Sitting here as an Empeg owner the phatbox would be totally unsuited to what I use the empeg for which is a very portable MP3 player with a huge capacity. I can take it away on ships with me where it sits as a "home" stereo for four months at a time. The fact that it plugs into my car is actually just a huge bonus. So the phat box could never do that. The small hard disc players coming onto the market could do it but they have no where near the capcity of the empeg.

As a pure in car solution the empeg is probably equal to or possibly inferior to the phatbox for an everyday user only concerned with a in car mp3 player. The phatbox allows you to have a normal headunit easily with a radio no fooling around to have in car cd as well. It uses the amps of the excisting head unit which is nice for those with out amps. It uses an interface that won't be too alien to those with a decent compatable head unit.

HOWEVER

The empeg is not in any way a pure incar MP3 player it is a very portable music machine that can do lots of clever things. It has brilliant search facilities which hopefully will improve with the mythical 1.1 and the radio unit is just round the corner (hopefully). Anywhere that you have a power supply and a pair of rca inputs you can have your empeg. The visuals are fun but are not the best reason to buy it but the screen is excellent in allowing you to have easily read and accessed menus instead of features hidden away under bewildering button combinations as needed by most mainsteam head units.

If the empeg didn't have the ability to be pulled from you dash it would be in my opinion and circumstances pathetic but it can which raises it to unparalleled brilliance.

That is why to my frame of mind the phatbox while clever in its own right is flawed and not a direct competitor to the empeg