So, I'm about to place my order for my Riocar, not that prices have dropped. I know you guys will be booing me for holding out but I simply couldn't afford at the original price.

My question is about getting Support and Parts after the 12 months warranty is up.

I know that I can get every bit of information I need from somewhere on the BBS and believe me, it is you guys which have inspired my to buy one.

But what happens if a major part fails after a year and a day ? Am I stuffed or will Empeg / SB be holding parts until supplies are exhausted. Presumably, i would be just plain bad luck to pick on a common failing part, which is out of stock after the 12 months ?

Another way of looking at it, I think, is that its gonna take SB a while to shift ALL of the units they have even at this price, it at the top of the consumer market pricing, any they are obliged to offer 12 months warrenty on all of them even if the last one is sold 12 months from now. With that in mind i should be OK for 24 months (even if I have to pay for parts/labour on the repair)

Thoughts from you guys appreciated.

LTJ

not that prices have dropped

should read 'now that prices have dropped'

Well, I or anybody else would be a fool to try to guess what support will be like in two years' time. In the end, it's your money, and only you can be responsible for the risks you take with it. One reason for the price cut has got to be that the Car Player is worth less in the knowledge that its supported life is limited. (No, I didn't say "worthless"!)

That said, you could do a lot worse than experience the kind of product that inspires such a strong community and will probably never again be available in car audio. I've had mine for 2½ months and have absolutely no regrets, even at the previous price - though with the EOL announcement, I'm extra paranoid about theft and accidental damage.

So the question is, what's your attitude to risk? Like buying shares, you can really play it safe, but if you do so, your potential gains are limited as well as your potential losses.

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Toby Speight - 040103385

pioneer and others are come out with a hd based player.

on that note I had my empeg for almost a yr and love it. I have added a 2nd drive and the unit is holding up fine.

My point was that "competing" products aren't actually competing for the kind of people who are most active here - they are much more consumer-oriented and less geek-friendly.

If you want a Pioneer HD-based unit, then that's what you should get - it's a lower risk than a end-of-line empeg, but the amount of fun you could get out of it is probably a lot less (I haven't read the spec sheet, but I seriously expect that you won't even get a shell on it).

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Toby Speight - 040103385

It is my firm belief that those who participate on this BBS (including the empeg team) would have no trouble in guiding you through the necessary steps to repair just about any problem on a player that is no longer within its warranty period.

Hugo even intends to put up a "repair guide" on the Riocar.org site with photos and everything. I don't know how that project's coming along, though. Hugo?

In fact, because of the support I can find here online, I have more confidence in the longevity of my empeg than most consumer electronics items that are still in production.


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Tony Fabris

exactly, from what I know.. none of the parts in the empeg are extremely fancy, or proprietary.. all are "off the shelf" type parts, and just about anything wrong could possibly be repaired with enough effort put into it.

I worry more about my $1000 home stereo reciver being repairable than my $1400 empeg.

12gig red mk2 -- 080000125

In reply to:

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... from what I know.. none of the parts in the empeg are extremely fancy, or proprietary.. all are "off the shelf" type parts, and just about anything wrong could possibly be repaired with enough effort put into it.

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From other discussions hereabouts, I think the parts that are most expensive or awkward to find are the docking connector and the display unit - so don't drop your unit!

In reply to:

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I worry more about my $1000 home stereo reciver being repairable than my $1400 empeg.

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I'm the other way around - though my home stereo is discontinued, it's easy to get a "good enough" replacement (the only feature that's not common is to be able to leave it for an afternoon recording 3 CDs onto 3 MDs, but I could live without that). So it doesn't matter whether it's repairable, whereas there's nothing around that I'd accept as a replacement for the empeg.

That said, I'm not worried about the empeg's repairability - but I am very paranoid about theft or totally trashing it (fire, big crash, etc).

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Toby Speight - 040103385