iPOD How many cds does it really Hold ?any Tips??

AAC files are actually smaller than MP 3 files, and are better quality. If you digitize your CD's using this compression method you should theoretically (depending on the length of songs you are digitizing) be able to store 10,000 songs on a 40 gig iPod. Apple lossless encoding is a different thing entirely, and is bit for bit an exact copy of your CD,

WAV files are useless and do not have a place in this application. there is no advantage, sound quality wise, of wavs over losslessly compressed files. if you decide that you want no loss in quality, just use lossless compression to save some space and give yourself a lot more room for more music!

I only have a measly 20 GB iPod, but it holds about 3700 songs @ 192kHz AAC/MP3, and for listening to earbuds is fine for me.

I also use mine a lot on planes, and I find the Sony MDR-NC11 active noise canceling earbuds to be great for planes! They cut out the drone of the engines, leaving a much quieter background, so I can listen to music at much lower volumes…saving my batteries for the return trip, and these are small enough to fit into the front pocket of my iPods padded case.

The first point is that the 40GB is reduced to around 37GB in terms of available space-the difference is due to utilising the software etc to make the thing run.

My 40GB iPod is full and it holds 9163 songs which is around 28 days of continious music using AAC.

I am using the Etymotic ER4-P earphones with my IPOD. The midrange is excellent & the highs are very clear. I was using the Grado SR80 headphones. They also sounded great but are bigger to carry around. Also the Grados didn't play as loud as the Etymotic. Too much noise. The Grados IMO have better bass than the ER4-P. But the mids on the ER4-P are more detailed. I tried the ER6's and didn't like them. I would have stayed with my SR80s over the ER-6s. Once I heard the ER4-Ps I decided it was worth the improvement. I now can keep my IPOD volume at about 50% and hear everything fine.

I am using the AAC at 320. I originally recorded a few songs at 128, 192 & 328. I prefered the 320 and recorded at that setting. The 320 setting also reduced the number of songs I can record substatially but I was able put all my favorite CDs onto the IPOD. The AIFF uses too much space & will allow about 1000 songs. You can get information on the internet from Apples site. They bass the number of songs on an average song length of 3 1/2 minutes if I remember correct but I am not sure.