General info for first time user

[didno2002]

Have been reading quite a bit in this forum, and slowly but surely I start to get the picture. Still its quite a task to find what I am looking for. Computers are all about collecting info, and then present the info in an easy to find and easy to understand maner. It seems like the majority of the people in here knows quite a bit about bitrates, fileformats, software ........and on and on.

What I need to know and probably the majority of the people out there, is what does work and what doesnt. I have my NW A3000 and its the first one I ever had. Finally we start to get to a point where these little players are capable of doing what we like them to do (if everything works that is).

Maybe we could make a short list or description of a setup that will work for the average user of such a device (my self included)

1. What software works with what players, and what update is needed to make it work properly.

2. What type of files is easiest to use and why? We have the mp3, wma, atrac and so on, but the average user dont need to know. He just wants to ripp his CD, transfer and listen to the music.

3. What bitrates are needed? I know higher is better, but there is pros and cons. Higher needs more space and lower offer lower sound quality. There is no need to have a high bitrate if the earpluggs cant present the "good" sound in a propper way.

I guess what I am asking for is someone to say that:

This works ok in most cases, but you can also expand in this or that direction.

This bitrate will be sufficiant for most people. It should at least be xxxxx! Anything above xxxxx is overkill.

These earpluggs are ok but these are quite a bit better.

Extraction of the essence I guess.

Thanks for an otherwise good site during these somewhat frustrating weeks, with software that didnt relly work all that well.