Empeg Only or Empeg Plus Other Head?

I am just curious how many people have just the Empeg installed in their vehicle, vs a dual install of both the Empeg and a CD or MP3 disc playing head with radio? As much as I love my Empegs, and I am obnoxious about showing them off, I find myself a little handcuffed by the lack of ability to pop in a CD. I also would like the satellite radio option. Is this a common story or am I selling out?

I have a 2003 Excursion. Yes it is obscenely large and an environmental nightmare, but so am I (at least the large part, and my wife would probably agree about the environmental part...). I only have 1 and a half DIN spaces, so if I want to have 2 heads, anybody have a solution? Is there an after market box for a DIN space that fits on the transmission hump or something?

Thanks All!

I find it very amusing that your Excursion has 1.5 DINs and my Mustang has 2. My vehicle could probably fit inside yours, yet they couldn't find room for an extra half of a freakin' DIN slot somewhere in that massive dash?

Seriously though, you'll hear various opinions on this. I actually went the 2 DIN route since I didn't want to mess with an external amplifier, running wires all over the place, etc. I took as much advantage of the existing wiring as possible by using a separate head unit. My Kenwood head unit has a CD player, but I think I've used it a total of maybe 20 times since I installed my empeg 3+ years ago. Satellite radio doesn't do much for me, since the only radio I really listen to is local sports talk. For the CD thing, you could always hook a portable CD player up to your empeg's AUX connection in the back, couldn't you? Not very elegant, but maybe a portable CD player would fit in that extra half DIN?

Or, better yet, just sacrifice one of your 12 seats and put a rack-mount stereo system in it.

I am just curious how many people have just the Empeg installed in their vehicle, vs a dual install of both the Empeg and a CD or MP3 disc playing head with radio?

I have a dual install -- the empeg, plus a high-end Clarion HX-D10 AM/FM/CD player. The Clarion is preamp-out only, so both units run into my amplifiers by means of a Sony XA-39II switching relay.

That said... I had to pull over to the side of the road the other day, because my empeg was at home doing a 60 GB synch and for the first time in two and a half years, I turned on the Clarion. I had to dig the instruction manual out of the glovebox to figure out how to play the radio (I never carry CDs with me!) and after a frustrating few minutes I punched enough buttons on the damn thing, pretty much randomly after a while, that I got a radio station playing on it and didn't dare touch it the rest of the way home.

So, yes, I have a dual install. Useful? Not very.

tanstaafl.

My previous car had a 2 DIN slot dash, but I only used the empeg in it, though with tuner module - mainly used to receive RDS Traffic Announcements...

I'm currently in the process of installation in my new car (Peugeot 206, probably small enough to park in your rear seat ), and it'll also be empeg+tuner only (it's a one DIN slot dash). With a bit of work one could probably move the stock multipurpose display down to just above the ashtray, and stuff another DIN unit in the space vacated...

/Michael

I have two head units because it's easier than messing with an amp and if I go someplace I don't want to bring the empeg into I can leave it at home and not have to drive in total silence.

I have a mazda 3 which has a odd shaped stereo and there is no install trim kit so right now I just have the two head units strapped into the hole until I figure out how to make something.

I go someplace I don't want to bring the empeg into I can leave it at home and not have to drive in total silence.

I went the single unit way, and I'm now kinda wishing that I did it the other way, just because of this. Most of my drives are 5-10 minutes long, and I find I just don't bother (or I forget) to bring the empeg with me. What would be really cool is if there were a small insert I could plug into the sled that would let me listen to the very last station I tuned the tuner module into. Then I could leave that plugged in when I bring the empeg in the house.

I don't actually have anything audio in the car ATM (new car), but when I get around to it (will be seriously hacking up my dash), it will be Empeg + other HU.

1) I have a hard time living without a volume knob (mk1), buttons just don't work for me.
2) SQ competing needs a CD - and sometimes it's nice to have.

I run two head units for the same reasons these other guys do. I already had a Pioneer unit that supported AUX input (with adapter.) The cheapest way for me to add my empeg was to just pipe it through the existing system. Plus, I do still use the radio occasionally, especially when my empeg is out of commission. The CD player comes in handy occasionally too, but not too often.

Check my gallery to see what I did with my Blazer, which is also 1.5 DIN. You could probably do something similar with a commercial DIN under-dash kit.

I have the Empeg and a Sony cd/mp3 player installed in my car.....i sold my tuner module for a nice gain so the real reason was to access the tuner in the sony (had the sony before the empeg)...it is much better than the Empeg tuner so i was not disappointed...i run the line outs to the aux in on the empeg.....although i can play cd's..i rarely do.....but..i would like to have the option of runing the sony when the empeg is going through some housekeeping chores...but that is not a priority!

Two head units -- I ain't rich like many of you here. The JVC head unit has CD-player, AM/FM radio, 25W+25W amplifier, and AUX-IN jacks (RCA).

The Empeg plays through the AUX-IN of the JVC deck, good enough for me. In this cold climate (-30C this morning), I don't leave the Empeg in the car at all (always good advice), and the self-contained JVC is always there for radio without having to spin up any hard drives.

My project to use a CF card/adapter for /dev/hda in the Empeg is temporarily on hold, as the hardware is currently being used to prototype an unrelated embedded set-up for a client.

Cheers

All you have to do is ...

cut cut cut!

Actually, in my car there seemed to be a 1.75 din hole so I didn't have to cut very much and on the front it doesn't look like there was any cutting at all.

I'm really happy to have a back-up system for when the empeg stays home. Not to mention, when a "guest" comes nto the car with a CD he/she wants to hear, it helps to actually have a CD player.

I my last car (Renault Laguna) it had a spare din and was a company car that I only had 1 year left on it, so I went for the 2 HU option.

My new car (another Laguna) should arrive in 4 weeks. Now however it doesn't have a spare din slot (they filled it with Sat Nav), so although it's also a company car I'm going to replace the HU with the empeg and also get an amp. Mainly cos I can then use the stalk controls, which will save me messing about with the remote or pressing buttons. Might also try hooking the display upto the nice colour lcd screen that the satnav uses as the factory cd/tuner displays stuff on that.

.....but..i would like to have the option of runing the sony when the empeg is going through some housekeeping chores...but that is not a priority!

Meatball man and I did work up a little pocket that allows you to listen to an Aux input through the Empeg. My Sony didn't have an AUX in so I used the empeg as the main unit but I wanted to keep the Sony for playing CD's as well as the occassional radio (mostly talk radio).



It's not a great pic but this was taken at the Ohio 2003 meet just a few months ago. I'll take some more pics when I get a chance and post them.

thx to dbrasher for the pic.

When I get round to getting my empeg installed again it will be on it's own with no other headunit

I've been empeg-only for as long as I've owned the empeg.

Reason: The whole point of getting an empeg was so that I don't have to carry CDs with me. Why would I want a CD player?

Recently, though, I broke down and put a portable CD player in the glove box and ran the aux-in wires someplace I could reach them. That satisfies the need to occasionally pop in a not-yet-ripped CD, or a CD from a passenger. However, this happens very rarely, at most once or twice a year.

If you are planning on doing a full two-stereo installation just so you can play the occasional onesie-twosie CD, I think that's overkill. I think you're much better off putting the portable CD player in the glove box and using it when it's needed.


There are other advantages to going empeg-only:

- No heat from the adjacent CD player to ruin your empeg's hard disks.

- No confusion with which-thing-needs-to-be-turned-on and which-input-is-selected.

- The empeg is 100 percent theft proof when you pull it from your dash. CD players no longer have that feature and will still get stolen (I once had a removable faceplate stereo stolen even though the face was off).

- The empeg can be easily stealth-installed as pictured here, reducing the chance of theft even further.

- Fewer components in your installation means less chance of a ground loop in the wiring.

- The empeg is much nicer-looking in the dash of most cars, with its clean simple design, compared to all the gaudy aftermarket CD players with too many buttons and too much text on the faceplate.

The biggest reason for dual-head unit has to be for the AM/FM tuner, since they're nearly impossible to obtain for the Empeg itself.

Cheers

Hey, I've noticed Patrick is trying to ship more tuners recently.

And I rarely listen to the radio, too.

Thanks Everybody,

As mentioned in a couple of replys, this idea came about as a result of forgetting the unit when I had brought it in out of the cold. The high here today is going to be about 7 degrees farenheit, so ar night or while at the office its kind of wise to pull the Empeg out. I also am a little frustrated with the radio, so I think I am going to do this. I have external amps so the Sony switcher will be necessary, and I think that under dash DIN might be the answer, although I would like to see about cutting the dash to fit a second DIN. Anybody know a good install guy north of Boston?

As far as the size of the Excursion is concerned, it is necessary. The relationship between the Peugeot and my Excursion is a pretty accurate representation of the size difference between me and a normal guy - I'm 6' 9" and 375 lbs. I always feel like I have to apologize to all the big SUV haters out there, but truth be told I fit in nothing else. I am not nuts about the fact that I put about 60 gallons of gas in it a week. However, if anybody ever needs to tow an aircraft carrier...

I guess I could install my other Empeg in the 2nd DIN, and have one for the front and one for the rear passengers. The back seat is in another time zone anyway, so maybe it'll work.

Thanks y'all.

Joe

Agreed! You probably don't receive CBC RadioOne down that way!

How are you with guitar notes?

Have you ever owned anything but an SUV? Personally, I find that full-size sedans like a Buick LeSabre, for instance, have larger interiors.

so ar night or while at the office its kind of wise to pull the Empeg out.

It's wise to pull the empeg out any time you're not in the car. We hear about too many stolen empegs on this BBS.

Personally, I find that full-size sedans like a Buick LeSabre, for instance, have larger interiors.

Aye, likewise. Heck, I was flabbergasted when I sat in the driver's seat of a Mini -- it was more spacious than my truck.

I'm not near as big as joe187, but at 6'4", 240, I have problems with a lot of cars too. Additionally, a lot of big men have problems with their knees, especially if they have played sports. The problem I have with most of the sedan types is that even when there is enough room, getting down into them and back out is bad on my bum knee (injured playing intramural soccer in college.) I can see that as a good reason to not get a LeSabre or something like that.

I have to say it is realy nice beng able to pop in a cd if you want to.I had my empeg in my truck all by it self for about a year.I put a head unit in a few months ago and it sure comes in handy when friends bring cd's i dont have in my empeg.I also have sirrus radio now and it is cool but i dont find my self listening to it much.I have the empeg going into the aux in on my panasonic and i use the aux out on the empeg for my onstar phone.my hole system seems to sound better now that im running thru the panasonic.if you go to a nice install place im sure they can find a place to put both head units.

I put about 60 gallons of gas in it a week

So you're driving, what, 30, 40,000 miles a year?

That's pretty intense.

tanstaafl.

I drive 40k miles per year easy. 120/day commute. 183k on my engine. I need a new one. It's a '99.


-Zeke

Woah. That's a lot of driving. I've had my truck for 2 years, and still haven't hit 20k.

Tanstaafl,

You are right - it can't be that much driving. I think I had 60 in my head and it is dollars, not gallons. I fill it up once a week, and it is a 44 gallon tank. It costs me about $65 to fill it. I get 10.5 miles to a gallon. That'll drive all the environmentalists nuts, and I'm not happy about it myself, but I cannot control how tall I am. BTW - Tans, where did you get your Sony switcher? I searched Google and everything that comes up is for UK dealers only. I assume you are in the UK, or found a source here.


Meaball et al - the problem is not leg room but headroom. I cannot come close to fitting in a LeSabre nor any other sedan. As it is in the Excursion I have to put the seat back on a tilt so I can see below the visors. I tested a variety of vehicles, none had the head room I needed. Expeditions, one step below the Excursion in size, all have sun roofs, which create a lip around the inside that causes huge problems. It is very much a pain in the ass, and neck, literally.

Tony - I put the car in my garage at night, and would normally leave the empeg in it. I am very conscious of it getting ripped off. I especially get pissed off that whoever is stealing these things has no idea what it does and can't use it. I am sure that most that get stolen get tossed, which is doubly damning.

Anyway - you are all wicked pissah for helping me out. I give you that from the home of the eventual SuperBowl champion New England Patriots. If we can't win normally we'll just freeze them out. Works every time.

Joe

the problem is not leg room but headroom

Ah. Sucks. I have a cousin who's 6'6" tall, and he fits in his Lexus big sedan (I don't remember which model), but he's all legs, so that makes sense.

What'd you do before? Buy a short car with a sunroof and stick your head out the top?

BTW - Tans, where did you get your Sony switcher?

They *used* to be available in the U.S. I got one of the last ones that Crutchfield had; then later I bought a second one (for my other car) from someone here on the bbs. Who had the empeg installed in a sailboat? Jimhogan? Yes, that's who it was!

I don't know what I'd do without them... and there doesn't seem to be anything else on the market that does the same job.

tanstaafl.

I use the two head unit approach with a Sony switcher and hu. The neat thing about mine is a usb input that lets me listen to dvd sound through the car speakers. The next purchase is two head rest screens for the back seat so my son can watch Sponge Bob Square Pants in the car on trips.

A little late to this thread, buy here's my setup:

I have a 2-din Mustang so I have an old Alpine CD player and my empeg. The reason for the Alpine was so I could listen to the radio and play CDs on the way home from the store (nothing more frustrating than walking out of a store and having no way to listen to your new purchase). As it turns out, though, I NEVER listen to the radio. I don't even know what stations are good here: I've had the empeg ever since I moved. And I don’t listen to CDs either. I think I've purchased most of my music online so even the "listen on the way home" scenario hasn't really happened. In fact, I got a rehearsal CD from church a couple of weeks ago, plopped it into my CD player on the way home, and found out that my CD player was not longer working (or not well, anyway. It keeps cutting off). I hadn’t tried it in over six months so I have no idea what happened. Nor do I care anymore!

I don't know what I'd do without them... and there doesn't seem to be anything else on the market that does the same job.

If you go to Crutchfield's own page for the Sony XA-39, they link you to "See the Closest Replacement", which currently links here. Seems like the same kind of thing, not certain.

The Sony XA-300 is the one mwest referred to. It's Sony's replacement/upgrade for the XA-39.

I like it! With this you dont need to have the Empeg in the car to listen to your Aux!

It also allows you to input several other devices. You could for example listen to a friend's mp3 player in your car (or anything else with a 1/8 inch jack). Also a friend can listen to an aux device with headphones (including independent volume control) while you listen to whatever in the car. Most of it doesn't have real life value, but it's geek factor is quite high.

It's easily done, isn't it. About 6 years ago I was driving 53k a year business mileage (based in Edinburgh, but clients as far afield as Reading and Inverness), plus some personal and it was hellish. Luckily I'm down to about 16k a year now, which is much easier to cope with.

Wow! My current car has only just broken 53k miles. And it's 17 years old!

I haven't owned it from new, but I only drive around 3k a year and most of that's taking trips to France.

I've done 130,000 miles in my Mazda MX5 (Miata/Eunos Roadster) in the 6.5 years since I bought it. I run into people in the MX5 owners club with cars the same age that have not yet covered 10,000 miles.

What is the point of owning a fun sports car and then driving it less than 2,000 miles a year ? Odd people

As a sign of Mazda reliability, so far:

- I changed my first set of front disks and pads at about 100,000 miles
- I haven't yet changed my first set of rear disks and pads (got them ready to go on, but the old ones are still working just as they always did)
- I have only just had to replace my exhaust after 6.5 years of the car standing outside 24/7
- the only "failures" I have had with the car (exlcuding the exhaust) are; dead battery after six months of ownership and a failed coolant hose (which was on the car from new) a couple of months ago

That said, I now need to spend lots of money on a new roof and a new rear bumper (after I fried my old one when the exhaust failed on me).

What is the point of owning a fun sports car and then driving it less than 2,000 miles a year ?

I've got a couple of friends like that. I don't get it, either.

I think they are the same people who thing car bras and seat protectors are a good idea...

I think it is easy to get high mileage in Scotland, because aside from the central belt, everything is far away (okay guys, I mean far away in UK terms, not US terms - a totally different scale!)

To visit my folks is a 560 mile round trip and to visit my younger brother is about 1100 miles there and back.

Still, that is what my Scooby is for. I'll probably replace it this year at 130k miles as it'll be paid off in the Summer. And I intend to buy one with a turbo - probably the Impreza Turbo from 2000, because the newer WRXs just don't corner the way I like (in fact if I compare mi 1997 Sport to my colleagues 2003 WRX mine will get from A to B much faster if there are many corners. Obviously no contest if it is a straight line, but roads in Scotland are all about corners)

10 miles to the gallon i would be happy to get 10 miles a gallon,try 7 and 4 when i have my fifthwheel behind me.

If you're looking into dual head unit with external amp, consider the "source switching relay" by Precision Instrument Electronics (PIE) MPSS-4. It's an alternative to the Sony XA-39 which I found to not be available (back when I looked).

The MPSS-4 takes a primary and secondary head unit. When the primary is sending audio signal, the secondary is powered down and the primary's sound goes to the amp. The secondary is powered on when the primary stops sending signal, but the primary is left powered on.

This works GREAT for the empeg, I've found (contrary to my initial opinion of it). Empeg = primary. When the empeg is playing, the secondary (CD player, or whatever) is powered off. When you put the Empeg into standby, it remains powered on and the secondary is powered on and sends signal to the external amp. To turn the empeg back on, simply press any button on the empeg to wake it from standby. BOOM, instant empeg sound again.

So, the empeg never gets hard-powered-off, probably causing less strain to it. Ah, let the secondary power off when you aren't using it. Less strain on the car battery? Maybe.

Best of all, if you're going somewhere that you can't bring your empeg out of the car, just leave it at home. You'll still have radio.

I have a 2001 Miata and just took it in for the 30K servicing...other than it being worthless in the snow/ice the car is very entertaining to drive....hopefully i will be as maintenance free as yourself!