Well in USD126,000 yen is $1100.00. When the empeg was new it sold for double that and had just 10GB or so. I have a 60GB rio so I can see the step down to 16GB being a biatch but at least theres potential for drive swapping and what not. Perhaps they'll release a 30GB drive so one can have additional space. The empeg is great but that display slaughters the empeg's VFD. That Bio-Lite display can be read perfectly even in direct sunlight! I have a Sony Clie so the mp3s on memory sticks can get slapped right in there for immediate playback too!

Having the HDD exposed like that while the face is off is definatley a minus but so far that and the storage capacity are the only real beefs I can think of.

The biggest plus is that it's an Alpine IMO. I am Alpine's number one fan =)

Right now I have a friend in in Hong Kong and he's going to shop around getting prices next time he swings over to Japan. If he can find a deal good enough I just may own one soon. I am also going to get in touch with some people at Alpine and find out if there are plans for a bigger HDD.

EDIT: I just noticed that the USDM version has no memory stick slot!