The letters on the front of the box are U3, and on the back YP-U3J, there are more numbers under that and it's 2gb.

Jane, I purchased a cable at Best Buy to connect my iPod to my stereo receiver. It sounds like you need the same thing. Go to the department that sells iPods and other MP3s and look for a rack of cable accessories. I think that mine is made by Belden. Or ask a salesperson for help. This cable will have a mini-plug on one end (plugs into the earphone jack on your MP3 player), and then splits into to two cables, each with an "RCA" plug on the ends. These match the inputs on your Sony system, make sure that you have two Audio In jacks, a Right and a Left. If you don't, you may need another type of cable, or an adaptor to go with the cable. It would be helpful if you could see your Sony unit in the same store that sells the cables, but not necessary. Radio Shack is probably another source for such cables. They tell you to turn down the volume on the player so that you won't blow out the speakers when you turn it on. Once you get it set up and working, you can see how to best set the volume. Hope this helps, Steve

Get an iPOD or whatever MPS you find easier to operate. Download all music in a "lossless" format, as opposed to a "lossy" format. FLAC and a number ofothers are lossless and can give you audio through your stereo system as good as cd's. The lower the kps you use, the more information goes missing.The downside to "lossless" downloadingis--it fills up your hard drive far faster. I just download many I'[mnot currently not playing much (if at all) to my computer. You can always recover them. Shure and Etymotic also make excellent ear buds--usually the better the pricier. Greg

I would have a sorry commute if it were not for my ZEN, given to me by my son. My commute is anywhere from 45 mintues to an hour each way. The ZEN has a 30GB capacity and let me tell you, that's a lot of books. And we make a monthly trip that is about 7 hours round trip and DH and I listen to books on the trip. He isn't much of a reader, but he is totally hooked on audiobooks. In fact, our television watching has decreased dramatically since he discovered audiobooks. I have more than 50 books on it right now and still have lots of music, too. If you're going to spend the money, I say go for one that has the largest screen that your money can buy. I tried a teensy one, but my old eyes could barely read it. And the color on this one (and many others) is much easier to read than some of the more inexpensive ones. This is one case of "you get what you pay for", IMHO.