Apple Ipod

K,
Here in the UK the iPod costs pounds for dollars lucky enough for me my girlfriend got one in Hong Kong whilst overseas for 75% of the cost in the UK.

In short you still get good value for the dollar in the US.

However more important than that the iPod is a piece of design genius.
It sounds great om AAC compression and if you have a decent collection of music to listen to frankly it is essential.

It is not about MP3 as a format it is about access to your music collection in a way you couldn't have before.

It looks great,is easy to use and it actually sounds very good.

Buy one,size depending on your collection and accessories depending on your needs.

Go for it, I'd consider the 20 or 30GB over the 40GB version and use the extra $ to buy a pair of premium headphones like etymotics.

before you buy the i pod, encode some cds to mp3, convert back to wav, and burn on a disc. play them in your system and see if you like what you hear. if you don't like the way mp3 sounds you might not want to do the i pod thing.

I might be a bit biased, being an Apple dealer, but as a music lover, the iPod really makes it possible like never before to make a large collection of music practical in almost any environment. As an example, my typical morning starts out in the car on the way to work listening to music on the iPod, played through an iTrip, a device that sends a radio signal that's picked up by the car stereo. Sounds much better than you would think. At work, I drop it into its cradle and play it through my office system. On weekends, I drop it into another cradle at our ski condo, and, voila, 400 to 500 CD's are at my disposal. Apres ski never had it so good! A good wine, a fire going, and Miles on the system; you get the picture!