i purchased my hi-md so that i could record in PCM. PCM is pretty shweet. now if iPods had PCM recording capablities and removeable ion litium battery packs then i would most definately go with the ipods. i don't understand why ipods don't have PCM. its seems perfectly do-able. i must admit though that having to manage all these md discs can be pretty cumbersome at times. and md players do have a lot of inconvenient restrictions. both md players and iPods have there pros and cons. i'm sure some day in the future there will be music players that will have the best of both worlds, but until then my md player will have to sufice.