I've had various mp3 players in the past but currently use an iPod - since I already used a mac and wanted some music for a transatlantic trip. The itunes music store is nice for buying "just that one song that's been running through my head". There are cheaper options, but there aren't better designed ones. Most of my music is still CD's bought in stores and converted. If you've got a machine with a decent sound card, there are linux tools for doing things like auto-splitting a single recording (gramofile, I think was the name, specifically has filters for vinyl, as well as "split on silence" so you don't have to sit there and do it manually.
Backup technology for me is primarily "everything is on the iPod and the Powerbook" with occasional pushes out to AFS; I should really burn CDroms of mp3's (effectively 10 albums per CDrom, since most audio albums don't use nearly the space anyone *and* you get about 6:1 compression) like I did back in the beginning - I've just been lazy, and 3 spinning drives have been enough (and I still have all of the original media - which I basically consider "primitive file distribution media", I haven't played a music CD directly in years.)
Another thing to consider is that it may make sense to keep the collection on a primary computer and get one of the smaller (and cheaper, but primarily smaller - deck-of-cards size or smaller) mp3 players for portable use. Think about your listening patterns/environments (walking/running? in the car? in the house?) and how much of your music you want to listen to at any point - I happen to like putting everything I own on shuffle while driving, if I'm at home I'll just play from the computer, and I don't wear headphones out walking, but do when I'm a passenger.
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Backup technology for me is primarily "everything is on the iPod and the Powerbook" with occasional pushes out to AFS; I should really burn CDroms of mp3's (effectively 10 albums per CDrom, since most audio albums don't use nearly the space anyone *and* you get about 6:1 compression) like I did back in the beginning - I've just been lazy, and 3 spinning drives have been enough (and I still have all of the original media - which I basically consider "primitive file distribution media", I haven't played a music CD directly in years.)
Another thing to consider is that it may make sense to keep the collection on a primary computer and get one of the smaller (and cheaper, but primarily smaller - deck-of-cards size or smaller) mp3 players for portable use. Think about your listening patterns/environments (walking/running? in the car? in the house?) and how much of your music you want to listen to at any point - I happen to like putting everything I own on shuffle while driving, if I'm at home I'll just play from the computer, and I don't wear headphones out walking, but do when I'm a passenger.