angrynorth

£179 4 Gig and the nicest thing you will ever see!

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore

Markus

Sorry but it just does not 'do it' for me. I'd rather have a full size iPod.

Iain Young

Looks nice, but it's a bit pricey for only 4gb isn't it

(You can get a 30gb zen for only 20 quid more - I know it's bigger, but at least you can fit more stuff onto it).

I've nearly filled my 60gb zen now

angrynorth

I bought one for my girlfriend a couple of months back and on the pics they don't look that great, but in real life they are stunning. I occasionally "borrow" it when I can't be bothered bringing out my normal iPod.

As for the creative, there's a phrase that comes to mind. Something along the lines of quality and quantity. Anyway, when you look at some flash based players its very well priced considering what you get.

Audi-Boy

Wow thats so cool, what colour shall I get?

angrynorth

The silver is a bit dull, green and gold are surprisingly nice in the flesh. But the blue and pink ones stand out the most. Is pink your colour AB?

Audi-Boy

It certainly IS!!

ABs always partial to a bit of pink.

what would scooby do

We get them at trade price from a dealer in Manhattan - £134 all in..

.. and no I'm not getting any for you

Iain Young

Spoken like a true Mac user

What's that matter with the quality? Had mine for a few months now, use it almost every day, and not had a single problem. Sound quality is great(easily as good as the ipod), battery life is good, quick to load tracks, wma, mp3 and aac support as well (using the realnetworks patch).

Do I regret buying it. Nope, and it was cheaper than buying two ipods

Iain

angrynorth

Well. Good for you

I understand you like your Creative, but there is something else about the iPod, more than specs and sound q's. The overall package itself is what I'm talking about when it comes to quality. There is a reason why the Creatives are still on the shelves where as you can't sell your gran for an iPod mini in the states at the moment.

JackClark

If you own a creative zen, you own a MP3 player. If you own a iPOD you're part of a revolution. It's all marketing bollox, but I love it.

Iain Young

Yep, it's called the lemming syndrome coupled with good advertising

angrynorth

Jeez, you are bitter aren't you?

RB5-Black

I have to agree with Angrynorth, it's the overall package with the iPod that makes the difference. I've just bought a 40Gig ipod and can't fault it. iTunes is a really good piece of software. For design , quality and size I'd buy the iPod before the Zen everytime.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

ghey

Iain Young

Not at all, just been a very long day (been working 14hr days for the last couple of weeks - including weekends )....

Personally when I buy stuff, I get the thing that best suits my purpose. The zen might not be as "cool" as the ipod, but for me the extra storage space is well worth it. Looks are not important as just it sits by the side of my computer all day at work while I code away, or in my coat pocket if I'm out.

Also, I'm not interested in iTunes. The software is good, but I'm not interested in buying tunes over the net. I'd rather get the original cd, then encode it myself. That way, I've got the full quality original for playing on the hifi (even the best aac / wma / mp3 sounds inferior compared with the original cd).

Don't get me wrong, I genuinely like the ipod, but for my purposes, the Zen is better.

So there

Iain

angrynorth

Like I said before, good for you.

But I am not a lemming brainwashed by marketing. It's genuinely a very good product that fortunately doesn't rely on you liking it for it to sell.

Markus

We have just been disucssing mini's here (both chaps have normal iPods). We did the math an on a storage basis, the mini is a rip off.

We are also in agreement that the main focus of the mini's was at the female market, we all know how girls like colored things

druddle

Does the Creative player have the FM transmitter available like the iPod (iTrip) ? Absolutely essential kit for my iPod so i can listen to it in the car.

Dave

angrynorth

I don't think it has a dedicated one like the iTrip but there are a few alternative broadcasters out there.

what would scooby do

I've got a zen also and it had more capacity for half the price. I wouldn't use an FM transmitter in the car as all my tracks are WMA and I have all the best tracks from my album collection burnt to CD in wma format that, funnily enough my car's player can read. WMA is the absolute lowest quality music I will listen too, and only then when played in noisy environments such as the car and train/tube.

I wasn't concerned about size or "coolness" - I just needed capacity to store as many tracks at minimum compression..

Iain Young

Nothing official, but I think there are some 3rd party ones out there for the Zen. To be honest I've not really investigated it. I'm wiring mine into the Aux-in of the head unit and so get much better sound quality than is possible via one of those FM broadcast unit things (iTrip included). FM compression is just too lossy for my ears. I just wish DAB would take off a bit quicker then I can ditch the naff radio sound as well...

wwsd - Good to see that there's at least one other person on here that thinks the Zen is a good bit of kit

Iain

angrynorth

WWSD if wma is the lowest quality you will listen to, you will be pleased to know there are other compressed formats with higher quality that will play on your Creative.

Take a look at these results from a public listening test. Ogg and MPC come out really well.

http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multifo...8/results.html