An update:

Since my soldering on the slede connector the instances of noise got a lot less. I expect there were other joint(s) that needed attention.

A lot of past tense in that last sentence because my permanent cure has been to repalce the empeg with a Kenwood KDC-BT60U

Pros;
I now have radio reception, my tuner unit never really gave anything that could be classed as reception.
LW radio so I can keep an ear on Test Match Special (a UK cricket program) at relevant times.
Bluetooth (built in Parrot) hands free and audio streaming that to my surprise and delight has worked seamlessly with my Android phone.
Change the display colours to match my dsah exactly, a small cosmetic thing but still nice.

Cons;
No real playlist support, to get what I want I have to manual order and copy songs to a pen stick. It can do a 'playlist' thing through the Kenwood Music Editor Lite but this only allows selection and search by artist or album. I am trying to get hold of the full version since I haven't been able to work out how to open the Lite version database to manually manipulate it to make real playlists.
The controls are not as intuative as the empeg, and not consistent across functions.
There is a slight but noticable pause between MP3 tracks which is annoying during albums that merge one track into another like Misplaced Childhood, MoS Chilled.

I do miss my empeg and apart from radio reception and 'the noise' issue has been a joy to use, but I am enjoying the Kenwood too.

However, with the exception of the Bluetooth, a user would have trouble identifying the advances in technology in the 10+ years between the two!!