Having used my Empeg now and nothing else for amost a year I was beginning to question how safe it was to use while driving. Being rather lazy and not having created much in the way of playlists I have basically one playlist that seperates the contents by artist and album. Although my collection of music is not very large, I have somewhere around 180 artists and maybe 500 albums. The time it takes to get to a specific Artist / Album does divert my attention from driving. So anyway, last weekend I bought a new stereo for the car. It was a Sony CDX-630. I actually liked it but did not like the fact that the faceplate could not be removed. I was afraid of being ripped off so I took the unit back. Now I had a hole in my dash as it would be a couple of days before I purchased a new stereo. I really like having music and a radio while driving to work so I can listen to traffic reports and plan my route accordingly. I grabbed my Rio 250 portable and a set of headphones to have something to get by with until I picked up the new unit. While driving to work I was made very aware of just how much better the Empeg is than Anything you have to put cd's in. Opening cd cases, shuffling cd's, Looking for the cd you want to play. Oh yeah, I love my Empeg.

i don't drive much, as i take the train into the downtown area to work. so, i find that i use my empegs in the car about 20% of the time, and at home/office the remaining 80%.

when i'm in the car, i tend to just shuffle the whole player, skip stuff i'm not interested in at the time, and make use of the tweak order buttons on the remote if something really strikes a chord. at home, i have more time to mess with playlists, etc, so i can get more creative and specific with my listening habits than in the car.

i also have a sony XM-39II hooked up with my factory head unit, so i can listed to NPR on occasion. it also allows me to leave the empeg at home if i'm not comfortable leaving it in the car at my destination. sounds great, and i find it very handy.

--dan.

Wasn't there a thread that calculated the approximate time/distances for responses while driving.

Empeg controls are all contained in a small area, generally the remote, which you don't have to discard if you need to do som 'creative' driving.
With a CD, you have the cases lying about, the CD in your hand which you wont let go at any cost.. blah blah blah

empeg is safer, even with visuals on

Yeah, No doubt, the Empeg is better. I had to order an aux input cable so I could connect it to the Alpine CDA-7894 that I finally decided was the stereo for the CRX. Should have my Empeg back in service by the weekend. Yahoo!

Mmmm - 'Creative Driving' - I like that. You always find the most creative driving happens when you have just put your bottle of Irn-Bru (or cola or whatever your local fizzy drink which stains wonderfully is called) to your lips and some numpty fires across 2 lanes to get into the gap in front of you and suddenly realises he has stuffed his speed estimations and slams on the anchors.

Time for snap decision - do you just drop the drink, which may make it end up under the pedals...BAD!, hurl it to the passenger side...very messy, throw it out the window...ecologically unsound, or keep it to your mouth to avoid spillage and just drive creatively with one hand?