very bad for music ?? I certainly disagree.
I
do tend to be a bit Anti-Microsoft yet I believe WMA is your best bet on chiPods. Most experts will tell you that if you are going for best quality sound then forget the top proprietary formats MP3, WMA and AAC and use OGG. However, most chiPods don't do OGG (although my 1.8" one does) so your choice is usually between MP3 and WMA.
ChiPods will never be super high-quality devices so I think any sound quality difference between a typical music MP3 and a much smaller WMA file will be negligible. The audio limitation will likely be the chiPod, not the audio format. (Throw away any cheap earbuds that come with chiPods/iPods and use real, quality headphones.)
Most MP3 vs WMA comparisons on the 'Net are very old and out-of-date. Here's a more recent one:
http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/u...1;t=025121;p=1
I would pay particular attention to the remarks of "Anderton" aka Craig Anderton, a well-known musician (former editor of "Electronic Musician"). Notice his personal format choice for limited-memory portable MP3 player versus a higher-fidelity home system.
When I rip my own CDs, I find that using Windows Media Player's built-in CD ripper set to WMA Variable Bit Rate (VBR) at the middle setting yields a very good sound. However, I am most critical about 'percussive' integrity. This may be less important than other sonic aspects for others listeners.