I just thought I'd add my experience to this.

I was one of the people with the display brightness problem. I was absolutely unable to read it during the day. It was okay at night but not great, and at home it seemed fine. So I sent it back to empeg and they told me it was running at 1/6 its normal brightness. I can tell you now, when I got it back it was 600% better. I can read it pretty well in direct sunlight, too. I really don't see what the problem is.

In my van I have an Alpine NAV system directly above the empeg (you can bet my friends are impressed). In the same direct sunlight, the empeg is easier to read than the NAV, which I thought was pretty good before. I am satisfied with the display right now, but if people start saying that the new panels are a large improvement, I'll consider upgrading. At this point it is the scratchable surface that worries me most.

As for us "sheep", has it occured to you that some of us are perfectly happy with the results of our product? It's ridiculous to think that because most of the people on the board are proponents of empeg, that means that we are all to "afraid" to post our opinions. I posted my opinion on the poor display problem of my empeg. They then determined it to be a hardware problem that they proceeded to repair under warranty. Now I am satisfied, and I don't complain because this is a great product and a great company.

DiGNAN