aob, i definitely thinks that the s706 is a better player especially in terms of features. at the same bitrate, 132kbps if i'm not mistaken, the s706 sounds significantly better when using its supplied earphones. can't really tell much difference when using the earphones from ms7. do you know if there's any firmware updates for the ms7 to work with SS4.2. right now the ms7 has to be loaded using SS2.0 i have on my old vaio. the ms7 now is relegated to in-car duties.