Follow-up: the EMPEG is now happily installed in my BMW Z3 (pictures coming soon). The install went very smoothly. I dropped the car off, went across the street to have lunch, and it was done when I got back. The EMPEG is recessed by maybe 3mm into the dashboard (whereas the factory stereo was flush), but it's not really a very big deal. Sound quality is excellent. Because the EMPEG puts out 3v line level and the BMW amp expects something like 5v, my maximum volume isn't as high as I might like. To get a comfortable listening level, I've got the EMPEG running at 0dB and occasionally up to its "overdrive" maximum. I'm going to run with this for a while and see if it's good enough, otherwise I'll look at putting some kind of small amplifier in there (most likely at the same time as the tuner module arrives). Also, as advertised, the EMPEG's display isn't terribly visible when driving during the day. It's about half the brightness of the car's normal gauges. Still, you can read the display, which is what really matters.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping the tuner module isn't much bigger than a pack of cigarettes. My installer said it's pretty tight in there, with room for maybe two cigarette packs, max. This gets even uglier if I have to sandwich the aforementioned line amplifier into the same space. Anybody know of a really small four-channel car amplifier? My installer says Pinnacle used to make one, but they discontinued it.

Both my installer and a friend of his who was hanging out at the store were very impressed by the EMPEG, never having seen anything like it before. His buddy choked when I said what it cost, but this is a shop that regularly installs multi-thousand dollar custom car stereo systems. I asked the guy whether he thought he'd be seeing a lot more EMPEG boxes, and he figured people wouldn't want weird British stereos, but would wait for the Japanese to start cranking them out (specifically citing the Kenwood and Aiwa). I had to do the math for them to compare a 12GB hard drive to a 600MB CD-R inside the Aiwa and Kenwood units. Apparently, this guy is an Aiwa dealer and he's still waiting for the MP3 Aiwa's to arrive.

So, summing up, I definitely recommend River Oaks Car Stereo in Houston. The install cost me $75 ($50 labor plus parts "and it's a good thing I had that BMW tool to pull your old head unit"). I can also conclude that it's going to be a while before "normal" car stereo people really begin to understand what the EMPEG is all about.

Lastly, I think EMPEG is in a fine position for the future of in-car audio. I was playing with some of the other expensive car stereos in the store's display and the EMPEG basically blows them all out of the water, with the exception of its monochromatic screen (one Pioneer was essentially swimming in pretty colors -- distracting to me, but I'm sure they sell well). It's only a matter of time before some of the Japanese vendors put EMPEG software on their own hardware.