Maybe i'm an optimist for thinking it's not worth paying more for something that a) at one point was available for even less, b) is used, and c) has feature rich competitors from other manufacturers available at reasonable prices. New.

I don't have a tuner, so I can't really comment on it, but there is no other player on the market that is as feature rich as the empeg, or as extensible - just wander around this site for some ideas of what people have done, and are still doing.

The only time the "new" price was near what you're asking was when Sonic was discontinuing them, and selling them off at a loss.

If you search ebay (a good free-market barometer which includes "true believers" as well as just interested folks) you'll find that an empeg alone is generally going for more than $400.

Go ahead and drink the Kool-Aid!

-jk