Jeb23

Hi, I am appealing for help to anyone out there. I had a Sharp MD unit, MT866, which recently gave up on me. It has been an excellent unit though. Anyway i am out looking for another one, preferably Sharp. The reason I am inclined to get another Sharp unit is for it's good sound quality (the one i had was 24-bit). From what i have seen so far, the units produced by Sony is 16-bit. As far as my understanding goes, 24-bit sounds better than 16-bit. I am stuck from this point onwards. There are many new units on the market now and i am lost as to which one i should get. My question is: 1 - What is 24-bit? 2 - And are there units with better sound quality other than the one i had? 3 - I have a wide collection of mp3s and i am looking for a unit which comes with a software that enables songs to be transferred to and forth. I would really appreaciate if someone is able to help me point to the right direction. Regards