Which thread was that
[which changed my mind into not postponing ordering empeg again]

Here is the relevant thread (and here Tony's post in it beginning with 'Order the Empeg now, you silly person' that changed my mind ). Additionally, there was a private message which I think I may post now without Tony minding terribly:

I didn't post this publicly to the BBS, and I don't want to promote this behavior as it would be bad for Empeg's margins, but since you're considering not buying an Empeg at all because of this, I think I should tell you this option:

You could get the cheapest model (6gb), rip out the little drive, and put in two 25gb travelstars of your own. If you do this before you begin uploading tunes, then you haven't lost any work and don't need to do any re-uploading.

Here's the real benefit of doing it that way, though: The actual purchase price of a (6gb Empeg)+(Two 25gb travelstars you buy yourself) is actually almost exactly the same price as buying the 36gb Empeg.

I already discussed this with Rob, and the reason is:

a) Their margin on the Empegs is the same percentage whether or not it's a little one or a big one. Therefore, the bigger ones have a bigger margin (in terms of cash, not in terms of percentage).

b) They couldn't source the 25-gig Travelstars in quantity and had to settle for the 18gb drives. You, on the other hand, should be able to get a couple travelstars if you try.

They will be discontinuing the 2x18gb=36gb model in favor of a bigger one anyway. The only question is how soon will that happen?

Well, I bought largest single-drive model (18GB at the time) and kept postponing upgrade mostly owing to lack of confidence in my screwdriver-wielding skills. Now I ended up upgrading by buying 60GB empeg for a song. Picture-perfect Hollywood happy-end (except that there won't be any more opportunity to upgade by buying a 120GB empeg and passing the current one along to a friend... ).