I never would have heard or know of this devise if it would not been by word of mouth.

I think the firesale was posted on a deal site I frequented. I really had no idea how the thing worked, but bought one anyway. It is one of the only pieces of hardware that I still use everyday.

I think I did a search on Ebay for a head unit that could play MP3 CDs. I came up with something that said it was better than an Empeg player....

A google search led me here!

Hugo's original MP3 car project, the precursor to empeg, was something I'd seen linked somewhere. Eventually, when they started the company, he linked www.empeg.com from that page.

<AOL> What Tony said. Didn't have the means to buy 'til later (college...etc..) but had several iterations of an in-car music playing computer (including one based on almost the same hardware as Hugo's original) before converting to an empeg during the firesale.

I heard about it in the Mark1 days, promptly forgot about it, and then rediscovered it (I do not remember how) when the waiting list was already well established for the Mark2_. I jumped on the list at that point, and have been hooked ever since.

After making such a great devise it’s too bad there was no money left for advertising. Maybe we’d all be talking about the new Mark V’s (not Speed Racer’s).

Or maybe it’s the penguin, apples might be better advertising logo’s. But I don’t think so.

I heard about it pre MKI, followed a link from the ARM website, had my name down for one but never bought it in the end cos I just didn't have the time to convert 2100 albums to mp3. Now I've got a Karma ans Squeezeboxes at home

A coworker of mine was in the queue for the Mark2 and it was all he talked about. I shamefully admit that I (along with the rest of his coworkers) made fun of him quite a bit for spending so much money on an mp3 player- and then it arrived. It took about 30 seconds after he had it out of the box for me to eat my words, hang my head, and resolve to own one for myself. Unfortunately, I lacked the poper funding- but I started saving. It was all my friends heard about for months, and yes they made fun of me for wanting to spend so much money on an mp3 player. Then the firesale hit and I bought one right away, no looking back. By FAR the best value for my money that I've ever spent and one of my two prized posessions (along with my Martin HD-28).

I was interested in finding some way to play these relatively new MP3 files in a car. I started searching and stumbled on an article by either PC Magazine or PC World (I'm pretty sure). They breifly mentioned this thing called an empeg, and immediately discounted it because who in their right mind would spend that much money on such a device? They then went on to discuss the various ways to build your own PC, which ended up sounding like it would cost almost the same amount and with much more hassle for less results.

So logic led me to the empeg.

I got emailed a link looong ago by a friend who was looking for a way to make a car-mp3 player (he finally did - it sucked). I was on the waiting list for the Mark I but college got in the way of the funding. Bought one on the firesale. Never looked back.

I remember it from the mp3mobile, too. I'm still waiting for the RF connection and the distributed.net client....

My best friend is a total Linux nerd, so he knew about it long before the first unit was produced. He turned me on to it and I got on the waiting list. I think I was #6000 or something.

In 1998 I'd recently finished developing the Q2000 laser tag system with Patrick and Hugo, and was spending most of my time doing site installations. Hugo mentioned that he had a neat car player concept and was putting together a commercial version with Patrick. They didn't need an old fashioned C programmer like me, but they did need someone customer facing... and so it was!

I didn't get to actually own an empeg until much later!

Rob

Slashdot.

Thursday October 22nd 1998, I was in the college library reading this news item. Having just installed Redhat on my home PC, and being a total car geek, I was fascinated. I saw the headline, and I thought whoa, a Linux PC in a car headunit? Laptop harddrives - wow, you could put so much on it. Imagine all the strange and wonderful 3rd party opensource bits of software you could get on it too. It would be able to do everything with the right amount of hacking. It had a serial port for a console and everything. "I'm gonna get one of those!". From that day onwards I encoded and tagged all the music I ever got. Even recorded stuff from tape. That took a long time on a 120MHz Cyrix.

Yeah, but I was only 16. Just over 6 years later, I finally passed my driving test and got my own ride. A couple of months later, I had an Empeg in my car, and paid less than an iPod for it.

Livin' the dream.

www.mp3.com used to have hardware reviews. The empeg mk1 was the only one so I signed up for the queue after seeing a little video showing how great the menus and visuals were.

I first bought a Neo35 to install in my car because I couldn't afford an Empeg back then. I had stumbled onto the www.empeg.com page and onto this forum before, and I had lurked here for a while, drooling.
Still, I managed to convince myself that the Neo35 would serve my needs just as well. Big mistake. I had it for about one month in my car before I pulled it back out. Constant trouble. But because those mp3 players in the car were very rare here (you actually had to import one yourself if you wanted one), I was able to re-sell it pretty fast and even make some money on it. I then decided to bite the bullet and did what I should have done in the first place: I sold some stuff and then finally got the player that I wanted: a 10GB Empeg. (Well, it was a RioCar by then. ) I would have gotten one sooner if I could have only afforded it.

stumbled on an article by either PC Magazine or PC World

I bet it was the same article I saw -- really, just a paragraph.

I was within days of ordering the parts to try and build my own in-car solution when I saw it. No doubt it saved me a lot of money and trouble.

tanstaafl.

I met Rob at CES (was it Comdex?) when the Mark II was a sparkle in his eye...

Thanks Rob!

- Jon

Note sure if it was this exact article in Linux Journal, but was LJ around that time. The blue display grabbed me.

Short version:
Saw empeg mentioned during routine MP3 hardware research in 1998, but wrote it off. Then in 2001, luckily came across it again and was hooked ever since.

Long version:
I had been stalking MP3 players since the Rio PMP300, though could never justify purchasing one. My travels led me to the early empeg-on-crush-purple-velvet (thanks Tony) picture. Unfortunately, both the empeg and the first portable HDD player, the Personal Jukebox, were dismissed by me as impractical because "their hard drives will surely break under normal usage conditions." I decided the most practical MP3 player created to date (at the time) was the Rio Volt. I bought one as soon as possible and stopped following MP3 hardware entirely.

Fast forward from early 1998 to late 2001. While looking for an in-dash MP3 solution for my new (used) car, I luckily extended my search from Crutchfield to Google and rediscovered the empeg. After seeing the long MKI video showing the user interface and visuals, I was converted. Honestly, it was the Sound Flag visual that ensured I would pay *any* price for an empeg. I bought one new-in-box (thanks TTony), had it installed pronto, and the rest is history.

"hard drives will surely break under normal usage conditions.", nonsense! I should have read that 1998 article closer to realize just who was behind this and how good it was.

http://www.anders.com/words/route66.html

Read that article in Maximum Linux magazine and went to the internet to look around some more. I came across something about the empeg mentioned on some site and wanted one right then.

Strange (I usually remember such details), but I can't recall what brought me (in the summer of '99) to then already about a year old empeg web site. I fell in love with the idea at first sight and joined this BBS as member #315 and queued at position #5196 of the waiting list (so I was rather late). I had to pass the first time my number came up for financial reasons. I remember dithering over waiting for higher capacity, but somebody (I think it was Tony Fabris) easily put me on the right way, so I bought a 18GB MKII (#080000376) second time arround. I don't care to remeber exactly the rather outrageous (for me at the time) price, but I don't regret a penny of it. Buying a 60GB spare at firesale was a no-brainer, of course.

Thank you, again, Hugo and the gang, both for a marvelous toy, and for creating, indirectly, such a wonderful community as this BBS is.

(I just spend some time reading threads with my first posts, not without some sense of melancholy. The first reply I got was from both Hugo and Rob, on a Sunday afternoon! It still hurts to think that such an amazing product from such an unique company (i.e. people) turned out a relative commercial failure... )

I just just tried to find my reply to the last time this question was asked but it was something along the lines of..... Came across mp3car.com, saw Hugos mp3mobile and decided to build my own as a uni project (which included writing the software for it). Approx. 6 months later came across a paragraph in Max Power (i know how sad!) with a URL. Had a look, recognised a few names, seriously keen but completely skint as I was still at Uni. Once I left I got ready to build a second version of my original player with a TFT, had almost forgotten the empeg (still couldn't afford one) got most of the stuff bought and then found out about the firesale, I then promptly sold all the bits bought two players, one from a long lost forum user TommmyD and the other from carplayer.com..... phew almost out breath.

Great product made by the nicest bunch of blokes you could ever hope to meet, and the Karma is the reason I could never bring myself to buy an ipod...

I just hope sigmatel make the most of the talent they've aquired.

I too heard about it from Hugo's mp3mobile page, I believe linked off Slashdot ages back. Kept checking the site from time to time, saw empeg.com go up, and got in the line for a Mark 1.

Quote:
distributed.net client

The Linux ARM client should run on an empeg. I had it working on my Mark 1 for a while after submitting a bug report. They started compiling it so it could run on the empeg kernel, since before then it needed pthreads support.

Yup, yup- word of mouth from a multiple-empeg owner.
Strange- it hasn't yet been a year since I learned about the empeg's existence.
The desire for an in-dash mp3 player was outlined here in Feb 2005.
I was reciting my lament to a good friend who just shrugged and said, "You want an empeg."
Before summer arrived I had bought two from members on this BBS.

I am amazed-
1) at the empeg's functionality
2) at this BBS community's warmth, (com)passion, and cohesion
3) that the empeg was removed from production
4) that the Chinese haven't copied it (in a market where nothing else like it exists! iPod? Bah!)

Thanks for a great 2005!

I first saw the mp3mobile (and Hugo!) on a news item on (UK's) ITV Central region TV. The wireless networking, not to mention the in-car display was the start of the 'wow' factor for me. At the time I was also an avid reader of #linuxwarez on efnet and I may well have been influenced there too.

Fast forward to sometime later; I remember getting my queue email from Rob (I really do want to see if I can resurrect my old .pst files). ISTR that at that time I was merely showing interest rather than committing to buy (I hope I didn't misunderstand that!).

A while later I aquired one via a private deal then shortly afterwards the firesale started.

I also saw Hugo's original mp3mobile site, before any mention of empeg. I bookmarked it, forgot about it, and then rediscovered it several times over the coming years.

I never had the cash to buy one, and I don't have andym's commitment to make my own, so it was out of my reach until the firesale.

I have met some good people at the user meets I have been to, and still use it on every long trip (over 30mins) I do. I like it, I'm not sure what my life would have been like without it, very much less interesting I think

Cheers

Cris.