Unfortunately my empeg didn't come with a remote . . . anyone out there have an extra they would be willing to part with?

If no one is willing to part with a Rio remote, then you can always get the Kenwood KCA-R6A which used to come with the MkI player. You could also use most any other remote (as long as it sends on the same frequency band and with the recognized protocol) and map the codes it sends to codes understood by the empeg by using Hijack and the ir_translate functionality.

/Michael