I would imagine the iPod is best out of those, not only because it rates so highly, but because it looks sooooo desirable, despite how many other people have it.

Personnally I'm thinking about getting a Creative Zen 5gb, and upgrade to Napster to go. I think thats the key to mp3 purchase, is how well the selected player fits with you requirements, there really isn't much between the quality of the major players. Do you really need 20gb of storage, it sounds good, but I would never use it, (unless as a personnal HDD for other stuff). At the end of the day, you don't want something that doesn't look as good as the money you paid for it, so the Dell and the Nomad would be off my list. Maybe that makes me shallow, but eh, such is life.

I've read good reviews about the Rio players, perhaps have a look at those, the slightly dated Karma is fairly cheap these days I believe.

iPod is definately the worst imo.

Creative Nomad is the way to go, much better sound quality, I also haev recently launched an ipod hating forum www.downwithipod.com

I would go with the ipod out of the three you've listed.

Well I am going with the Dell DJ, it has a better value for what you get. The only thing I don't like about it is that you have to use MusicMatch, but there is a solution to this Dudebox which makes it easier to add and take files off of your player.

You don't have to use MusicMatch unless you're fooling with DRM music-- the Dell DJ driver will allow you to copy through a device in My Computer.

But, I'd say this decision is in the eye of the beholder, or the beholder of the wallet.
The DJ is probably the most bang for the buck, GB to dollar-wise, but I think the interface on the iPod is a little nicer. My advice would be to hit up a Dell kiosk in your local mall (if available), an Apple store, or other electronics retailer, and try them all out before making a decision.

I've got a creative nomad, and I love it. The Dell DJ's don't look bad though, but do you really need all that space?

Yeah, the space will be nice. I probably will store some non-music files on it as well. BUt having enough room to put all of your cds on it and thensome will be really nice. Currently I have a 128mb Lyra and I am always changing the songs in it.

I bought my nomad a while back. I think I paid about 150$ for it, and it only has 128 mb of memory. If I had to do all over, I would go with the Dell DJ.... Not really any reason, but I just have a biased toward buying dell products. My Uncle has a IPod which looks pretty nice, but I still like the dell's!

I got my Dell DJ today. I have to say it is much better then the iPod. The sound quality is good. The usability is great. If anyone else is thinking about buying a hard drive mp3 player I would definitely go with the dell, and not go with the hyped up iPod.