Greetings!

One of the folks at work is looking into getting a hard drive MP3 player for his car. I am, of course, trying to sell him on the empeg. He agrees that the feature set is very rich, but availability is a concern for him. So, I am trying to be "open minded" and provide info on alternative models as well.

What other units are out there, and has anyone had good / bad experiences with them? I have already pointed him at the FAQ entry with the matrix comparing the PhatBox & the Neo against the empeg. Should I tell him to wait for a few weeks until something else comes out???

Thanks!

I bought one of the NEO's when they first came out, and had it installed for about 2 years, and had great luck with it. The only reason I ever got rid of it was because I got the empeg at a great price. The neo is actually in my brother's car and working great still. I really feel it has good bang for its buck when you dont consider that some of us were able to get the empeg for about the same price . Just dont tell him that!

I also had an original NEO35. Aside from the alternator whine which was fixed in later designs, I think it was pretty decent. I, however, bought my first empeg at $1,299 so it must not have been that good.

I think the remote display feature that now comes as standard equipment makes it a much better choice since almost no dash is deep enough to fit the actual unit. I think I would choose the Neo over PhatBox due to the Neo's more informative display and mount it in the trunk.

Not to mention that the NEO can be installed in virtually any car with AUX inputs, and the PhatBox AFAIK can only be installed in conjunction with a Kenwood HU.

PhatBox can work with a few different head units. The Kenwood Music Keg version is only for Kenwood HUs, but it is the most plentiful PhatBox.

I just wrote a nice lengthy reply and i lost it cause the board timed out so ill try to keep it short and remember to cut and paste to notepad before i submit (firewall problems had to vnc to my other windows box grrrrrrrr)

your option are

1. neo
2. music keg and variants (kenwood)
3. denison (new kid in the block)
4. CD mp3 player
5. custom install of a portable (ipod/jbmm/jukebox 3)
6. ghetto install
7. old trusty empeg

option 1 should be out of the question - too many DOAs non existent support and a pitiful randomall mode. I had a neo installed in my car for a year. it sort of worked but audio quality is not perfect and later this neo died on me. the randomall mode is annoying as it repeats tracks and you can not go back and forth between shuffled tracks.

2. music keg sounds ok, but is a bit on the expensive side + has heaps of limitations - it just feels like too much of a hack. besides you could probably get a second hand empeg for cheaper. also you will need a supported head unit - have a look on phatoboxs site

3. the denison: I have not read many reviews yet - but it may be a neo successor - still SnR is at 80db which is lower than the portables out there. so audio quality will not be to great

4. CD-MP3 in dash player - The JVC one is supposed to be pretty good - this technology is getting pretty mature and I am sure DVD-MP3 in-dash players are around the corner - this would be my second choice after the Empeg

5.Custom install of a portable - install an ajmm / ipod or creative 3 in a cradle - well this would be my third chice as its a bit of a hack and i think it would be a bit difficult to set up properly without audio degradation. the portables are designed as portables not car players

6. ghetoo install of a pc - good luck ... need i say more

7. old trusty empeg - still the best car mp3 player - i am willing to take bets there will be nothing better in the next 12 months unless rob is hiding something from us - if you can get an empeg for less that 900USD get it - i would pay an arm and a leg now for an empeg if i my empeg got stolen.

hope this helps

have a look at:
http://www.mpman.ca/ComputerInnovation/Comparison1.htm

Sam

There are also the Sony and Pioneer models. But I personally think they are some of the worst options (over a Neo, or PhatBox).

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unless rob is hiding something from us

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I have this fantasy where this audio player they're still working on that isn't flash based turns out to be a worthy ipod competitor that has an optional car docking mechanism with a DIN sized display and buttons... I don't expect this fantasy to come true, but I can always hope.

Matthew

I first bought a Neo35 instead of an Empeg because I found that an Empeg was too expensive. After only one month I had already decided that the Neo wasn't "all that". It was very hard to search for a specific track in my lengthy database and the shuffle feature just plain sucked.
So I then bit the bullet, sold the Neo 35 and got me an Empeg (which was still at full price then). I've never looked back since.

My fantasy is close, but consists of docking the unit to at least an 8" touch screen display to control the unit... (and make for much cooler visuals, color maps for GPSapp etc... ) A man can dream!

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6. ghetoo install of a pc - good luck ... need i say more

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I had a PC in my boot for over a year. It performed flawlessly and I only replaced it with the empeg because they became so cheap. As far as software goes, I used the Xaudio engine and wrote my own database driven control software. It did the trick and could do many of the playlist features that the old empeg player software could do.

Have you released this software? Can I have it? Will the database driven access software work with other front ends than xaudio?

I'm using mp3blaster (console) on a Linux machine for my home mp3 server. mp3blaster is fantastic. It is fast, small, and very easy to use. My server has 360GB (305GB used, at almost exactly 100MB per CD with 256kb/sec FBR. Yes, I did rip them myself. Yes, I really do have that many CDs. Yes, it was a major PITA). With that much data, file based management is a *problem*.

My fantasy is a MySQL database (initially populated with tag info) and a hacked mp3blaster that would allow additions to the playlists using sql like searching.

I don't have the programming experience with C++ and databases to pull this off. mp3blaster is open source ncurses based application, so a good programmer could probably hack it together fast. If your code is somewhat modular, I might be willing to take a shot at it, but I have a huge learning curve ahead of me...

mp3blaster has 2 modes: file select, and playback. By default, F1 toggles between the two. Adding a 3rd mode of "advanced search" which would point to a relational database of tag info would make it an absolutely *killer* home solution. Instead of toggleing, one would hit F1 again to go to Advanced mode, or something like that...

If you guys haven't checked it out, I'd definitely look at mp3blaster for dedicated home mp3 server use.

Jim

Just ran across this little module:
http://www.dontronics.com/kitstream.html
Looks pretty cool don't know how well it works but it's relatively cheap in USD. It takes IR commands so you could probably find a sterring wheel remote that would work with it.

Holy crap, that's cool. So what, that little unit connects to an IDE drive? And that's it? I mean, the display is very simple, but hey, it's tiny! And, of course, it's not fitted with RCA's for the car, and it doesn't have an EQ, or cool visuals, or any button/knob controls, or a little black and white penguin. But hey, it's cool for a home hacked HDD based player.... Wow, cool.

It is very cool, for some reason I'd like to install this inside of a wall at home. That would be cool.. to have an in-wall hard disc mp3 player system, controllable by remote. Getting the hard drive out to add must could be a problem though....And actually it does have bass/treble adjustment, not really an EQ but adjustable at least.

if a pc is under consideration you may want to refer him to route66
sql driven user friendly mp3 playing and preference memorizing multi-user system (ran out of clever things to add, and came up with no good way to complete the pseudo-sentence)

its what i was looking at working on before The Great Empeg Sale.