[FlameGrilled]

Like Odie put it, it's down to build quality and the anti-shock arrangement.

Battery endurance is heading in the right direction - to the point now that it's starting to make flash decks look a little lacking in that department.

Tolerence of less than perfect CD media, based on the reliability of the 250 model (and early 350 units) speaks for itself - no problems after the equiv of crammng 6 years worth of wear and tear across 5x 250 models (2x OEM units, 3 x iRiver branded) across around 2-3 years, therefore no issue.

Assuming non-mechanical parts like the laser emitter/receiver (not it's motor-drive for positioning) don't pack up and the motor don't develop shot bearings before the deck has earn't it's keep (these days, in a quality deck - this shouldn't happen), then there is no reason why a CDP can't live to a ripe old age along with a flash-memory unit.

Media will eventually, clearly, get scratched and maybe even be rendered useless by 'hot spots' that can occur from a combination of heat buildup in a deck when under long continous use and where (given read issues due to dodgy discs) the laser is focused around a given area in the read attempt - but at 50p or less to replace, there is no same reason why when making a treasured compressed audio disc you can't simply burn a spare duplicate - £1 (for two discs) vs hundeds of hours of listening over thousands of hours of actual use over two discs is still bloody cheap.

The only practical disadvantage that might come to mind to some, is the 700Mb capacity limit of current CDP's vs 1.5-4Gb (Corniche drive) and 10-60Gb (2.5 and 1.8 inch drives) HDD's.

Where Corniche drives HDD's are concerned, the cost is getting so close to quality CDP money that there is room for concern - so it comes down to the choice of having a big variety and needing a computer to refresh the content when you dont have your wanted content with you (HDD) or simply swaping over to a substitute CD-ROM (a good CDP case can hold a minium of 6 discs+1 carried in the player itself).

So the lower price of Corniche drive units does introduce the question of value when it comes to CDP's, but there isn't enough of a price break vs proper capacity HDD's to make this a real question.

A worthy compressed audio CDP costs around 1.75-2x the cost of an equiv non-supporting Audio CDP.

A HDD unit (big capacity) costs around 1.75-2.5x the cost of an iRiver CDP (the more premium priced stuff). So you do get a value break due to capacity if you lump for an iHP/iPod/Lyra - but pay the price in laughable battery endurance (laughable, being somewhere between a slight snigger where endurance is not too bad, and a full blooded round of hysterical manic laughter where some decks have battery endurance that is very 70's retro chic stuff).

So i figure that leaves us down to physical size vs it's bulkiness, the CDP i mean, and to that i say that a good moden deck (any iRiver really, Sony D-NE1) makes a mockery of the concept of being too bulky or too heavy - they can exist hanging off your belt when cycling or jogging without issue - hell, you could have one on your belt whilst climbing without too many unresolvable problems.

Regards

FG - The Spirit of Da Cat