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.