This is for Rob, Hugo, everyone else involved with the empeg past and present.

I take my hat off to you guys. You have created the most wonderful and practical MP3 product in existence. I was convinced that you'd created the Harrier Jump Jet of the MP3 world, so advanced that it would take some time [maybe years] to catch on.

It took much longer than you thought to do it, heck I joined the queue back in January 1999 [within 30 seconds from when I first saw the product on your website and when the Mark 1 was sort of being made] and wondered if I'd ever see any unit at all before the hundreds/ no thousands in the queue ahead of me [judging by the queue number I was assigned] got theirs - even allowing for a 50-80% drop out rate between joining the queue and leaving it.

There was nothing else like it, even by August 2000 when I finally ordered my units.

So, I bought 2 of the 12GB MK2 units - 1 for me & the 2nd one for my wifes car.

My wife was absolutely stoked when I showed her what I just spent several grand of my money on [in whatever currency you care to name] and about 3 times the UK Pound cost in New Zealand dollars - i.e. a lot of money.

Even though it was a surprise to her as she didn't know it was coming, she sure could see how cool/useful it was to have every CD in our collection in the car available on demand without limitations.

So, she was won over instantly and I hadn't even showed her the cool stuff in it like playlist management or other things not even considered by us mere mortals but which had been thought about and then implemented by Hugo and the others at Empeg in the software.

I was even more stoked than my wife when I found out the empegs worked better than I thought - unusual as that was for a near 'new' product.

One of the key reasons why I bought the empeg was due to its inherent design - using Linux as the base os makes sense, adding Ethernet, USB serial etc makes it easy to upgrade and connect to computers and other devices [like Sony Stalk controllers] and more importantly the whole design was upgradeable and designed to be hackable/extendable - either by yourself or by others.

The processor is very over specced for what the empeg does now, but that gives lots of head room for advanced functionality, be that GPS navigation, VR or whatever else someone else cares to think up. This has been borne out so far and will continue for some time yet I think.
We have had at least 3 software releases [1.01 and 1.02, 1.03] with 2.0 nearly here. I can't think of any device that has been improved simply by adding new software than the empeg has been in the short time I have owned it.

Now, as you can imagine, when putting lots of money down on any expensive toys you pays your money and takes your chance.

I have plenty of such things lying around my house from the last 10 years.

Heck I now have 2 Tivos as once I got the first one, it wasn't enough for me to have my own, so now we have his and her Empegs and his and her Tivos
I've spent at least as much on empegs thus far as I have on VCRs, TV's, Video Tapes, DVD players, DVDs. My CD collection cost nearly as much as empegs did over the years.
I own 3 working VCRs and have several older ones lying around the house.

When [and I say when, not if], Tivo goes bust/Chapter 11 etc, will I be complaining to Tivo about how I've been shafted as I own 2 of their devices? No way.

So now the Empeg has been EOL'd its a sad day, but its a case of the one door closing and many more doors opening...

If you were to ask me, imagine empeg had never been invented what sort of features would you like implemented in your next high-end car stereo system, and who should do it?

I would be hard pressed to think of a better team than Hugo & co to do the next generation of feature rich in-car products even if only as OEM products.

Yes they might not have Ethernet and Serial and other interfaces for cost and other reasons, but the software inside them will be excellent, with hooks and backdoors to allow others to be able to re-use them for other functions and features and/or have a UI that has been well thought out & researched, not just "market researched" by the marketing department.

I am more than willing to beta test any future products these guys produce [show me the NDAs, I'll sign] - and when what they make finally makes it to the outside world as a main stream product I will probably buy one to replace or augment my empegs - who by then will have had 2-3+ years of everyday use.

So, lets keep it all in perspective for a minute, would you prefer to have lived in a world where there never was a empeg and we still had CD juke boxes in the trunk?

Or even worse - a world where access to music you bought was only via a carefully controlled system of licenses and rental arrangements and you had to keep re-purchasing the same music every few years as formats change?

No way - I'd much rather it the way its turned out. Maybe things could have been even better but we'll never know how much better now and in any case nothing lasts forever, sooner or later the empegs would have stopped being made.

Its just happened sooner than later, but I'm very glad it did happen at all.


I'm awaiting my [just ordered] tuners and will consider buying a backup empeg in case one of my 2 gets stolen or damaged.

So I guess I'll have spent more money on these things than a lot of people who only bought 1 empeg which by some measures ought to give me a lot of reasons to complain/feel unhappy.

My real sadness is reserved for those who have not yet had a empeg experience, nor are likely to now. I have yet to meet anyone I've ever shown the empeg to who has not been immediately impressed with it. The price puts them off a little but if it was factory fitted in their car they wouldn't think twice about the cost - and maybe thats the reason for SB to have done what they did - make the product part of the original car and everyone can afford to have the empeg.

One day I hope these people may come close to what we have experienced with the future yet to be released products that Hugo and others are working on.

So, keep those new products coming guys - I look forward to them knowing that they will be worth it in the long run.

In the meantime, I have my empegs to use until then.

A fully loaded empeg in the car is better than hundreds of CDs in the house!