ipod and dac?

If price is an issue, there are other companies, like CREATIVE, that have hard drive players like the i-pod that cost less. As far as Hard Drives failing, I have had a lot of lap-top computers and have been working with external hard drives over the last few years. I travel around quite a bit and always take a lap-top with me. I've never had a hard drive fail.
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The Holy grail will be when you can get a digital out from your i-pod and/or your computer. Are you listening, Apple?

AAC, which sounds much better than MP3, at 320 kbps, will give you very good sound quality. At that rate, one CD takes up about 100 Megs. On a 40 Gig i-pod, you could fit 400 CD's.

Using AIFF, which rips the CD to your hard drive, uncompressed, one CD takes up about 500 Megs. On a 40 Gig i-pod, you can fit 80 CD's.

I am ripping my CD collection, which is over 1,000 CD's, to external
hard drives, ucompressed, using AIFF. With the cost of external hard drive space coming down, capacities going up, and the hardware getting
more and more compact, I figure it is better to rip my music uncompressed. I'd rather have 80 uncompressed CD's on my i-pod than
400 compressed. Using my external hard drives, I can circulate music
through the i-pod -- and carrying 80 CD's around is enough to keep me happy. Just a few years ago, the idea of having 80 uncompressed CD's in the palm of your hand was unthinkable.

You can also set up your car stereo to connect with an i-pod. In that sense, having 80 CD's beats the hell out of any 6 or 10 CD Changer.

Do you really need to have access to your entire music collection on a
typical commute?

Even on a long distance trip, 80 CD's can go a long way.

Plus, capacities will keep going up.

If you can't wait, buy two or three i-pods and carry them with you,
rotating them for variety.

Also, Alpine is coming out with a car stereo that will interface with an i-pod, take over it's functions, and keep it charged.

I use Sennheiser 580 precisions. Best thing to do is rip a CD using several different rates of compression and then one straight to the hard drive, uncompressed and see which is acceptable to you. For me, other than straight the the hard drive, uncompressed, the next best thing is to use AAC at 320 kbps. At that rate, using AAC, you can fit 400 CD's on a
40 Gig i-pod and it would be about the next best thing to uncompressed. It is an interesting experiment, though, to see what is
missing at different rates of compression.

I have a pretty high end home system. My CD transport went down and I have been using my laptop and i-book in its place. Plugged into my system using the Headphone out split into the stereo inputs of my pre-amp -- which is not a real high quality connection, it sounds amazingly good. Granted, part of it is the supporting components and speakers,
but still...I'm getting a wide sound stage, good imaging, detail, speakers disappear, etc. In *this* system, I can tell the difference between different sample sizes, the difference between MP3 and AAC, etc. I have done experiments. Uncompressed sounds great. The first thing that goes when you compress the music is air. The soundstage shrinks, dynamics are lost, instruments combine and congest, losing space between instruments, the music becomes rooted to the speakers and the
music becomes far less involving. This is anecdotal evidence at its worst, but with uncompressed, I find myself bobbing my head with the music and with compressed, I find myself saying, "this doesn't sound that bad..." But, I am less relaxed, less involved. Surely, not a scientific
study, but that's what I have. I have *not* done the same experiement with Headphones, nor through a car stereo. I would be curious to see.
But, I like having the ability to plug my laptop or i-pod into my home system -- it is great for background music, parties [open a playlist and
let your guests pick the music from your entire collection -- they love it]
and my wife and kids love the simplicity -- plus -- when they use the
computer or i-pod, they're not taking my CD's out. So, even though I
don't use it for critical listening, it would bother me, knowing it would
sound even better, uncompressed. So, for that reason -- and -- because I believe the capacities of these things is going to keep growing,
I am storing my music uncompressed. But -- that's me. I still say that
AAC at 320 kbps is the next best thing to uncompressed and you can store 400 CD's on a 40 Gig i-pod at that sample size. Pretty amazing.

Can one of you guys explain to a computer illiterate like myself how to get a digital out from an Apple i-book or power book and how to change the sound card?

Here's a competitor to the i-pod that has a digital out ---

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/iriver_e.html

It has 20 Gig capacity, but it says a 40 Gig unit is coming soon.