Picky Picky Picky
The one that came with my 8886 is just fine. No, its not a symphony hall. But then what portable device is. For serious listening, nothing less than a very good audio room will do and those simply don't travel well. I know, I've designed and built them. The earbuds are ok, especially for air travel, afterall, little will drown out the jet noise or the screaming babies they unfortunately let on planes. Otherwise, it works fine, though it burns batteries a bit faster than I think it should. I use a headphone to tape adaptor to use it in my car, sounds just fine, indeed, as good as the cd player. And no, its not a crappy cd player, unless Chrysler's best is crappy. And, hey, if it gets lifted or lost or crushed, well, no major loss.
Its also quite useful for on-the spot transfer of data.
In general, I like this port type, with the 6 in 1 reader, and hopefully other connections, it could become a real nice addition to portable computing.
Would I pick it over other units, not likely, it doesn't really have the features that most offer, but it would depend on price. Then again, I can't plug those into my computer or use them for data transfer.
Essentially, I consider it a freebie and for the price, its pretty damn good. I certainly haven't gotten or even found anything better for the price.
Oh, and by the way, mine did come with batteries.