Does anyone know what decoder was used in the original Empeg?

I own an Empeg of course, and my company happens to be looking for an Mp3 decoder with an SDK to use in our flagship application. Unfortunately, our app is for Windows CE and the only good decoder we can find is Xaudio. Even more unfortunately, the license for Xaudio commercial use is $25k which breaks our bank (we're a startup).

Xaudio lists "empeg-car" under their clientele page, and I was wondering (if any of the empeg creators are reading) if you guys just had the money to pay the $25k up front or if you cut a deal with Xaudio?

-nick