However, it leaves me far from happy. I have to confess this is exactly want I didn't want to hear; that the unit may have a problem.

Hmm, perhaps I made that post sound too dire. There was nothing wrong with the Empeg, the units don't have a problem. It was my IDE cable and the way I installed it that was the problem. Simply moving the cable made the problem go away.

The main issue is that the IDE cables are longer than they need to be (The one I installed was exactly the same dimensions as the original one), and you have to fold them a bit as you re-insert the drive tray. If you don't do this carefully, the cable can fold in such a way that it presses on other components.

This won't be an issue with the Mark2's, since they don't have any fragile daughterboards and there is only one IDE cable and it's factory-installed.

There was always a noticeable number of people complaining about noise/pickup/crackle in the early days. Is this the possible source of this problem?

Well, no, since the noise floor problems were all due to external grounding issues. In fact, as I was trying to trace the source of this last trouble, I discovered that one of my car amplifiers (the cheaper one, of course) was a big source of my ground-loop problems all along. I think most of the people having trouble were folks with multi-amp systems and there were multiple ground loops to deal with. 12-volt amplification is a bit of a black art.

Again, all solved with the Mark 2's, of course...

___________
Tony Fabris