How did you hear of an empeg?

Posted by: Redrum

How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 15:11

I never would have heard or know of this devise if it would not been by word of mouth.
Posted by: eliceo

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 15:47

I think the firesale was posted on a deal site I frequented. I really had no idea how the thing worked, but bought one anyway. It is one of the only pieces of hardware that I still use everyday.
Posted by: petteri

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 15:48

I think I did a search on Ebay for a head unit that could play MP3 CDs. I came up with something that said it was better than an Empeg player....

A google search led me here!
Posted by: tfabris

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 15:51

Hugo's original MP3 car project, the precursor to empeg, was something I'd seen linked somewhere. Eventually, when they started the company, he linked www.empeg.com from that page.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 15:58

<AOL> What Tony said. Didn't have the means to buy 'til later (college...etc..) but had several iterations of an in-car music playing computer (including one based on almost the same hardware as Hugo's original) before converting to an empeg during the firesale.
Posted by: pgrzelak

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 15:59

I heard about it in the Mark1 days, promptly forgot about it, and then rediscovered it (I do not remember how) when the waiting list was already well established for the Mark2_. I jumped on the list at that point, and have been hooked ever since.
Posted by: Redrum

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 16:20

After making such a great devise it’s too bad there was no money left for advertising. Maybe we’d all be talking about the new Mark V’s (not Speed Racer’s).

Or maybe it’s the penguin, apples might be better advertising logo’s. But I don’t think so.
Posted by: tahir

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 16:21

I heard about it pre MKI, followed a link from the ARM website, had my name down for one but never bought it in the end cos I just didn't have the time to convert 2100 albums to mp3. Now I've got a Karma ans Squeezeboxes at home
Posted by: JeffS

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 16:46

A coworker of mine was in the queue for the Mark2 and it was all he talked about. I shamefully admit that I (along with the rest of his coworkers) made fun of him quite a bit for spending so much money on an mp3 player- and then it arrived. It took about 30 seconds after he had it out of the box for me to eat my words, hang my head, and resolve to own one for myself. Unfortunately, I lacked the poper funding- but I started saving. It was all my friends heard about for months, and yes they made fun of me for wanting to spend so much money on an mp3 player. Then the firesale hit and I bought one right away, no looking back. By FAR the best value for my money that I've ever spent and one of my two prized posessions (along with my Martin HD-28).
Posted by: Dignan

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 16:55

I was interested in finding some way to play these relatively new MP3 files in a car. I started searching and stumbled on an article by either PC Magazine or PC World (I'm pretty sure). They breifly mentioned this thing called an empeg, and immediately discounted it because who in their right mind would spend that much money on such a device? They then went on to discuss the various ways to build your own PC, which ended up sounding like it would cost almost the same amount and with much more hassle for less results.

So logic led me to the empeg.
Posted by: lectric

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 17:25

I got emailed a link looong ago by a friend who was looking for a way to make a car-mp3 player (he finally did - it sucked). I was on the waiting list for the Mark I but college got in the way of the funding. Bought one on the firesale. Never looked back.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 17:49

I remember it from the mp3mobile, too. I'm still waiting for the RF connection and the distributed.net client....
Posted by: ithoughti

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 17:50

My best friend is a total Linux nerd, so he knew about it long before the first unit was produced. He turned me on to it and I got on the waiting list. I think I was #6000 or something.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 18:01

mp3mobile in the Wayback Machine

Quote:
In preparation for the commercial site I've just got a catchy new domain... there's nothing there (yet) but it's where the info on the commercial version will go, and where mailing list stuff will come from. It's www.empeg.com, which is very cheesy but quite cool (IMHO) :-)


Quote:
I'm currently working on an in-dash commercial version of the mp3mobile: more info on this can be found on the empeg website. Basically this unit will fit in a standard dash-mount slot, and provide RCA outs for external head units or amps. Pricing will be comparable to high-end cd autochangers/head units, and we hope to have prototypes out for testing in the next few months.
Posted by: rob

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 18:04

In 1998 I'd recently finished developing the Q2000 laser tag system with Patrick and Hugo, and was spending most of my time doing site installations. Hugo mentioned that he had a neat car player concept and was putting together a commercial version with Patrick. They didn't need an old fashioned C programmer like me, but they did need someone customer facing... and so it was!

I didn't get to actually own an empeg until much later!

Rob
Posted by: sein

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 19:33

Slashdot.

Thursday October 22nd 1998, I was in the college library reading this news item. Having just installed Redhat on my home PC, and being a total car geek, I was fascinated. I saw the headline, and I thought whoa, a Linux PC in a car headunit? Laptop harddrives - wow, you could put so much on it. Imagine all the strange and wonderful 3rd party opensource bits of software you could get on it too. It would be able to do everything with the right amount of hacking. It had a serial port for a console and everything. "I'm gonna get one of those!". From that day onwards I encoded and tagged all the music I ever got. Even recorded stuff from tape. That took a long time on a 120MHz Cyrix.

Yeah, but I was only 16. Just over 6 years later, I finally passed my driving test and got my own ride. A couple of months later, I had an Empeg in my car, and paid less than an iPod for it.

Livin' the dream.
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 20:17

www.mp3.com used to have hardware reviews. The empeg mk1 was the only one so I signed up for the queue after seeing a little video showing how great the menus and visuals were.
Posted by: BartDG

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 21:48

I first bought a Neo35 to install in my car because I couldn't afford an Empeg back then. I had stumbled onto the www.empeg.com page and onto this forum before, and I had lurked here for a while, drooling.
Still, I managed to convince myself that the Neo35 would serve my needs just as well. Big mistake. I had it for about one month in my car before I pulled it back out. Constant trouble. But because those mp3 players in the car were very rare here (you actually had to import one yourself if you wanted one), I was able to re-sell it pretty fast and even make some money on it. I then decided to bite the bullet and did what I should have done in the first place: I sold some stuff and then finally got the player that I wanted: a 10GB Empeg. (Well, it was a RioCar by then. ) I would have gotten one sooner if I could have only afforded it.
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 30/12/2005 23:45

stumbled on an article by either PC Magazine or PC World

I bet it was the same article I saw -- really, just a paragraph.

I was within days of ordering the parts to try and build my own in-car solution when I saw it. No doubt it saved me a lot of money and trouble.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: jbauer

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 01:31

I met Rob at CES (was it Comdex?) when the Mark II was a sparkle in his eye...

Thanks Rob!

- Jon
Posted by: jimhogan

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 01:51

Note sure if it was this exact article in Linux Journal, but was LJ around that time. The blue display grabbed me.
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 02:10

Short version:
Saw empeg mentioned during routine MP3 hardware research in 1998, but wrote it off. Then in 2001, luckily came across it again and was hooked ever since.

Long version:
I had been stalking MP3 players since the Rio PMP300, though could never justify purchasing one. My travels led me to the early empeg-on-crush-purple-velvet (thanks Tony) picture. Unfortunately, both the empeg and the first portable HDD player, the Personal Jukebox, were dismissed by me as impractical because "their hard drives will surely break under normal usage conditions." I decided the most practical MP3 player created to date (at the time) was the Rio Volt. I bought one as soon as possible and stopped following MP3 hardware entirely.

Fast forward from early 1998 to late 2001. While looking for an in-dash MP3 solution for my new (used) car, I luckily extended my search from Crutchfield to Google and rediscovered the empeg. After seeing the long MKI video showing the user interface and visuals, I was converted. Honestly, it was the Sound Flag visual that ensured I would pay *any* price for an empeg. I bought one new-in-box (thanks TTony), had it installed pronto, and the rest is history.

"hard drives will surely break under normal usage conditions.", nonsense! I should have read that 1998 article closer to realize just who was behind this and how good it was.
Posted by: RobotCaleb

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 03:28

http://www.anders.com/words/route66.html

Read that article in Maximum Linux magazine and went to the internet to look around some more. I came across something about the empeg mentioned on some site and wanted one right then.
Posted by: bonzi

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 07:49

Strange (I usually remember such details), but I can't recall what brought me (in the summer of '99) to then already about a year old empeg web site. I fell in love with the idea at first sight and joined this BBS as member #315 and queued at position #5196 of the waiting list (so I was rather late). I had to pass the first time my number came up for financial reasons. I remember dithering over waiting for higher capacity, but somebody (I think it was Tony Fabris) easily put me on the right way, so I bought a 18GB MKII (#080000376) second time arround. I don't care to remeber exactly the rather outrageous (for me at the time) price, but I don't regret a penny of it. Buying a 60GB spare at firesale was a no-brainer, of course.

Thank you, again, Hugo and the gang, both for a marvelous toy, and for creating, indirectly, such a wonderful community as this BBS is.

(I just spend some time reading threads with my first posts, not without some sense of melancholy. The first reply I got was from both Hugo and Rob, on a Sunday afternoon! It still hurts to think that such an amazing product from such an unique company (i.e. people) turned out a relative commercial failure... )
Posted by: andym

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 15:41

I just just tried to find my reply to the last time this question was asked but it was something along the lines of..... Came across mp3car.com, saw Hugos mp3mobile and decided to build my own as a uni project (which included writing the software for it). Approx. 6 months later came across a paragraph in Max Power (i know how sad!) with a URL. Had a look, recognised a few names, seriously keen but completely skint as I was still at Uni. Once I left I got ready to build a second version of my original player with a TFT, had almost forgotten the empeg (still couldn't afford one) got most of the stuff bought and then found out about the firesale, I then promptly sold all the bits bought two players, one from a long lost forum user TommmyD and the other from carplayer.com..... phew almost out breath.

Great product made by the nicest bunch of blokes you could ever hope to meet, and the Karma is the reason I could never bring myself to buy an ipod...

I just hope sigmatel make the most of the talent they've aquired.
Posted by: drakino

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 31/12/2005 16:40

I too heard about it from Hugo's mp3mobile page, I believe linked off Slashdot ages back. Kept checking the site from time to time, saw empeg.com go up, and got in the line for a Mark 1.

Quote:
distributed.net client


The Linux ARM client should run on an empeg. I had it working on my Mark 1 for a while after submitting a bug report. They started compiling it so it could run on the empeg kernel, since before then it needed pthreads support.
Posted by: Robotic

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 01/01/2006 09:14

Yup, yup- word of mouth from a multiple-empeg owner.
Strange- it hasn't yet been a year since I learned about the empeg's existence.
The desire for an in-dash mp3 player was outlined here in Feb 2005.
I was reciting my lament to a good friend who just shrugged and said, "You want an empeg."
Before summer arrived I had bought two from members on this BBS.

I am amazed-
1) at the empeg's functionality
2) at this BBS community's warmth, (com)passion, and cohesion
3) that the empeg was removed from production
4) that the Chinese haven't copied it (in a market where nothing else like it exists! iPod? Bah!)

Thanks for a great 2005!
Posted by: robricc

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 01/01/2006 18:03

Quote:
4) that the Chinese haven't copied it (in a market where nothing else like it exists! iPod? Bah!)

I think the NEO55 was suppsoed to be the Chinese empeg counterpart. IIRC, it came out in the US for a month or so before being pulled due to bugs and other problems. SSI's Taiwan site still lists it though.
Posted by: AndrewT

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 02/01/2006 02:02

I first saw the mp3mobile (and Hugo!) on a news item on (UK's) ITV Central region TV. The wireless networking, not to mention the in-car display was the start of the 'wow' factor for me. At the time I was also an avid reader of #linuxwarez on efnet and I may well have been influenced there too.

Fast forward to sometime later; I remember getting my queue email from Rob (I really do want to see if I can resurrect my old .pst files). ISTR that at that time I was merely showing interest rather than committing to buy (I hope I didn't misunderstand that!).

A while later I aquired one via a private deal then shortly afterwards the firesale started.
Posted by: Cris

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 02/01/2006 18:01

I also saw Hugo's original mp3mobile site, before any mention of empeg. I bookmarked it, forgot about it, and then rediscovered it several times over the coming years.

I never had the cash to buy one, and I don't have andym's commitment to make my own, so it was out of my reach until the firesale.

I have met some good people at the user meets I have been to, and still use it on every long trip (over 30mins) I do. I like it, I'm not sure what my life would have been like without it, very much less interesting I think

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: pca

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 02/01/2006 19:31

A friend told me about it pretty early on...

pca
Posted by: pgrzelak

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 02/01/2006 20:04

Best post in thread award goes to... Patrick!
Posted by: Daria

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 02/01/2006 20:12

rmitz told me.
Posted by: frog51

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 03/01/2006 15:19

I heard about it when utterly hacked off that Kenwood wouldn't follow my idea for an in car mp3 computer. They argued that copyright issues meant they wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. I then went off the idea for a bit and when I next searched, Hugo had completed his mp3mobile and the newsletter was happening.

Everyone who has been for a drive with me has loved the empeg, and some are now seriously interested in buying one.
Posted by: matthew_k

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 03/01/2006 15:44

Just the standard slashdot articles for me. I read them all, but as a high school student it was way out of my price range. I nearly built an in car computer, but never got around to it. Freshman year of college, I got a new car and was looking at putting a minidisc changer and CD changer in dash. The next year when I heard about the fire sale there was never a question of what was going in my dashboard.

My seccond empeg was the last ones of the firesale, from the time period when they'd put them up as they presumably found them in the back of the warehouse. Together they're the best $700 I've spent.

Matthew
Posted by: tracerbullet

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 05/01/2006 02:52

I discovered them during the MKI days, I believe on the original website. Friends and I sitting around discussed how great it would be to have your MP3 collection in your car, and somehow we stumbled across the empeg site and were amazed. We sent the link to all our friends but didn't get much response. They looked great but were just too expensive for us.

I had nearly forgotten about them, but luckily a friend (mafisto here) didn't. He discovered the BBS and must have lurked off and on. Once the firesale started, he called me and told me about it. We both ordered 60GB versions then, I suppose at that point we had better jobs and suddenly it felt affordable and worth it.

I still have my original in my car. I've got the car under a cover in the garage right now, but it'll be out when the snow stops flying. Even though I can stand to be away from it a while (the 6CD MP3 changer in my truck helps), I still love the empeg. In fact, I just ordered 2 new drives and the Eutronix button kit / installation service tonight
Posted by: bbowman

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 05/01/2006 14:40

I read about it back in college while browsing the hardware mp3 players section of the old mp3.com. I didn't have a car or a paycheck then so just wrote it off as one of those fantasy things that I couldn't afford yet. I always remembered it, but didn't keep up with the news. I had no clue about the firesale until 2003 and started searching on e-bay. I was so excited to get one and for a price I could handle too! I consider myself lucky to have it.
Posted by: Taym

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 06/01/2006 02:28

It was 1999 and a friend of mine and I were often talking about MP3s. I was not too enthusiastic at the time, since making them from a CD would, in my view, take way too much time , but both of us thought they could have a future. One day he sends me a link to the Empeg website, showing, at the time, Mark 1and the waiting list for Mark 2. "Hey, here's the future of MP3s!" he says. I agreed, but had no car to put an empeg in.
In Feb 2001 I order my VW Polo. 4 months in the waiting list. Can you belive that?
Meanwhile, I go back to the empeg website, and Mark 2 is there, so fantastic, on paper. But I am really not planning to buy one: I don't know the company, and I believe a HDD would break after a month of car usage. BUT I send an email, asking all that I was curious about. Unexpectedly, I get a reply! And what a reply! Those people were nice, quick, knew what they were talking about, and after a few emails I realized the empg was not a joke on a webpage! In few days, I had ordered my mark2 with a 10Gb hdd.
I got it before my car arrived, and I remember enjoying it so much even BEFORE installing it in my car, which, to me, was simply unbelievable!
Nobody knew what it was. I had to explain and show it to my installer and my friends. Some of them bought their empegs, later on, making my hometown the one with the highest concentration of empegs in the country, I believe

And, as others said, after 5 years it's virtually the only peice of technology since 2001 that I still use every day Best money I've ever spent

Happy new year, everybody!
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 06/01/2006 03:05

I saw a mention of it in a posting on a Nissan Frontier forum. I balked at the price until I did a bit of research into mp3 capable CD players, and compared them with the empeg.
Posted by: StigOE

Re: How did you hear of an empeg? - 06/01/2006 03:37

Quote:
In Feb 2001 I order my VW Polo. 4 months in the waiting list. Can you belive that?

Oh yes, I can. I ordered a new Passat stationwagon beginning of september and unless it'll be further delayed, I'll get it around week 9-10. That's 6 months!

As for my Empeg story, a friend of mine told me about a friend of him (TommyE on this BBS) that had bought a new, cool mp3-player/radio for the car, but the software and the radio were a bit buggy. I had a look on the Empeg site, but it was too expensive and needing an external amp, so I ended up buying a Blaupunkt radio/CD instead. Fastforward a few years and for some reason I checked the Empeg site again and now they had been bought by SonicBlue and the firesale had ended, so I bought one on eBay. And a spare from the infamous Austin Lausch (before I read the horrorstories about him on this BBS, but I didn't have any problems with him). After getting the Empeg I've hardly ever listened to the radio in the car...

Stig