Neil Young's iPod 2.0

Legendary rocker Neil Young is apparently making the leap from making music to building a digital music device and it's great to hear that his main focus isn't on controlling access to content and download speeds but rather on quality.

Young's vision of a device that delivers music the way it's supposed to sound is admirable and what is equally impressive is his claim that he is picking up where Apple founder Steve Jobs left off.

You might remember that it wasn't that long ago Young was more of an Apple basher than a fan but he has told All Things Digital  that he was working with Jobs on a project and while Apple's late boss revolutionised music on the net with the iPod, he was still a vinyl man at heart.

Now, making Young's dream device isn't going to be a walk in the park because giving users studio quality audio will mean higher prices for them and require hardware manufacturers to make adjustments .

There is also the issue of download times, a whole generation of consumers fed on iTunes may baulk at the prospect of having to wait half an hour to download 24-bit, high-fidelity audio recordings.

But there is something exciting about the idea and as this infographic from TechKing shows portable music has come a long way since the first transistor.