Best high capacity MP3

As far as I know, the only music-centric, high capactity DMPs on the market right now are the iPod and the Zune, and everything I've heard says that the Zune has superior sound quality. I can't vouch for that personally, because I've never heard the iPod, but that's what the general consensus seems to be. One thing though, is that the Zune does not have an equalizer, so if that's important to you, you should keep it in mind.

The Classic has respectable core sound quality. And while it may be all about quality for you, usability is also a factor in anyone's choice of player whether they realise it or not. The Zune has compromises in the audio area as does the iPod, and on balance the iPod is the better choice.

I remain EXCEEDINGLY disappointed that no-one "gets" the relatively simple formula of the iPod and offers something improved in all aspects. Microsoft still doesn't quite get it, Sony still is stuck in Japanese gadget-land mentality, iRiver neither and Cowon certainly doesn't. Creative? No. A combination of dumbassery, internal politics, incompetent programmers/designers, no-one with vision, etc. Very disappointing when it is not a hard formula for a large company to finance.

These days there really isn't much of a selection in the high-capacity category, no matter what kind of features people are looking for.

I believe the Zune (at least the first generation) is based off of the Toshiba Gigabeat, though I've never compared either one with the iPod.

As far as sound quality goes, I haven't heard any complaints about Archos' hard-drive players. I'm not sure if Cowon, iRiver or Creative still provide graphic EQ. The Trekstor Vibez has many of the audio features of the old Rio Karma, but I'm not sure if they ever got around to releasing a high-capacity version.

The Rockbox firmware on the 5g iPod was pretty nice, I don't know if they have a version for the new Classics though.

Dapreview.net does a good job reviewing audio quality on different MP3 players. I'd check there too.