The installer said he hooked the player up outside the car to his "bench" and he still got the distortion, which leads me to believe the problem is in the unit itself.

When i run the unit in my house through the alernate power, it plays fine.

Which leads me to wonder... how did the installer power it on his bench? Unless he pulled your sled out of the car and tested it in the sled, he must have powered it through the "alternate power" and it should have played fine as your subsequent home tests would indicate.

If you know anybody with another empeg installed, you need to try your empeg in his car and see what happens.

tanstaafl.