2009 Just got my 160Gb Classic, but I've been busy.
Importing ~10700+ songs
36 days
99.30gb. Everything except Classical Itunes Plus (AAC 256kbpsVBR)
error corrected. Classical done AAC 320kbpVBR
All is safely on a 1Tb Simple Drive that stays disconnected unless I'm going to use ITunes! Yes, I've finally had the epiphany on Ipods and my music!!!!!!! I was one of those lossless snobs, figuring only a $4-6000 MacIntosh Hard drive unit would be good enough.
I figure that doing a lossless import, then download to Ipod compressed is overkill, as, like all technologies, in 5 years all our efforts will be obsolete anyway. Therefore, my archive will always be the original CD's till studies tell me they're degrading! Why bother with all the extra steps. If I ever find a piece that I can hear a decreased quality on, I'll reimport it Apple Lossless etc or a click up from where it currently is. I, too have been lucky to have extraordinary hearing, (years ago tested and could pick up 26Khz, of course that was in my thirties)