Well, I finally got around to installing my empeg. It is currently mounted in my 1962 Lincoln Continental.

I spent a fair amount of money on quality interconnects, so it was kind of a letdown to have to use those crappy, thin, plastic grounding connectors that are included with the unit. A pro installer I showed the unit to also commented on the low-quality RCA connectors on the unit, since the unit itself was so well built and expensive. Anyway, I hooked it up with the adaptor grounded to the empeg rather than the amp as I didn't want to show those ugly things, and it didn't seem to make a difference in sound when hooked up there. Why the decision was to go with floating ground will forever escape me...

I have a lot of serious noise problems it turns out, even when the engine is off. I believe the noise is after the amps as it doesn't seem to get louder with a higher volume, but it's very annoying. I do not blame the empeg for this, as it had no noise problems on my house system.

The install was very easy. No complaints there.

Most of my problems have to do with the terrible user interface. It is basically impossible to drive and do anything other than change the volume, as you have to keep looking at the unit every time, plus all the submenus require your attention. I never realized how good head units were, with all the buttons on the front for one-touch access, until I tried to use the empeg.

Another problem is, I kept losing the damn remote! I'd put it on the seat and it would slide off somewhere out of reach. I kept having to spend time looking for it, as using the buttons is next to impossible due to their being only four and really limited in functionality.

I am happy with the performance of the unit - the playback is fine even with all my noise and it performed flawlessly in that regard - but the UI and functionality leaves a lot to be desired. No way to skip playlists, the random function only worked when you re-selected a playlist after turning it on or off, and the bahaviour is quite different from what I'm used to in a head unit.

Also, why is the serial connector different on the carriage from the one on the back of the unit? Was someone asleep when that strange decision was made? As it stands, I need to pull the unit out to use the serial port, when I should be able to plug the included serial cable into the carriage connector just like the built-in one. Boggle...

So, in short, hardware: good (but strange), software: needs work.

It's a hoot, though!

We went with floating ground because it gave superior noise isolation from the digital circuitry.

The grounding cables use gold plated RCA's which are pretty much the same electrical spec as the metal bodied connectors on the car mount - they just don't look as nice. The signal cable in the grounding leads, although thin, it very high quality hifi rated cable. You can rig up your own ground tap if you prefer, though.

The in-car outputs have better noise isolation than the home outputs, so if you have noise it's probably due to a ground loop problem or something similar. Connecting the grounding cables at the player end is, in most cases, a bad move.

Regarding the user interface, no other head unit has ever had to provide access to a hierarchical playlist and database search facilities. We don't think that front panel controls would help much either - we're looking much further ahead in technology terms. Watch this space.

In the mean time, the steering wheel remotes provide a very convenient method for control. Mike has already implemented basic support for a Kenwood model, which was mentioned on here some time ago.

The serial connector on the cage is female to isolate the 12V pins from the car chassis. Of course we didn't expect that the connectors would turn out to be turned pin with accessible conductors but it was too late to change it at that point. You can get a gender convertor from pretty much any electronics store for a few dollars.

Rob

I am wondering what you use the serial connector for while in the car? I thought of a laptop to use emplode, but if you pull it out to use the inside serial connector, you would lose power to the player. What did I miss?

I understand how the digital interface can require some time to master, but I've become quite comfortable with it. Remember you can use the pin numbering system to get to specific tracks, too. I think the best approach is to arrange carefully prepared playlists (even playlists with the same tracks in different order) and just make simple selections from your top menu.

I also use the player at home and I think that helps in becoming comfortable with the remote.

Regarding losing the remote... just get a credit card case or business card case that fits and velcro it to the dash to hold the remote.

I also suspect that more user interface options will appear. Empeg is already working on a steering wheel remote for us.

Nice car, by the way! My father had a '64. Wish he kept it.

Regards,
Mark

>I am wondering what you use the serial connector for while in the car?

To upgrade the firmware. As it is now, I can use my laptop to upload music, but that dumb connector swap means I'll need an adaptor.

Really, the interface should work exactly like a car stereo should - menus, for example, should *time out*. As for velco-ing anything, I can't imagine anything quite as ugly as a velco strip on my dashboard. I'll figure something out.