I guess I will find out about the output BW soon enough when I go RTA my system at a local shop with ripped pink noise on my player in a couple of weeks.

Unless you are just insatiably curious or can get the RTA analysis done for free, save your money. The MP3-encoded pink noise track will bear little if any resemblance to the frequency curve of the original .WAV file, and in any case (as you know full well) IASCA will not allow you to use the empeg as your source unit.

Once version 1.1 of the software comes out, you can put the pink noise in the empeg as a .wav file, and it will then be very interesting to see what the different frequency curves are from the empeg and from the CD player.

Just as a side-issue, I have the 1999 IASCA tracks in my empeg in both .wav and .mp3 and have been doing A/B comparisons. It is too early to say anything for certain, but my first impression is that the .mp3 tracks seem just a bit "thin" and bright sounding compared to the .wav tracks, but the differences are so slight that I wouldn't want to swear to it. At present, I don't have the ability to play CDs in my car, so I can't make it an A/B/C comparison. I should have that ability shortly -- new competition car is nearing completion.

I, too, think it is a good idea to route the CD player into the Auxilliary Inputs of the empeg -- that is how I am doing my new car -- not only because this gives you the ability to use the empeg's 20-band parametric equalizer, but also the rather clever loudness setting that can be adjusted in 1.5 dB increments.

Therefore, I want the CD player out of the signal path when it's not use,

To do this right, you need to look into the Sony XA-39 switch so that you can play the CD player with the empeg out of the car. Do a bbs search on XA39 and XA-39, and you'll get a few interesting ideas about this.

Will you be competing in the "Street" class or the "Ultimate" class in IASCA? I have the same concerns about the RTA that you do... only my concerns are more from the low end of the scale since I am presently running only a single 10" subwoofer (the new car will be two 10" subs) and I have had problems getting much response down in the 20-40 Hz range. My 4" MB Quart coaxials are so good on the high end that I've not had any problems there. :-)

Check your email -- I've sent you a little something you might find entertaining.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"