Keep in mind that any big-name head unit you buy now is probably only going to have a one year warranty. After that, you're going to have to pay to get it fixed, which will probably be more expensive than just getting the newer, better one. The empeg, while out of warranty and so on, is still supported by the community, and it seems that very few of us have had significant problems at all -- just the odd bad cable, bad fuse, bad header -- all fairly simple repairs. And since you can just pull the empeg out of the dash, there's no need to tear your dash apart every time something goes wrong.

Of course, the big-name head units I've had in the past were never too bad for needing to be fixed, either.