[Tabascosauce]

I just purchased a set of HD590's, and have dusted off my old sharp MD player as a portable source.

Does anybody have any opinions on the merits or otherwise of this format over MP3?

I have a gut feeling that it may have a superior sound quality to the MP3 format.

If I go MP3, I am considering the iriver, which seems to be better than the ubiquitous ipod.  Again, any opinions?

Thanks to you all.

[EMM801]

If there is a difference, it is probably minor in terms of sound quality. MP3 would have much wider compatibility. If you decided to get an iPod or other hard drive player, you wouldn't have to reconvert all your tunes to play on it, or carry all those frigging discs wherever you want to use it. BTW, I was surprised when trying out the LAME MP3 encoder and find I am getting better sound with it than iTunes' encoder.