Hi, let me intervene for a second.

Perhaps the original poster either a.) has an iPhone or b.) has experienced audio on it and has decided this is an important factor in their decision to go with an N900 or an iPhone.

Being the internet, you may now continue to project your feelings onto the misunderstood questions of others.

Of course iPod touch sound is just poor and noisy. I wish N900 will sound as good as 5800XM which probably a top 3 device in terms of sound quality

what better than 5800 - you kidding right ?.

I'm by no means an audiophile but by subjective ear-testing the N900 sounds considerably better than the N810, and sounds decent even when connected to external speakers (i.e. when watching movies). The headphones that come with the unit are also better than the ones that came with the N810.

This might not be popular, but; the Itouch and iphone 3gs is an excellent DAP - not perfect but as an audio device, they are excellent (and yes i'm a serious audiophile).
My DAP is the Sanza Fuze, but thats mainly foor its drag 'n' drop support of Flac, ichoons drives me crazy!
I have the N800, N810 and N95 - and the audio SQ is very poor on both the N800 and N810 - the N95 is better but no where near the itouch sq. I tried to use Flac with both the N800/810 and it was never quite up to the task. I'm hoping the audio from the N900 is better, and with some decent media support.
BT

iPod touch a serious DAP ? Come on man, just come on.

iPod touch sounds loud but the definition and range is not just there - I know I have 2 of these but I use my 5800 now. Just check out gsmarena.com for some technical analysis. The iPhone sounds very poor compared to Nokia's 5800.

ps
I'm not an audiophile like you but I have a bit of common sense

I need to turn you onto some $10,000 headphone amps!

*On reasonably priced consumer electronics.

First I do not want to start a Flame war, but I am have been working as a sound engineer in recording studios.
we have to clarify a couple of things.
1.
when you produce things in a studio you have so many sound altering devices that they are too many to mention.
1b.
so your job is to change original sound to "interesting" sound.
2.
studios pay a lot of money to have "neutral sounding " speaker monitors, so you have a reference to listen to
2b.
good sound is really personal, that is why you can hear difference between different studios or producers, we are all individuals.
3.
people tend to forget the importance of good quality MP3 ripping. compressed music is not Hi-Fi...it can be good and I listen all day long to it, but it is not High-end Audio reproduction stuff. very handy though.

Reproduce Audio
This is where things go wrong with people say NO to (good) EQ

you forget the listening environment.
to give an example, when you have been at a Rock show the sound probably was bad in the beginning of the concert ( as they cut time on pre-show sound testing ) it is also hard to test the sound without an audience, which affect the sound a lot.

this is the same scenario when you are in a car or in an airplane, or even in your living room, there is different background noise, and acoustics that you need to compensate for, even wearing most headphones ( if not totally removing outside noise)

I agree that you cannot use and EQ to compensate for crappy sound, headphones or speakers, that is where you should start, but and EQ do help ( used within reason ) to compensate an not perfect listening room, crappy speakers, personal taste, why shall you not have be able to personal sound, we all hear things different as ask a Dr specialized in hearing.

I also agree that most cheap built in digital EQ can easily create distorsion, so when using EQ listen carefully so it is within limits of what the pre-amp / hardware / software can do.

and a fact for most non-EQ fans....you can turn it off......

As I said in the beginning not here to start a flame war, just giving my personal opinion.

and if you could not guess, I am Pro-EQ

I've been looking at n900s a lot And can't seem to find the needle, wher do I put the record?