Having this unit for two days now, i would like to share my thoughts. Got the unit in great condition, unpacked, plugged in, working.
Installed emplode, connected to USB - PC crashed. My problem not empegs. Got a laptop, connected the empgeg and all is fine. Emplode is very beta. Lots of bugs and strange things are happening. In the end it does what i needed it for, getting the files to the empgeg.
Let the transfer going over night, next day, emplode tells me that the sync fails and such. The empeg was dead hanging in a loop, rebooting contineously. The console said there is a 'memory violation' in the player. Sent a mail to empeg support, 30 minutes later, got an email back with a fix. Applied the fix and all is OK - very impressive.
So now since the music is there, i could start. Hooked it up to my home stereo and started. The usual stuff, great graphics, nice toy. Sound quality is great. What is not great is the background noise when listen to silent stuff. I used a very high quality Sennheiser headphone, and when the payer jumps from one track to another, it makes those noises, quiet annoying after a while. But i can live with that.
The menu operation is nothing you want to use while driving, so think about arranging your playlists in a senseful way, so while you are driving you don't need to pay much attention operating the unit.
Other features - there is not much there (yet - hopefully). The stuff which is thought will be with the unit, isn't there, like some kind of equalizing or DSP functionality. If i will put it in my car - don't know yet. For me, it will be a step back. Since 5 years, i have a Pioneer KEX900RDS radio which is excellent. It has graphic and parametic equalizer, a DSP for doing all sorts of funny things, i can store 6 presets for sound for quick access, and and and. Some of that functionality would make sense in the empeg. I mean, this empeg is a 'computer', so i expected way more things to store and/or automate on the empgeg. Like, store a equalizing preset with an individual song or so. That might be rooted by the beta software running on it, but i don't think there will be anything like EQ implemented. Does that unit has a programmable DSP ?
The design of the unit - mixed feeling here as well. To me, it looks very 'homemade'. The front is just a pice of blue plastic filter with the 4 buttons. When the sun is shining on the display, it's invisible. Therefor you see little PCB's and wires. I would prefer to have the front blacked out so you just can see the display through it.
Summary: Very mixed impressions. I think the potential of the unit is great, and i hope empeg designed the unit with the necessary hardware in place to really do cool (and helpful) things with it. To me, the biggest benifit is the large storage. But this was not what i was after. I was more after things like 'intelligent EQ and DSP'. I was more after using the computing power to make my life easier and give me better listening results - not fancy visuals in the first place. I could live without the visuals. I think that is something which i will use to show people, but in the end it will be turned off most of the time. Compared the the five year old pioneer (which has a graphics display as well - not as nice as the empeg, but enough to set the EQ graphically) the empgeg has lots of things to catch up with.
What urges me - Empeg lacks some very basic features: The wire to mute the unit for the cell phone. The real-time clock. The wire to connect to switched power, so i don't have to manually turn the thing on and off. The missing EQ. The missing SPDIF in/out (hey there are guys with digital in AMP's out there...)
So i will hold on to see what future releases of the software will include. Is there anyone out in Germany who has a unit already (or wants one) ?
Thanks for the time, and sorry if this sounds not so excited. I think the empeg is a great box, but it's real potential still has to be discovered (IF the hardware design is providing what is needed). Jo