Sorry, had to start off spewing some hatred towards the iPod.

Well, do expand. I don't like it simply for the fact that it is an MP3 player and, as far as I'm concerned, MP3 is just a cute file format to store your ring tones in. Granted, the iPod does support the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and there are docks out there that will bypass the iPod's on-board DAC entirely but, at some point, all this additional equipment begins to constitute a costly work-around to an otherwise straight-forward goal. Two other problems come to mind: First, storage of a respectable-size music library in lossless format would call for ~1TB+ drive space - in that respect, the iPod is clearly targeted toward the MP3 listener demographic. Second, even if you managed to arrive at a TeraByte of storage in a portable audio device without taking out a bank loan, still, would you want to risk having that much precious data stored in a little box that gets bounced around everywhere you go?

My biggest beef with the iPod (and Zune for that matter) is the software they force you to use. I want my portable audio player to allow me to drag and drop any music in any format I want and be done with it.

I've been extremely pleased with the Sansa players that I have used as well as the Creative players. I just don't see why there is so much hype surrounding the iPod aside from the fact that they advertise the living hell out of it.

I also despise the fact that nearly everyone has one. I would use a crappier device just to be different, but luckily the alternatives are better in my eyes.

Any good MP3 player, upon being connected to a computer, should simply act like a thumb drive. In fact, when I travel, I like to bring my 20GB RCA Lyra MP3 player along to use as a backup drive. Are you saying that an iPod can't even manage that simple a task? If so then precisely what technological aspect of it's design warrants a price tag of several hundred dollars?

I love my Sansa E270 + Rockbox ;)

Where's that thread at that showed measurements between lossless and 256+ mp3's? I think it was over at DIYMA. It showed subtle differences between the two, but nothing huge.

I love my ipod. I carry it with me everywhere to drown out people/things. Portable hi-fi (yes, I said it!) is something I can't get enough of.

Any good MP3 player, upon being connected to a computer, should simply act like a thumb drive.

I agree to this, and therefor i'm sorry to say that Creative is about to fuck their mp3players up hard!

My current Creative ZEN (the one with a 2" screen and is like a creditcard size) should be used with windows mediaplayer, it just don't understand folders, and need everything sorted the "creative way", else there will no albums/playlists/anything, everything is just trown down in a big pile for you to chose from :(

Please stop this creative!

As far as the differences in waveform accuracy are concerned, our ears don't perceive lines and numbers. You may remember my Decibels & Performance article that touches on this to some extent. In that regard, even the smallest speck of dust along a groove of a record, while visually insignificant, can translate into a huge double-digit decibel spike / dip at the output stage. Another factor is just how forgiving your speakers are to subtle errors. Given a set of conventional speakers, you may not be able to detect a difference between a 256kbps bit stream and a lossless stream anymore than you could tell the difference between the video signal from a VCR and a DVD player if you display both on a low resolution analog screen. What I'm talking about is an audiophile listening environment where you can sense whether or not one your speaker stands is coupled to the floor properly. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the iPod is quite adequate at being an MP3 player (though maybe a bit limited in capabilities) and that's fine.

i agree, i hate ipods and everything apple touches for that matter. I own an iphone, but its simply because it HAPPENS to be a good hardware device where apples software philosophy HAPPENS to work well. This is NOT teh case with software for the mac or PC. I can't stand itunes so when ever i update it, i have to install then update and promptly uninstall that crap.

For me, it's not so much an aversion directed toward Apple, it's an aversion directed toward anything proprietary. You'd have to be pretty out of touch with the mainstream music sharing community not to have a basic grasp on what goes on: Your friend is listening to a good song that you'd like to enjoy yourself. You find a computer, plug in your MP3 players, two windows pop up, you drag what you want from one to the other and that's it. Half the fun in music is looking through somebody else's play list as they look through yours. The last thing that you want to worry about is whether or not you can find a computer with the proper software and drivers already loaded, or whether or not you can even get a hold of the software to install in the first place. You know what else is nice about MP3 players that double as hard drives? You can run software right from them! I keep a copy of EAC and AutoFLAC in a folder on my MP3 player - now that's slick! If I stumble upon a good CD, I can back it up right to FLAC on virtually any computer without ever downloading or installing a single piece of software. Don't forget: The whole idea behind these little hand-held gadgets is convenience; if you don't exploit that premise, you may just wind up with a... Well... With an iPod...

hexibase ++++

We should have a reputation system!

I've been very pleased with my Cowon D2. I used to be an iRiver fan, but I got fed up with them when I had to start digging for the Korean firmware just so I could convert my iRiver to UMS mode. iRiver's music manager (at least the last time I used it which was admittedly quite a long time ago) sucked. The Clix got all the attention, but IMO the D2 is much better. It's natively UMS, has a more powerful amp, more storage with the SD card slot, and the interface can be easily changed with flash. The battery life is also awesome.

What I find laughable about the iPod/iPhone apologists is that they always point out that there are extras available to make the Apple-crippled devices competitive feature wise with the much better alternatives, for just a bit of extra cost! Buy the FM radio adapter! Buy the A2DP adapter! Buy the battery adapter! Then its like having something just as good!

Thanks but no, I'll stick with my D2 and my Nokia E90, which has mass storage, Bluetooth file transfer, A2DP, copy and paste, MMS, a battery that isn't soldered in, and thousands of available S60 apps which have been around for years, no jailbreaking required. S60 actually lets you do what you want with your device. Imagine that!