Sad Day for me.

Posted by: mvigneau

Sad Day for me. - 22/11/2004 18:28

Well,
It has finally happened. The "Coca-Cola" car has seen its last day in my possession. I have been having problems with it lately and had to trade it in. I have traded it in for a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT Red Garnet Automatic w/Spoiler.

I have removed the RIO (of course) and will probably install it into my brother's car since the radio in the Subaru is not removable (the board controlling the radio has the HVAC controls in it).
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Sad Day for me. - 22/11/2004 20:32

Damn, DIN is dead.

Bruno
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Sad Day for me. - 22/11/2004 21:43

Congrats on the new car! I didn't know that Subaru did that with the new radio... the Imprezas still have DIN.
Posted by: robricc

Re: Sad Day for me. - 22/11/2004 21:49

The Legacy GT is a pretty hot car, but I would have to say I wouldn't buy it because of the stereo/climate control integration. I really don't understand why car companies are doing stuff like this. Their stereos are often made by Pioneer, Alipine, Panasonic, etc. and those companies make single-DIN stereos. They're fighting themselves in a way. At least that's the way is seems to me.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Sad Day for me. - 22/11/2004 22:28

Quote:
They're fighting themselves in a way. At least that's the way is seems to me.

I think it's more like... "We welcome our new auto-manufacturer overlords."
Posted by: mtempsch

Re: Sad Day for me. - 30/11/2004 13:21

Someone please reboot Tony, he appears confused - can't separate the empegBBS from /.
Posted by: PaulWay

Re: Sad Day for me. - 30/11/2004 21:23

Yeah, we've got a 2004 Subaru Liberty and there's no chance of removing the original stereo without at least chopping the front panel up and fabricating a new one. I'd guess behind the scenes it's also in an intimate embrace with the aircon and stuff. DIN is definitely on the way out, as CD players and changers are now considered standard in cars rather than an optional extra. Most car buyers don't ever think of upgrading their stereo.

It's sad.

Which is why, if there ever was an empeg Mark III - which I still maintain there is a market for - it would be better as a set of discrete components. A display that you can place anywhere, a control that you can place anywhere, and the hard disk unit with audio out that you can place anywhere. Link them by bluetooth if you're clever and expensive, though serial wire would do. But this idea has been done to death and I don't see anyone leaping up and saying "well, we're working on it...". Which is very saddening.

Still, we've got the great car stereos, why do we have to worry about what might have been?

Paul
Posted by: robricc

Re: Sad Day for me. - 01/12/2004 00:32

Quote:
Still, we've got the great car stereos, why do we have to worry about what might have been?

Right, just make sure all of your future cars were built between the years of 1900-2003.
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: Sad Day for me. - 01/12/2004 04:15

Quote:
Quote:
Still, we've got the great car stereos, why do we have to worry about what might have been?

Right, just make sure all of your future cars were built between the years of 1900-2003.

Bah. If the empeg can be installed on a bicycle, then the empeg can be installed in any car.
Posted by: ashmoore

Re: Sad Day for me. - 03/12/2004 17:13

agreed.
one word,
Dremel !
Posted by: DWallach

Re: Sad Day for me. - 04/12/2004 12:16

Indeed, it's hard to find a new car without a CD player, but there's an increasing aftermarket push coming from XM and Sirius satellite radio as well as the legions of iPod owners who want in-car integration.

Long term, I expect that Bluetooth is going to be the answer. It's got plenty of bandwidth (at least for MP3 files, although pushing a 1.5Mb uncompressed audio stream might be an issue), and it's already gaining support for cel phone integration. You could certainly imagine a standards body including MP3 makers, satellite radio people, cel phone people, and heaven knows who else, defining such a standard. Then, you'd get aftermarket people coming up with integration kits, and so forth.

Hopefully...
Posted by: peter

Re: Sad Day for me. - 04/12/2004 14:59

Quote:
although pushing a 1.5Mb uncompressed audio stream might be an issue

How this stuff apparently works (for Bluetooth headphones, etc.) is that there's a compression format which audio sources and sinks understand. You can't get 1.5Mbps over Bluetooth, but you can get enough that the compression, though technically lossy, isn't onerous -- allegedly.

Peter
Posted by: PaulWay

Re: Sad Day for me. - 10/12/2004 03:49

Quote:
Quote:
Still, we've got the great car stereos, why do we have to worry about what might have been?

Right, just make sure all of your future cars were built between the years of 1900-2003.

Your 'tongue in cheek' icon is entirely applicable to my post. I'm using irony here. I am, in fact, saying that fitting the empeg, and indeed any aftermarket DIN stereo, is going to be increasingly difficult given that it seems most car manufacturers are leaning toward their own custom, non-DIN solutions.

I hate to hijack this thread to start another 'When's the Mark III coming out' thread, but it seems to me that the large quantity of hardware and software hackers we have on this board should be more than capable of getting together and working on a project to produce an independent successor to our favourite empegs and Rio Cars. I'm not talking about licensing the design of the Mark II (I'd made enquiries and heard nothing back on this), which now seems to be pointless, nor about trying to copy the Mark II in any way. A lot of the ideas I've seen posted on this BBS in the wishlist and so forth are now far beyond the capabilities of a single in-dash player anyway. Let's strike out into fresh territory, and avoid the legal eagles at the same time. (After all, this is precisely what Hugo did all those years ago!). Heck, I'd act as a coordinator and general pusher if there was anyone else to coordinate and push.

But it seems to me that a lot of people are saying that, now that they've got their own little car player, they don't care what the rest of the world wants, or think of anything better.

Anyway, I'm still going to try fitting the Mark I into the Liberty...

Have fun,

Paul