Well, it works for me! And - guess what - it turns out reasonable EQ presets, which genuinely sound better in my car. With a second set of ears listening, there was general agreement it makes the sound system sound much better. Worth persisting with, I'd say!

Here's the story:

- downloaded the Auto EQ test audio files to a new playlist, and made sure they were ordered by using ALT-drag to set them sequentially in correct playback order
- synched
- went to the car and plugged in the mic, making sure it clicked home properly against the face of the socket on the harness (IMPORTANT!)
- positioned the mic next to my head over my shoulder
- turned on the ignition, turned off the ventilation and other noisy bits
- plugged in Erik the Empeg and waited to boot
- went into HiJack, turned off Bass and Treble adjust
- turned off Auto Level Adjust
- dropped out of HiJack
- using the rotary, turned off beeps, cross fade, loudness, and centred the fader and balance
- in the main menu, chose Playback and turned off Repeat, Shuffle, etc.
- went to the playlist with the auto EQ test files and selected them for play with the arrow (Play All) then hit pause.
- went to the equaliser
- selected an unused equaliser preset (#16 in my case)
- selected locks to be independent
- selected channels to be 2 (Stereo) (IMPORTANT!)
- set the volume to -30 dB
- held our breaths, and....
- selected Auto EQ and away we went!!!! (Rumble Rumble Whirr Whirr Wheee Wheee Hisss Hisss)

It turned out (first try) a pretty boomy result (mic between the seats in the air at head height), then a much improved version (different preset, mic on driver's headrest). We then re-positioned it on the passenger's headrest (different preset again) and it went crazy - clicks, pops, howls, screams, all sorts of rubbish - but all on right channel. Left channel worked OK.

Tried it again, on the driver's side, and experimented with the volume a bit, and finally got a run of several similar settings that all improved the sound.

Observations:

- You need to set the volume at a reasonable level, no more than -15 dB. We tried 25 - 20 and got good results, but 15 seems to be the max before it flips it's gourd and starts playing "Apocalypse Now" soundtrack effects Any lower than about 35 didn't work (no adjustments made). As a general rule, the small VU meter in the top left is your friend - it tells the truth about what the unit can "hear". If the gain is too high, it goes bezerk - beware of this.

- You need to select the playlist with the test tracks in, or you get silence

- The tracks have to be ordered in emplode by sequence using ALT drag or there will be serious confusion

- I doubt that many of the microphone connectors on the sleds have ever been used. Mine seemed to prevent a clean entry of the mic plug: it finally clicked home after a hefty shove and the face of the plug finally butted up against the socket face. If the mic isn't connected, the empeg ain't listening - check the VU meter again to see if there is sound coming in.

- DON'T be tempted to choose the Microphone as an input Source from the main menu - it hangs up the player and looses any EQ settings you might have!

- it seems sensitive to mic positioning, but it IS sensitive and produces good results with a little experimentation. Positioning the mic near fabric seems to damp it's response and make it more stable.

- exit menus cleanly after you have done this and shut down the player properly or you will lose your shiney new EQ settings!

Have fun. I hope this little checklist helps you get it to work. If you have any questions, post here and I'll try it out on my own player and see if I can give you answers. I know Andy Marriot has had problems getting it to work, and if I read his story right, it sounds like he has got the gain high and maybe the mic positioned wrongly. Good luck!

PS. One thing I noticed is that it does tend to make rather alarming clicks and pops as it changes between left and right tests, and between tracks. Don't be too alarmed - it seems to work anyway. Andy, if you are getting clicks and silence for a few seconds in between, you might actually have the gain so low that the empeg can't hear itself. Check your volume level again anyway.