I've been using my 30 gig photo with a fiio E17 and a pair of Westone um2's ever since my ipod classic 80 gig wiped itself clean of over 5000 songs in the blink of an eye. I then broke out the old 30 gig and hooked it up and was really quite amazed at the sound quality and how it surpassed my now defunct 80 gig, now perhaps the drive was going bad on the classic but I choose to believe that the non video drive of the 30 gig just cares more about music and for my ears this appears to be so.