I've seen very mixed reactions to the Empeg tuner module and wanted to see what the overall opinions are for those who've been fortunate enough to receive theirs. Feel free to elaborate on your vote in this thread, I think it'd be nice to get a wide range of comments to help inform those of us who haven't purchased a tuner yet.

-Tony
MkII #554

Well in my case, it works exceptionally well. I had no problems hooking it up, and the reception is better than my Alpine 7525 that was in the truck before I got my empeg.

-Trevor

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Mk 2, Green 12GB, Tuner 080000349

Works great for me. My only gripe is that it was quite difficult to tie-wrap it to the car. It would have been nice if the module had indentations for the tie wraps to hang onto. Likewise, it would have been especially cool if the module were thinner / smaller. If it were only 5mm thinner, I would have been able to attach it directly to one of the metal bits that holds up my dashboard. Instead, I had to do a much kludgier attachment.

For me it works well except for a grumble I get when switching sources. The reception seems on par but depends allot on where the tuner is placed in relationship to the empeg, makes some sense as it's probably working off the empegs metal sled. After reading up on the subject over the weekend I found most car antennas are a happy medium between AM/FM getting good reception. To use one antenna is difficult, one likes a long antenna the other a short antenna length and stock car radio tuners are generally better than aftermarkets. I wish I'd have kept the links for this stuff but alas, I'm a dumbass. (actually it was getting very late)
My only wish is for a radio station in my area w/RDS that I can stand to listen to, there is one & it's no fun, all they broadcast on the RDS channel is the station ID call letters and the time may show up once in awhile but is dodgy & may be wrong sometimes even though the station is nearby the RDS is very patchy.



#695-Mk2/8 colors-12Gig/TUNER- awaits v2.x & Voice Recog.

Well I just took the plunge and ordered a tuner. Not like they're in stock, but I might as well get my order in there. Hope to get it while I'm still young.

A question for those who have their tuners... I had my Empeg professionally installed. Tonight I pulled the docking sled out for the first time since this install to see if I could get at the antenna wire without taking apart my dash. It looks like I can reach it (it's currently plugged into my Kenwood head unit.) Assuming I take the sled out and I can reach the antenna wire, are there any other install problems I could run into? Like, is it possible there won't be any room for the tuner module to fit? Has this happened to anyone?

Looking forward to my tuner some day...

-Tony
MkII #554

For lack of space in my vehicle (2 head units in double DIN) I ended up mounting it inside my glovebox.
The supplied extension cable was just the right length.

BE CAREFULL with your sled wires, I had two pull out of their crimp jobs. After experiencing this I took the extra time to disassemble every pin and solder each connection.
Good luck!

Mk2 #105 32g blue, w/tuner

1) If your car antenna is powered, you also need to connect the antenna power feed wire.

2) If you're not careful pulling out and re-installing the sled, you might mess up the existing wiring. So be careful. Also be careful not to damage your dash in the process.

3) Some sleds had trouble with the wire crimps in the docking connector. Be careful not to yank any of those out.

___________
Tony Fabris

there's an option missing
'Still waiting for mine (Mk.I upgrader)'

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Mk. I Blue 4G Serial [dont remember]
Mk. II Green 6G+20G Serial 080000372

why can people from the states preorder a tuner and then sit and wait until it get shipped. an here in europe i have to visit the shop dayli so i don't miss when they are available again.

Maybe it's payback for us Americans having the buttons on the wrong sides of the unit? :)

In seriousness though, it's not like I will actually get it shipped anytime soon. There are still MkI upgraders like Lemmy who will definitely get theirs before mine. In fact, being in Europe, you'll probably get yours from a separate "pool" and I wouldn't be surprised if you get yours first BECAUSE of the back-order on the American store.


[rant]
I think the shipping and ordering of the tuners has been equitable, but certainly not in any way "speedy." The incompetence of the SonicBlue folks borders on being unacceptable. If the products themselves weren't as good as they were, we would have abandoned them long ago for a company with better fulfillment practices.
[/rant]


-Tony
MkII #554

.......except for a grumble I get when switching sources.

I would like to note that the grumble is most likely the tuner either coming on or honing in on the frequency.

#695-Mk2/8 colors-12Gig/TUNER- awaits v2.x & Voice Recog.

The frequency switch is instant - we go from one freq to the next in much less than 10ms (it needs to do it this fast for RDS functionality to be "invisible" (audio-wise) to the user.

I suspect that the DSP needs to be muted until everything is ready, though. You're probably hearing a totally different frequency (possibly 98.5MHz, which is a local station here that the tuner defaults to) just before your chosen station.

Hugo

I put the tuner in last night. It is defintely very good. Not only am I receiving some distant stations, but it gave me a reason to open my dash and fix my wiring loom. My display dims when I turn on the headlights now.

-Rob
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12GB MK2 Blue 090000736 (6166 in the queue)

In reply to:

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"invisible" (audio-wise)

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Er, "inaudible"?

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Toby Speight - 040103385

Err, like he said :)

Hugo

In reply to:

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You're probably hearing a totally different frequency (possibly 98.5MHz.......

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I don't know if this has anything to do with it but the station I've noticed this is 99.5MHz I'm going to see if it doesn't another freq. as well. One question Hugo, does the tuner stay active when the player is playing MP3's or does it come on when the radio is selected?

#695-Mk2/8 colors-12Gig/TUNER- awaits v2.x & Voice Recog.

It stays on, but the antenna is retracted. When RDS TP is enabled (in the final 2.0 release) the antenna will stay up as the radio is listening for traffic announcements.

Hugo

When RDS TP is enabled (in the final 2.0 release) the antenna will stay up as the radio is listening for traffic announcements.

Will this be selectable, for those times when one wants to listen to MP3s while going through the car wash?

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Tony Fabris

I already have a 2nd stereo in my car which does AM/FM and CD. It's a JVC head unit and works fine. Is there anything the Empeg tuner will do for me over the JVC?

If your JVC has decent RDS support, no, not really.

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green