog-like, repititious chanting, tingly chimes, resonating singing bowls, etc... some pretty psyechedlic stuff--they put out some great CDs. 
Don't forget that buddhist monks have nothing to do with their lives other than cultivate themselves--our culture demands action. (btw, beats have been used to induce trance throughout history and through they myriad cultures--a binaural beat is a beat inside your head, instead of a drum) Recently, I've been stepping up my ambitions and activity. I've been getting impatient with Tai Chi. My teacher tells me that it takes upwards of 40 years to master the art... you know.... There are newer and better technologies out there that were not available to the original consciousness pioneers. We should take advantage of them, in my opinion.
The results I've experienced with binaural beats, not necesarily the bwgen (those built-in presets are admittedly flimsy), but the mixes I have made myself on Cool Edit have accelerated my spiritual path by at least a couple decades--not to mention my photoreading ability.
If volume disturbs you, that is entirely understandable. Try lowering the sound of the tones to 1%. You won't be able to conciously hear it, yet it will have the same effect. Masking the tones with pink noise at 20% volume increases the effect by around 30%.
The visual entrainment of mind-machine goggles also compounds the effects by several orders of magnitude. They make all the difference in the world.
peace
