Well we know know what is comming next. For those who missed it, heres the details:

Visitors to Comdex will have seen the prototype of our next production model. It's the good old empeg that you all know and love, but with some extra bells and whistles.. First is on-board 10BaseT ethernet, which will be offered as an option on a special edition model aimed at developers. Then there's an extra 4Mb of RAM, giving 12Mb as standard, and a front panel control (gradiated rotary with push function). The display is unchanged although there's an LCD interface inside, for which we have no plans at the moment. Red display panels will be available (we finally found one that works with IR). The tuner has been removed from inside the player - instead we've created an external tuner interface, for which we will produce an AM/FM/RDS module initially, with DAB planned for the future. A cell phone muting input is provided, and the wiring loom has moved to a standard ISO connector. The grounding leads are nolonger required, and all filters are integral to the player and/or wiring loom.

I saved the best til last - we've licenced some very sophisticated voice recognition technology and fitted a microphone input. Proper nouns (e.g. artist/track names etc) can be taught to the system via the PC software, so you can simply tell the empeg what you want to listen to and it will deliver.


I am very excited to hear the new features, as this will add so many new possibilities to the player. It should allow a remote web based control on the player like I currently have for playing MP3's off my Linux server to my amp here at home. It will definitly be interesting to see what programmers do with an ethernet interface.

Out of curiosity, what is the external radio tuner? Is it a seperate box that will have to be hidden, or simply a heavially shielded box that sits inside the new unit?

Also, anyone from Comdex get any pictures of the prototype? I'd love to see what it looks like. (/me kicks himself for not being able to find decent hotel accomidations to be able to go to this Comdex)


Reg 1640, 6gb Blue empeg-car mark 1. SN unknown