I bought my Mk2a at the begining of November from the US store. There's no solder on the connections for the car mount. In fact, the loom connections are 1 of only 2 major complaints I have with the build/design. I had to repair one of the connection on the car mount as well, because it was all but hanging loose when I got it (stripped some wire and re-crimped). Where the wires go into the connector they have no support. Not even through their outer insulation. It's pretty much just the really thin gauge stuff holding on for dear life. :) I usually like external connections to have at least a plastic zip-tie holding the outer insulation to the player case. Or a small arm/clamp coming off the back of the case that crimps onto the wires.

The second, but less major issue, is that the RCA connectors on the player are not fastened to the case, but only to the circuit board. This isn't as durable with repeated plug/unplug home operation. I'm lucky that the current set of interconnects I'm using are fairly loose when mated to the empeg and go on and come off easily.

Bruno