While it may be a bit much to ask, and I fully understand if you don't answer this question... but....
About how much profit do you make from each EMPEG?
By profit I just mean in terms of hardware... I realize that you guys are probably struggling to stay alive with other overhead like your office space and paying the great programmers you have :)

I can't tell you what it costs to make the empeg - a hint would be that you could buy a whole celeron PC (including monitor) for what they cost to make - and that's excluding the hard disk. People tend to think that, because PCs have halved in price recently, that all electronics should be cheap - we wish :( Eg, TV's havn't suddenly dropped in price like PCs - the PC price cutting is driven by huge volumes and intense competition (and by some manufacturers selling below cost to gain market share).

The reality is that tailored, low-volume electronics aren't cheap or easy to make. That's not to say that a cheaper empeg couldn't be made - you could cut out the DSP, use a cheaper display, drop the serial port and aux inputs, etc - but that's not what the empeg-car is about. We made a box that did everything *we* wanted a box to do, figuring that there are enough discerning people out there who'd like the same thing - it's also a great showcase for OEM customers who can see what we're capable of producing.

On top of this of course we have to pay for the development costs - we're talking man-years of effort just in the software, and it's not even finished yet - and all the admin that a company needs to have when they employ people.

We're not laughing all the way to the bank, but we're making something unique in the world which people appreciate - and there aren't many feelings better than that :)

Hugo