Hey tanstaafl,

Yes, I am all too aware of IASCA's current rules and how they basically rule out anything but CD players, etc. I had some email exchanges with Tom Walker about this in the past as well... but to no avail. I even offered to bring an empty EMPEG and a laptop to events and rip the judge's CD under his/her supervision, but even that was not sufficient to allow me to compete with the EMPEG. I guess they really just don't want to go down that road right now.

As for my system, there is a JPG attached which shows what I have now... very simple. In about two weeks, it will be even simpler as the Sony will be removed from the system. You can go to my website (link below) to see highlights of what I had last season.

http://www.mrmunsell.com/audio/CRX_Audio/crx_audio.html

I actually competed pretty seriously last year (it was my first year) just to see how far I could go.... and I made it to the finals, which was a good learning experience (translation: I didn't do as good as I expected :). Although I only got 9th in my class, I did rank pretty high in the subjective sound quality area (I'll have to check, but I think I was at least 3rd in that area). It was all the extra creativity stuff that really hurt my score - I got only one point there (even with the stealth steering wheel controls, the motorized OEM delete panel/relocated CD display, tweeters mounted in the AC vents, etc, etc).

Anyway, I have now decided to just design my system the way I want (one head unit now that i have the EMPEG tuner module!), and then if possible I'll make some sort of provisions to temporarily throw in a CD player just to enter IASCA events. If I can't make that work, then I just won't compete for now... at least not until head units like the EMPEG are allowed.

I now compete in the Street Amateur 1-600 Watt class. I am glad they added the street category.... so one doesn't have to go overboard with linear actuators, gels coats, etc just to be competitive at the major shows. My primary concern is sound quality, while trying to keep the design simple and the install clean.

BTW, I think we exchanged some emails back when I first got my EMPEG earlier this year.... I believe I was originally asking about some issues I was having when feeding the CD player into the EMPEG or something along those lines. You compete in SQ in Alaska, and have a Taurus right?

Many high end head units have some variation of TA features, and that is the only thing I think I will miss once I yank the CD player. So I thought it would cool if that feature could be hacked into the EMPEG (if it weren't a major ordeal, etc). I am still learning Linux and know little about how the EMPEG actually works.... which is why I wanted to ask the experts if it might at least be theoretically possible.

If so, that would be enough incentive for me to make a side project out of learning about what is really going on in my EMPEG and figure out how this might be done. I know there is steep learning curve ahead for me if I went that route, but I'd be willing to at least try.... that is unless someone already knowlegable enough decided to do this or already knows how to do this and wants to share the details (which would be excellent!).

But if this is just not possible at all for whatever reason (which I realize is a strong probablity), then I'll just use my near term 'spare time' on designing and making a simple hardware box to do the same thing - which would actually be easier for me since I have more experience in hardware and have a good idea where to start, etc. I just don't like the idea of the extra AD/DA process.... but if that is my only option, I feel the benefits of TA outweigh the degradation from the extra processing.

Thanks!