There's no AM (in common with a lot of other digital products) because AM receivers don't deal with impulse noise well - and where there's digital stuff, there's a lot of noise.

The unit isn't like a PC when it comes to upgrading: for size (not to mention shock/vibration) nothing is socketed. The flash shouldn't need upgrading - it's 1Mb and isn't full (and in any case, only holds the kernel and boot ramdisk - the player software is loaded from the HDD). The CPU can't be upgraded, it's not like an AMD/Intel, it's an embedded controller: we do have a LOT of free CPU time at the moment though. Hard drives have no special formatting, but (a) opening the unit voids the warranty and (b) we can't give support on drives we didn't supply - but we aren't trying to obstruct people fitting their own disks.

As for fitting, the unit is a standard DIN sized unit - like a Sony, Kenwood, etc. You will have the same problems fitting the empeg to a non-standard slot as you would with any other aftermarket head unit - most audio installers can get hold of replacement trim panels with DIN sized cut-outs in them for such installs, and these work fine with the empeg unit.

We don't provide everything - you need phono cables to run to your amp, for example - but we provide everything that's common between installs.

As for offroading - you should always treat the unit with care. If it's going to get real bumpy out there, turn it off. The hard disks are practically indestructable (400g shock) when off.

Hugo