in the sense of "how much" profit is enough to keep the line alive.

Remember, when you lose money on every sale, it's hard to make up for it with volume.

The empeg was expensive to manufacture. Components were expensive, assembly was expensive, and the 10+ man-years of development time (software and hardware) had to be amortized before they could even break even, much less show a profit.

I don't think (admittedly just guessing here) that they could break even at $1000, and the number of people who will spend $1000 for a car-toy that makes music is quite limited.

A couple things to keep in mind: The original production goal of empeg (before the Sonic Blue purchase) was in the neighborhood of 2,000 units. (I think I remember one of the guys @ empeg saying that -- forgive me if I am in error); and a lot of people will bemoan the fact that they can't buy an empeg now and say that they want one when they know they are "safe" -- they won't really have to pony up the money because they are unavailable.

There just aren't that many motorhead/computer-geek/audiophiles out there.

tanstaafl.