We have an apt. rented for 3 weeks at an old villa in Tuscany. They have a large swimming pool which is down the hill from our apt. Therein lies the question ~ we plan on spending many evenings down by the pool ~ with good bottles of Brunello and Chianti ~ and ~ would love to be listening to good music.

One couple is bringing their iPod and the rest of us are bringing CDs.

What brand/model of battery operated radio/CD should we consider taking with us? Obviously, small size is very important.

Thanks for help!

You can get small travel sized speakers for the iPod, starting at $10 for a cheap but functional pair of Sony speakers at Walmart or spend $30-40 for a smaller, better quality set. Then you could put every single CD you own onto the iPod and not have to carry the CDs + a CD player with you.

I have a Sony. It has held up under abuse.

iPod. Quite simply the best portable music technology in the market today.

Just like an earlier poster suggested, just get a pair of those small, compact speakers for the iPod. it's a lot better than lugging around a cd Player and a bunch of unwieldy CDs.

If you don't care about audio quality, I suggest an MP3 player like the iPOD. No matter how good the speakers and/or headphones are, that compression mangles music to a degree that is intolerable to anyone with the slightest discrimination. Of course, if you can't hear the difference, it doesn't matter.

The cheapest CD player will do, because the worst of them is better than MP3. Sony has the worst service/support reputation of any of the majors.

I couldn't agree more about the audio quality of good CD (not the "worst" CD player as these can sound as bad as transistor AM radios) technology being still better than than MP3. Then again, and as a very discriminate audiophile that I am, listening to an iPod with enhanced headphones tells me that it's not that far behind in quality.

Anyway, until they come up with a CD technology that's smaller than a quarter-pack of cigarettes (just like a mini iPod, for example), I'm more than willing to sacrifice the edge in sound quality and not lug around unwieldy CDs and a CD player that wouldn't really distinguish the difference in sound, especially when I'm travelling and just happen to need some music to lounge around with in some rented apartment in Tuscany.

Thanks a lot! I have now changed my mind from a radio/CD to iPod w/ speakers. Went to web including eBay this AM and am now thinking:

iPod, with
Altec Lansing inMotion

Seems small, powerful enough and uses batteries. The Bose (SoundDock)unit seems too large and cannot see that it operates on batteries.

I have never owned an iPod. Is it complicated to download my CDs to the unit? I am on microsoft.

Version 10 of Windows Media Player makes ripping and downloading a no-brainer. Just stick the CD in your drive. WMP will open it and list the tracks. Hit the "Rip" button and follow the instructions.

Apple has a free iTunes program for Windows that can rip your songs to MP3 or Apple's AAC format to be played on your iPod. You can also use that program to purchase downloads from the iTunes Music Store.

[And again, for the audophiles here on this board... iPod doesn't necessarily means compressed music. It can play non-compressed 16/44.1 PCM just fine. So, for those who appreciate full CD quality, an iPod is still a viable choice. A 60GB iPod can hold the content of about 100CDs in full resolution.]

If you just want something to play your CDs on, why don't you buy a cheap player when you get there? That means that size isn't an issue, and you can use it for three weeks then just donate it to the apartment owners.

I always holiday with a bunch of music fanatics and we club together to buy a CD player when we get to whatever country we're in. That is assuming the apartment owner can't provide one for you -- you should ask them first.

CDs are heavy. How many are you going to bring? I'd think one would like to listen to more than a few in 3 weeks' time. That's why an iPod or other harddisk-based player is so great. They hold lots of songs in a small package.

Just returned this week-end from our 3 weeks in Tuscany.

I ended up buy an iPod and
Altec Lansing inMotion speakers (thanks for keeping me state of the art). They both worked great and made wine on patio and sunbathing by pool much more enjoyable.

Thanks again!

Please pardon the diversion, but do any of you have experience with a Grunig radio? I may not even be spelling it correctly. Are you able to pick up European radio stations here in the U.S. If so, it would be just the virtual ticket for homebound travel addicts. J.

I would guess Grundig owns half the German radio market. They make good stuff, in my experience.

You can't get AM/FM signals from Europe, but there are lots of international short wave services that you can.