Well. after all the research, discussion and great info from all of you, I was informed this week that the 1 gig T30 is out of stock and the vendor doesn't know when another shipment is coming in. A search of the Pricegrabber and Nextag engines indicates that very few vendors have it, and most of the ones that do have refurbished models.
I was going to get a new one for $70 shipped! Oh well, que sera sera.
Does anyone know if they stopped manufacturing the 1 gig models or why no one seems to have them in stock?
After getting my hopes up and ears perked for an 18 mw per channel model, I just can't see getting the next most powerful one which is the 13 mw per channel Iaudio. Is there any mp3 player that has as much amplification as the Iriver?