Personally, I own an
iAudio which I think beats the ipod sound quality hands down. I stumbled across it a couple years ago while researching mp3 players myself. Of course, it helps that a LOT of sound enhancement features come with it. I love mine. I've got an older iaudio4.
I've also been researching the recent multimedia players and I've decided to go with the Creative Zen Vision M. It plays more formats than ipod video and definitely beats the video quality.
The earbuds I have are the
Audio-Technica ATH-CK7. They sound fantastic...like mini Axioms in your ears!