Creative Zen Touch

petes

Hi.

The touchpad on the front of a mates Zen Touch just stopped working. He can still listen to one album (the last one which was playing). Wasn't dropped or did not get wet. Anybody else experience this and if so was it fixable?

Cheers

TommyGun

petes wrote:

Hi.

The touchpad on the front of a mates Zen Touch just stopped working. He can still listen to one album (the last one which was playing). Wasn't dropped or did not get wet. Anybody else experience this and if so was it fixable?

Cheers

Have you reset the player (place a pin in the reset swich)?
If this does not work, upgrade the Firmware.

If this not work you mayhave to send back to Creative for repair.

Creative support is very good. Ring 01 4380055

Email them @ http://ie.europe.creative.com/support/contact/#email


Firmware link below.
http://ie.europe.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?sOSName=Windows+XP&region=3&Product_Name=Zen+Touch&Product_ID=10274&modelnumber=&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=4&x=24&y=11

petes

Cheers. The player was reset, so we'll give support a go.

solidgear

Why do people insist on buying mediocre media players, Who in there right mind would buy the zen range. they r cheap, Agreed, creative make quality PC sound cards & suround sound systems, but not MP3 players.

TommyGun

solidgear wrote:

Why do people insist on buying mediocre media players, Who in there right mind would buy the zen range. they r cheap, Agreed, creative make quality PC sound cards & suround sound systems, but not MP3 players.

I think Creative are class. They have been makingMP3 players before iPOD even existed.

petes

Well it was working fine until now with absolutely no problems. They are not cheap by the way.

solidgear

get urself a quality iriver 300h series. research the best players, not just what the high street electronic shops advertise.

Crucifix

Creative do have some problems, but personally I did do my research in choosing a player, I got a creative and I'm very happy with it.

solidgear

well, i'm happy for yah buddy, @ on the up you didn't fall under the mass media marketing of apples ipod, which is only recently getting it's sound quality worked out, But i think if you looked at Iriver h300 series against the rest in the league you would see who comes out on top for sound quality, functionality, usability & battery life. Guess that is why Iriver users are second on the owning list in the other thread relating to which media player u use. we didn't fall for mass marketing & did research as too the best product.

solidgear

sorry i stand corrected "creative are coming in second". oh well, wonder how many of them were bought due to there price difference, I suppose there is a point to "More HD Space with poorer sound quality Versus 20 gig Iriver with superior sound quality" for some people, & indeed each to there own.

TommyGun

If you look at the reviews (which i did) you will see that the Zen touch in all the independent reviews scored one of the best for sound quality and way above the iPOD.

Have you ever listened or had a creative???

I got the 20g then replaced it with the 40g. The battery life is amazing, over 20 hours.

Regards,
Happy listerer

muckwarrior

solidgear wrote:

get urself a quality iriver 300h series. research the best players, not just what the high street electronic shops advertise.

One tiny little detail you're overlooking is that the H300 isn't made anymore, so it's not widely available! And before Rockbox came along they weren't even that good. And as far as sound quality goes the X5 beats it.

Fighting Irish

solidgear wrote:

Why do people insist on buying mediocre media players, Who in there right mind would buy the zen range. they r cheap, Agreed, creative make quality PC sound cards & suround sound systems, but not MP3 players.

:rolleyes: you're just stupid, you probably think the ipod video is the best mp3 player money can buy

Bard

Fighting Irish wrote:

:rolleyes: you're just stupid, you probably think the ipod video is the best mp3 player money can buy

Keep the insults to yourself or receive a minimum 1 weeks ban. Consider this a warning. Cheers.

solidgear

Fighting Irish wrote:

:rolleyes: you're just stupid, you probably think the ipod video is the best mp3 player money can buy

Ah, who mentioned ipod? yough, Yes the h300 series is finished, doesn't meen it's not replaced. The sound quality of the hxxx is cracking out of the box without rockbox firmware uploaded. Especially with the SRS WOW when listening to live gig audio tracks. I agree that creative are addressing the quality of products their creating, however they are clumsy oafs of players, granted with sound quality thats good & battery life 1 could only be happy with, but u can't plug it straight into your stereo & copy a cd or vinal staight to it in mp3 format @ a bitrate of ur own choice. I know it's a personal view, but they still lack that something for the serious media player user.
:cool:

Bard

Have to agree with you somewhat there... a Line-In recorder is a glaringly massive omission on the Zen Vision:M, ...- especially when you consider it's built in to their flash RAM player, the Zen Nano Plus - it can't be THAT hard or expensive to add it to their bigger/better players!

muckwarrior

solidgear wrote:

Yes the h300 series is finished, doesn't meen it's not replaced.

Yes it does, The H10 series is but a shadow of the H300. Creative players may have some drawbacks, but they're a long way from being the worst out there so I don't see why you're singling them out.

solidgear

muckwarrior wrote:

Yes it does, The H10 series is but a shadow of the H300. Creative players may have some drawbacks, but they're a long way from being the worst out there so I don't see why you're singling them out.

I didn't say they were the worst.

art

TommyGun wrote:

If you look at the reviews (which i did) you will see that the Zen touch in all the independent reviews scored one of the best for sound quality and way above the iPOD.

Have you ever listened or had a creative???

I got the 20g then replaced it with the 40g. The battery life is amazing, over 20 hours.

Regards,
Happy listerer

I have never ever seen a Creative player score highly in review based on sound quality. Cheapness has been their main selling point but iAudio and iPod have always set the standards in audio quality (and build quality) for mp3 players.

Can you link to a site (non-microsoft/creative sponsored) that ranks a creative player above an iPod/iAudio in sound quality?

Crucifix

art wrote:

I have never ever seen a Creative player score highly in review based on sound quality. Cheapness has been their main selling point but iAudio and iPod have always set the standards in audio quality (and build quality) for mp3 players.

Can you link to a site (non-microsoft/creative sponsored) that ranks a creative player above an iPod/iAudio in sound quality?

Really? I've always heard Creative complimented for it's sound quality, and iPod slammed (until more recent iterations) for it. No links I'm afraid.

muckwarrior

Crucifix wrote:

Really? I've always heard Creative complimented for it's sound quality, and iPod slammed (until more recent iterations) for it. No links I'm afraid.

Well from personal experience I found both the X5 and the H300 better for sound quality, but I've definitely never heard anything bad said about creative. On the other hand whenever I've heard iPod mentioned it was in relation to it having the shítest sound quality of any player. In particular I often hear people complaining about a lack of bass.

art

Crucifix wrote:

Really? I've always heard Creative complimented for it's sound quality, and iPod slammed (until more recent iterations) for it. No links I'm afraid.

Opposite here, though it's too much of a generalisation to say "iPods" have good sound quality to be fair as I believe the "minis" are very poor compared to the full products. The iShuffle version is really amazingly excellent for such a cheap player with really top notch sound.

The Creatives have a recurring problem with sound jacks which could be a reason why some reviews are poor and others good. Two lads I work with had to send their Creatives off to get the jacks fixed, for example, but if the jack was not obviously causing a problem, it could still be effecting the sound quality perhaps?

TempestSabre

On most the Audiophile sites the creative players have always been up there among the best SQ if you are talking headphone out. Only the recent Nano and 5G iPod have a decent headphone out. All the earliers iPods don't sound that great, unless you use the line out. Exception is the Shuffle which is great.

The current HD DAP's 5G iPod, iAudio, iRiver, Creative all much the same. What will make more of a difference is the headphones you use, if you use a portable amp on the line out and if you have some decent music, decently encoded in the first place.

TempestSabre

The jack problem on Creatives AFAIK only effected the Zen Micro and only the first batches. Later ones don't have the problem. Its got nothing to do with SQ.

Ask youself why its taken Apple 5 generations of iPods to fix the headphone out SQ.

art

Don't know but I had a third generation iPod and it still basically works fine and the SQ was fine with a decent EQ setting selected, though I noticed the shuffle was a bit better when I eventually got one of those. The Creative Zens we had in work (I forget the exact models we had now but they were HDD based, approx 12 months ago) sounded far more "tin-y" in comparison but as I said, both ended up being returned for other reasons.

I've gone and lost my shuffle now so am looking for a new player. Review of the Zen Micro here: http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6332.html mentions the poor sound quality in that particular player.... ie:

Conclusion
Harbouring an intriguing OLED colour display and good-looking, intuitive menu system, the Creative Zen Micro Photo is at first sight a must-have audio player. Unfortunately, an overly sensitive touchpad, a mediocre battery life and poor bass performance bluntly decapitates this player's potential for excellent overall performance.

uberpixie

petes wrote:

Hi.

The touchpad on the front of a mates Zen Touch just stopped working. He can still listen to one album (the last one which was playing). Wasn't dropped or did not get wet. Anybody else experience this and if so was it fixable?

Cheers

One post I saw ages ago on a creative support board: a guy had a similar problem.

He fixed it by using sand paper to smooth out and remove a layer of paint off the touch pad.

It worked for him seemingly.

TempestSabre

3G + EQ if YOU like the sound then thats all that matters. Don't worry about everyone else.

A audio review that doesn't even say what earphones or even encodings where used. Fantastic!:rolleyes: BTW thats not a Zen Micro, but a Zen Micro Photo. Most of the reviews you read on generic gadget sites are a bit clueless in fairness. Really if theres no mention of which earphones they are using theres no point taking them seriously. It would appear that they were using the stock earbuds. iDuds

TempestSabre

uberpixie wrote:

One post I saw ages ago on a creative support board: a guy had a similar problem.

He fixed it by using sand paper to smooth out and remove a layer of paint off the touch pad.

It worked for him seemingly.

The logic being what? The layer of paint went bad and suddenly stopped working? Seriously.

TommyGun

art wrote:

I have never ever seen a Creative player score highly in review based on sound quality. Cheapness has been their main selling point but iAudio and iPod have always set the standards in audio quality (and build quality) for mp3 players.

Can you link to a site (non-microsoft/creative sponsored) that ranks a creative player above an iPod/iAudio in sound quality?

See:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1640787,00.asp Quote "The signal-to-noise ratio is the best we've yet seen on a portable player, with nearly 100 dB of headroom."
http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_ZEN_Touch_20GB/4505-6490_7-30907933-2.html?tag=sub
"excellent sound quality"
http://www.mp3.com/creative-zen-touch-20gb/hardware/9/reviews.html
"The sound quality of the Creative Zen Touch impressed us, thanks in part to its signal-to-noise ratio of less than 97dB. We hooked it up to a quality home stereo and enjoyed rich, powerful sound."

muckwarrior

May I be so bold as to suggest a thread split :cool:

art

TommyGun wrote:

See:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1640787,00.asp Quote "The signal-to-noise ratio is the best we've yet seen on a portable player, with nearly 100 dB of headroom."
http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_ZEN_Touch_20GB/4505-6490_7-30907933-2.html?tag=sub
"excellent sound quality"
http://www.mp3.com/creative-zen-touch-20gb/hardware/9/reviews.html
"The sound quality of the Creative Zen Touch impressed us, thanks in part to its signal-to-noise ratio of less than 97dB. We hooked it up to a quality home stereo and enjoyed rich, powerful sound."

Did you look at their reviews of the iPod? ie: "Best all-around MP3 player in the world"

I think maybe the problem is so many sites these days rely on sponsorship that finding a completely cynical review site is almost an impossibility? But fair enough, they are the first positive reviews I've come across of Creative players sound quality, all the other reviews I've come across (in magazines, not the web) rated iPods, iRivers and iAudio higher. (which makes me wonder whether Creatives problem is that it just doesn't put an "i" before it's players names?)

TommyGun

I think we will leave it that there all great players. I never said that iPODs were'nt any good, as i had one and it was great. All I said was that i have the Creative Touch and I am happy with that too.

There all better than we had years ago.
END

TempestSabre

Most major brand DAP's are much the same SQ wise with their own pro's and con's. How you encode and how you listen, what earphones etc., makes more of a difference.