OK, I don't want to start another tangent on the random fxnality, but...

What I've noticed happening on my empeg in shuffle mode is not so much a clustering of a few songs by the same artist separated by some other songs, but rather a very distinct grouping of songs by artist (or songs just close together in my playlists) back to back. For example:

Random song
Random song
Collective Soul song
Collective Soul song
Dave Matthews song
Dave Matthews song
Random song
Tom Petty song
Tom Petty song
Random song
Random song
Random song
...

This really does happen quite a bit (often enough that I find it hard to be coincidence) and I've talked with other empeg owners on this bbs who have experienced it, too. So, maybe this can still be explained with what you two have been analyzing, but I do find it odd. I really don't mind it, though.

- trs