Yes, the FM transmitter quality is great, provided no other FM stations are disturbing. The FM signal strength and availability of the transmitter is tied to the region settings according to the SDK documentation.

have to say that one of my best buys have been the Nokia BH-503.
http://shop.nokia.co.uk/nokia-uk/pro...&culture=en-GB
was tired as a frequent traveler to have cords stuck and tangled when in and out security checks.
PLEASE note you cannot though use them in an Airplane due to BT.
some BT HS have cord possibility, but IMO in ear plugs are better in noisy environments.

Being able to have the handset in a pocket or a bag and controlling the Music player and receive calls is great.
now with the "chunky" N900 not having to take it out every time will be even more important.

What?

But 5800's Speakers is much better than N97.

The N900 is better than 5800?

N900 is the ONLY Stereo Device of all 3. This makes it far far far far far better than the others...

Are you sure? I thought the 5800 was stereo.

Also, I thought the iPod Touch 2G was "alright" sound quality, particularly if I pre-EQ the audio files as ALAC. I can run full-sized speakers off the headphone output of it and they sound like a reasonable midi system.

I must say I was disappointed at first though, as the sound quality was poor without modifying the files first. The built-in EQ stupidly does not check peak volume levels so is next to useless as it causes clipping on most settings.

I use Sennheiser HD205 for listening at home, use the iPods own earbuds when out as you lose to bass due to traffic noise anyway. Still, if the iPod is considered "not all that good" I am REALLY looking forward to the N900 sound quality.

How about wired alternatives? I have a Nokia AD-54 adapter that I'd like to use with my headphones and N900. Would the buttons work? Should I expect some problems with using it or with sound quality?

Nokia AD-54: http://europe.nokia.com/find-product...ts/hs-45-ad-54

I perfectly understand need for good audio engineer in rock concert. But I still can't see any good reason for EQ in mobile device. When your on train, an airplane or some other place where there are some background noise it's almost impossible to fix anything with EQ even if it's good one. Background noise changes little bit for every place and you would need to change settings for every place where you are listening music. Having reasonably well isolating headphones makes music on those situations much more enjoyable at least for me than any EQ could ever make. This is not possible for all of course as some can't use in ear headphones.

I must admit that last time I have used any device with an EQ was circa 2000 with some Sony mini-disc player so I don't have a clue about the todays best devices with EQ. Sound when EQ was enabled on that mini-disc sounded almost in all cases too unnatural to my ears, even when the changes were very small. I want to consume my music as close to that as it sounds in CD when played on studio and EQ haven't provided it to me.

One other reason I'm against EQ on mobile devises is because I have seen too many people using it just too heavy settings and then sound is not even close to that what it sounded in the studio. Then these kids go to some music forum to say that and that CD sounds very bad even if the CD was extremely professionally made and and sound is excellent (like the music itself which is the most important). And when there are too many of those kids it comes a truth in the Internet and band don't sell as many CDs as it might have sold with correct information. Thats one reason I don't go any more to music sites to see if some album is good buy or not.

But back to N900 and sound quality I still think that N900 sounds really good and I can even say that it's one of the best sounding mobile devices you can have this year. There is also one big advantage to some other devices that you can put microSD card in this device, so yo can have very big music catalog with you. I still need to do some more testing with MP3s and FLACs to see if I need to move completely FLAC. On quick tests I have heard (or so I think ) more details in FLAC files than MP3s. If thats a case I need to buy pack of cards to get all my music with me while I'm on the road.

If some one is interested to have good compromise with file size and audio quality I can recommend following settings for Sound Juicer in Linux:
And as you can see these are my personal thoughts and should not be taken as only truth . I promise that I don't throw more gasoline in the flames .

There are some things that cannot be explained with words. I'm trying out right now the N900 with the BH-905. The mp3 that I got from Radiohead corresponding to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQ is just beautiful.

Here is a nice video review of BH-905:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjap9HAWPx4

iPhones speakers for listing to music is not really good.

You need to disable all music profiles e.g. Bast-Boost and so on, so that you have a decend sound quality. Listing with the provided earphones you need these profiles.
And... WHY is it always the iPhone? Best phone ever for calling quality was my 9500 xD and listing to music.... the Nokia 7710... it has real subwoofer built in