Thanks, good info, I will look over it carefully. So far, I have had no problems with the foobar2000 rips, very easy, very fast and noticeably higher quality when compared to mp3 rips. Still, if there is a better way . . . I'm all for it . . . =)

Edit: hehe, I have version 0.99 prebeta 4 from 23 Jan 2008 installed . . . been a looonnng while since I used EAC . . . =D

I am not entirely sure, but I believe it was called something else.

I have a sansa e200 and i love it. the newer version is the sansa fuze. I highly recommend going with a player that you can install rockbox.org on. It supports more formats then any players default. Adds support of flac/ogg to many players.

It is 1.0 beta 2 now... After many many many many many many many... many years of development. Talk about an unfinished product! :p

Since I recommend the fuse and rockbox I should note the fuze+ isn't supported just the fuze. You can go with a cheaper player and get a 16gig/32gig microSD saving some money.

I bought my self a clip+ a few months ago, and I love it. I got the 4gb version, and since I wanted even more space, bought a 16gb microsd card off Amazon. It's nice and small, works great, convenient clip, and a display. The display isn't the biggest (3 lines or so), but it gets the job done.

I really have only 2 complaints. One is the battery life, which I suppose could be better (though, I think it usually lasts me a good 8 or 9 hours or more, and might be impacted somewhat by using the external microsd card). Even this complaint is fairly minor, since if I end up using it a lot in a day, I just charge it overnight (charges via USB).

My other complaint is that long file/directory names get truncated and have random digits added on to the front, I'm not sure of how long it has to be for this to happen, but it is slightly annoying since I organize my music by directory since not all my music is tagged correctly.

Also, rockbox also supports the clip+, I've been thinking about loading it on, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

If that model support Zune Pass I'd get the Zune, the bigger Sansa Clip+ models seem to get rave reviews and was the general choice here on the forums last time this came up.
There's no where to buy digital that sells FLAC and I'm way past buying physical media (save at a concert to support the artist).

On my PSP I have a custom player installed that allows me to boost the volume past the PSP's limit. With a 320 kbps MP3 I have to bump it up to about 5 or 6 on the volume boost, whereas with a FLAC I only use 1 or 2 and then tone it down with the PSP volume control. Mind you, I play this music on headphones and not on the PSP speakers :D.

I can also tell the difference in how the sound plays. FLACs offer (with the right bitrate) a fuller, deeper sound whereas MP3s are sort of muted. I think, and I could definitely be wrong about this, that psychoacoustics has something to do with that, as a lot of MP3 encoding programs do use psychoacoustic algorithms.

True it's hard to buy FLAC but lets say you rip a CD that you own. Some indie artists release under FLAC and you can download some NIN albums for free off there website in FLAC/OGG. Kinda annoying to have a player that can't play it if you get one.

As for sound quality unless you get quality headphones the difference between it and mp3 320 won't matter too much. FLAC is great when i use my expensive headphones but when using my workout set it's really not worth the extra hard drive space... but i'm lazy so i don't convert.

Most people don't want FLAC, kills hard drive space and their free earbuds can't tell 320 from 160 let alone FLAC. I just like the choice personally.

If Amazon.com offered a FLAC option I would do a happy dance.

Buy in WAV then. :p

It also depends on the quality of the mp3 players sound output chip. The ever popular I-pods etc for instance are known for having bad quality sound at higher bit rates. If quality means that much then the best thing to do is buy the cd's and convert them yourself.... cd's are around 1000kb/s. There are a few cases of audio only dvds being released too but they're a needle in a haystack.

Finally a good pair of headphones, I prefer in ear and if you do some shopping you can usually pick up slightly older high end headphones for £50-£100 as they're being cleared out for the latest model.

I have a cheap-and-cheerful Xenta 2Gb clip mp3 player. It only plays mp3 and ogg, but that's enough for me whilst I'm in the gymn. You can see it here:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/231225
The only problem with it the poor battery life, which is about 6-8 hours.

I did, I was mimicking my niece as that was her first complaint upon plugging it in for a second time, my bad as I meant it as a joke. . . =)

Don't mean to sound as if I was knocking the Zune, she really likes hers and uses it daily.