I would like to read what any one that received his/her MK II player thinks about it!
Yust a small review would do :-)

I'm really anxious to see what the lucky ones think of their present!

Tino

---
#8485

Most clients will be receiving their Mark 2 players today, so give them a chance to play before slaving over the keyboard :-)

Rob

Hi !
It's there, looks great although the grey plastic knobs feel a bit cheap :-(
I hope they last longer then they feel, especially the right control wheel ...
Software feels 100% like Mk1 usage besides the right knob, which is used as a general up/down control e.g. for volume ...

I have 2 things that irritate me:

-1- As i am one of the "discount" customers owning a Mk1, i miss the tuner and the carrying bag, are the sent later, or was i totally wrong about your offer, including tuner & baf for Mk1 users ?????

-2- The warranty labels:

1 is missing completely ( or should it be just 1 now ?? ) and the other one ( On the left side ) was torn when i looked at it first time ( I really do not know whether i ripped it, getting the empeg out of the case the first time, or if it was even torn before ) So what to do now ??
( rob i am willing to send it back to you and wait another week for a proper warranty if empeg takes the costs, as i do not want to loose warranty at all ?!
Of course you could simply note this fact somewhere, so i am not in trouble if something happens that shouts for warranty, How to solve this ...
I could send you a Photo made by digital camera of it if you want, please tell me what to do ...

Nils

Eeek 3 more things that i wanted to ask ...
( Thanks god for "edit post" option :-)
- Where can i find the ser number, no label on THIS empeg ?!
- In 11a and 11b Loudness seems to be missing ?!
- where is the microphone located used for "not yet implemented" voice commands ?

It's there, looks great although the grey plastic knobs feel a bit cheap :-(
I hope they last longer then they feel, especially the right control wheel ...

Wait till voice-control upgrade is ready - (hopfully) you won't need it any more

-1- As i am one of the "discount" customers owning a Mk1, i miss the tuner and the carrying bag, are the sent later, or was i
totally wrong about your offer, including tuner & baf for Mk1 users ?????

As Rob said tuners are not ready yet and are going to ship to you if they are ready.



TeeMcBee

The blue LINK LED of the ethernet is cool! Just besides many other cool things...just it crashed way too often...bit it looks really good once it's working..J.

Make sure you report any crashes to bugs@empeg.com with as many details as you can think of. We're not mind readers :)

Rob

I'm yust very anxious the hear what they think of the product.
Especially the previous MKI owners.
They are the ones that can compare both of the Empeg players etc.

Tino
---
#8485

The serial number is located on the rear of the unit - a small bar code with a number underneath it.

The tuner is not ready yet and wil be sent on to you soon. The case will be dispatched shortly - it wouldn't fit in the box.

There is no microphone on the unit itself. The docking bay has a 3.5" jack for a microphone.
--
David
// I'm probably not speaking on behalf of empeg here...

The docking bay has a 3.5" jack for a microphone.

Woah! That's huge!

DiGNAN

It's dual purpose Microphone jack / floppy drive I suppose...

Or maybe not... =)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 on order. Mk1 Unit for sale S/N 00030, 4 gig blue, apply within)

We have a hard time distinguishing metric and imperial in the UK :-)

He meant 3.5mm (1/8 inch).

Rob

Bear in mind that these players are being shipped on the understanding that the software is Beta release. We've already found one major problem, which I believe has just been fixed (update on the web site soon).

Rob

Woah! That's huge!

Tiny Elvis?
(am I showing my age?)

Geoff
---- -------
Just ordered one of the first Mark 2 empegs...

My label, also, is cut. he label is being affixed too tightly. There is no slack in t the fact that the top plate of the unit can jiggle a little bit in place, and so when it jiggles "away from" the sticker, it causes it to tear.

I'm determining this by pushing the top plate TOWARDS the sticker at which point it seems "solid", and then moving the top plate away and revealing the gap in teh sticker.

Do you want the unit back or do you want to just note that teh first units (before this is corrected) may have this problem.?

UPS delivered Mark2 nr 900000009 at 13:33 today. A quick assessment:

it's a beauty . . . . The new facial is excellent and blends in very well with the dash. I really liked the simpleness of the Mark1, but this beats everything: Really wonderful. The display hasn't suffered at all form the facial work. The handle looks great too. For looks Mark scores A++. Congrats to empeg: great original design; fabulous!

rotary knob . . . Good idea; very practical. Needs to get used too as it reacts very quickly. It seems to sit a bit tight (tends to stick when pressed) but this may improve over time. Empeg need to be careful on this.

software . . . is unstable, but an update has already been posted. It's downloading right now.

installation . . . is a snap. Got myself a converter block from BMW (was only US$ 10) to hook up the Euro connector. Though the BMW converter is a pretty bulky gizmo itself, the cabling at Marks' back is much lighter than Emma's and slides into the dash easily. The BMW connector has an additional connector that doesn't match the extra connector on the Mark2, which was a bit confusing The BMW one is well documented: it is to connect the speakers : the Mark2 addtional connector may well be for the tuner module? Maybe I should read the manual first

blue display . . . As Hugo said, a bit too dark. Too dark to dim, anyhow (Mark2 allows gradual dimming from 100%). Auto dim (when turning on the headlights) doesn't work (yet?). I'll need to look into this.

emplode / USB . . . is very stable. Uploaded some 15 CD's without difficulty. Can't use the playlist transfer utility as I parted from Emma a long time ago. My MP3s are safely stored on the second disk that I'll install later.

sound . . . was disappointing, as the mark2 reverted to zero settings. I'll use the coming days to tune Mark2 properly again.

stickers . . . no linux bumper stickers this time, but empeg logo's

other . . . Mark2 feels lighter than Emma, but this could be because I haven't fitted the second disk yet. It'll need to prove itself before I break the (single) warranty seal. Some have said that it slides into the docking station smoother now, but I don't think so. Mark is clearly scratched already on the top (much more than Emma after a year). Mark2 also seems to be sitting in the dash a bit more recessed than Emma. In my BMW, it could stick out 1/8" further. No gap though, along the top edge as with Emma. The left hand side of the docking station sits really tight; the right hand side is a bit loose. Have checked the prongs, but these seem to sit OK.

easter eggs . . . I haven't found any. The playlist was empty on arrival: no give-aways as with Emma. Not even a tiny MP3 with Hugo introducing the team or pronouncing Fiennes

. . . need to change software now . . . . more later

Henno
ex 00120; scored Mark2 nr: 009;

Hi !
After i had some trouble, that origined from my brain and from the 11b image on the cd, that did a bad job on my Mk2's integrity, everything is solved with the *GREAT* help from first Rob then Hugo !!

Now with 11c it runs quite stable, still Loudness is missing ?!?

Right now, the comparison between Mk1 and Mk2 is no big deal, the only usable differences are:

-1- The new Look
-2- The rotate/button Knob on the right side
-3- The Ethernet synchronization -> please empeg people but telnet service, ftp and Samba in the developer image, will you ??

Everything else is just as usual ( also the usual weaknesses, i will post a seperate message concerning my personal view on pros and cons of the actual Player Software ).

So nothing to run around and throw away your Mk1 machines, but if you don't have *any* empeg right now, get ready to be happy soon :-)


Nils

The warranty labels are rather ineffective on the units that have gone out. We're going to move them inside the player, between the disk cradle mounts and the main case, so there will be no chance of them tearing by accident.

For existing clients - the problem is noted, and your warranty won't be affected. Of course, if you take the player apart and mess something up (which isn't all that hard to do) then we're not going to need warranty labels to work out what you did. In other words, it's not a free for all on these players, you're still bound by the terms of the warranty.

Rob

I thought I'd follow up on a few of your points..

I'm glad you like the design. If your rotary knob is annoyingly sticky then it might be that the fascia hasn't been well aligned (we're working out these QA issues with the manufacturer, but one or two annoying little things may have slipped through this time). If you want, try undoing the hex bolts a few turns, tweak the position of the fascia, and then VERY GENTLY tighten the bolts. Thread lock has been applied to them, and they don't need to be much more than finger tight, otherwise buttons will start to stick.

There are likely to be a lot of rapid software updates over the next few weeks, solving any glitches and providing new features. We deliberately went out with a rather feature-light initial release to ensure that there was basic reliability before running up each of the new Mk.2 features in turn.

The "spare" connector on the car mount is for the tuner module. Don't try to plug anything else into this.

The display is at least 25% darker than it should be, maybe even more so - the Mark 2 VFD actually runs slightly brighter (on full brightness) than the Mark 1 display. I'm going to the plastic injection factory on Wednesday to finalise the tint and saturation of each of the four colours - hopefully we'll be able to supply new panels (in the colour of your choice) to all early Mark 2 owners in about a week.

I hope that when you've had time to tweak the EQ you won't consider the Mark 2 sound to be dissapointing. I've found it to be significantly improved over the Mark 1 - and check out the noise floor!

The Mark 2 should be a lot easier to run in and out of the car mount, as we've set the side locators on tabs, just like those on the top. I believe someone on the BBS originally came up with the idea - thanks, whoever you are! I've found that the player slides effortlessly now, and I'm surprised that you haven't had the same experience. The cosmetic scratching of the case won't be improved, but serious scratching at the sides should nolonger occur.

I hope you enjoy using your new player, and I'm sure that you'll find the software will evolve very quickly to take full advantage of the Mark 2 hardware.

Rob

Well my Mk II arrived this morning. I was lazing about in bed thinking that Fed-Ex ought to be showing up soon with Mk II in hand and right then the door bell rang! It was Fed-Ex, box in hand (quite filthy actually) with fragile stickers all over it.

As I write this I'm looking at my Mk II! The charcoal/black front panel looks good, the knob sticks out more than I thought it would and as someone else mentioned it does feel kinda cheap. I'm hoping for a nice aftermarket in brushed aluminum or something. Buttons feel good, the moulded handle is nice - and it does open up more than the Mk I handle, but still not a full 90 degrees - more like 60. The four screw holding the face plate on are a little off center in their holes but it's not bad.

The unit came with everything the Mk I did: AC adaptor, mains plug, usb cable, serial cable, IR remote (still the kenwood), manual (nicer one this time), and CDROM with software. Missing and no longer required (thank god) are the grounding adaptors for the line out's. The docking slot comes with three connectors: a mic input, a ISO stereo connector and a connector for what I assume is the tuner module. Of course there are still the line out's and the line in's but the RCA connectors don't look as impressive as the Mk I's did. I'm sure they are top quality though.

Note to Rob: Despite the fragile stickers all over the packing, the interior cardboard cutouts for holding the player in place were squashed again. The empeg guys haven't changed the box design and it needs it - a few more drops like this one aparently took, and the empeg would have been free to slide around - which is what broke the display on my Mk I if you will recall... I'd suggest some foam inserts front and rear of the player to hold it more securely in place.

Emplode cheerfully took about 4GB's of music but I haven't had the chance to actually listen to it yet. The software installed a conversion utility for taking your data off of a Mk I player and putting it on the Mk II but since I sold my Mk I player for more than I paid for the Mk II I won't had the chance to try it out.

Summary: It looks good, same high quality as the Mk I player and hopefully should even sound better once I get it into the car. I never did get rid of all of the alternator whine. Tomorrow is a holiday so I need to wait until Wednesday before I can head out and try and find an ISO power connector cable adaptor to put the Mk II into my car.

=-Clarke

___________________________________
List 351, was empeg 00045, 10gb, Amber

I hope you enjoy using your new player . . .
Don't you worry. It behaves just like Emma and looks a lot nicer. I'm very happy I upgraded


. . . the software will evolve very quickly to take full advantage of the Mark 2 hardware.
Not a surprise after Mark1 experience. Great support again. (We wouldn't exepct anything else, though)

Henno
mark2 nr: 006

> The empeg guys haven't changed the box design and it needs it

The box has changed, although the general concept is the same. We don't use polystyrene or foam because we were advised the the ecologically-correct American market would not accept this. Nonetheless, the packaging has been tested against considerable forces - for it to get seriously squashed suggests that it has been treated very roughly.

Players that are returned for repair are usually packaged in the original box, and in most cases the packaging is still in excellent condition - and that's after two shipping cycles.

In the case of the Mk.2 players that have shipped so far, an additional partition which fits vertically in front of the player screen has been missing. We're expecting delivery of them soon, and this will help to further reinforced the carton.

Rob

Rob wrote:

>Players that are returned for repair are usually packaged in the original box, and in most cases the packaging is still in >excellent condition - and that's after two shipping cycles.

>In the case of the Mk.2 players that have shipped so far, an additional partition which fits vertically in front of the player screen has been missing. We're expecting delivery of them soon, and this will help to further reinforced the carton.

I'm glad that your not seeing many mangled boxes. Maybe the Fed-Ex folks in the Western US are just ham-handed because of the three times I got a box from you with an empeg in it, all three times the cardboard which secures the empeg from fore and aft movement have been stretched and torn. In once case, when you returned my empeg Mk I to me after some great warranty service, completely such that it was able to slide back and forth and break the display plastic.

I was worried to see that on my Mk II that the cardboard was well on it's way to doing the same thing. I'm glad that your addressing this but I would suggest you put that extra partition front and rear - since it was the rear section on my box that was in the process of freeing itself.

So you guys actually sat around a table and thought out your marketing for the unit such that you chose your packing materials to be compatible with us Yanks? (not that I would mind foam or other/better securing methods for a US$1500 piece of high-end electronic wizardry such as my empeg). Geez Rob, it's a wonder you ever go home!

=-C

___________________________________________
List 351, was Mk I 00045, Now Mk II #22 18gb, Blue

> So you guys actually sat around a table and thought out your marketing for
> the unit such that you chose your packing materials to be compatible with us
> Yanks?

Yeah, we're always pandering to Americans *grin*

An ecologically sound policy is always a good idea in any case - unfortunately we forgot to put the Recycled Material emblems on the packaging and the user guide! *DOH*

Rob

please empeg people but telnet service, ftp and Samba in the developer image, will you ??

Eh??

Nils, are you sure about this? Why do you want to put a Samba server on an empeg, for goodness' sake? Quite apart from the code/binary overhead, and the resources it uses while running, the empeg is a car player, not a network server! (ie. it's frequently in your car, not serving your network )

Are you sure you don't mean a kernel built with an NFS client built in so you can remote mount disks via ethernet?

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Hi schoffel :-)

YEs, well ... of course you are right about that NFS remark, but i would like to access the filespace from a Windoze Computer, and i do not know a good working NFS solution for Windoze ...

Are there good & small NFS clients for Windoze ??
Does W2k Advanced Server contain NFS support ?

If yes, maybe i reconsider my foolish wishes :-)

Nils

Are there good & small NFS clients for Windoze ??

Yeah, it's called "Linux"

No, seriously, I only know of OnNet NFS client for Windows. There are various commercial ones but they are pricy. You wil pay through the nose for NFS export support under W2K, whatever flavour ("the competition").

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Hello all,

I got my MK2 yesterday, but didn't have much time to play with it as I"m in the middle of a move from SC to DC area..

Anyway! Now that I have time to sit down and write a bit, here are some first impressions:

The face is smooth. I liked the original "plain" face, and I thought I would dislike the new custom-face, but it is actually really cool looking. It's already growing on me. The buttons on the left are sturdy, and feel well-mounted. The dial (as everyone as has said) feels kinda cheap. It is also relatively "hard" to twist.. I have to use two fingers to grasp it and twist it, rather than being able to simply "dial" it around with the tip of one finger.

The mounting bracket has been improved. The bumps that hold the empeg in are now mounted on tabs, which would seem to make in the long run, the empeg easier to remove/insert from the sled (I haven't installed it in my Jeep yet). With the mk1, after about 500 inserts/removes, I had to tamp the tabs down with a hammer because it was IMPOSSIBLE to push the empeg into the sled. This should remedy that problem.

I'm not so sure I like the "standard" ISO connector they have on the back of the thing. I've called 4 stereo shops around here and they have no idea what I'm talking about when I say "ISO Connector"... they think I am talking about the wiring harness that will tie into my Jeep. I'll probably have to end up cutting the damn thing off and just using the wires. Maybe I'll have to take the sled to a few shops and get them to LOOK at it and see if it rings a bell. Oh well.

Software.. the software that shipped with it.. EEK! Heh. Apparently they shipped a version that made the empeg only think it has 8MB of RAM that made it just do all kinds of funky stuff. Moot point - 11c is out and works perfectly (sofar). It's the same software we all know and love, same visuals. 11c has a couple extra menu options, "Set Clock" and "Dimmer". The Dimmer works pretty well.. tho I don't think I'd *ever* use that, considering how dim the empeg is in the first place. 8)

Ethernet: The ethernet is great. I can't wait until I get some time to start playing with it (getting inetd running, ability to ssh to the empeg via my LAN, etc). What I really want to get working is the ability to pull files off the empeg via the ethernet connection. Should be pretty easy to get working, that way I can use the empeg as a file storage, since I have to often move huge files between work/home and the empeg would be much cooler to use than the annoying Jaz drive.

Overall: Mk2 is the bomb. It's definitely worth the money. I can't wait to see stuff being developed for this thing.

Any questions or anything, feel free to ask. I'm off to try to get this thing working in my Jeep. 8)

(O|||||O)
Mk2 S/N: ...046

>We don't use polystyrene or foam because we were advised the the
>ecologically-correct American market would not accept this.

Oh, that's a load of hooey. If you still want to be ecologically-correct, though, have you thought about those inflatable plastic balloon things? They're pretty effective and ecologically correct.

Am I just missing them, or has only one person posted pictures of their Mark II? C'mon guys, I want PICTURES!

Alex

Well there is a script that produces symlinks with the correct mp3 filenames ( Artist-Album-Title ) on the empeg HD, if i would have samba or a working nfs connection, i could play AND COPY those files back, the thing i always wanted ...
The script could also be enhanced to also reproduce the playlist tree structure ...
And i could use the empeg as a portable Harddisk ...

Seems nice to me ...
So samba is what i like :-) Every windoze pc can talk to my empeg files directly then ...

Nils

Development. For me, I was developing stuff for my empeg on my laptop running Win2000, and telnet to my linux machine for any linux specific stuff. I was frequently sending and recieving files from the empeg, and if I could just drag and drop them off the empeg via samba to my Linux machine with Samba, it would save quite a bit of time.

It will also make the empeg compatible with upcomming network MP3 players for the stereo system. Instead of having to hook the empeg up to the stereo to hear the music off it, a person could simply plug it into the ethernet and allow their player to pick songs off the empeg and a home system.

I'll probably create a startup script that only starts Samba if it can ping my linux machine, that way resources are only used on Samba when it will be needed.