Okay, so, I'm ready for the razing, but anyone have any idea when empeg will be coming out with a new or more players? I don't have a player but want one dearly and am considering going with neo just to get one. I don't necessarily want to spend $1000 dollars though just to get a rio though. I figure if empeg is coming out with a new one, eventually the price would drop as the last one did, or I could get my grubby little paws on an older one for cheaper. Anywho, don't be too brutal, but any info is appreciated.

There's a called TTony on the For Sale forum who's selling some at the mo. Get over there sharpish if you don't want to miss out!

You're kidding right?

Well in case you aren't the Empeg/Rio car stereo's have been discontinued and out of production for a while now.
The only way you're going to get one is to find a used one.

The subject line of your message indicated that you already knew you were asking a Frequently Asked Question. So I will oblige and point you to questions number 2 and 3 in the Empeg FAQ:

Where can I buy one?
Has the Rio Car been discontinued?

I know where i can buy one and that it's been discontinued. My question however was does anyone know if empeg plans on coming out with a new player, a new model or something similar.

No. They might work something out with an OEM, but it won't be anything similar (not as many nice features) Rio itself supposedly will not be producing any more car players.

My question however was does anyone know if empeg plans on coming out with a new player, a new model or something similar.

From the second FAQ entry I linked:

So Sonic|blue has decided that they're not going to be in the retail car MP3 player business. Instead, they will seek to make partnerships with OEM customers in order to bring their technology to the car. At the time of this writing, it has not yet been revealed who these OEM customers are.

I haven't heard any news on this front in a long while, so who knows whether they've managed to land any deals or not.

I will also point out that the only reason the prices dropped on the Rio players anyway was because of the EOL. But all this leads us to believe that you've followed this for a while now and should know this anyway.

Just buy it! You aren't going to find anything better.. Hey, the guys here convinced me to buy mine (I didn't really need any convincing.. but, they provided it) The Empeg is so feature-rich, and the community so active, it will be the leader for a long time to come. And you definitely don't need to spend $1,000.00 at this point to get one.. (Unless you really want a 60gb from the get-go, and even at that, you still shouldnt spend that much..)

Follow this link and you will probably come to the same conclusion I did....

Also.. make sure to check this link for all the cool stuff you never knew you wanted to do with your empeg.