empeg car User manual

digital audio player
user guide
mp3 in your dash

empeg car user guide 1
contents
3one: unpacking the player
5two: car installation
Amplifier requirements
Mounting orientation
Physical
Summary of electrical connections
Electrical connection details
9three: windows software installation
Uninstalling the windows software
Macintosh users using emulation software
11 four: home installation
Connecting to mains power
Connecting to your home computer
Connecting to your home stereo
13 five: emplode music management software
Introduction
Documentation
Encoding your music
Starting the emplode program
Playlist tree
Track list
Creating a new playlist
Adding a track to a playlist
Synchronising the player
Emplode online help
19 six: operation
Front panel controls
Rotary control
Remote control
Menu functions
Searching
Using the equaliser
Using the alphanumeric keypad

This manual is for the empeg car digital audio player.
empeg Limited provides this publication as is without
warranty of any kind, either express or implied. Except
where prohibited by law. Information is given in good
faith however empeg Limited can accept no responsibility
for losses arising as a result of the use or misuse of
information in this publication.
This publication could include technical or typographical
errors. Improvements and/or changes in the product(s)
and/or the program(s) described in this publication may
be made at any time.
Copyright © empeg Limited 2000. All Rights Reserved.
2empeg car user guide
27 seven: optional tuner module
Tuning
Presets
29 eight: upgrading the player software
31 nine: service and support
Cleaning
Software maintenance
Contacting our service centre
33 ten: appendices

one: unpacking the player
Upon unpacking your empeg car player, please check that
each of the following items are enclosed:
• empeg car player
• Car mounting cage
• Infra red remote control
• Home power supply
• emplode software CD
• USB connection cable
• Serial connection cable
• 9 to 25 pin serial adaptor
• This manual
• Car bumper and window stickers
If any of the items are missing, please contact us at
[email protected] (see contact details in appendix f)
Other items you may require are:
• Ethernet cable with RJ-45 connector for 10BaseT
• Phono (RCA) lead to connect to home amplifier
empeg car user guide 3
1V Line out
RS232 Serial
Ethernet
USB
11-16VDC 1A
Neg. Ground
Car docking
connector
LR
Power in
Security
Rear view
Front view
Rotary
control
Control
buttons IR window
and status LED
Carrying
handle
Display area
Link
(ethernet)

4empeg car user guide

two: car installation
The empeg car unit is no harder to install than any other
car head unit, however, if you are not experienced with
head unit installation we recommend you leave the job to
a professional. As with other two-part (head unit and
separate amplifier) combination systems, the sound
quality – and in particular audio interference – is greatly
affected by the way the units are wired.
A good car audio specialist will be able to supply and
install a suitable amplifier as well as fitting the empeg car.
Amplifier requirements
The unit has high-level line outputs, and requires an
amplifier that can handle 3.2V RMS line outputs: ideally,
you need to test the empeg unit with the amplifier you
intend to use before purchasing it. Ensure you get an
amplifier with an adjustable gain control so that it can be
matched to the empeg car’s output levels.
The unit provides four channels (two left/right pairs, one
for front and one for rear), so for a four-speaker system
you will require either a four-channel amp or 2x two-
channel amps. The empeg does not provide a separate
subwoofer out – an external active crossover is
recommended for this.
When setting up the amplifier the gain should be turned
to minimum (least sensitive) and then, with the empeg car
set to maximum output (0dB attenuation), turned up until
your maximum listening level is reached. Too high a
sensitivity setting will cause both distortion at high
volumes and interference at low levels.
empeg car user guide 5

Mounting orientation
The unit is designed to mount close to horizontal: ideally,
the unit should be leaning back at an angle of 8 degrees
(this is fairly common practice in car dashboards) but
angles from 0 degrees to 16 degrees tilt (the rear of the
unit being lower than the front) are acceptable.
The unit is not designed to be mounted vertically (front
faces upwards) or on its side, as this compromises the
effectiveness of the shock mountings inside the unit.
Physical
The empeg car dock is a DIN-E sized unit: the aperture it
fits into is the standard size of 183mm (7.2") wide and
50mm (2") high. The unit is 173mm (6.8") deep, including
cables.
As with other DIN units, the unit is secured with push-out
tabs that hold onto the dashboard. After completing the
wiring of the dock, it should be pushed into place and the
appropriate tabs pushed out (so they protrude on the
outside of the dock) in order to hold the dock securely in
place.
Summary of electrical connections
Power
Black Earth
Yellow Permanent power input
Orange Ignition sense input
White Headlights sense input
Blue Amplifier remote power on
Green Mute input (e.g. for mobile phone)
The above connections are brought out to a standard ISO
car audio connector, suitable for direct connection to
many modern vehicles. For vehicles without an ISO
connector, the mating connector is available from all good
car audio suppliers.
Audio
Line out (front pair/rear pair) 4 volt output
Line in (pair) 1 volt input
Microphone in (3.5" jack)
6empeg car user guide

Digital
RS232 Serial port (9-way female D type)
empeg Tuner port (8-way male)
Electrical connection details
Ground (black)
The empeg car works with negative earth cars only. The
case is connected to ground, as is this connection.
Permanent power input (yellow)
The power input takes a maximum of 1A at 12V to power
the unit: any current taken by the amplifier remote line
will increase this value. The line is fused at 3A, and the
empeg unit is internally fused at 3A. If the fuse blows,
investigate and rectify the problem (check the empeg unit
powers up with the home power adapter) and always
replace with a fuse of the same type and rating.
An in-line power filter is fitted into the power line to filter
out ignition noise from the car supply.
The unit has a solid-state internal fuse. If this is tripped,
disconnect the unit from the power supply and leave for a
few minutes to allow the fuse to reset, and check the unit
works with the mains adapter before trying it again in the
car. If the solid state fuse trips, a faint “hot electrical”
smell may be detected – this is normal.
The power input should be connected to the permanent
12V power line of the car wiring. The empeg car can
function with a supply voltage from 8V to 16V DC. Audio
quality may be reduced at low voltages.
Ignition sense input (orange)
This 12V input should be connected to the vehicle
switched accessories line. To prevent excessive battery
drain, it should only be powered when the ignition is
switched on.
Headlights sense input (white)
This 12V input should be connected to the dashboard
night illumination line. It activates the automatic night
display dimmer feature.
empeg car user guide 7

Amplifier remote power on (blue)
This line can also be used to control an automatic
antenna, with the same proviso on current sourcing as
above. Note that the antenna will extend whenever the
empeg is switched on, regardless of whether the tuner,
digital audio or auxiliary source is selected. Some empeg
tuner modules may have a dedicated antenna control
output which would be preferable for this application.
Mute input (green)
This 12V input is used to automatically mute or pause the
audio output. This is primarily intended for use with an in-
car cell phone.
Audio
There are two pairs of audio outputs on phono (RCA)
connectors, with an output level of approximately 3.2V
RMS. The 1V line inputs can take audio from other head
units or portable CD/DAT/Minidisc players and route it
through the empeg Aux channel.
The microphone input is suitable for connection to a
passive condenser mic or an active DSP mic.
Digital
The empeg car’s serial port docks with the car mounting
cage, allowing connection to permanently fitted in-car
computer equipment. The connector provides transmit,
receive, flow control, ground and +12V outputs on a 9
pin RS232 connector.
8empeg car user guide
If this connector is not used, care must be taken to
ensure that it is insulated due to the 12V output
present on pin 4.
This line is used to turn the external amplifiers on. It
should NOT be used to power the amplifier, as it is a
low current line, which can supply a maximum of 1
amp at 12V – this should be connected to the
amplifier’s ‘Remote’ line, with the amplifier drawing
its power from a direct battery feed.

three: windows software
installation
Insert the empeg car emplode disc into your CD drive. The
installation wizard will automatically start, unless you
have disabled auto-run in which case open the CD and
double click the Setup icon in the emplode folder.
The emplode License Agreement will be displayed. Please
read this and click Yes to indicate acceptance of the terms
if agreeable to you. Release notes will then be displayed,
which should be read before clicking Next.
You will be prompted to enter your name, company (if
applicable) and serial number. The serial number can be
located on the silver label attached to your player. Please
type the number exactly as it appears, including leading
zeros, then click Next.
If you wish to change the default installation folder you
can now do so by clicking Browse, otherwise click Next to
continue. You can now specify the Start Menu location for
the emplode icons, and click Next once more.
The software will now install onto your computer. Once
complete, click Finish.
At this stage, it is recommended that you restart your
computer.
empeg car user guide 9
It is important to ensure that you do NOT connect
the empeg player to your PC via USB before
commencing the Windows software installation. If
you do so Windows will prompt you to supply a
driver location – do not do so, but rather cancel the
dialog box, disconnect your player, and continue
with the instructions that follow.

Uninstalling the Windows software
If you should wish to remove the empeg emplode
software from your computer, open the Add/Remove
Programs dialog from the Control Panel. Scroll down the
list of installed programs, select ‘empeg car Management
Software’ and click Add/Remove. The software will now
be totally removed from your computer.
Macintosh users using emulation software
emplode works with PC emulation products such as
Virtual PC, RealPC and SoftWindows; providing an
appropriate version of Windows is installed.
USB support depends upon the hardware and emulation
product. Please note that we are unable to provide
support for emplode running under emulation.
10 empeg car user guide

four: home installation
To download and organise music on your player you will
need to connect it to a mains power outlet and PC. The
power adapter and cables that are required for this are
supplied with the player. You may also wish to connect
your player to your home stereo to listen to your digital
music out of the car – an additional cable is required for
this purpose.
Connecting to mains power
Connect the power adapter to the empeg car player
power socket on the rear panel. As soon as the power
adapter is plugged into a live socket the player will power
up ready for use.
Note that the supplied power adapter is auto-ranging,
suitable for use with voltages from 100V to 240V.
Connecting to your home computer
You can connect your empeg car player to your home
computer with USB, 10Base-T Ethernet or RS232 Serial.
USB or Ethernet are the recommended options for
downloading tracks, as they are much faster than Serial.
You will need to use the Serial connection if your
computer does not have (or support) USB or TCP/IP
Ethernet connections and when upgrading the software in
the player. USB is not available on Windows 95 (including
OSR2) or Windows NT 4.0.
The Serial cable requires a 9-pin port – the supplied
adapter is necessary for connection to a 25-pin port.
To connect your player, simply insert the appropriate cable
into the port on the rear panel of the player and into your
computer. You should avoid connecting the USB cable
until you have installed the supplied software (refer to
section three).
empeg car user guide 11

If you wish to connect the empeg car to an existing
ethernet network, you will require an Ethernet Patch cable
with RJ-45 connectors (not supplied) to connect into a
hub. If you wish to connect the empeg car directly to a
computer, you will require an Ethernet crossover cable
(not supplied) with RJ-45 connectors.
Connecting to your home stereo
The phono (RCA) jacks on the rear of the player provide
1V line outputs suitable for direct connection to a home
amplifier. A cable for this purpose can be obtained from
any electronics or hi-fi outlet (be sure to check the
connections required by your amplifier).
Note that the line outputs cannot drive any load directly –
do NOT connect them to speakers or headphones.
12 empeg car user guide
For home use it is strongly recommended that you
set the output gain (volume) on the player to 0dB
and adjust the volume from your amplifier. This will
ensure optimum signal to noise ratio.

five: the emplode music
management software
Before proceeding with this section, install the emplode
software as described in section three.
Introduction
The emplode program is responsible for managing the
music database on your empeg car player, including
loading tracks, setting and changing track details and
organising your music. The program runs on your home
computer and communicates with your player via a USB,
Ethernet or Serial connection – refer to section three for
details of making this connection.
Documentation
This guide gives a basic overview for using emplode.
Full documentation is provided with the program via the
Windows help system.
Encoding your music
Before music can be played by the empeg car it must be
encoded in a supported audio format. Currently
supported formats are MP3 and MP2, with more coming
in subsequent software upgrades. These formats compress
the data yet maintain excellent audio characteristics,
which is why the empeg car can store so much music.
The empeg emplode software does not perform the
encoding – this may have been performed by your music
vendor (if you are purchasing tracks in MP3 format) or, if
you wish to encode your own CD collection, a third party
product is required. There are many such products – some
free, some commercial – available from the Internet and
computer stores. We recommend Audio Catalyst by Xing
Technology (http://www.xingtech.com) as it is fast, of high
quality and easy to use.
empeg car user guide 13

It is particularly convenient for your MP3 encoded tracks
to have ID3 tags. This feature of many encoding programs
incorporates track titles, artist names and other details
into the encoded track – often automatically via Internet
music databases. If these details are included at the time
of encoding it will save you time later.
Starting the emplode program
The empeg music database is stored on the car player
itself, never on your PC, so before you can use emplode
you must connect your player to the computer (refer to
section four) and switch it on.
Load the emplode program from the Start Menu (by
default it will have been placed in a sub menu called
‘empeg car’). If the player is connected and switched on a
short sequence will take place during which the music
database is retrieved.
If this does not happen check that the player is powered
up and connected correctly. It may be necessary to tell
emplode how the player is connected – click Options to
open the configuration window. If the player is connected
via USB select ‘Universal Serial Bus’. If it is connected by
RS232 Serial select ‘Serial port’ and choose the port
number from the drop down list. Refer to the emplode
help system for details of how to configure an Ethernet
connection. Click OK when you have selected the
appropriate connection: emplode will now attempt once
again to connect to the car player.
When the connection has been successfully made, and the
music database retrieved, the emplode main window will
open.
14 empeg car user guide
emplode connection
options window

Playlist tree
Tracks on the empeg car player are organised into
playlists. A playlist is simply a collection of tracks that are
grouped together, perhaps because they have a common
theme; they may be from a certain album, by a certain
artist, or of a certain genre. A playlist can contain further
playlists (known as nested lists), and it is this hierarchy
that provides for fast selection of music on the player.
The top-level playlist, which is always present, is called
‘empeg car’ by default and cannot be deleted. A playlist
called ‘Unattached items’ is also listed. This contains items
not in a playlist. On the player, these items appear in the
first menu under playlists. From thereon the structure of
your music database is entirely up to you. The way in
which you choose to organise your music will reflect your
personal preferences.
In the example window shown on page 16, you can see
that tracks have been grouped into artist, group and
genre playlists. In fact, the tracks in each of the genre
playlists are copied from an artist or group playlist. You
can refer to a track in as many playlists as you want, but it
will only be stored once in the player so no capacity is
wasted.
When a playlist is selected on the car player, the tracks in
any nested lists will also play, and so on until the entire
branch of the tree has played. For example, the top level
empeg car playlist contains all of the tracks on the player,
whereas the artist playlist shown contains all of the tracks
for each of the artists.
You may choose to organise your music in an entirely
different way to this – it’s up to you!
It’s easy to navigate the playlist tree: open a branch by
clicking the + symbol, and close it again by clicking the –
symbol. Alternatively you can double click on a list to
open or close it’s branch. To select a playlist, simply
highlight it by clicking.
empeg car user guide 15

Track list
The track list displays each of the tracks and nested lists
that are contained in the highlighted playlist. Four views
are available: Large Icons view, Small Icons view, List view
and Details view. The view can be changed from the View
menu, or from the toolbar controls.
In the List view (which is the recommended setting) click
the headings to change the sort criteria.
Tracks are represented by this icon:
Playlists are represented by this icon:
To change the play order of a track within the list, click
and drag it over the track that it is to precede. To delete a
track highlight it and press the Delete key, or select Delete
from the Edit menu. Tracks and playlists can also be Cut,
Copied and Pasted in the usual way, and a convenient
pop-up menu is provided by right clicking over a track or
playlist.
As well as dragging tracks and playlists within the current
view, they can also be dragged onto other lists in the
Playlist Tree. If you drag and drop the item will be moved
to the appropriate list – if you hold down the Ctrl key
before dropping the item will be copied instead.
16 empeg car user guide
emplode displaying
playlists on left and
track list on right

Creating a new playlist
Select the playlist in which you wish to
create the new list, by clicking on it in the
Playlist Tree – if you are starting with a
blank player this will be the top level
‘empeg car’ playlist. From the Edit menu
select New Playlist, or click on the New
Playlist control on the toolbar.
The Properties window will open, in which you can specify
the title of the list. The other fields are entirely optional
and may be used in future versions of the player software
for track retrieval. Type in the title of the playlist and click
OK.
The new playlist will have been created, and can be
navigated as described above.
Adding a track to a playlist
Open the playlist to which you wish to add a track and
click anywhere in the Track List section of the window.
From the Edit menu select New Tune or click on the New
Tune control on the toolbar. The Open File window will
appear, from which you can navigate your computer in
the usual way. Locate and select the track that you wish
to add to your player and click Open.
The Properties window will open, and if ID3 (v1 or v2)
tags are present in the track some of the fields will be
automatically filled in for you. You should ensure that at
least the Title and Artist fields are completed – the other
fields will be useful for advanced track retrieval using the
searching functions.
The track will have been inserted into the playlist. You can
change it’s position or move it between lists as described
previously. To easily move tracks between playlists, select
New window from the Window menu. Then select Tile
from the Window menu. You can now easily move tracks
between playlists using drag & drop.
Alternatively you can use cut & paste or drag & drop from
the windows Explorer to add tracks. A folder hierarchy
can be added in a single operation using this method.
empeg car user guide 17
Properties window

Synchronising the player
Whenever you add playlists and tracks, or change the
music database in any other way, the changes are stored
within emplode. The database on the player is not
updated until you synchronise. This allows you to work
quickly; adding tracks, organising your music and so forth;
without delays every time some data needs to be
transferred to the player.
When you are finished updating, you must synchronise
the player music database with the changes. From the File
menu select Synchronise or click the Synchronise control
in the toolbar. The synchronisation process can take
anything from several seconds to several hours,
depending upon how much new music you have added to
the database and whether you are using USB, Ethernet or
Serial. The Synchronise window will keep you up to date
with the progress of the operation.
Occasionally emplode will perform a more thorough
integrity check during synchronisation. This can take some
time on large capacity players.
When synchronisation is complete the player will be ready
for use with the updated music database.
emplode online help
The emplode toolbar features tool tips – if you’re not sure
of the function of a control, hold the mouse pointer over
it for a couple of seconds.
A full manual for emplode is available through the
Windows help system.
18 empeg car user guide
Do not switch off or disconnect the player
during synchronisation.

six: operating the empeg car
player
The empeg car player is fast and intuitive to operate,
using either the front panel controls or the infra red
remote.
Front panel controls
The front panel has four function control buttons. Each
button provides different functions depending upon what
the player is currently doing, and whether you press and
release or press and hold.
When the player is in standby mode, pressing a button
will restore it to its previous mode of operation.
Rotary control
The rotary control allows you to control the sound
functions of the player.
When in play mode, the control allows you to adjust the
volume. Pushing the knob changes to another setting.
empeg car user guide 19
Player mode empeg Tuner Aux Menu
Top (short) Play/pause Mute/unmute Mute/unmute Back
Top (hold) Standby mode Standby mode Standby mode Back (repeating)
Bottom (short) Menu Menu Menu Select
Bottom (hold) Select (repeating)
Left (short) Previous track Previous preset Previous item
Left (hold) Rewind Tune down Previous (repeating)
Right (short) Next track Next Preset Next item
Right (hold) Fast forward Tune up Next (repeating)