$50 is quite reasonable. I'd buy one, but the problem is that it won't work out of the box. Someone's gotta write the Java code for it (probably not too bad, but still beyond me) and a matching device driver for the empeg.

As I noted above: I don't have the skills to program drivers for it and finding someone with the skills, time and motivation hasn't happened yet.

The approach I'm going to look at now is this one and I see you've found that thread too. A bit less exandable and may not work for everyone, but it's cheaper and (I think) I know how to do it.