Ok, I have to chime in.
I have a Rio Karma, and it works like a charm. I know you said you don't want another mp3 player, but this mp3 player is all that and more. It has a dock, which means you don't have to put the power cord in every time, you just put the unit in the dock. The dock has line level rca outs on the back, ethernet, usb, and usb 2.0. Also, ther dock has a light that can pulse to the music, or just stay on. Plus, the unit is A LOT more portable than your current player. It is also the only player to sport gapless playback, which means seamless Dark Side of The Moon (something the iPoop cannot do). It has a 5-band parametric eq w/ 3 custom settings and about ten presets. This baby supports WAV, FLAC, MP3, WMA, and OGG. 20gb of storage, dock, excellent features, great ease of use, how could you go wrong?
By the way, I do own one
http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261