good enough sound?

I remember having a discussion with a musician friend a couple of years ago, about DVD audio sound versus CD sound. I'm actually yet to sit down and do an AB test between identical material on CD and DVD-A, but in this conversation my friend was describing sense of space and relief that DVD-A sound quality offered over regular CD audio.
So with that back-drop, I'm thinking that my old iPod is decidedly ordinary in terms of audio quality. I've started listening to my CD Discman again, and the sense of space and relief is evident over the ripped versions sitting on my little white gadget. I think if it wasn't for the marvellous world of podcasts, I'd be tempted to ditch the iPod.
Ok. My iPod is old - 2nd generation. Maybe the newer ones are better. Maybe they've got an equaliser that is actually useable and beneficial to listening on high quality but bass-deficient in-ear phones. I'm not sure. I've played around with different bit-rates (unfortunately my model won't play Lossless Compressed formats) but my Discman still sounds better. Uncompressed music from the iPod is a slight improvement, but disk space and battery life becomes an concern pretty quick with this approach.
So where is all this going? I've noticed that the DVD-Audio versus Super Audio CD `battle' has given way to the HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray stouch. No one seems to be pushing any sound quality benefits, but the issues of copyright protection are never far from the spotlight.
Maybe sound quality is no longer an issue these days. Perhaps no-one cares: we're all busy listening to compressed music on one of those `iPod compatible' portable sound systems that seem to be populating the windows of home entertainment stores. I guess who's to argue...if the ear is the final judge.



And, in un-related matters, kudos to Bryce Amner for nicely integrating a session of MS Flight Simulator into a sermon on Revelation at Holy Trinity Port Melbourne on Sunday. And no...I don't believe The Rapture was even mentioned.