i am a new poster here, long time reader, and i am thinking of finally taking the plunge to get the empeg, but one thing seriously bothers me..

The acquisition by s3. First i am not a really big fan of s3.

Second, obviously production will be stepped up, which i am thinking is going to drop prices pretty drastically..

Third, i would think that they would change the look and features since the product will have a new logo/name?/corp identity behind it.

I guess i am wondering, if i buy this thing now, is it going to be replaced by a mark III in say 6 months.. what are the plans for product development, and how long has the mk II player ben out? How long was the mk I player out before the mk II was released..

just a LOT of money to spend on something that will be an outdated product in 6 months....

am i worrying over nothing>?

Second, obviously production will be stepped up, which i am thinking is going to drop prices pretty drastically

No one has said whether that will be happening soon or not. As it stands right now, they haven't changed the way the Mk2 is being manufactured so I get the impression that prices won't be changing in the very-near future. Sure, eventually they'll use a different assembly line, but there's no guarantee that this will reduce the price significantly (although you're right, it probably will).

A more likely scenario is that they will design a new car player with cheaper components, one that perhaps doesn't have all of the Mark2's features but is cheaper to manufacture. Then they'll have a high-end car player and a low-end car player. This is just speculation, though.

Finally, keep in mind that all technology products will always drop in price. No one is happy when they see an ad for a new computer: It's always twice as powerful as the one they bought last month, but for 2/3 the price. If you choose to wait for the price to drop, you will be waiting a long time since prices are always dropping. For me, the question is always "can I use this product now or not? Is it worth the current price to me now?"

Third, i would think that they would change the look and features since the product will have a new logo/name?/corp identity behind it.

The look might change a bit, sure. But the beauty of the Empeg design is that the features are all in software and everyone gets free upgrades. Even us lowly Mk1 owners benefit from most of the new features. So don't worry about new features- if you buy a Mk2 now, you'll get the new features down the road.

I guess i am wondering, if i buy this thing now, is it going to be replaced by a mark III in say 6 months.. what are the plans for product development, and how long has the mk II player ben out?

Somewhere else on the BBS hugo said that the Mk2 hardware would be around for a while, the next-generation unit was a ways off. I don't know if he gave a time frame, but I got the impression that it could be as much as a year off.

just a LOT of money to spend on something that will be an outdated product in 6 months....

No different than any other technology product. You have to ask yourself whether you want your entire CD collection in your car now or later, and how much is that worth to you?

Here's my calculation on that subject. See if you can come up with similar reasoning.

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Tony Fabris

This is pretty much right: if the price were to drop significantly, features would vanish. There's a certain amount of mileage that can be gained by building in bigger batches, and optimising some of the manufacturing steps and subassemblies but the big savings come when you redesign. You can be sure that we won't sacrifice flexibility or sound quality though - otherwise the whole product is flawed.

You're safe getting a mk2: there are about 1000 of them out there already, and there will be many thousand more before anything else happens in order for us to get the best value out of the fixed-cost items (test rigs, stock, etc).

We've always been committed to supporting our customers, and I really don't see that changing; for example, we offer all the features applicable and possible on the mk1 hardware to mk1 owners (and there are only a few hundred of those). When next-gen hardware arrives, the same will hold true - the basic empeg machine is pretty much the same between mk1/mk2, there are just more bells & whistles on the mk2 :)

Hugo

Keep in mind that the price has technicially already dropped twice© Some companies will keep the price the same, while adding more, thus equivelent to a price drop per say© Empeg has done this twice:

Mark 1 - > Mark 2© If i remember right, the Mark 1 4gb is about the same price of the Mark 2 6gb© Plus all the extra new features on the Mark 2© While some of the discount was offset by the external tuner, you are still getting more for your money©

Mark 2 28gb -> 20gb and 36-> 40© Here, you get more music space for less money© And assumng 16©6 hours of music per gig, thats a nice jump for no price increase©

I'm sure down the road a year or so, the high end empeg products will still sit about the same prices as now, but offer so much more©

Hey, Drakino, what did you do to your web browser? All the periods are getting replaced with copyright symbols in that post...

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Tony Fabris

well i do see what you mean, i mean, i am in teh tech field so i understand about things becoming obsolete fast..

it comforts me to know that you are still working with the mk I users as much as possible... and i do notice that in the hardware specs you say that 70% of the resources are still available, which makes me hope that ou would sort of "max" out the existing model if you DO decide to produce another..

anyway, all stuff to think of i suppose..

btw, how long does shipping take ? :)

I believe all models are in stock, and shipping to the USA is usually next day.

Rob

so they ship them the next day , and it takes what a week to actually get here?

so they ship them the next day, and it takes what a week to actually get here?

No, it takes a day to get there after they ship it. You'd be surprised how well FedEx handles things.

Of course, there is a slim possibility that the player will get hung up in customs. This has happened to a few buyers (not many). Theoretically, all the customs issues have been ironed out and this shouldn't happen to you.

Rest assured that if your player does get hung up in customs (you'll see it in the FexEx online tracking report), the Empeg folks will do their best to get it unstuck as quickly as possible. All you have to do is e-mail [email protected] and let them know what's going on.

But like I said, this shouldn't happen to you and there's no reason to worry about it.

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Tony Fabris

FedEx deliver next day to the US, by 10:30am.

Most consignments go through on time, but if US Customs can't reach you on the phone number you provide this could cause a delay. (The player is zero rated for duty, but customs sometimes ask you to provide importer of record details anyway).

Rob