having owned a Creative MP3 player for a few days, and returning it shortly after due to the poor sound quality, I have recently purchased a Sony NET MD minidisc player, and theres no comparison on sound quality, even at 4x compression
took my whole CD collection on holidy in a little pile of 15 MD's
awesome little units, and can take it on my jogs as it doesnt jump
edit
i should add that being a digital copy, the 1 to 1 copy of a cd is as good as the original, as far as i can make out, but you can fit a couple of spares in your pockets no problem !