Could be.. but are the visuals really worth the extra cost the strongarm cpu adds? Could the visuals be done with a different cpu that was cheaper?

Besides this I think the Empeg's real trouble was in marketing.. they marketed to the wrong crowd by marketing to nerds. Most self-respecting techies back in those days couldn't face their friends if they bought a $1000 car stereo when they thereotically could have rolled their own car mp3 player for 1/3 the price. They should have marketed to car audio nerds who brag about how much they spend on their stereo (and maybe they tried and failed i dunno).