I have often wondered why some of the electronics for the empeg were not put in an external box. I realize the features in the "box" would not be portable between the car and the house. I would think people would just decide where they wanted those features and leave them there. Similar to the way the tuner is set up. People have asked for a lot of features that simply cannot be implimented because of space requirements. My Alpine has an external box (it had to because the head unit is half taken up by a 6.5" LCD screen). The box does give me access to internal amplifiers, audio/video ins/outs, navigation, and CD changer. People have asked for PCMCIA, USB master, digital output, TV output, and CD access for self contained recording... all this could be possible with the "electronics box". And you could even put a giant LCD like mine for much more song/playlist info and visualisations.

You could leave the player as it is for good portability/price and add a bus system plug or optical i/o for the added features for additional cost.

This pretty much has become more of a proposal for the Mark 3 and this post now seems more suited for the Wish List. When Mark 3 rolls around there will be other competition and you should keep blowing the competition away like you are now! :)


Alex Lear

It's a fundamental design decision that this particular product is a single box solution. You get everything in a single DIN head unit. We didn't want to move the tuner outside, but it was necessary to improve reception.

Most of the stuff on your wishlist isn't practical for the architecture we designed. What you want is a totally different product, and of course, if enough people wanted it then someone would have asked us to design one for them by now.

Rob

What Alex wants is a modular concept, like the high-end Alpine and Kenwood systems (to name just two). In that scenario, empeg shouldn't re-invent the wheel (read: do a complete system), but rather team up with one of the big players and make an MP3 module to plug into one of these systems. Of course, this would be a totally different product from the empeg, and I'm not saying they should drop the empeg for it - they should have both. I have no idea if one of the big companies was interested, and I can't really judge if there was a market for it, but personally I'd *LOOOVE* to see such a box - and I'd spend some real money for it! Imagine: visuals on a 9.5" color display, touch-screen menus with lots of space... well, we've heard that the Mk II is not empeg Ltd's only product. Maybe they are already secretly working on something like that... you can always dream, right?

well, we've heard that the Mk II is not empeg Ltd's only product. Maybe they are already secretly working on something like that...

You really need to read between the lines in Rob's posts a little better, Tadz...

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Tony Fabris

Man, that would be sweet. I've got an Alpine designed nav system in my new van and boy would it be cool to use the empeg through that.

DiGNAN

We've already talked about the version of the car player that emulates a CD autochanger, and connects into a standard system from some of the major auto manufacturers.

This is a lower end product than the in-dash car player, as the UI on those standard head units is very restrictive.

Rob

This is a lower end product than the in-dash car player, as the UI on those standard head units is very restrictive.

I found the thread discussing the Phatbox, which is probably what you are referring to. You're right - the UI is limited - and that's exactly why I'd love to see empeg Ltd do it right, i.e. with the software of the head unit extended to support the full feaure set of the empeg, like visuals and hierarchical playlists not limited to mimick 99 CDs etc. After all, empeg Ltd is a software-centric company, so it's a natural choice for them to develop such a product.

Daniel

The Phatbox has nothing to do with us. We developed our version for other OEM clients.

Rob