Creative Zen Touch?

[bvy]

Hi. I think I'm ready to take the MP3 plunge. I see that Creative has put out the Zen Touch, which has a bit more of the iPod look to it. Any thoughts on these? Anywhere I can go to compare features and specs? I'm looking for something with good sound, fairly durable, and a more or less intuitive interface. Battery life and weight are less important to me. Do I want this or an iPod or something else? The 40GB drive is probably best suited for me and my jazz collection.

Thanks.

[clave]

Well... I bought one last summer, and had NOTHING but trouble with it and with the accompanying software. Finally the hard drive crashed (it probably just needs to be reflashed, but you have to send your unit to *the factory* to get that done -- iPods can be reflashed at home). I didn't mishandle the unit.

And the sound quality was dismal -- I use good headphones (not top-of-the-line Sennheisers, but a pair of Grados that are incredible for the price -- under 100.00).

I bought an iPod in early December, and now am convinced that the Zen Touch works best as a paperweight.

My suggestion: invest the money in an iPod, or an iRiver (not too many dealers carry them; see their site for more info.) or something comparable.

Also, the Zen Touch and Zen Xtra have very non-ergonomic controls -- as in, they strain tendons and ligaments!

I'll admit to using Red Chair Software's progam for my iPod (I think it's far superior to Apple's software) and have seen the same kind of feedback on their software for Creative products. See the Red Chair Software site for details; also a site called Nomadness (UK-based, but catering to owners/lovers of all of cretive's products). Sorry I can't psot links at the moment, but if you Google this stuff, you should find it in a jiffy.

Best of luck!

[RDK]

I don't have the Touch, but I do have the Zen Xtra and can only rave about it. Yeah, the software ain't so hot (and I haven't tried the Red Chair version yet) but I think it sounds just fabulous, even with just the supplied earbuds. (I wonder if Clave's problem has anything to do with the impedence of his Grados; not all standard headphones work well with portable audio gear.)

There's certainly nothing wrong with an iPod - I was close to buying one myself - but the alternatives are cheaper.

[clave]

I don't have the Touch, but I do have the Zen Xtra and can only rave about it. Yeah, the software ain't so hot (and I haven't tried the Red Chair version yet) but I think it sounds just fabulous, even with just the supplied earbuds. (I wonder if Clave's problem has anything to do with the impedence of his Grados; not all standard headphones work well with portable audio gear.)

There's certainly nothing wrong with an iPod - I was close to buying one myself - but the alternatives are cheaper.

I had all sorts of hardware and software problems from day 1 -- as for my Grados, the difference between listening to MP3s ripped at 256 mpbs on my Creative vs. my iPod is like night and day. (Literally.) I think any halfway decent low-priced headphones would show very similar results. The sound was awful -- so I suppose it depends on how much that matters to you. If low bitrates don't bother you (also transistor-radio-like sound), then get a cheap whatever.... (I think iPods are overpriced, but this really was a love/hate thing.)

BTW, Creative's warranty is only *3 months long*, so if you do decided to go for one of their players, make sure you can purchase replacement coverage from the store!

Also, to be fair, I wouldn't hesitate to use some of Creative's smaller players (the Muvo, say) for something like audio book downloads.

[clave]

To be fair, I think something was wrong with my Creative Zen Xtra long before I took it out of the box -- there are duds out there, no doubt about it.

That said, it can take forever to get the company to respond to a service request once the unit is past its 3-month warranty, and (from comments I've read) anything from 2-4 months or longer for Creative to fix out-of-warranty units once you've shipped them off to their repair center. *This includes extremely simple tasks, like reflashing a player.* (which you should be able to do at home! iPod's software and hardware allows this... so why not Creative's?)

I've also seen plenty of figures cited on out-of-warranty repairs, and they're pretty costly. (Check amazon.com and the Nomadness site for more info.)

On the plus side, many of Creative's units have been designed to allow the owner to replace the battery -- Apple's refusal to change the iPod's design to allow this is a mystery to me.