Lack of dedicated volume is not bad as you can adjust it w/the touch screen when playing music.
SQ is about what you'd expect from Apple. This is totally subjuective, but here is how I rate the SQ of my players 1 being the best:
1. iRiver, Zune
2. Cowan, Archos
3. Creative, Apple
4. Sandisk, Mobiblu
Yeah, It's about 27 players now, although I did sell a few.
