I want access to the 12000 songs I have on my iPod. I don't like wearing headphones all the time and I do think I get pretty good playback quality. I am somewhat older and my ears are not what they used to be but.... I think my iPod going through my systems sounds just fine. I don't find the sound quality to be bad. I am also pretty sure that CDs sound better than Vinyl and that the limits of human hearing ends around 25 khz no matter what a lot of people want to spend money on. I adhere to the old axiom that the louder something is the better it sounds to most people. Therefore you just have to crank it up loud enough to make it sound good.