My Rio Carbon cost $189, and the iPod I got Kid was the smaller Nano, 6 gig at $199.

Thanx for the tip PD. Another limitation to the iPod is that it cannot migrate from one computer to another. The software "recognizes" the player on one machine and other computers will not. An MP3 player is more of a "mass storage device" and can move from one machine to another IF the os is Windows XP.

Now that the much desired Nano is just sitting, collecting dust, I think that I'll play around with it to checck it out more fully.

Music Services
I think my major beef is more with iTunes rather than iPod. iTunes only gives you a 10 sec. snippet of a song, often in some random spot that may not give you a good sample of the music. Manys the time when I clicked on a song and got a few seconds of a drum fill, a musical bridge, or even SILENCE! For this reason I use Napster for my music purchases. It also has those maddening 10 sec. clips but at least you can get to listen to WHOLE songs AND download them onto your computer for just $10 a month! There are other services which do the same thing but I am sort of a stick in the mud and usually stay with the first thing I try.

For another $5 a month you can actually download the music onto an MP3 payer provided it is a newer model and supports the program. Mine does not. After a specified amount of time the song(s) stops working, so what you are paying for is a "borrowing" of the music rights instead of an outright purchase. I'll just stick with what I've got. I don't think the extra $5 is orth it for me.

Is Bigger Better?
I find that I rarely exceed the 6 gig I have and most of the time I never come close to listening to what I already HAVE, much less storing ALL of my music on one 130 gig player. In fact, if someone is not sure about using an MP3 player, or spending $200, then they should purchase one of the 256 meg versions for under $100 first and then decide if bigger is better. I'm not that interested in showing pictures or video on my player. And the price tag is DEFINATELY not to my liking either...$300!! The same goes for going with more gigabytes.