Thanks for the excellent info, folks.
I have pretty much narrowed things down to, as far as hard drive player possibilities:
* iPod ... I know it's going along with the crowd and probably goes against my concern about sound quality, plus the battery thing scares me a bit, but I actually like the iTunes software and have found it easy to use, and I'm interested in exploring the AAC format as far as its comparative sound quality to MP3 (I really have no interest whatsoever in WMA). Plus from what I've seen, for the little purchasing and downloading I do, I like iTunes there as well.
*Dell DJ ... simply because I use and like Dell products, I have an account with them, they're on sale right now with free shipping and I wouldn't have to pay any interest until 2007, and I figure I could make myself like it.
*Cowan iAudioX5 ... I love what this offers and it also supports Ogg, which I'm interested in exploring as well (although from what I've looked at, it sounds kind of complicated ... if there's an "A, B, C", "kindergarten level," "Ogg for dummies" primer anywhere, please direct me to it ), but from what I understand, this player doesn't support DRM stuff yet, and while as I said I don't purchase and download a lot, I do it some and would like to be able to use that music on a portable without backdoor fixes that would lessen sound quality).
As far as a flash player ... and I go back and forth leaning each way, I'm not chomping at the bit to put every piece of music I own on one player, I'm more of a "dump a couple hours of music on there and let's go" kind of person, but the idea of a big player is intriguing ... I'm pretty much focusing on the Creative MuVO 512 MB, or the iAudio 5, again with the iAudio 5 offering a whole bunch of stuff but presenting the same concerns I had with the iAudioX5, and maybe Samsung's most recent player whose model number escapes me at the moment.
Any further input you guys could provide about those specific items would be appreciated. Thanks!

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