Lunna

precisely. as you know, vinnie is a regular at the ny meets, is very generous, and overall, one very cool dude who does great work and actually gives a damn about his customers - both the high rollers and those who buy his cheaper stuff. for someone who isn't skilled at soldering and modding, a person could do a lot worse than getting an imod - used or new.

you do have a point ....

monkey - yep, pm me and i'll name one, for example....

if you're serious, the answer is, it's great. if what you're looking for is an upgrade to your ipod, without more, i'd say go for it, though the mod is probably better for the 5.5g than the 4g. before everyone here goes ballistic, based on some serious discussions with some long-time head-casers with major cred agree with this. vinnie is a cool guy to boot, and all his gear sounds great (see the comments to the latest ny meet, for example).

I don't know - I'm 52, and when I look at all those stacks of things I own (fortunately, no vinyl), I have this amazing sense of my own mortality - like there's no way I'm ever gonna be able to listen (or read) all this stuff I have - and when it's physical stuff, rather than just stored in a computer, somehow it hits home that much more. Interestingly, Uber, it's almost like a reverse-age thing: when you're 21 it's totally cool to gobble up CDs, since you feel you have all the time in the world to listen to whatever you get. We old farts (at least me) on the other hand, dream of down-sizing Off topic, but I just noticed the Orpheus and HEV-90 are at 18K-plus with about 5 minutes to go on ebay. Man oh man - although I think the WES probably outshines the HEV90 by far, Jack Woo says that the HE90 cans themselves pair are the best for the WES).

Thanks all, this is plenty to get me started - much appreciated. Time is money and all that, but both ways - diy and using a service - do seem like a real hassle. But space and accessibility to my music have become pretty big issues at this point. I'm completely sold at this point on using my computer as a source. It just doesn't make a lot of sense for me to let all that great music just sit in boxes in the cellar and gather dust much longer (I guess I could say the same thing about my DVDs and books as well - sigh) ...

I'm curious - what services are there that download collections for you? I have far too many CDs (many still unlistened to) that I would love to have available at the click of a mouse - I simply don't have the time or inclination to open all those boxes and do it myself.