Well, the worst just happened. I broke the nipple doing a simple
disassembly/assembly. I had to for an ISO mount application to
get some brackets going on.

I took all the care in the world and had the FAQ memorized back
and forth to no avail. Luckily I had another perfectly good unit
sitting here to use for the display board in the interim (one
that didn't break on me just by looking at it- who knows, maybe
Honda made that one)

Question is this- how much will it cost me to get RIO to send me
a whole new plug n' play display board (e.g. not just the VFD
whereas soldering would be required). I would like one like
here overnight ASAP if possible. Also, what's the contact info?

Thanks in advance.

As always, the FAQ to the rescue (at least for the last question).

/Michael

I believe it's about $300 to send it to empeg, have David fix it and send it back to you.

If you think that's too expensive and you're confident that you can solder it yourself, then empeg will probably be able to sell you a VFD and send it to you. If believe they charge about £90 for that.

no way just to get the whole display board? $300 is crazy - that's all I paid for the thing in the first place. I just ripped it apart to swap with my friend in the interim because I'm nice like that...

Here's another thread that might be pertinent.

Yes, like I said, if you contact carsupport@sonicblue.com, they can probably sell you a VFD, for about £90. You'll just have to install it yourself. It has been done before.

The reason you got it that cheap is because they couldn't sell at a reasonable price considering the parts and labor. Many of us paid well over $1000 ``retail'' for them when they were still in production.

You purchased a $1400 unit for $299. It's still a $1400 unit.

I feel the same way you do when I go to buy parts for my M3. Every time I give them my credit card, I'm forcibly reminded that it is a $45,000 automobile...

Price you pay for nice toys.

Maybe my initial post wasn't clear. I don't want to send the unit anywhere and I don't want to solder a new VFD in. I want a complete plug n' play display board sent to me ready to go. Is that too much to ask??

Also, I there is no way I'm going to pay $300 to have one of these things fixed. [I don't care if it says Ferrari made this thing (which given the reliability who knows that very well may have been the case)] point being... I can easily find another one for that if worst comes to worse. Experience has thought me well that consumer electronic repairs are usually not worth the trouble in the long run.

(Shipping charges assuming you're in the US)

To send the whole player in: 75UKP shipping (that covers both ways) and 75UKP for the VFD glass. Approx 233USD.

To send in just the display board and have the VFD replaced: 35UKP shipping and 75UKP for the VFD. Approx 170USD.

To buy an entire display board: 140UKP and 25UKP shipping. Approx 256USD.

To buy just a VFD glass: 75UKP and 25UKP shipping. Approx 155USD.

IMO, considering this is an EOL product we are extremely lucky in that (1) parts are still available and (2) we have the extreme benefit of working with people at empeg that provide a better level of support than most any other product. I think we are lucky to have any options at all. My 2 cents (USD) worth.

I want a complete plug n' play display board sent to me ready to go. Is that too much to ask??

If you had considered directly contacting the company that made and support the product you might have got an accurate response rather more quickly than waiting for a member of our support team to see your post on here and reply to it.

which given the reliability who knows that very well may have been the case

You were extremely careful handling your dissassembled unit, yet the nipple happened to snap off. I strip them apart in a minute or two with no particular precautions and in four years I've never broken a nipple. Do you think bad luck may be more of a factor than unreliability?

Anyway you have your price (from David) which I think is pretty reasonable, considering we have to break apart a perfectly good brand new player to get that display board for you.

Rob

I can't believe what I'm reading. I own hundreds if not thousands of products and I have never found support like this, for any price!
I'm just waiting for Rob, David, PCA, Tony etc. to start building cars, I'll pre order one!

Amen...

There's no point us designing a car - it would be a McLaren F1, and they beat us to it!

Rob

I was thinking of an improved Jag XJ-220. After all, one might want to drive it on the street.

You've never seen a McLaren F1 on the street?

(Though, I've got to say, Fed Ex priority international for a McLaren would be expensive)

Actually, I did see one here in the States a while back but not many came over here. Must have been the Fed-Ex charges. Awesome car BTW.

Just to take this post completely off-topic...

http://www.imagestation.com/video/play.html?id=4248970939

27MB video of the McLaren F1

What what WHAT? Am I reading this correctly - you have to pillage a perfectly good, new player for parts? Oh that seems so wrong....

Of course, the most cost effective solution for this guy seems to be to send his display board in for repair. $170 to ship the thing both ways across the atlantic, and fix it, seems a real good deal to me. Considering it cost me $190 to have a $7 transistor replaced in my Sony reciever, and that was with ME bringing it in and picking it up!

A slightly off-topic question - When the empeg store closed, it still had remotes and sleds available (I think) ... What happened to all that stuff? Especially the remotes, as it seems that the sleds can be home-brewed...

They did a final "Buy remotes and sleds while you can - we're closing the store for good" sale.

We reserved a small amount of stock for warranty use. I currently have a *very* limited supply of remotes, so can't offer them for sale. If you want a Kenwood one, then I've got plenty.

I broke my display nipple a few summers ago through my own inept packing job and I paid $300 CDN...I was very happy to have it fixed properly and the guys at Empeg gave me first class and extremely fast service...I would gladly pay it again to have it done right.

Ahh, no, it is a $299 unit, or it is whatever someone is willing to pay for it(~$700 US currently)..

Are you saying everything we buy on sale at Target and the grocery store is really worth more than we pay?

Generally speaking, everything you buy is worth LESS the second you pay for it.

Good job on the support guys..

-John M
_____
You purchased a $1400 unit for $299. It's still a $1400 unit.

I feel the same way you do when I go to buy parts for my M3. Every time I give them my credit card, I'm forcibly reminded that it is a $45,000 automobile...

Price you pay for nice toys.

Elvis

It's faster with music....

Well, after four long days the install in the S2000 has been completed. The results were well worth it. It is still a shame that it took two MKII units to get one to work so we could get this install wrapped up. The whole thing still leaves me wondering WTF could have happened and how a display board got damaged. Maybe I do have bad luck. Who knows.

Either way I took the balance of the parts and put mine back together. Now my friend gets to cruise around with a working one while I got this one sitting here worthless. LIttle jerk even wants me to hook up a wireless upload option and some remote meters for his phoenix gold octane. Uggh, cars... cars... cars.... Time to admit to the loss and send this one in and eat the $300 I guess.

BTW- I checked the nipples with the FAQ, compared the two display boards and both of them (even the one that works) has the little black blurred area on the bottom right hand corner. So maybe it isn't the nipple like I thought. The only visible difference being one clearly works the other one doesn't. So, whatever it is on this display board I assume I'll be needing a new one and I should get it replaced ASAP. I'll contact David directly. Thanks for all your help guys.

Thanks in advance.

The little black blurred area is normal. It's the missing nipple that the photo in the FAQ is supposed to be illustrating.

It's not something simple like... on your assembly/disassembly you plugged it in off-by-one?

It's not something simple like... on your assembly/disassembly you plugged it in off-by-one?

Oh, good call, Tony!

Yes, check this very carefully, ravetek. Even if the board is now plugged in correctly, you will have blown one of the surface mount fuses on the mainboard and the display will either not work at all, or will display garbled information.

There are several threads on the bbs that address this issue -- look into them before you send your player across the ocean!

tanstaafl.

I guess the easiest way to check for that is to take your friends display board and plug it in on your empeg. If it works, then its not the fuses on the main board. If it doesnt, its the fuses which need to be replaced, which could be a cheap fix if you can find someone stateside to do it for you.

Sean

Just do it CAREFULLY! No more casualties please, I can't stand the thought of it...

-Zeke

There's also the possibility of the broken capacitor on the back side of the board.

My point is that lots of things besides the fill nipple can make the display go bad. When he said he broke the fill nipple, I assumed he'd visually verified that it had actually broken off. Now it seems from his last description as though the nipple is intact.

I think I'll update the image in the FAQ to more clearly indicate that the illustration is supposed to be of the missing nipple, not of the normal discoloration of the glass on the corner.

Edit: I take it back. I think the images and text are clear enough as they are.

It's pretty obvious when the nipple breaks - it comes right away from the display and you're left with a hole there instead! If the nipple is in place and there's no sign of a crack or any missing glass then you're barking up the wrong street entirely, and Tony's fuse comments are almost certainly the real problem. If that's the case, after your earlier comments, I will slap you

Rob

Touché

Oooooh, someone get a pic of the slap for the FAQ. Tony can file it under "How do I contact Rio/empeg if I need support?"

If you aren't going to fix it, I'll buy it off you in it's present condition. What would you say... $150 ?