sony a865 vs ipod classic

[allicio]

afternoon gents
im new to the forum but hoped i may be as bold as to ask a question.
im looking at the sony a865 mp3 player but my brother has offered me a latest gen ipod classic for the same money
My question is if you take capacity and headphones out of the equation which has the better sq?
i listen to trance/dance aswell as rock/metal so cover quite a large spectrum.
ive always believed sony to have the better sq but i thought id ask those in the know
cheers for any advice
andy

 

[Dreamnine]

To be honest, I don't think they'll sound that different, although the Sony probably has much better EQ options - I've owned plenty of Sonys in the past and they all sounded good to me.
 
Saying that - if it was me - I'd go for the Classic for the capacity.

 

[chef8489]

I would also go for the classic. The ability to run a LOD in the future opens up more options. You probably could not tell much of a difference through the hp out, but capacity is nice also.

 

[allicio]

Thanks for the replies chaps its much appreciated!
Can you tell me whata lod is please! Im a complete pleb with this stuff at the moment.
I've been looking through the forums here and it seems the main issues with the classic is the hard drive failing and itunes. I've still got some thinking to do i think.

 

[davidcotton]

LOD = line out dock for connecting a portable headphone amp to bypass the headphone jack in the ipod.  One other thing is gapless (no gaps between songs), if that's important to you then the ipod is I think the only choice really.

 

[allicio]

Can you not use an lod with the Sony then?
If capacity isn't a problem would you guys still go the same route of the classic? Ill be buying a decent set of in ears, so obviously they'll help with the sq in either case.
Thanks again for this its very much appreciated