I just signed up with this group so sorry if they have already been discussed.

Welcome to the BBS. These things have already been discussed, but we don't mind discussing them again.


First would be higher voltage preouts (...) The empeg site rates the preouts at 4v, but an article from I think Mobile Entertainment benchmarked them at 1.something.

There is some confusion about that. The voltage of the outputs, as stated by Empeg, should be correct. There are a couple of possibilities as to why the reviewers found otherwise:

1) Maybe they tested the home outputs instead of the car outputs. The home outputs are 1v, the car outputs are 4v.

2) Maybe the demo unit they were given had a defect or had been damaged.

3) Maybe they tested differently than Empeg did?

In any case...

In practice, the outputs work GREAT with any amplification you can throw at it. Assuming you know what you're doing with the installation, they produce fantastically clean output. Trust me on this one, there are plenty of satisfied customers of this thing who are serious audiophiles. For instance, Doug Burnside ("Tanstaafl" on the BBS) competes in stereo competitions in his state, and is very pleased with the outputs quality and levels. Of course, MP3 players aren't sanctioned by these competitions yet, so he uses a CD player (more on that below).


(...) and sub preout (...)

True, it's only got four channels of car output. But in reality, a separate output for a subwoofer is not necessary. It's very easy to rig such an output yourself. If remote control of the subwoofer level is necessary (in addition to front/rear fading), then these things can be done without the head unit needing to be involved.

I run six channels off of the empeg in my car. Since my balance between front and rear is carefully adjusted already, I simply run the front outputs into the four channels of my front/rear speaker amplifier. I then run the rears into the subwoofer amplifier, and now the empeg's fader controls the subwoofer level.

If you need to have both front/rear fading as well as remote control of the subwoofer, then you can get an amp with a remote gain adjustment and use that. Or you can use a manual stereo attenuator on the line outputs to the sub.


Also I was wondering if the voice recognition is anywhere near being released, because with 20Gb's of songs I'd like to get to the one I want quickly.

Voice recognition is being worked on. It is not easy to do for something as complex as the Empeg, in an environment as noisy as a car with a blasting stereo. There is no word on when it's going to be available, but know this:

Even without voice recognition, it is incredibly easy to get to the songs you want. The Empeg is the most flexible and user friendly product in that respect. Nothing else can come close to its ability to select playlists and search for titles. The ability to drill down and locate a specific song out of 20 (heck, 60) gigabytes of MP3s is critical to its operation, and is the major focus of the user interface. Until you actually use it and try out these features, you can't know how cool it is in this respect. Trust me on this one, you can find your songs fast. Certainly a lot faster than you could with a CD changer and a pile of 500 CDs. And it's orders of magnitude faster than CD-R based MP3 players. Every song selection on the Empeg is instantaneous. With other products, you have to wait for indexing and searching.


A last question not about the empeg is, I would want to have a cd HU as well as the empeg, so is it possible to build a switch that would let me change between the 2?

You don't need a switch, but if you want one, they are available. Sony makes a switch specifically designed for switching between two head units.

Of course, since the empeg has an aux-in, and most CD players have an aux-in too, you can simply daisy chain them. Your only choice will be which one comes first. There's a complete discussion of this in the FAQ section of this BBS if you're interested. Incidentally, if your CD player has a dedicated subwoofer output, then your subwoofer problem is solved because you could run the empeg into the CD's aux-in and use the CD as the main head unit. It's your choice.

Any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. We're here to help you make the right decision.

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Tony Fabris