Well my Mk II arrived this morning. I was lazing about in bed thinking that Fed-Ex ought to be showing up soon with Mk II in hand and right then the door bell rang! It was Fed-Ex, box in hand (quite filthy actually) with fragile stickers all over it.

As I write this I'm looking at my Mk II! The charcoal/black front panel looks good, the knob sticks out more than I thought it would and as someone else mentioned it does feel kinda cheap. I'm hoping for a nice aftermarket in brushed aluminum or something. Buttons feel good, the moulded handle is nice - and it does open up more than the Mk I handle, but still not a full 90 degrees - more like 60. The four screw holding the face plate on are a little off center in their holes but it's not bad.

The unit came with everything the Mk I did: AC adaptor, mains plug, usb cable, serial cable, IR remote (still the kenwood), manual (nicer one this time), and CDROM with software. Missing and no longer required (thank god) are the grounding adaptors for the line out's. The docking slot comes with three connectors: a mic input, a ISO stereo connector and a connector for what I assume is the tuner module. Of course there are still the line out's and the line in's but the RCA connectors don't look as impressive as the Mk I's did. I'm sure they are top quality though.

Note to Rob: Despite the fragile stickers all over the packing, the interior cardboard cutouts for holding the player in place were squashed again. The empeg guys haven't changed the box design and it needs it - a few more drops like this one aparently took, and the empeg would have been free to slide around - which is what broke the display on my Mk I if you will recall... I'd suggest some foam inserts front and rear of the player to hold it more securely in place.

Emplode cheerfully took about 4GB's of music but I haven't had the chance to actually listen to it yet. The software installed a conversion utility for taking your data off of a Mk I player and putting it on the Mk II but since I sold my Mk I player for more than I paid for the Mk II I won't had the chance to try it out.

Summary: It looks good, same high quality as the Mk I player and hopefully should even sound better once I get it into the car. I never did get rid of all of the alternator whine. Tomorrow is a holiday so I need to wait until Wednesday before I can head out and try and find an ISO power connector cable adaptor to put the Mk II into my car.

=-Clarke

___________________________________
List 351, was empeg 00045, 10gb, Amber