I'm ultra-persnickety. I'd hear the difference. The quality issue is the only thing keeping me from being interested in the iPod.
The iPod comes with cheap headphones. I recently purchased Sony V600s, and the sound that comes out of them is outstanding. I suppose someone with ultra sensitive ears will claim to tell a difference, but I'd like to see Audiophiles who make this claim blindfold tested under lab conditions.
Me too. I am the exact opposite of most "music fans" in that I want the quality to be as high as possible, not just cram as much in there as I can. IMHO, the .mp3 craze of mass storage, low(er)-fidelity is what is stopping 24-bit DVD audio from taking-off. Can anyone imagine moving away from HDTV and saying, "Hey, why the hell would I want one giant screen with fantastic resolution when I can have a tiny TV with ten 'near NTSC-quality' pictures?"
Just give me a nice hand-wired vacuum-tube amp with some flat, efficient drivers. When the idustry gets around to re-issuing all those fantastic jazz albums in 24-bit (not dropped back to 16-bit CD), I'll replace my music collection .