Kenwood PhatBox

Somebody I know purchased a brand new 30 gig Empeg off ebay. And after he gets it, he found out about the Kenwood Phatbox. He has not even opened the empeg box, never turned it on, never used it and says he is convinced the Phatbox is better and wants to sell his empeg now. *sigh*

Calvin

What a fool.

don't forget it's called "music keg"

I'll pay $100 for the empeg since its so worthless to him.

OT: What happened to the possibility of getting some maps for kim salo's gps project?

sean

I spoke with my NavTech person and sent her to get in touch with smu. Where that has led is out of my hands at this point.

Calvin

How much does he want for it?

Wait til he hears about 8-track tapes......I'm sure he'll be selling the kenwood keg too.....

8-tracks are too expensive. I can build one of those for 1/2 the price using my open faced reel-to-real tape deck.

Ummm, tha phatbox is not a bad product, and offers numerus advantages over the empeg(and vice versa).. I would go as far and say it is actually more advanced than the empeg. The empeg to me is a VERY highly advanced & refined "garage" product, but then again so was the Apple ][...

Calling one better than the other is a tough one though - I would say such a comparison would only begin to be valid if the user is indifferent to installation location.

I recently sent phatbox an e-mail telling them I wouldn't be interested until their cartridges(hard drives) were far lest than the 300%+ markup they have for them now..

-John M

More advanced? Perhaps in manufacture, but I don't think you could claim any of its other features that are comparable (playlists, searching, UI, etc) are "more advanced".

Our CD-bus emulating products make the Phatnoise box look rather weak, too

Hugo

Where's this cd bus version of the empeg? That would be sweet! What did you to do make it better?

I really like the Phatnoise idea of using the cd changer controls, as I'd glady give up the extra display and functionality to get the extra components out of my dash. The Empeg's more open design, with replacable hard drives, ethernet, usb, serial port, hackable software, etc. is what makes it better. It would be nice if both could be combined for the ultimate system.

I can't imagine trying to find what I want to hear out of 2500 songs using cd changer controls. Also reading the info would suck on segmented display.

What makes the empeg so bad as a head unit anyway ?

The Empeg doesn't look as good as my original head unit, nor does it have a CD player, reasonably priced tuner, speaker outputs, etc... So while it's an improvement, it's still far from perfect.

I never could understand why some don't like the look of the Empeg Mk II or think it's a step down in looks from major-brand head units. In my opinon it has a timeless look that will stylistically outlast all those ultra-tacky looking Japanese head units you see at the stores. You know, the ones with the rows and rows of small buttons, illogical controls, zillions of flashing lights, and meaningless large XBS (Extra Bass System) logos that are as about as tastefully styled as that ugly green X on the X-Box.

Agreed, I always hated how my Sony decks had this tiny tiny little display that could only show one thing at a time. Now I can see the Artist, Album, Song Title, Year of Record, Track Length, Elapsed time and play mode all in one view!

Doesn't that Keg thing limit you to 8 characters or something? I heard there is a long pause between songs too. I guess if you are more of the 128kps type (ie, you just like mp3's but don't care about quality and wont get much use out of the empeg's high end audio system) then maybe it is for you?

HeHe, too true. I think they're designed to appeal to young teenagers and rice boys.

Next: The Kenwood Bong.

Next: The Kenwood Bong.

Of course it would have to be an ICE bong

Rob

Of course it would have to be an ICE bong

Are you sure they wouldn't prefer an R-Type Bong?

While we're bashing non-Empeg prodcuts, let's get our facts straight. The Music Bong/PhatBox has instant track access and can display the whole title, just like the Empeg. However, it DOESN'T have a user-serviceable hard drive, or any hackability.

Bruno's Matrix seems to have those facts correctly reported.

Wait til he hears about 8-track tapes...

what do you think my sig's been saying for some time now?

and from reading the Phatbox forums, the music can skip.....
http://www.go-racecar.com/uphatphorum/showthread.php?s=85a600a5bb685a4085ca92e271b1d85d&threadid=61

Reading that forum, it looks like the skips on the phatbox were due to some kind of a bug regarding metadata database files. I'm sure that bug will be fixed in their software shortly since they seem to have narrowed down the cause.

Sometimes the empeg beta software had skipping bugs, too. Glass houses, baby, glass houses.

yup yup, aint saying the kenwood unit is bad, hell, I almost bought one. But to have to buy a kenwood HU AND the 'keg, just a little too much money for me. I must say after seeing both in action, I prefer the Empeg.

While we're bashing non-Empeg prodcuts, let's get our facts straight. The Music Bong/PhatBox has instant track access and can display the whole title, just like the Empeg. However, it DOESN'T have a user-serviceable hard drive, or any hackability.

Please look here. you'll see that the Bong can olny show info if the head unit supports it, and it doesn't have the easy song access that the Empeg has.