Hi and thanks for looking in.

I used to be guarded about buying radios making sure that sets advertised with 'FM Radio' used the nomenclature "FM Stereo Radio". Somewhere in my education, someone pointed out that not all things were "stereo" and so you had to pay attention. Back then, it seemed stereo had a legal meaning too.

Now a days, use of the word has vanished. The ipod does not describe the sound emmitted is in "stereo". No description about personal music players does. It appears there are many assumptions about the music recording and play back. There is no use of the word stereo in any description I found about the ipod or itunes music.

My research tells me that the ipod is unique in the compression format/technology it employs; and that's it.

My question then is this. Is it safe to assume that the personal music players of today play back true "stereo" sound through those headphones? Have we progressed so far that use of the word "stereo" is vebose?

Thanks. Your comments appreciated.