i am going to buy a new MP3 player tomorrow.
i am not being able to choice.
the music quality is of importance.
which one sounds better?
iRiver T10 512 MB or iPod Shuffle 512 MB?

I was always under the impression that iRiver was the audiophiles MP3 player, while the iPod is just the generic -good but there is better if you look- mp3 player.

The iRiver T10 hands down IMO: not only it supports Vorbis, but you don't have to go for third party tools to get rid of the dreadful iTunes music transfer handling!

If you want AAC support you gotta go with the iPod tho.

thanx for replies,
for me neither ogg is important nor aac.
i just want to use mp3, since i don't want to transcode my mp3 collection.
so the only point is the playing quality and richer music experience
i don't know which one gives more
so those who've experienced can surely tell me

thanks

Regarding quality: *generally* you can get higher quality ogg at lower bitrates than mp3, thus more songs on your player. You wouldn't have to transcode your mp3's as the iriver supports ogg and mp3.

I can tell you that I love my Samsung Yepp MT6 (1gb) that supports ogg and mp3.

I recommend Samsung, iAudio or Sony. But if you have to pick between these two, certainly iRiver.

but i think *quality* will degrade if i trancode from mp3 to OGG, right?
and as i am not planning to transcode, i will be using my mp3s as they are.
an i don't have audio cd collection, so no chance of ripping to ogg.
hence, only playback is important.

*availability* and *economy* restrict me to buy only from
-> iRiver T10
-> iPod shuffle
and may be (may be) -> iPod nano

Funny, a friend of mine were thinking of buying either the iRiver T10 or the Nano as well. He ended up choosing the T10. Maybe because the Nano has been out of stock since september..?

None the less he was pretty happy with his purchase, mainly because of the battery time. The sound is awesome but then again, he hasn't tried the Nano so he can't really compare. The Nano seems more fragile as oppose to the iRiver.

I have a iRiver ifp 899 and a iPod photo 60 Gb. I'm happy with both. (They serve different purposes, tthe iPod is hooked up to my sound system at home) I'd say the sound quality is pretty tied, IMO.

Battery life is not really an issue with the iPod shuffle as you can buy a 'piggyback' mount which will take conventional or rechargable AAA batteries, so you can get 'fresh' power almost anywhere.

The iPod Shuffle doesn't have an LCD, and since I don't listen to music in shuffle mode, it makes browsing on an iPod shuffle pretty awful. iRiver also traditionally allows you to just use their players as UMS drives (just hook them up, drop files in, and you can play them). The iPod Shuffle requires iTunes, which I refuse to pollute my system with.

Apple gave the shuffle better bass response than the generic iPod, so it sounds better than what they offerend before, but it probably doesn't compare to the T10's SRS WOW DSP. I've listened to the SRS WOW presets on another iRiver model and they do sound very good. iRiver also traditionally puts good quality op-amps in their players, though I don't know about the T10.

Get the T10.

thanx buddies!
as T10 was out of stock and shuffle doesn't have LCD; and since i was so desperate, i finally purchased iPod NANO
I was worried about Lame Stuttering, but it played well.
so i am satisfied
atleast for now!