don't know about the sound quality but it isn't one of the recommended players for SQ, iPods differ in SQ by model, the good ones are the shuffle and 5G which are among the top DAPs that also include the Creative Zen Vision: M, and something called the Monolith, check out the portable audio section in www.head-fi.org
DON'T BUY one. my friends have had to have theirs fixed 3 times in less then 9 months and the company finally said that they wouldn't do any more repairs even though they are only lasting less then 90 days.
I think they are JUNK and they aren't being abused.... he is an IT guy
I hope so... They had 3 of them and after the company stoped repairing them he took apart 2 of them and he said that in just a few months that they had made a lot of fixes and he was able to turn the 2 into one but he says that the hard drives are the problem.