Yup, the Kenwood works directly - IIRC, all the keys do something that the empeg listens to, but you may want to change what keys do what function on the empeg (ergonomics / what you do most while driving).
You won't (to the best of my knowledge, might be wrong...) lose any functionality from the buttons/knob/normal remote, the steering wheel just goes in parallell...
The other one may works as well - try a search of the forum with the model number of the remote and see if it's been mentioned before...
/Michael
_________________________
/Michael