Has anyone heard of the AudioReQuest system? It's a home stereo component that has tv output to display menus, visualisations etc. It's based on a Celeron (no mention of clock speed or RAM) and has a 17GB HDD.

The interesting thing was that their FAQ has this entry:

"15. What about a car version of AudioReQuest?

We plan on expanding the AudioReQuest product line with a Car Player and possibly a specialized DJ machine. However, if you can't wait for our car player to come out, we suggest you take a look at the EMPEG Car Player. A very impressive machine that we got a firsthand look at the MP3 Summit. We may be working with EMPEG to allow their machine to connect with ours."

The web site is here

Geoff
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Reg No. 554, s/n 00064 - It's mine I tell you.... all mine :)

The Audiorequest system seems to work really well: in essence it's a PC in a home stereo box, but with some specialist software (no windows in there!) - I think it's a Celeron 300. They were showing it off at CES and are shipping now from what I hear.

We're hopefully going to work out a way to get their system to upload to the empeg - they have a USB port, so this should be possible.

Hugo

One thing that interested me on their page was the statement:

Due to popular demand AudioReQuest is now shipping with an Ethernet Port which will be activated in a future software update!

While it reminds me how lucky we are that the empeg is upgradeable and its software will be continually improving (and these improvements free or at low cost), it makes me think. What hardware features would people like to see added, even if support for them in software wasn't immediately available? Would people want quad sound (left/right front/back), if for the moment the front and back were the same but they were promised to be truly seperable (e.g. via DSP settings or quad-channel sound files being availble) at some time in the future?

Sure, there are a lot of things that people have suggested that would be expensive to add - I imagine adding a RF out for a TV display might be cool but would cost a heap (especially if it has to conform to emission controls!). But there may be things that can be added in the Phase III which aren't that difficult or expensive and could be really useful when Hugo, Rob and all the rest get around to making them active...

Bring on the quadrophonic sound for me :-)


Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.

Bring on the quadrophonic sound for me :-)

I think that in order to do quadrophonic sound, they would have to change the way they're wired to the DSP. As I understand it, the DSP is only getting two inputs from the Empeg.

Question, though...

The Empeg is a car player. And most cars don't have 4-way equality in their speaker systems. A quadrophonic recording wouldn't sound good on most car systems. So what albums are recorded in quadrophonic sound that you would want to listen to? I don't know of any- enlighten me.

Also, as I understand it, the MP3 format mangles the audio signal enough so that the best you can hope to acheive is a decent amount of stereo separation. Multichannel information would be asking too much from it. Or am I wrong about that?



-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.

I realize this is a VERY old post. I own an Empeg MKII and I'm thinking about getting the audiorequest for home use. I really love the Video out stuff thats on it, the jukebox feature, remote, etc.. I love my Empeg and will be keeping it. Anyway, just wondering if you guys ever figured out how to transfer music back and forth between the two or not.

Also, if Sonic Blue is going to come out with something similar to this...I will wait...but I hear no plans anywhere....

??

-steve

Sonicblue has said they're doing a home jukebox in several press releases, eg:

http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/press/pr917.html

My, we have been busy recently :)

Hugo

...removable hard drive that can be easily installed under a seat or in a trunk

Does this mean you're exploring options for remote display?
Or is this another product like Visteon[sic?]?
Jason

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

No, look at the date on the article - it was very much pre-empeg acquisition. I wouldn't read anything into car player details in the article.

Hugo