I have often wondered why some of the electronics for the empeg were not put in an external box. I realize the features in the "box" would not be portable between the car and the house. I would think people would just decide where they wanted those features and leave them there. Similar to the way the tuner is set up. People have asked for a lot of features that simply cannot be implimented because of space requirements. My Alpine has an external box (it had to because the head unit is half taken up by a 6.5" LCD screen). The box does give me access to internal amplifiers, audio/video ins/outs, navigation, and CD changer. People have asked for PCMCIA, USB master, digital output, TV output, and CD access for self contained recording... all this could be possible with the "electronics box". And you could even put a giant LCD like mine for much more song/playlist info and visualisations.

You could leave the player as it is for good portability/price and add a bus system plug or optical i/o for the added features for additional cost.

This pretty much has become more of a proposal for the Mark 3 and this post now seems more suited for the Wish List. When Mark 3 rolls around there will be other competition and you should keep blowing the competition away like you are now! :)


Alex Lear