the main "image" problem

Tony, that is exactly what I have been thinking. And I think you put it the best way I could imagine. You should add that point to the Anadtech board while you're at it.

As for my view on the Aiwa unit, I think it's great. I fully understand the expense of the empeg. It is alot of money. I worked the entire summer for the cash to pay for it and new system components in my car. But I wasn't going to go the cheaper route on something like this. I wanted the best the market had to offer and I wanted it to be proffesionaly built.

The Aiwa is certainly proffesionally built, perhaps in some ways even more so than the empeg, but that's a huge car audio company that's been in the biz for a long time. The empeg has it beat in every other respect aside from not being able to read CD's.

As for that area, it also happens that I didn't bring any CD's to school with me. I left them home so I would have them available to me there and they couldn't get lost/stolen, so it happens to work out for me that the empeg replaces every single CD you own when you are in your car.

If price is your only factor, the empeg is a difficult justification. Do as much research as you can on all the options, check your accounts, and make the decision that's best for you.

DiGNAN