I'd rather not start selling plasma to get another empeg for the wife. I'd like to get some sort of MP3 player for her new car though for trips and such. We just bought a Honda Pilot with the integrated DVD system and all the associated gizmos.

My thought is this:
Get a NEO and mount it under the passenger's front seat. Rather than bolting it to the floor, I could do some sort of shock mounted suspesion system. Basically attach the sled to the seat and hang it rather than having it on the floor. The center console has RCA inputs for hooking up a video game console in it. I could splice or split those off and put in an A/B switch box so I can have both sets still usable. Then I can route the wired remote up onto the dash somewhere or leave it in the center console and only pull it out whenI want to use it.

That would address the vibration issues. I could care less about graphics. Actually the empeg wouldn't work in this instance since there's no way to put it in the dash. I'd need a remotely mounted solution anyway. CD player/radio and then a spearate DVD slot take all the space up.

Comments? Suggestions? Sales?

Yea the NEO is great for remote mounts. I had one for about a year and thought it was pretty cool. Make sure you have enough clearance under the seat though. These things are not exactly short. I am estimating here, but I bet you would need about 3 1/2" of clearance to get it to work properly. You also have to have a flat surface of at least the length of the unit in front of it so you will be able to pull it out without any issues. Other than that, I think the NEO would work well for your needs.

A Rio Riot or Apple iPod would be a more versatile and neater solution (and better built and have more features), capacity may be an issue though.

A Rio Riot or Apple iPod would be a more versatile and neater solution

Good idea! Which makes me wonder though...
do those players have a good shuffle feature ? (I practically only use my Empeg in shuffle mode)
Is there ANY handheld player out there that can find tracks/artists as fast and easy as the Empeg can?

A Rio Riot or Apple iPod ...

And let's not forget the Creative Nomad Jukebox III... it has some very nice features...

Out of curiousity... would it be feasible to mount a Rio Central in the trunk and extend the LCD (using LVDS or something similar) and IR remote sensor to the dash of a vehicle? I imagine (having never used the central) that it would make one kick-a$$ (albeit pricey) car audio system.

No kidding? You don't make custom playlists? I've only forged four so far but, then agian, I'm still in the process of copying my collection onto my Empeg. 12GBs and counting!

the Nomad Jukebox III got kickass product award in Maximum PC, the gave the Riot a rather crappy review (don't know if it had anything to do with advertising money and favoritism), but they actually gave the Nomad a 9, the Ipod a 8 and the riot got a 5.... the big gripes they had with the Riot were the fact that it only had a USB 1.1 uplink and they bashed the "rio DJ" feature... I'd have to see one and play with it to make up my mind on that.

No kidding? You don't make custom playlists?

Actually no. I don't see the need for it. The directory structure of the mp3's on my empeg is as such that, depending the different subdirectory I choose, I get to hear exactly what I want. (genre, that is, shuffled).

And if a song gets played that I'm not in the mood for at that time, I simply FF. If I want to change genre in the middle of such an "auto generated playlist", I simply use the bookmark feature. (though that's not really necessary with the "least often played" shuffle feature, still I use it now and then)

The empeg experience is enhanced A LOT if you've thought about the directory structure of the MP3's and filled in all the tags correctly BEFORE uploading them to the unit.
Sure, it's a lot more work, but IMHO it's well worth it!

What about a Terapin Mine? Yeah, it is a little over kill for having it in a car, but it has some nice features that I think you could take advantage of (i.e. the TV-out features for photos).

While I'm at it, anyone have one of these? If so, (hell, even if you don't have one) what do you think?

I saw one of those in a store yesterday open box I think it was 500.00. It is much larger than I imagined from seeing the photos

Well judging by the pictures, and the fact that it has a RJ-45 jack, USB master, USB slave, and a power connector on the bottom, I'd say it is about the size of a large 2-way (CB, HAM, etc) radio, correct? Roughly 7"x3.5"x1" or so. Not all that big, but definitely bigger than some of the other devices.

Short version, do not get a Neo. Long version here: http://empeg.comms.net/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_general&Number=90788&page=&view=&sb=&o=