the iPod shuffle (best ad camaign ever … you don’t get anything and THAT’S cool, man) was at the top of my list for a long time. I just don’t like the whole rechargable battery mess they produced in the past. I don’t feel like dishing out too much cash within a predictable time frame just to keep the player running.

Besides, as I stated elsewhere on your site, I’m not such a big Apple fan anymore .. at all.

I was going to state the usual about how sonic performance is rated subjectively, etc. but I’ll skip this and ask you whether you’ve tested the iPod shuffle. I think that sound-wise it’s great, but don’t take my word for it; people who know their stuff and whose opinions I value greatly over at the Head-Fi forums have been saying the same thing time and time again. And hey, even Apple’s engineers consider the Shuffle to be the “golden standard” to which all iPods are compared. Have a listen, maybe you’re in for a surprise.

Plus, it’s aligned perfectly with your “I’d rather have a smaller player that drops all the gadgetry and gives me the best possible sound” sentence.

I don’t know how many players I had a look at these past weeks and if you want small and reasonably priced players, crummy sound quality is almost a given. I mean, you could hook ‘em up to a tube amp and Stax headphones and 98% sound like utter crap. They make my ears bleed.

I’d rather have a smaller player that drops all the gadgetry and gives me the best possible sound. Ever since iRiver I haven’t really seen much development in that area. Their players sound mighty fine, but they’re too big for my needs and/or too expensive. Incidentally, at my local brick-and-mortar store, those rather old iRiver models are still very hot sellers with the audiophile crowd. The prices have unfortunately stayed absolutely stable because of that. No price-reduction in sight.

I’d also rather have a cell phone that enables me to speak to people and offers rock-solid quality. I don’t need one that takes pictures, plays music, plugs into Windoze, cooks my evening meals and does my tax return (on second thought, the latter …).

Just call me old-fashioned.