rclimbs

I was considering a purchase of an HD5, although now that it has been discontinued I guess I would have to find a used one. The main attraction was the superior sound quality and excellent battery life - that's pretty much all I'm looking for. Do you guys think the HD5 is still the way to go or should I look at the Zen Vision M or maybe the IAudio X5? The Ipods I've heard have sounded pretty crappy. Also, I read someone who took their existing MP3s and loaded them onto their Sony player and it locked those files on their computer so that they can no longer be accessed or placed on any other player - is that true? If so, it would be somewhat disconcerting since Sony seems to support each player they release for about 6 months and then forget about it. Also, does the NW5 work with the latest release of Sonicstage, if that it in fact an upgrade??

I'm looking to make my first portable music player since the Discman I bought about 12 years ago. I've been reading a lot here and elsewhere and would really like to get a Sony player as they seem to be excellent in battery life, sound quality, and general design. The software always gets knocked but I have been trying Sonicstage (first v 3.2 and now 3.3 and really don't think it's much worse than Itunes). Itunes is a lot more intuitive but after using Sonicstage for a bit I think it is definitely something I could live with, although I haven't yet hooked any devices up to it so maybe that is where the problems really begin. I was thinking about getting an HD5, but then I thought that might be a bad idea since new Sony software doesn't support old players. Is there any reason that I wouldn't be able to continue using Sonicstage with an HD5? Alternatively, if I buy an A3000, is it possible to use that with Sonicstage or with the new program from xispe? I am leaning toward the HD5 but I want a player that I can keep for at least 5 years, maybe longer. Sony seems to have no qualms about screwing their customers, so I want to make sure I don't waste $300 and have to buy another player a year from now. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks.