Apple Ipod

Ben, thats good to know..THANKS!

My Ipod has never skipped in the year or so that I've owned it. Some of my buddies however have reported skipping on longer tracks (the Ipod may have trouble keeping its buffer full on these longer tracks).

The Ipod sounds good for what it is, but >>to my ears<< the reduced resolution from my original CDs is easily noticeable.

Ipod has 25 minute buffering. So, you have to continuously shake the ipod for 25 mins to get it to skip... theoretically anyways. I got the second generation portable md player 10 years ago which has 3 minute buffering and that has never skipped.

This issue with a HD based player isn't skipping, but longevity. If you had a computer for any longer than 3 or 4 years you probably know about dying hard drives--and that was in a stationary desk top or limited movement laptop. HDs are incredibly delicate. If your primary use is going to be jogging, I would not advise a HD player.

I like the iPod as well as anyone, but I have also been considering the iRiver iHP-120 (20 GB) and iHP-140 (40 GB) music players. It handles MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG and WAV audio file formats, but it doesn't handle AAC or AIFF audio file formats. In other words, it won't work with iTunes in handling Apple audio file formats. What it does handle is the Ogg-Vorbis compressed files which sound as good as MP3 and use up less hard disk space. It also doesn't need any special desktop software to download and upload files. It just mounts on the PC as an external hard drive. You can use Windows Explorer to download and upload files via USB 2.0. It also offers recording capabilities through digital I/O, a line-in jack with an external plug-in power microphone feature. On top of all that, it includes an FM tuner.

It doesn't look as nice as the iPod, nor does it have all the little applications like a calendar, address book or games that the iPod has. Since my needs are exclusively music media based, I want a device that can double as a digital hard disk recorder with a microphone input.