In order to judge the ``demographics'' of the BBS:

I owned my first empeg:Before the firesale
After the firesale

Well, that's not how it formatted in the preview. Ah, well.

And what about during?

Stu

Okay, after the firesale began. I think that's pretty implicit in the question.

Which firesale, the first where the 10G was $799 or the one where it dropped down to $199?

I bought my first car player during the firesale. I had, up to that point, been given a mk2 and a mk1 to work on anyway, so your poll doesn't apply to me very well -- I was here on the BBS before the firesale (which I guess is what you're getting at), but I didn't own an empeg until after.

What, no 'both' choice?

It was cheap insurance.

-Zeke

What, no 'both' choice?

The poll topic is "first" empeg... You bought your first empeg before and after the fire sale?

It says "first empeg"

That should be pretty clear unless you have multiple personalities.

Details, details...

My bad. Vote cast.

-Zeke

I bought mine after the fire sale was over.

Once upon a time, I had looked at the MK 1 but put off getting one. The target car was my mustang and it was being restored so, no rush. Then life intervened. [Dissolve fade to a couple years later]

I'm looking around for a system for my car again and find the Empeg's been EOL'd. I missed the firesale by a few months. In an effort to find out what happened, I found the bbs. Read one of pgrzelak's posts about Ebay and the rampant hoarding, got a little frantic and bought two. [LNL*] If this guy needs 5,...[/LNL] I might have over reacted a little but I am glad that I wandered in.

*Late night logic

to jump in with the whole "i intended to buy one but could never afford one until the firesale" bit see here

WARNING:That site just tried to install Gator and when I hit no, closed all of the IE windows I had open.

lol
sorry about that. such are the perils of using a free forum host.
strangely, ive never seen gator come from it though.
ive gotten into the habit of hitting escape as soon as the text loads. seems to help.

When I first discovered the empeg, it was way over what I could afford at the time. watched it for a year maybe and started to forget about it. My friend called one Christmas much later though and pointed out the sale on them, at which point I rekindled all my old passions for it and went ahead and got one (also making more money then too).

Interesting, the poll is about 50/50, actually biased a bit towards us late bloomers. I guess it doesn't surprise me much.

In reply to:

---

WARNING:That site just tried to install Gator

---

Here's the remedy
Search and destroy...

Peter

I did not learn about the empeg until around the time of the firesale. Oddly enough it was at that time that I was doing some research on MP3 capable CD receivers. While perusing eBay I found a listing for an empeg. It was something like...

500 CD mp3 changer

After reading the listing and digging deeper and discovering the BBS I knew I had to have one. Now I have 4. Three are in daily use and one is sealed in an unopened Sonic Blue box. (Because you just never know).

I would have bought one before the firesale had I known. It is the greatest thing since FM radio.

The REAL remedy.

I wanted to get an Empeg Mark1 but the cost was just to high since I was working at a grocery store.

I ordered the Riocar during the firesale but was very broke. Hell, I only made 14k (US) that year working at a .com, but I still had to have the Empeg.

P.S. I gave up getting the AC in my car fixed to get the Empeg and I live in Florida.

About 3 years back, I wondered if such a product existed and did an internet search and found the Mk1. I WANTED one, but had no money! I followed its progress and found the bbs, but still couldn't afford one!

I missed out on the firesale ones, and only found one after I pleaded for a spare one from the board. Luckily someone answered and I bought (for £400) what I'd wanted for years (still couldn't afford it though!)

Best thing I've ever bought! Worth more to me than the £400 I paid for it.

Greetings!

I had never had a non-factory install before. I had been burning audio CDRs for a while, and made mixes. It was never enough, and I always found I was swapping them out. I had an entire binder of car mixes in the car. It just wasn't working.

A friend of mine - I think it was jdandrea, actually - told me about the empeg. It was during the space after the MarkI, and during the early signups for the Mark2. I forgot about it, and then rediscovered the link when I was cleaning my old email (months later). I signed up for the Mark2 preorder, having set myself back 3 months by waiting...

The Mark2 came out, and I bought the largest available at the time. An utter novice with car audio, I had it installed professionally. I now know a bit more, and I would be willing to try (at least parts of) it myself now.

The first price drop came, and I got a spare for myself. Then the firesale came. I bought three units (my current home, office, spare). I gave the original spare as a gift, coincidentally to jdandrea and his family. The original one, I sold on the board, having upgraded it along the way to 96GB. I would add that SonicBlue's pricing policy refunded me a decent amount these purchases, because of the overlapping protection period and price drops.

I always watch for spare units because people at work ask about it sometimes. That has quieted down a bit lately - most of those I work with already have or know about the players. I can't wait to show them a Pearl - it will drive them insane!

I read a small article in a car audio magazine in my final year at uni in 1999 about the empeg which included the URL for empeg and also mp3car.com. I couldn't afford an empeg so I built an mp3 player out of spares which lived in my boot (hence the website on my profile). I liked the empeg so much I gave it a mention in my dissertation which was about audio compression techniques and building a luggable player.
I got my job at the beeb and turned my attention to making an improved version of the original unit which would have included GPS, a DVD drive and a big touchscreen panel. I had amassed most of the hardware and was getting ready to start putting it together.
For some reason I went back to empeg to find that the player had been EOL'd and found the forum for the first time. I had also missed firesale (bummer). All was not lost, I sold all the bits and found one of the board members selling a MK 1, he was waiting for a MK2a he’d bought and unbeknownst to me, was having trouble with getting it sent over. A week or two of silence ensued and I got cold feet and decided to buy a 10Gig from another board member. This too took a long time so I also hedged my bets by ordering one from carplayer too. Of course sods law prevailed and both arrived (hence my main and spare).
But the story's not over, the first one died with a dodgy aux in and got reboarded and second one had a loose spring which blew one of the main board fuses. So I went from none to two back to none in the space of 2 weeks!
But anyway, it’s the best purchase I’ve ever made and I’m so glad I made the plunge. Knowing what I know now, I’d definitely have bought one at full price.

I also wish i'd bought that MK 1 now too!

I came across the Empeg while looking for a home mp3 player. I can't remember if it was a cnet search or if i came across it while looking at the rio central. This happened to be the same time of the fire sale, I didn't even know about the Empeg before then. Sizing up the Empeg and the Central and scouting the BBS, teh choice was clear, i decided to buy a 60GB Empeg. Being an American but living in the UK I had it shipped to my parent's house and then wait 2 months before i could pick it up. It was agony. Unfortunately my Empeg has never been installed in a car as I don’t have one in the UK. I use it as my home music server and play thing - am trying to get Bluetooth installed at the moment. Wireless software updates should soon be a reality. Then, hopefully, palantir over Bluetooth will someday be an option.

Well I'm in on this post kinda late, but I got my first empeg (mk2a) after the sale. I was reading an old stereo review mag. and saw the pic. of Hugo holding a Mk1 I then went on line to find out that the sale had just ended I then went to Ebay where a guy was selling one (12gig) and while I was talking to him via email somone "bought it now" I then found out that he had another, 20gig so he sold that one to me directly for $400 Later after I found out how great these things were I bought another from somone here on the board (wierdnoise) he is the guy that had one stolen and then found it a block from his house run over by ? and then sent it off and got it fixed. Well that was a long story.

I first heard about the empeg during the first waiting list, but I definitely didn't "get it". A guy at work got on the list and basically the rest of us made fun of him for paying $1600 for an mp3 player. When his name finally came up he was so excited it was hard not to be excited for him, even if we thought he was a little nuts.

Then it arrived. It took about 20 seconds seeing it out of the box before I understood what it was really all about. "Oh, this isn't about mp3s," I realized. "It's about music!" So I swallowed my pride, offered my humble apologies to my coworker, and went home to tell my wife we had to get one, no matter what the cost. We'd just bought our first house though, and money was tight so I had to start saving penny's and dimes. Over the next year or so I told everyone who would listen about the player and swore I'd have an empeg, but unfortunately everything happened (my wife had surgery, house stuff, etc.) and so buying an empeg went on the back burner. Until the fire-sale. I was actually scared when it happened because I thought I wouldn't get in quick enough. If the price had never dropped I would have bought one at full price, but I got lucky and got a 10 gig for $200. Still I believe I was about physically ill for the two days I thought I'd missed my chance. My wife even bought me a computer game (Wolfenstein) to try and cheer me up (in the end I played it while listening to music on my new empeg!).

So I bought mine at the fire sale, but I definitely "got it" at the higher prices (after a bit of heretical heckling).

I just came across my reciept last night while unpacking for a 6gb Blue empeg, queue spot 1640, total paid, about $1300.

Still can't believe I pulled togther that much cash for a stereo back then. Glad I did though, since it ended up converting several of my friends once the firesale came around.

Don't remind me... :-/

or me! =] The funniest thing is that it KEEPS sucking my money away. Docks, black sleds, buttons, faces, digital outs.... it'll never end. But i don't regret shelling out that $1300 at all. It's weird. I have no idea how i saved up that much back then either, i had just graduated college. It was my reward to myself for getting this job. It's even hard to imagine spending that much on an empeg now!

I actualy remember seeing the Mark 1 about 5-6 years ago and thinking "i've got to have one of those" but being a poor 16 yr old i could barely afford a car to put one in. So i thought to myself then "someday.....someday i will have one" well alot of time went by and working my meger minimum wage jobs through highschool i was never able to make enough to feel comfortable spending $1500 on a headunit. that and the veichal i was driving was an old geo tracker w/a rag top so i didnt want to put anything expensive in it because it would be really easy for someone to steal it. well finaly after being out of highschool for 2 years and working enough to get a better car i started looking for things to put in the car. the empeg quickly came back to mind. i found out it had been EOL'ed and that i had just missed the firesale. bummer. fortunatly i found this bbs and somebody (i'm afraid i dont remember who) sold me a 10gb for $500. since then ive put a 60gb hd in with the 10 and plunked another $700 into my car's sound system. it is definatly my favorite thing i own and i dont have a clue what im going to do if/when it stops working.

Back in 1998, I saw a mention of the MP3Mobile @ /.. Ultimate coolness. Me want.

But... I'd only just found out what linux was, and there was a higher likelihood of a cold day in hell than me doing anything with a car and a computer (and linux, especially).

So when I found out that the people behind the MP3Mobile was doing something they would sell, I was ecstatic. After some time as a lurker, I joined the waiting list... December 1998 maybe? Had #32XX.
The time went on, with little seemingly happening, until...
OMFG!!! It's shipping!
A few months (maybe shorter) and $1500 later, I had my baby. Best money spent ever.

Totally missed the firesale, or I'd probably have gotten an extra.

Got my MK2 after waiting 3 month in the queue, had a lucky time with it reading the BBS very unregulary. Then i read about the EOL, the firesale was just over. In a panic-reaction i bought an MK2a on ebay, for 1000 Euros. 2 days after i got it, carplayer.com came up, so i bit myself in the ass and bought a 10 Gig for about 460 $ with taxes and vat and so on to germany.
This 10Gig i swapped for a MK1 with a german guy from the board to make my collection complete.
Now the only problem i have left is, i don't have a real spare unit, cause i don't wanna miss one from my collection.

Insane? Yeah, but...

cheers, Thomas