(This is from an Amazon.com review I wrote in late 2008; I still own and use this iPod, and everything I wrote still applies, save for the fact that battery life has shortened noticeably over the last six months - not horribly so, but I can no longer go for a week between recharging as I typically would.)   In a number of circles, the iPod Classic is now considered the "less sexy" iPod. Largely because of the things it appears to lack vis-a-vis the newest "fully-wired" iPods/iPhones: it doesn't have a phone function (d'oh!), it doesn't "do"...

The problem with having a reference-grade pair of headphones for home listening (in my case, Grado's amazing Prestige Series SR325is) is that when you start looking for 'phones to listen to away from home, just about everything you try inevitably comes up short in one way or another, and the name of the game becomes "which set of compromises am I willing to live with?" For me, the current crop of headphones aimed toward portable listening is, at best, merely acceptable. I could drag out the usual suspects to use as punching bags, but we already...