Maybe HP is trying to corner the future retro market. Doomed to failure now, but a hit on Ebay in thirty years.

I've read about a couple of blind mp3 hearing tests, one by Maximum PC, with at least some people who thought they had trained ears, and no one could consistently tell the difference between somewhat higher variable bit rate mp3's (I think at least 160 kbps) and lossless audio files. So I think the recommendation was to use 192 vbr mp3's and don't worry about it. I know I can't tell the difference between a 192 vbr mp3 and the cd it came from using decent headphones through a good stereo.

I use a monkey.

I will listen to Clark Terry, Nina Simone and Ry Cooder. Oh yeah, and to Greg Brown. Greg Brown the most. Plus others.

I'm guessing that the IAudio D2 might be nice with an external microphone (it has a built in one, likely just good for memos and such, and a line-n with direct encoding to mp3). I used to listen to a podcast called Bikescape, and he did (maybe still does) all his interviews with an IRiver 799 and external microphone, similar to the D2 in some ways but without the SD cards. But if you want something just for interviews probabaly something like the Microtrak would be superior (although I noticed it doesn't take sd cards).

Here's my comment.

No cable card. Cable is like having a non-stop supply of icecream in the freezer. My brain would get fat and sluggish, as would my rear-end.

I use a tried and true twenty foot Radio Shack mini-plug to rca jacks cable strung through a hole in the floor and over to my stereo via the crawlspace.Works like a charm and sounds great, especially with my new X-fi sound card. Not techically streaming, I suppose, though I do "stream" lots of internet radio this way. I don't care about video streaming yet, not until my DSL speed increases by a factor of 10 or so.