http://www.crutchfield.com/S-7Xz185C4SSU/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?i=113KHDCX91&s=0

It appears Crutchfield is selling the phatbox as the Kenwood excelon KHD-CX910.

The Music Keg? ewwwww....

If the phatbox is a music keg then the empeg should be referred to as a "music brewery".

I can't believe the "Keg" bit was the real name. I see they have it packaged with a 10GB drive instead of the base 20 of the regular PhatNoise model. It's also $50 cheaper. I'll have to update my matrix with this latest info.

Anyone else think the Kenwood model looks as ugly as sin?

Bruno

Anyone else think the Kenwood model looks as ugly as sin?

Just the Kenwood model? The Phatbox in any form is not pretty. It looks like a cheap chinese amp who's only selling point is a big shiny heatsink (platinum edition).

I can't dis the Phatbox since they seem to be doing something right. That's not to say Empeg did anything wrong. The SB buyout was probably the right move, but the RioCar never lived to see a "platinum edition." I would also assume that every RioCar sold was from the same batch.

I like their comparison chart where they list features that are not nescessarly good but only their unit has

like "Controlled by Existing Car Stereo CD Changer Controls"
I would consider that a drawback not a feature

or the deceptive listing of playback time were they compare the 10 gig mk2 to the 20 gig fatbox totally ignoring that fact that the mk2 comes with up to 60 gig

Playtime is just a product of how big a hard drive you have and doesn't factor into the features of one player over another. As long as you know the different hard drive configurations available and what the maximum HD size is, that's all that matters.

I can encode everything at 32kbit and have many more hours of play time than someone with more storage with files at 256kbit.

For that reason I left useless non-stats like "playtime" out of my matrix.

Since there are a lot of new people online now: www.mypocket.com/mobilematrix/index.php

I'll soon be changing the prices of the empeg to reflect after-market resale values (which will most definitely be higher than the current clearance prices)

Bruno

The "Platinum edition" of the phatbox is really main production - there were few "red" units made.

If you look at it that way, the empeg mk1 was the red phatbox, the mk2 was the silver one (but we added ethernet instead of taking serial away), and the mk2a was the very shiny silver one - the mk2a has design & reliability improvements over the mk2 (ie, anything that made mk2s fail was fixed in the mk2a).

There was one batch of mk1s, one batch of mk2s, and 2 batches of riocars I believe.

Hugo

Heh. Hugo, everyone wants to know what the empeg equivalent of the Kenwood-branded box is. :)

You had to know you'd be stepping into that one.

Bruno

Anyone else think the Kenwood model looks as ugly as sin?

I don't know.... I am aware of sins that are not that ugly at all...

I know I just felt the need to point out that their comparison chart is bogus

Their chart was the motivating factor behind making my own chart. If I had used their slanted techniques, I could have made the empeg sound much better than it already does. I tried to be objective though. :)

Bruno

The way they worded their chart would be my main reason NOT to buy one. It may be "accurate" but I want to buy products from someone who is not trying to "wheel & deal" me or treat me like an idiot. I think their (Phatnoise) comparison chart does just that. I wonder if Kenwood was aware of this deceptive (IMO) sales tactic before they partnered with Phatnoise?

I remember reading that when you made it.

if you were objective I don't know how the empeg couldn't sound better :-)