As tanstsafl said, another person bugging them about supporting non-CD head units probably won't make any difference. Now if the whole EMPEG community decided to start competing and bugging IASCA about this, that would be a different matter :). The conclusion in the last email I received from IASCA about this said:

"Agreed that many of your arguments are very valid. However, for this year 2001 you will need a CD player to compete ...... The answer in future years may be different but for now the CD itself is our best control. "

I got the impression that they are not on the verge of a decision or anything, just avoiding the whole issue for now.

I have a feeling that even if we could find a way to prove a ripped WAV on the EMPEG were the same as the original CD, it still wouldn't be sufficient. Currently, you can't even use a copy of the official IASCA that you purchased from IASCA (i.e., they made the copy, not you, it has their silkscreening, and it's not like they are on CD-RWs or anything either). There really isn't any provision in the rules to even allow you to try to prove your copy of the CD is the same as theirs so you can use it instead, they just insist you use the judges copy.

I am starting to think it will require a significant change in their philosophy before allowance for the EMPEG would ever actually be implemented. I can understand their stance to some degree.... but unfortuntaly it doesn't allow for any source unit that doesn't directly play some sort of physical media they provide - which currently they limit to CD. There are no provisions to even allow you to compete with MD, DAT, etc as far as I know - not that most people would want to use these and they aren't exactly mainstream either..... but even if you did want to use one of these formats for competition, I don't think they wouldn't let you. In the case of DAT, you can make an exact copy and prove it's an exact copy......

So I am not holding my breath anymore while waiting for this to happen - I am sure it eventually will, but it seems to me they won't consider revamping the rules until using such players as a primary head unit is more mainstream.