Apple Ipod

Thanks for all the good advice. I opted to go with the 20 GB version. And I sprang for the Shure E-2 earbuds. Just couldn't bring myself to spend more for the earphones than the Ipod. I've had it for a little over a week now and have loaded it up with a little over a gig of music. First real test is coming up. My family and I will be taking a short road trip on St Paddy's day. To take the boys to tour NASA in Huntsville, AL.

I am also a recent iPod convert but there is one nasty little of software jiggery pockery that you should be aware of. I bought the 40gb version so that I could get about 1,000 tracks UNCOMPRESSED into the little beauty, but be aware you CANNOT get them back off digitally. The itunes software cloaks all the sound files on the ipod so your computer can't "see" them. This means for example you cannot burn CD's directly from the ipod. I don't think the iRiver has this restriction so if I had to do it over I would probably go that route, although the iTunes software is excellent, totally intuitive and extremely functional. Apparently there is also some "resampling" going on when you load up using .wav files which might explain any "differences" in sound quality when compared to the original CD. I am glad I bought the unit though since I was almost ready to chuck my several thousand CD's since my "serious" listening is all vinyl. Getting on a plane and having a thousand of my favorites pumping through an Airhead and a pair of Shure E5's makes CD's tolerable. I hooked my ipod up to my ARC Ref1 using a pair of single ended to balanced convertors and a custom made mogami cable.
The sound is very good, helped along I think by the fact that the device is battery powered. I am so pleased with the convenience of the system I am thinking about loading my entire CD collection uncompressed on a LaCie terabyte external drive, hooking it up to an ibook and running the digi output through my ARC DAC3. itunes does really nice crossfades and the playlists you can create are endless.

please let us know your take on the e-2 (considering a pair).

and in case you haven't tried it, AAC > OGG > MP3 any day of the week, aac 320 over either my senn's or grado sr125s is quite impressive musically imo... and i can fit well ove 100 CDs on a 40GB @ that bitrate, more than enough for a good jog or bike-ride or airplane trip (something like 8 days of music lol). it's nice to be able to take GOOD sounding music when you travel. enjoy!!

I bought a pair of E2's before I splurged on the E5's....for around a hundred bucks the E2's are terrific!
They come with a wide variety of earplugs...hard, soft, foamy in different sizes so you will be able to find some that can fit your comfortably over the long haul. The sound isolation is great as well. Well worth it, although I notice that apple has come up with a pair of "higher end" earplugs that look like the E3.

from what i've heard, the apple ones aren't 'bad' for approx $50 but are nothing to write home about and dont come close to Ety's or shure etc.

dan - my only concern re: the e5 is the inline gain control, it's bad enough coming out of a headphone-level output from the iPod but to have yet another gain control, well, how do you set it? do you center the iPod out and just use the one on the phones? center the one on the phones, and set gain on the iPod?

i want really good sound for travel (airplane) and for skiing (although i do worry a bit w/ in-ear that i'll block out too much), i love my iPod, and wouldn't mind bringing a dock for the line-out, and possibly picking up an X-can or grado's headphone amp (for listening @ my destination i use a pair of grado sr125s - the in-ears would only be for the above uses and maybe workign out / running / biking).