what, it's discontinued already? nice repair job with the toothpick and needle there, pokey! the headphone jacks are usually the first thing to go, so i've taken to permanently glue phones to my players with Goop. fixed that problem. i've even done it to my N810, even though its jack is metal. because of that i had to stop carrying it in a pantspocket, but since it's now my most - used music player (because i'm dragging it around everywhere anyway) it's worth it.
regarding the mike/line input and using unpowered mikes, you can do a lot with adjusting the line-in volume. without a preamp bass frequencies seem to dominate, but just use a bright mike.
one other thing i like about my iaudio - linux and windows98 compatibility. i can't however use it, like my iriver, as a guitar practice headphone amp, since the G3 doesn't allow monitoring of line - in recording. too bad.
btw., please let us know if you get the 7 to work on the Nokia ITT with a powered usb hub! thanks very much!