Here is a couple pictures of the first "rough" prototype of the empeg facia. It's cut out of scrap particle board I had laying around. I have only run 1 roughing pass while I wait for other other cutting tools I need to do finishing passes. Once I get a perfect finish cut I will move over to cutting the facias out of aluminum. Enjoy!

2nd picture

How much more trouble would it be to make a facia without provisions for the pullout handle?

Great stuff! Looks extremely promising. Can't wait to see how these progress.

Looks great! By any chance, did you move the curve above the vfd out some? Right now the facia covers up a few pixels.

The first batch of facia's will be exactly like the original except in aluminum. From there I will move onto custom facia's.

Hmm great.
What about an MKII lookalike for the MKI??

TommyE

Or a Mark I lookalike for the Mark II?

Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II)

Aluminium? GREAT! I'll get one when it is available! :)))

Yeah!! Count me in too!!!

Looks sweet!

Sign me up!

Great news!

Think about how to send then outsite form US! :-)

It's now on my christmas wish list :-)

That would be where you would come to me because that would be a lens, which is what I make.

Here's the color selection

Steve

Pending Price - I will get one too! This will match the faux-aluminum in my WRX!

Now... it is too bad that more Mk.II's aren't going to be made so that you could sell tons of these things! Wasn't one of the reasons that more MKII's were not going to be make because it would be too expensive to make more facias?.. hmmm..... I bet with some good negoiating and a hades-proof snowball....

Looks great. Any estimate on a price?

My estimate on price is $100. While that may seem a bit expensive, I just can't do it for cheaper. Each unit will take approx 9 hours to create (1 hour of setup and tool changes, 8 hours of actual cutting). I then have to send the plates out to get tumbled and anodized (aluminum gets nasty if not anodized). People will have their choice of anodizing colors (red, blue, black or clear).

Rob

I would still buy one. Do you have pics of how it would look like after anodization in those colors?
Thank you!

Sounds good, let us know how it turns out.

Not yet. I'm "hoping" to have the first complete aluminum prototype this by the end of this weekend. I'll take some pictures of the fabrication process and post them.

Anodizing looks great. Clear anodizing will leave the brushed aluminum look. I'm still looking at December when I will begin shipping out the first units. This is because the first 7 units are already spoken for. 3 are going to the Empeg guys, 4 are getting anodized in each of the available colors for my collection. From there I'll be able to pump out 1-2 a day. My wife is just going to love hearing the mill scream away nearly 24 hours a day. I'll get some pictures of it cutting the aluminum, it's a fun site to see.

When I begin taking orders it will be first come first serve. I will take orders via e-mail and give you a queue number (sound framiliar?). Once your facia is scheduled for cutting I will notify you. Once it is cut and I receive payment I will ship it out asap.

this is truely amazing!. Pictures are a must!

I've certainly never heard of a 'custom' facia being made for any other car stereo. maybe taking panels off amps to show "the fantastic circuit layout" [choke].
This is extreme!

Will you take credit cards? PayPal?

Thanks

Me too, $100 sounds perfectly reasonable considering the labor, etc that will be involved. Any chance of anodized buttons to go with it? I was thinking blue anodized buttons with a black anodized face plate and a blue screen would look pretty sweet!

-Mike

I don't think I will ever get used to this kind of absolutely unprecedented customer loyalty and participation. This is amazing. Empeg guys, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous to say, since you must have been thinking about this more thay I and everyboy else here did, but I can't help underlying the fact that the kind of support and customer satisfactions that you have with all of us empeggers is really unique. When reading these posts I can't really believe Sonic Blue shut down empeg production... Maybe the market for the empeg is small, I tend to agree with that, but then when I read about people doing so much and so well (think of these fascias and mlord's kernel patches, just to mention ppl that are NOT even among the alpha testers), I wonder whether it is small enough to shut down completely. Empeg could simply be a CULT device, I think in the end it just needs the time to become known and understood. After that, it will be a total success.

It is a cult device, as its amazing how many people don't even understand the concept of mp3's. !!

The problem is that the majority of people don't "get it", and that the only way people will "get it", is by seeing one in the flesh, which of course blows them away, or by stumbling on the BBS, which always amazes me, (as you have said) with the dedication to this single product.

The next thing is they have to LOVE music, as its not for someone with 20 CD's in their own collection, and you need to drive a lot of miles to appreciate the investment.

The next thing is they have to afford it, and they are still 600UKP+, which i know is greatly reduced, still expensive when you consider other components people buy. eg. CD, Video, etc. People don't see it as a computer ? Trouble is ,if you tell them its a computer, they get scared, as people here in the UK struggle with coming to terms with the internet.

But I agree, someone should take this unit to the masses, and also try to keep the good that has been generated so far

The problem is that the majority of people don't "get it"

This has been my experience too. You can't make people understand how good this thing is unless you let them play around with it a bit. I know, I've tried on the Neo forum. Everybody over there says : sure, we know it's good and all, but the Neo does exactly the same thing? (playing mp3's?)
Of course there is no comparing, but I know of no way to put in words how I feel about this product. It's hard, because I must admit, even I, who am a hardcore music-nut, had to convince myself to make the purchase. But the very first day I played around with it I knew I made a good purchase. (something I've never been sure of with the Neo)

Now most of you know from my posts that my Empeg experience hasn't been excatly trouble-free, but still I believe this is one of the best purchases I ever made. Even with the problems I had, I still ordered a backup unit!

The next thing is they have to LOVE music, as its not for someone with 20 CD's in their own collection, and you need to drive a lot of miles to appreciate the investment.

One out of two isn't that bad either. I LOVE music, but I don't drive that many miles. No more than 100 /week. Not a problem : whenever the empeg is not in my car, it's playing at home, or at a friends home.

My Empeg played more in the first week (at home) than my Neo did in the three months that I owned it.

Any idea how long these are going to be available for? I would definately be interested in a few of them.

Its a shame I still haven't convinced my roommate that we need a CNC machine...

I agree. And that convinces me even more that more advertising, demos and even simply TIME would make this one of the biggest success ever. Now, I am not criticising Sonic Blue, I don't have info to do that. I don't know how much "time and advertising" would cost to sonic blue. It must be not economically viable if they decided to shut down. All that I am saying here is that to me it is so unnatural to accept that such a great peiece of technology is no being produced anymore. And when I see people doing such a great job to support and improve the product I just realize I am obviously not the only one who really likes empeg, and the end of production is even harder to accept!

In the weekend I drove for more or less 8 hrs with friends, and all of them, all computer geeks, simply loved it. They were amazed, and wanted to buy it right away. Why they did not do so? Simply, they are college students and don't have the money to afford one. But at least, as you said, a practical demo did the job wonderfully. If they had money in they hands they would have made an order right there.

Tim,
They should begin shipping in December and I will continue making them until I no longer receive any orders. My guess is that there will be a back log of orders that will stretch into late January or February. I will let everyone know a couple days in advance exactly when I will begin taking orders so that everyone has a good chance at getting a low queue number (remember I can only make 1-2 a day).

Rob
Payments will be - money order, check or PayPal.

Right on! Thanks.