Mobile audio MP3/iPod/RioRiot, etc.

Chanifin and Abstract7:

I was ready to rush out and buy and iPod today but think this subject is a bit trickier than I realized --

In the highest quality format (umcompressed??) how many hours of music will fit on a 20G ipod?

Do you still recommend the iPod or would a nomad jukebox be a better idea?

I will be taking frequent plane trips to UK and Asia from NYC and would like good battery life and maximum fidelity to go with my Grado Headphone Amplifier and Etymotics earphones.

Thanks very much.

CD's contain roughly 650MB of data so a 20GB disk will hold about 30 CD's uncompressed. MP3 compression at 128 kbs will allow you to put more than 4000 of your favorite songs on the ipod which is really nice. I have a 5GB version with 1250 songs on it. My Etymotics sound just fine without additional amplification and the battery life has actually been around 12 hours as advertised by Apple. If you go to CompUSA or the Apple store in NY with your headphones you can check it out for yourself. This is a life altering device if you want to listen to music outside of your house and can work a computer.

CD's contain roughly 650MB of data so a 20GB disk will hold about 30 CD's uncompressed. MP3 compression at 128 kbs will allow you to put more than 4000 of your favorite songs on the ipod which is really nice. I have a 5GB version with 1250 songs on it. My Etymotics sound just fine without additional amplification and the battery life has actually been around 12 hours as advertised by Apple. If you go to CompUSA or the Apple store in NY with your headphones you can check it out for yourself. This is a life altering device if you want to listen to music outside of your house and can work a computer.

Thank you. Further to the wonders of the iPod, are there any other benefits to the 20GB model?

For me, 15 CDs at one time on a handheld device would be plenty.

Maybe I should save the extra hundred bucks and go with the 10G model?

I remember when a 20Mb hard disk was considered enormous. If I've only learned one thing about computer hardware, it's never skimp on storage capacity. In other words, go with the 20Gb.