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Rio Car (Empeg) Sounds Like History
An Anonymous Coward writes: "An unoffical announcement on the empeg BBS (home of their finatical user base) is that SONICblue's current aftermarket car linux product, the Rio Car (formerly the empeg Car Player) has been EOL'd. While it remains the most advanced car player available, there was not enough demand to keep that group profitable. It will continue to be sold through their e-stores (Non-USA and USA) until inventory is exhausted.
This was/is the ultimate in car stereo for MP3 playback. Disappointing."
Looking at their "summer specials", a 30 GB player costs $1499.. Thats way too much for anyone to pay
how much time do you spend in your car ? What would require you to need to play 30GB music in one trip ? The idea of having this sorta player is nice, very nice, but the cost is just too much.
If they had been able to make it below $1000, then
they might still have a shot.
$1499 is my insurance for the year, I'm better off buying a mp3-cd player that fits in my deck for $300-400, and just carry a bunch of MP3 cd's with me.
Considering it cost $1000 for the cheapest one, why wouldn't I just buy a laptop with a decent sound card? Hell, my car isn't even worth $1000. I'd use an old P/133 in the trunk before I spent this much on a Rio Car Player. I mean it's a car. The sound in a car is bound to pretty much suck since you're out there driving anyway. How is any car audio worth this much unless you are a truck driver and spend more time in the cab than anywhere else in the world?
I do not have a signature
Car audio is funny; look at the fact, for example, that many low-end cars still come with tape players. In cars, people want audio that is simple, but works. I think that the general pulic would never be crazy about transfering music to their car... Plus you can't listen to Imus on it.
That, or EOL simply means that somthing much cooler is coming soon!