Hi James
With my X3 came a leaflet recommending I buy from HDTracks.com which I assume that because FIIO put it in the box, must be a recommended source of music. This is where I bought the Rod Stewart album that caused the problems. In the instructions that came with the X3 it does say 'there is a size limit of 100kb for the cover. Unfortunately (and if this is indeed the issue) HDTracks do not say how large the cover art is in kb. They do say it contains Hi Res cover art but as the do with 'Atlantic Crossing' another Rod Stewart album I bought at the same time which works fine.
So unless the supplier (your recommended one) actually publishes the size of the embeded cover art, how are X3 users to know if the file is too big or not?
With regard to the Peachtree Audio amplifier. You are correct in stating that users should check compatibility with their supplier of hardware. Unfortunately I bought mine from eBay without instructions and when I went to their website I could not find my model (I later found it under discontinued models) and that is why I emailed them to ask for their help. You found the reason for the issue before I got a response to my email which confirmed what you said.
However James the bottom line is this, You are selling a consumer audio product through main stream outlets such as amazon. The level of technical expertise expected by their customers is (and should be) very small. It should be possible to load any SD card up to 64gb with any music they have bought and it should play. That is really it, as simple as that. Your supplied instructions are very thin on detail. I cannot see any warning anywhere in the pre-sales information that tells me some of the HD music I have legally purchased will not work because the cover art is too big. And how would the average consumer know anyway?
I am fortunate that technical skills I have in another area have allowed me to start to learn fairly quickly about audio, but just as you would not expect someone buying a car to be a mechanic you should not expect your customers to be audio engineers.
The X3 produces excellent music and I think it is worth the effort but I can tell you that I have spent more time in the past 5 days with the X3 learning about audio formats etc than since my first iPod bought Christmas 2001.
Finally you should also know that culturally all men in the West think they are born with the innate ability to operate any machine or electronic gadget without the need for instructions and instructions are only used as a last resort when things go wrong. While I am joking this is in practice actually true. Western women when buying something new will tak time to read the instructions to find out how everything works but men just open the box take the thing out and try and use it without reading the instructions
