If any of you haven't seen it already, check out:
http://www.audiorequest.com
It's a great home player. They're apparently working with empeg a bit. Funny, they just updated their forums and they look just like these now!
Player $799 and comes with 17GB drive, and interfaces with your TV for visualizations. They are shipping, I have one at home! The only weakness is that ethernet support is still in beta (so get on beta!), and the case design and display could be better. But it does the job well.
I predict in the future we will hear about Empeg and Request working together. ;^)