Just RMAA'd on a fairly casual basis - a 32-ohm load in the audio chain (iPod earphones), N900 set to full volume, iPhone 4G matched to that volume.

It does NOT look pretty - the iPhone blows away the N900, especially for distortion as I suspected. In other respects (dynamic range) it's barely better, but the fact is everything is better.

I think this pretty much ends the N900's viability for me, audio-wise, for anything but podcasts and streaming comedy shows in QSpot in the bath.

EDIT - A curveball update: It appears that however the N900 configures itself when a headSET is plugged in, the audio behaviour ends up being better than if the phone component of the headSET (if it were possible - I'm using a jack-converted WH-205) were to be plugged into the N900's socket.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...290#post915290.