Best Sounding Portable MP3 Player?

I personally am not a big fan of digital compressed audio, but we all carry one. I refuse to ever be an i-diot, iAnything, but other than those, which of the small personal mp3 players "sound" the best? I have used a Megg, a Rio600, and now a Rio Sport 1Gb. I like the Rio Sport for it's ergonomincs and buttons and ease of use, and it sounds pretty darn good for something powered by 1 AAA battery. Yea, I think it actually sounds pretty decent.

So what's the general thought? Which small mp3 player "sounds" the best?

I don't know witch one have the best sound....most of the times is a matter of taste or a choice a good earphones...software are so similar nowadays...

I have for a few months now a Chinese clone of an OEM iPod and a good Koss earphones and i'm very content with them.

About compressed audio...i think all audio now are so compressed, that some of today cd's really sucks...sometimes i surprise myself having more fun with a high bit rate mp3 than a cd...

I use a 80 gig iPod strictly for my car (using the direct line out via the iPods dock outputs).

I chose it for its capacity and many accessories (should I ever decide to buy any)

Its MP3 so I dont expect sonic grandeur , and now that its totally full (18,000 songs) I rarely listen to the radio in the car.

These days I rip @ 320 bit or higher, w/ the 10Hz cutoff feature disabled. I only rip my cd's I never download from the iTunes store, crappy bit rate. for what they offer I can do better buying used from the local used store or amazon.

I also dock it to my back yard stereo, w/ a Tune View dock, for boat drink simplicity.

Tune View iPod Dock

The only thing I really dont like is the cryptic way the music is stored on the ipod. You cant navigate thru the iPod as if it were a flash drive, its just a bunch of gobbly gook.

unlike a zen which I have for my son.

That's why I love my Rio Sport S30S.... it's so intuitive and easy to navigate. And no video or delicate construction. It's well built and bounces when dropped.

I have steadfastly refused to buy an MP3 player of any description for as long as they have existed. I spent £80 (about $200AU or $150US at the time) on a Sony SRF-M10 FM radio "walkman-thing" when I started commuting four hours a day and listened solely to the national Classic FM broadcaster. I also tried many headphones and eventually settled on some M-Audio 'buds' that absolutely blew me away (and left my wife thinking I should be sectioned!)

Many friends had iPods or other MP3 things and I could never get used to ANY of them... they were all too hard for me to use (and I configure firewalls for a living?).

Then I got a 3G iPhone! (I hasten to add it cost me nothing)

First thing was I could do most of my job from this phone... SSH, RDP, VNC, blah blah blah. That impressed me. Then I had a play with things like loading movies on to it. It was just so simple to use. So next I loaded a bunch of music from the MP3 collection on my laptop and blow me down, this thing actually sounded 'ok'... and I could get my head around using it... touch, flick, tap... suits me.

So, for a Jack of all trades, this thing really does impress me as a music player. Loading music couldn't be easier and, just to be a nerd, I can SSH to the thing wirelessly here at home and load or remove music without using the iTunes application on the laptop. I have listened to a lot of MP3 players and tried them out for a day or two (this is why I settled on a simple FM radio) but now I am pretty convinced the iPod function of the iPhone just aint all that bad...

...but it's still MP3.

I have no idea if a normal iPod sounds as good as this... I imagine it would but they can't be this easy to use.

PS: yes, it has been dropped a few times now and still works just like new... and it didn't scratch the glass!