Even though this is a product that will never happen, I did see mentioned in a post one of the planned features for this device was possible cd ripping. I was wondering (just for the hell of it) what other features were being planned on for the ill-fated Mk3?

Do a search for mk3, hugo posted the specs for it a few months back. :-)

Which were very similar to the Rio Central in a smaller box...

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_general&Number=40595&page=&view=&sb=&o=

thanks for the link....

Interesting that the ethernet was going to disappear.
I wouldn't have bought my Mk2a if it didn't have the
ethernet port -- I don't have any USB ports.

Right, but since it was going to have USB master, then a USB-to-Ethernet converter would have worked. That's currently what the HSX-109 does. It has no ethernet, but the USB-to-ethernet converter works fine.

Please dont take this the wrong way - but it might be time to upgrade.

I remember having USB ports before some crappy version of Windows even supported them. There was a long period of time that USB was known as the "Unused serial bus", or just as popular, "Useless serial bus". This era ended for me when I got my mk2 last year.

usb is out of control now adays, seems like almost every product on the market for pc is usb.

Back to the MK3 (or anything else with CD Ripping). Exactly how was this going to work in an car environmental? I started thinking about putting in a CD into the new Sony unit and I guess you'd just have to leave the car running or something. I understand why they had to do that way (with the proprietary ATRAC) but I cannot envision sitting in a car and ripping CDs. The only way I see the CD feature working is reading CDR already loaded with ripped tracks.

Hmmm I suppose it is sort of a moot point with respect to the MK3 - and a problem left to the buyer of the Sony or Pioneer HD-based unit. I agree - sitting and ripping CDs in the car is quite clumbsy - but I think the idea was for the casual user, as you listened to the CD for the first time it is automatically ripped to the HD - as you are driving around and listening to it. Taking this a step further, you would eventually rip (most) all your CDs just by listening to them.

Obviously - it seems to me that these solutions offer little in the way of organization flexibility of playlists, etc. It is so much easier to do this on a computer. I don't know if the hard drives on the Sony or Pioneer are removable - but I believe the spec I read somewhere for the mk3 was for a removable hard drive and a cradle with which to attach it to a PC - and subsequently load music and organize playlists much like the Mk2.

Could anyone clear that up for me please if I missed something?

Now if they'd just start producing things that actually use USB 2.0!!!

Hmmm... If you're like everyone else, you wouldn't listen sequentially or even to each track completely (depending on your mood). One of the best features of the empeg is underappreciated treasures in your own collection. <Down><Down><Down> and <insert your own underappreciated treasure track here>. You would only get those with full CD rips.

The concept of realtime ripping in an auto seems problematic not even considering your point of organization.

In reply to:

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Please dont take this the wrong way - but it might be time to upgrade.

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Why? All I ever do with my computer is read email and sometimes surf the web. That's been expanded to ripping my
CDs, now that I have the empeg. Sure, my 486 (free from a friend), pentium and dec alpha (both surplus from my employer) are a bit slow for ripping CDs, but I'm in no hurry -- I haven't even installed the empeg in my truck yet, and it's been three months since I bought it -- and they're already more than I need for everything else. The empeg is the first bit of technology I've seen (in roughly the last 9 years since I bought my first computer) that I think has been worth spending money on. The second bit of technology will be the tuner...

Cheers,