I read a small article in a car audio magazine in my final year at uni in 1999 about the empeg which included the URL for empeg and also mp3car.com. I couldn't afford an empeg so I built an mp3 player out of spares which lived in my boot (hence the website on my profile). I liked the empeg so much I gave it a mention in my dissertation which was about audio compression techniques and building a luggable player.
I got my job at the beeb and turned my attention to making an improved version of the original unit which would have included GPS, a DVD drive and a big touchscreen panel. I had amassed most of the hardware and was getting ready to start putting it together.
For some reason I went back to empeg to find that the player had been EOL'd and found the forum for the first time. I had also missed firesale (bummer). All was not lost, I sold all the bits and found one of the board members selling a MK 1, he was waiting for a MK2a he’d bought and unbeknownst to me, was having trouble with getting it sent over. A week or two of silence ensued and I got cold feet and decided to buy a 10Gig from another board member. This too took a long time so I also hedged my bets by ordering one from carplayer too. Of course sods law prevailed and both arrived (hence my main and spare).
But the story's not over, the first one died with a dodgy aux in and got reboarded and second one had a loose spring which blew one of the main board fuses. So I went from none to two back to none in the space of 2 weeks!
But anyway, it’s the best purchase I’ve ever made and I’m so glad I made the plunge. Knowing what I know now, I’d definitely have bought one at full price.