<<when you know that they'll never be made again, you suddenly are willing to pay a premium. >>

I happily paid $1900 for my 36GB. Late last year, fearing that S3 wasn't doing well financially, I attempted to purchase a 2nd unit on their Web site for ~1K (?), but their site wouldn't accept my order. When I saw their blow-out pricing, I purchased 10 units :-)

So, you're right. I would never have purchase 10 units for myself. But I figure with a MTBF of 5 years (likely much longer), I'll be 80+ when they bury me with my empeg.

Having worked in IT for 16+ years, I know not to say that it doesn't get any better. However, I doubt I'll see a color plasma screen mpeg 1.x player with a xx TB hard drive (and of course Linux not WindBlows) hit the street anytime soon. So, I was willing to stop the clock and increase my stake in the empeg. I suspect S3 is wondering what's going with their faster than expected fire sale.

As for S3, I hope they can get their act together. I dropped an email to their CTO explaining the problems with their order entry on their Web site (family and friends couldn't sucessfully place online orders). No response, and the problem still exists.

Sean