Well, my Mk2 finally arrived yesterday, after a delay in customs (They've obviously heard about the empeg, and just had to open the package to take a look =)

First impressions (from a Mk1 owner's point of view)
The sled doesn't seem to be finished quite as well as the sled on my Mk 1, with a number of rough patches (The unit comes mounted in the sled for those of you who didn't know, so it’s the first thing you see). Hardly a significant problem, but I mention it anyway (remember, I'm also a Mk1 owner, and I'm comparing the two... =).
However, the unit slides in and out much more easily than before, so that’s a definite plus... =)

Anyway, on to the unit itself... It looks even better in the flesh than the pictures. The handle is very nicely sculpted (if a little on the thin side compared to the Mk1), and has matching curved bits to the face (You’ll see what I mean… =). The face looks very good and the buttons on the left look very nice. I'm not too keen on the rotary control though, as it either seems to stick out too far, or needs to change colour (It looks unfinished in a way)... I’d prefer the buttons in a nice blue colour, but I’ll survive... =)
The buttons click positively, and sound quite chunky. The rotary control also clicks, but felt a bit tight... The reason became clear when I looked a bit more closely (The rotary control is binding on part of the faceplate for 3/4 of a revolution)

Now we plug the unit in... No surprises that the boot up looks the same.
The screen is a bit darker compared to the Mk1, however, it’s a nicer shade of blue (IMHO) with better contrast.
Unlike the Mk1 default disc, my Mk2 didn’t ship with any tunes on (the Mk1 came with a track from an MP3.com artist). Maybe that’s just for this batch, I don’t know.

So next I got the latest software image, tried to upload it and hit my first error (Invalid flash block code, or something similar). I then loaded emplode, and tried again from the tools menu... This time it upgraded ok...

The clone tool was next, and it had trouble finding both empegs. Rebooting them in sequence, standing on my head with a black cat on the floor, rebooting yet again and it found them both. (A new clone tool has been released, which should fix the problem).
Also I got the Error –2 problem, which was fixed by syncing with emplode 11a on both empegs in turn.

The clone took about 11 hours for 4 gigs of data, which might indicate a problem with my PC... Hardly a problem though, as I ran them overnight.

So, waffle over, what’s the verdict…
It’s an empeg, it looks a different on the outside, but it works and plays the same... (A simple statement I know, as many people would kill to get such a usable system into the market... =)
I haven’t run it in the car yet (due to the long sync) but fitting the cage didn’t take more than 30 mins. The wiring is also quite a lot thinner than the Mk1, which should help those with limited space.

Until the speech recognition is released, there isn’t much in it between them, at least from my quick play yesterday (I’ll see today how it performs on the road), so don't worry if you can't upgrade for a while.

Nice one all at empeg...

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 for sale 4 gig #30, apply within)