I think the problem is that the empeg is far too much deck for the average user.

I see the average user wanting a three word description of it:

"It just works."

Which the empeg doesn't. It take a lot of love and care to make it do what it does the way it does. This isn't a slam on the software; 3.0A5 is plenty stable for me for everyday use. Once it's loaded and whatnot, the empeg does "just work". But it take a bit of work to get there, as you said; ripping, tagging, sorting, etc.

It's hard to convince the non-audiophile / non-geek that this is somehow better than slapping a CD in their dash and being done.

I think as the general public becomes more comfortable with digital music files, this will become much easier. Let's hope so, because I want that Mk3 with the color screen and the japanese support!