Zune or iPod?

[Shinji]

the zen vision W is not meant to be a pocket media player, its just meant to be an OTG media player, the zen vision M is the one on the level with ipoo video and zune. as far as the price, standard retail is about 50 USD more for the W over the M, but I found a few sites that have the M below retail and possibly ship internationally

 

[trebulator]

Um, wait... so did you guys forget about the Cowon iAudio X5L? This thing is definitely the best mp3 player I've seen (and hopefully I'll own it soon

)

It doesn't mention this in the hardware specs on the official site, but it supports drag and drop through windows explorer for music and photos, which is very awesome.

SPECS:
MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF, FLAC, WAV, Moving Picture Playback, FM Radio Receiver and Recording,
Voice Recording, Line-In Recording
TXT (Text), JPEG (Image) File Viewer (Image Enlargement, Background Screen Designation)
Built-In HDD (20GB/30GB/60GB), USB Host, File Copy/Delete
USB 2.0 Interface
260,000 Colors TFT-LCD, Resolution 160x128
Long Playback Time : Up to 14 hours playback (35 hours for iAUDIO X5L)
(Based on company's self-test, The playing time may be shortened according to settings.)
Multi language support
Enhanced Integrated Navigator
Play/Pause, Recording/Pause While Recording
Next Song/Previous Song, Fast Forward/Rewind, Section Repeat
Resume, Fade-In, AutoPlay Features
Search Speed, Skip Speed Setup
Volume (Digital 40 Levels)
Various EQ and Sound Field Effects
-User-Adjustable 5-Band EQ
-Normal, Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classic, Vocal, User
-Supports BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, and 3D Surround.
Clock, Alarm, Timer Recording, Sleep Function, Power Saving Shut down.
Power, LCD On/Off, Hold Combined Switch
LCD Auto Off Time Adjustment, Brightness, and Contrast Adjustments
Easy Firmware Upgrade
Supports ID3V2, ID3V1, FileName
Device Information Verification
(Firmware version, HDD capacity, HDD volume, total folder number, total file number)
Supports MAC OS (Data transfer only)
Supports Linux v 2.2 or higher (Data transfer only)
Software
-JetShell (File transfer, MP3/WMA/WAV/AUDIO CD PLAY, MP3 ENCODING)
-JetAudio (Integrated multimedia player software, music/video conversion feature)

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/

http://reviews.cnet.com/Cowon_iAudio_X5L_3...7-31383685.html

 

[Shinji]

Actually, we DID forget about it XD

I recall that player brought up in a previous discussion about PMP's

 

[Hitto]

oh my **** god, DON'T get an ipod! i hate em, many of my friends have one or two. i can't understand huw people can call itunes GOOD?! with my mp3 player i just put the file with songs on it - like if it was an harddrive. and then i play them just by browsing the map (i got and archos gemini xs 202, but whatever). basically, the computer treats the mp3 player as an hdd, and i just do what i want instead of be fighting with itunes to get all the songs on the same place.

i don't know about zune, but i think (or at least hope) it has a smarter system for everything. like an ipod, you have to start over with all the songs you have put on it when you're about to use it with your friends computer, or any other computer. i shuld definitetly go with a zune! just because i hate the ipod and everything it does - except for playing music when you have it all done, after all those hours of fixing

edit: i just had to add the last sentence

To "fix" an iPod, you can use rockbox on it.
I personally still use a GBA SP with play-yan, or DSlite with DSO's mp3 playback, by the way.

It's also cheaper to just buy a portable HDD or HDD USB case, and more than 300GB storage.

 

[Moneo]

I have issues trusting the iPod test site because it asks you to buy iPods through their site so they get money via referrals

*shrugs*

You can compare iPod nano benchmarks done by that site and ixbt.com.

http://hifiipod.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2...2/iPod_Nano.htm

http://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/apple/ipod-nano/pcm.shtml

hifiipod measured a lower noise floor, but higher distortion levels, which is probably due to a different soundcard being used for input.

In the days of old, iPods did have some problems with the output quality and mp3 decoding quality. Unsurprisingly, in the current (5th) generation of the hardware these have been resolved.

 

[dbrood]

i use my sony erricson w950i (4gb of solid state memory), 4 gb is plenty enough for me, and the supplied headhones are great!!

My opinion is id stay away from the zune (not a big fan of crippled drm being forced onto it, typical m$ really) the w950i has played everything that ive thrown at it so far, plus the big screen is great for video playback, battery life is good plus it doubles up as a smartphone!

 

[aletorchic]

anything (iRiver, Creative....) BUT both Zune and iPod

I' ve seen some Samsung stuff supporting oggs

 

[Psyfira]

To give a more productive answer than the brand-bashing: check out each company's customer support forum to get an idea of the typical faults with each player. You have to bear in mind that being a support forum it'll be full of people discussing the player's bad points rather than the good but it's a useful way of finding out what problems you might encounter in the future, or if there are any common issues with a particular model.

With a new product like the Zune it's probably too early for some technical flauts to have surfaced, so this's probably the easiest way to find out if people have any difficulties with the software and getting the players running.

 

[Blebleman]

SanDisk Sansa e260
http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/01/sandisk...sa-e260-review/

Yes.

I work as a Portable Audio salesman, and as such, I sell MP3 players.

We don't have access to the Zune up here in Canada yet, and I believe it is better like that. Horrible reviews and crippled features make me wonder how long Microsoft's baby will live.

Let me just ramble on some of the Sansa e200 serie's features. I sell MP3 players, and I chose this one out of all the others. Very satisfied.

Flash-based memory (no busted hard disks, no loading-lag)
FM Radio (iPod doesn't have that)
Voice Recording that is actually GOOD (iPod doesn't have that)
Video Playing (iPod Nano equivalent doesn't have that)
Custom EQ (yes, you can play with the individual frequencies)
Playlists (of course)
Easily replacable Lithium-Ion battery
MicroSD slot for more storage
Two USB modes : MSC (for portable-hard-disk-like behavior) and MTP (for use in media management programs like Windows Media Player)
Support for Asian Characters (matters for some people!)
Regular firmware upgrades that really DO stuff, not just bug-fixing. They add features.
And right now, Rockbox is on it's way for the E200-series.

I hope that was somewhat informative. Any questions? Ask away, I sell this stuff.

 

[furyoo]

I have issues trusting the iPod test site because it asks you to buy iPods through their site so they get money via referrals

*shrugs*

You can compare iPod nano benchmarks done by that site and ixbt.com.

http://hifiipod.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2...2/iPod_Nano.htm

http://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/apple/ipod-nano/pcm.shtml

hifiipod measured a lower noise floor, but higher distortion levels, which is probably due to a different soundcard being used for input.

In the days of old, iPods did have some problems with the output quality and mp3 decoding quality. Unsurprisingly, in the current (5th) generation of the hardware these have been resolved.

The one thing bad about iPods, even the new generations, is that they come with really bad stock earphones. Ditch them as soon as you get them. I use my Video 30 gb with Creative's EP630 canal earphones, and the sound is great.

I had a Creative before, I also had a Samsung, somehow I prefer the iPod interface. Nothing is more intuitive than scrolling.

 

[TmP_stryk]

I have a creative zen vision m and i think its fantastic! Ipod is over rated and is a pos. Ive seen the zune and it looks like a great product. Zune is deffintly a wise choice for your mp3 player needs. Stay away from anything ipod.

 

[Heito]

I went with the creative vision M, and I love it

Thanks for the info on the other brands everyone

 

[Phrostay]

Hehe I think its a bit obvious that iTunes is going to suck on Windows, iTunes 7 runs pretty damn well once you have it running under OS X that is ;P and I don't find iTunes too complex at all. iTunes centralizes all of my music into one app that organizes it pretty damn effectively with smart playlists etc., fetches my album artwork, tags my audio files, names my audio files automatically and cooks my breakfast!!! well almost

I think the iTunes store isn't that bad because I get a lot of iTunes gift cards or unspent ones where I just enter the code download and play! I also have the option of allowing 5 other devices to use the whole album I downloaded. iPod isn't too bad either as it can play games, music, videos, view pictures and has a limited PDA like function. So thats my nice biased opinion

and I really don't care that much because I get enough crap from Windows users about how shit they think Macs are so I'm just gonna shit them back

. I enjoy my ignorance as much as you do.

 

[Veho]

If you don't need a lot of space, iRiver Clix. 4GB flash memory, long battery life, great sound quality. If you don't have to have your entire music collection with you at all times, it's perfect.

On a side note, I just bought an iRiver T10, and I'm happy

 

[[M]artin]

How are the newer gen iPods as far as quality goes? I know about two friends who had an iPod fark up on them due to a few clumsy drops on the floor.

 

[notchristopher]

iPods are ok, I am not a fan of the Zune or any Creative products. I think for my christmas present to myself I am going to get an Archos 604 WiFi.

http://www.archos.com/products/video/archo...=global&lang=en

If you need the wifi go ahead but I would really recommend the Cowon A2 as your PMP. I have it and I love it. 10 hours battery life. Amazing sound (don't need to you headphones on a plane unless you mind annoying your neighbor). And its sturdy. I've dropped it on the screen a few times and it is still in like-new condition. Do the research first and you will find the differences interesting. I know I did.