Need help finding new mp3 player

I was recommended to seek help here by a friend who's a member.

I am in the market for a new mp3 player. I was originally planning on the iTouch, mostly because I was ok with my iPod (prior to its death), and I think the added web browser would be fantastic for a person like myself (student in an active environment). However, I've read about the dubious sound quality of the device and was wondering what kind of suggestions you guys might have.

So what I'm looking for is:

-good sound quality
-at least 8 gigs in space, I have no qualms with cycling songs/playlists/etc on the player every so often
-decent battery life, 10-12 hours at least (I don't think this should be a big deal?)
-portable, nothing too bulky
-web browser
-absolutely no interest in quality of the stand-alone video player as I won't ever use it seriously (as in, I'm not looking for an mp3 player to have the best video player for movies I upload to it, at the expense of other features)

Also, I don't want to spend too much money. The iTouch I was looking at is less than $270, and that's the absolute most I want to spend right now. Lastly, if all web browsing mp3 players have what might be considered as very mediocre sound quality, then I can forgo the web browser(although as I mentioned it is something I'm really interested in).

Thoughts? I appreciate all the help!

Hey, and thanks for the replies, guys.

I've heard a number of good things about the Cowon S9, and after checking it out it does look fairly nice. It's too bad that it doesn't have WiFi

I completely forgot about Sony! I looked at the Sony X players as suggested. The X1060 series is out of range for me, but the X1051 (16 gig version) looks within my range. Szadzik, does your info come from first hand knowledge or is this something you've read? I found 2 reviews that mentioned this, but both noted that their info on the firmware update came from user comments. While I wouldn't mind lag, and while not supporting flash would be slightly annoying (but not putting me off too much), having a browser that just hangs like they said it did sounds pretty bad (and useless). But if the firmware update has fixed this significantly, it's something I might consider over the S9 and touch. One thing I'm wondering is if the hardware on the newest 16 gig Sony X model is the same as that on the 32 gig model (I know for instance that the iPod Touch equivalents, 32 gig and 16 gig, each do not have the same hardware). If so, then I guess the comments from the one thread on this forum about the Sony X would apply here.

Again thanks, and I appreciate further feedback. Again, I guess you could say the products that are still standing out to me are the Sony X1051 (16 gig), Cowon S9, and iTouch 32 gig.

EDIT: Further research has left me with this feeling like maybe I should avoid the Sony for now as the iTouch just gives so much more bang for the buck. Still looking at S9 and some others...