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

I went looking for this type thing a number of months ago, and did some research just as you did. After some discussion with folks who owned Zune's, I went ahead and forked out the cash for the original - an iPod Classic. It's less expensive than the iPod Touch that has all the features (that I'd never use). The 80gig model runs about $250 all over the place - Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and the military exchange system. So far I'm finding it fairly easy to use - mostly because I bookmarked the manual, online, and then printed the pages I needed the most! I haven't tried downloading any music from iTunes yet, but I've transferred more than 40 CD's onto it already. It looks pretty easy to do if you can read and follow written directions. BTW - get the iPod locally, but then go to eBay for some of the accessories you'll want for it. It only comes with a USB cord and a set of earphones. You'll want the electric charger, you may want a car charger, and depending on your use, you may also want a 1/4" patch cord to plug it into the Audio jack of your stereo system. DonnaR/CA Here is a link that might be useful: iPod Classic manual

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