I'm posting this so that anyone else who experiences it doesn't wonder if they are alone. I should note that, despite the problem at hand, I'm extremely satisfied with Empeg's handling of the situation and already looking forward to upgrading to the latest unit sometime next year.

Observation:
Unit display simply shut off, player continued to function. Flashing power LED flashed while unit was in use, indicating unit was "off" when, in fact, unit was actually "on". Unit was in car at time of failure. Failure occurred when switching vehicle ignition from "accessory" position to "on" position.

Troubleshooting:
Unit behaved identially when connected to AC power as it did in car. (i.e. Power LED flashed, display was absent, unit continued to play tunes.) Loaded latest beta consumer release (8c); No status change. Emailed detailed description of circumstances, environment, and actions during time of failure (and beta code load) to Empeg support, which was highly responsive; Empeg reported it's happened to a few players and suspects an internal fuse is blown. Aparently people have inadvertently connected the orange sled wire to the accessory line of their vehicles rather than to the amp remote line -- which will blow an internal fuse. (I don't know if there's more than one...) Checked all sled wiring at Empeg's suggestion to insure correct wiring scheme; wiring OK (in my case I don't even use said orange wire).

Resolution:
1 business day later Empeg scheduled a pickup for the unit. A larger fuse will be installed (if the fuse is the issue) to account for possible surges. Empeg is handling shipping costs and all shipping is single-day air.

Comments:
A day before the display failure I had inquired about purchasing green/amber display lenses for aesthetic reasons; Empeg has gone above and beyond the call of duty and offered to do a gratis lens replacement for my trouble. (Thanks!)

This happened late December 28. Empeg was notified December 29, pickup is today, December 30. i.e. It's in the midst of the holidays and Empeg has still been amazingly responsive. Colour me content...

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand..."

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Rob is THE MAN!

Let me guess, you live in the UK.

I live in the US (Los Angeles) and I had the same problem with slightly different resolution.

Called EMPEG US (or whatever) and arrainged to have the unit picked up. 5:00 and the package is still sitting on the desk at work so I call EMPEG again and I'm told that fed-ex tried to call me but the number was not valid and they did not want to come out without talking to me first. WHAT! Fed-ex comes to my office 3 times a day with an 18 wheeler. I think they know how to find me. And thanks for calling me to let me know there was a problem.

So I pay to ship it out to them bacause I am eager to get it back in time for a car shw that I am exhibiting at soon. Don't worry they tell me, we can get it back to you soon.

A week goes by and no player so I call them again. Ohh, we are waiting for parts, should be here soon.

Another week and I call again. Now he tells me that the player had to be sent back to the UK (this is a lie) and it should be soon. At this point I e-mail the UK and ask what the status of my player is because I think that they have it.

Finally they e-mail me back and tell me that my player is still in the US waiting for parts. At that point rob gives me the e-mail address for the US office who I e-mail and ask for the status of the player. A day later it shows up. 2 days later I get an e-mail from the US office telling me that the player is fixed. thanks.

I'll give rob some credit, he did handle things very well.

-M

Empeg #249. In use for 5 days, in the shop for 3 weeks.

Actually, I live in Austin, TX, USA...

"If you would judge, understand..."

This just happened to my empeg too. It hadn't been installed
in the car for long, but from what I can tell the installation
was done correctly.

I haven't got a reply from empeg yet, but I expect the problem
will be similar to yours. I just hope I don't have to send it
all the way back to England to get it fixed.

The unit is still usable, as long as I can remember all
the menus.

Here is an interesting side-effect:
With my display dead, I no longer get any pop when I turn
off the ignition. Not even a little bit. It is just
completely quiet.

Maybe if the display is shut down immediately when power is lost,
the pops would go away.

Richard.

All they did to mine was replace a fuse. It's worked like a champ ever since...

Interesting about the lack of "pop". I've never really had that "pop" problem since I let my turbo charger wind down while I remove the Empeg, remove the faceplate to my head unit, and place both into a case logic bag before I power down the vehicle.

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand." -- Seneca

Rob answered my email the very next day, and now my empeg is winging its way
around the world to be fixed up (thanks Rob). Actually, it may have even landed in
England by now.

The only problem is, it's too quiet in my car now (well, apart from the
engine noise that is).

Actually, that raises another point. I basically got the install guy
to install the amp, run the wiring etc, and then when I got it home
I applied all the "sound quality" patches suggested by empeg. Initially
I had quite loud digital noise (audible whilst actually driving, if the
music was quiet). With every patch (grounding straps, power filter,
insulating tape around empeg rcas, amp gain adjustment) the noise was
reduced by between 5-15dB, I reckon. Now, I can just hear the noise if the
engine is off, there is no external audible noise, and I stick my ear
right up against the speaker. It's a pretty similar volume to the music
output when the volume is at its minimum non-zero level. I may even
increase my amp gain again, it's that quiet.

After applying all these patches, I was listening fairly critically to the sound quality for
a while. I kept on thinking that every little rattle and squeak in the
car was a failure in the latest "patch" I had applied. I'm over it now, though.

Anyway (he says, finally getting to the point) if there are people out there
with true hifi systems in their cars (my speakers are anything but), how do you
treat your vehicle for all that ambient noise? Do you just live with the
background noise, and crank the volume up?

Richard.

how do you treat your vehicle for all that ambient noise? Do you just live with the background noise, and crank the volume up?

Personally, I just live with the noise and crank up the volume. But I've known others who go to more trouble. One of my close friends dismantled his Toyota Celica's interior down to the bare metal and applied dynamat to every possible surface. When he was done, the car sounded like a Mercedes inside.

In case you haven't seen it before, dynamat is basically sheets of thick rubber with heat- and pressure-sensitive sticky stuff on the back. You dismantle the plastic and upholstery bits inside your car, dynamat the bare metal, and reassemble the interior. You can get the stuff from Crutchfiled, but it's not cheap.

Dynamat is advertised as a cheap way to improve your stereo's sound quality. The idea is, if you bring the car's noise floor down, you can play your stereo at lower volumes and you don't have to buy more powerful speakers and amps. To me, though, it's cheaper and easier to buy bigger amps than to strip down my car's interior so I can get at the bare metal.





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

I'm driving a convertible so there is a certain about of squeaking that you have to live with due to the convertible top. And with the top down, the wind noise is impossible to get rid of :-0.

However I do know people with convertibles who mounted Dynamat. I know one guy who works for a radio station and was able to get a lot of the sound proofing material for free from the radio station and decked out the innards of his Miata with it.

Calvin

I've got rattles and squeaks in my MR2 at the moment and dynamat is one part of my final planned solution. The other part consists of filling all of the empty body cavities with blow-in foam. Cans of it are available in the US at Home Depot for about 10 bucks a can (I'll need a lot of them). You spray this goopy substance into place and within 24 hours it's hardened into styrofoam.

The idea here is to not only eliminate exterior noise carried through bare metal (which is what dynamat is good for) ... but to also eliminate resonant noise emanating from empty spaces with the car's body. Once that's been done the plan is to take a listen and find which internal body panels squeak -- and then solve that by applying epoxy to the inside of the panels so that they are atached to the body beneath them.

And of course ... crank it up just because I can... =]

I won't get to any of this until I'm done with my sub boxes, sub installation, and auxilliary amp installations -- as well as finding proper cooling for the amps, increasing the alternator size for power, and adding a capacitor to the setup to avoid having my headlights blink as I thump down the road.

Frequency sweeping and soundproofing have to be the last things I do; it's a pain in the butt to run wires through styrofoam-laden cavities. =]

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand." -- Seneca

The other part consists of filling all of the empty body cavities with blow-in foam

Use caution if doing this. Some body cavities have holes at the bottom and are meant to drain water out of the vehicle body as a rustproofing measure.

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

Aye. I took the time to locate them when I was tearing out the stock system and it's amps. =]

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand." -- Seneca

Be carefull with that foam, a friend of mine was installing new windows in his house and used that foam. He filled all of the space around the windows so there would not be any leaks. As that foam dries, its expands, the next day, the windows would not open because the foam pinched them in!

Yup. I've done this before, so no worries. Thanks for the concern, though.

By the way, we should probably take this to installation tips if we're going to continue this thread.

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand." -- Seneca

I hope it doesn't harden into Styrofoam. I imagine that various parts of the car has a certain amount of compression and decompression as you turn corners, accelerate and decelerate -- and when I think of styrofoam compressing and decompressing, I think of it cracking and squeaking.

Calvin