well, depends on how much money you have, and how sensitive your hearing it, and what quality requirements you have on the output, and do you need to impress others??

seriously, all my colleagues have Ipods and when I asked one, whether he hears a difference between his 300 Euro state of art ipod (what ever that thing is), and one for 50 Euro, he said, the ipod is also there for bragging. brand name and apple seemingly makes the difference *g*..

I have a lowlife, cheap no name mp3 player. works for me. dont need brand name to boost my ego ;D
but then I only listen to my music on it, like twice per week or so.