Thanks much dfkt. I think I spazzed and should have used a "regular" PM instead of visitor so sorry about that.

I prefer to drag and drop (that's what I do for my wife's Sansa) so your MSC mode tip is huge. I've hoid about Rockbox and only know it to be third-party firmware. I'll scour that thread. Do you know if the firmware shipping with the Clip+ supports FLAC? If it does, I believe I will roll with that before I get my geek on.

Heh, congrats. I think for the low price of the Clip+ you don't have to be ashamed in front of your wife. Not to mention you know you'll have a player that sounds better than the Hifiman.

Not sure what you usually do, with your other players, but I simply drag'n'drop stuff over, I don't use any sync-apps, media players, and whatnot. The most important thing is setting the Clip to MSC mode in its system settings, not Auto or MTP. That way it acts like a normal USB flash memory stick.

To get the most out of the Clip, making it the best player ever, there's Rockbox: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53702 But maybe you want to give the stock firmware a whirl before you mod it? Either way, I only use Rockbox on my Clip+, and I've stopped using all other players on the go.