Iriver or creative ZEN micro

Tony

Hi Guys, I'm going to buy an mp3 player and my most important consideration is sound qulality, secondly useability.

I'd appreciate any opinions on this and also where the best place to buy is?

Thanks for reading

DMC

Hi Tony..

I have the iRiver H140.... and it is fantastic. Useability is fine, remote is good, and, as it is a harddrive, you can just drag and drop files onto it.

I bought it from http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/ Ordered on Thursday morning, posted it that day in Musselburgh, it got it on a Monday by standard airmail.

ZENER

For usability I'd recommend the iPod (que non applicable comments on battery life of "older" ipods!) Sound quality too is pretty good IMO.

ZEN

Makaveli

Surely the Iriver wins on usability, no need for drivers or software, just drag and drop the files from Explorer into it.

I wouldn't choose between a Zen Micro and an h140, the micro being only 5gigs I'd be more likley to compare it with a mini iPod.

The Zen touch might be a better option, personally I don't like the little touch track thing on it at all, but that may be down to me not being used to it.

If I was going to buy a new mp3 player it would be the h140.

Tony

Thanks guys, what about sound quality which is my main concern, I dont mind spending more money to get this, might evem go for a video player, any thoughts ?

Makaveli wrote:

Surely the Iriver wins on usability, no need for drivers or software, just drag and drop the files from Explorer into it.

I wouldn't choose between a Zen Micro and an h140, the micro being only 5gigs I'd be more likley to compare it with a mini iPod.

The Zen touch might be a better option, personally I don't like the little touch track thing on it at all, but that may be down to me not being used to it.

If I was going to buy a new mp3 player it would be the h140.

litirspam

I drive a 2000 Nissan Primera with built in Stereo and 5 cd changer in boot.
Can anyone tell me if I will be able to hook up iriver h140 to back of stereo please?

Greenman

Tony wrote:

Thanks guys, what about sound quality which is my main concern, I dont mind spending more money to get this, might evem go for a video player, any thoughts ?

Hi Tony,
I have the Zen Micro, I'm very happy with it!!! Got a spare battery and for me all is fine. Its really small and build quality is good. For me 5 gigs is enough but some like more. The remote will be on sale soon I hope and that will be handy.
The sound quality is very clean and I can't fault it except the FM reception could be better. Luckily I'm in Belgium and I don't listen to the FM stations in my region!!! I'm an AM man!!!
Regards JD!!!
BTW Here are a few links that you can read at your leisure and they might make up your mind!!!

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22
http://www.nomadness.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=29

Greenman

litirspam wrote:

I drive a 2000 Nissan Primera with built in Stereo and 5 cd changer in boot.
Can anyone tell me if I will be able to hook up iriver h140 to back of stereo please?

Hi litirspam,
This link might send you in the right direction!!!
Let us know!!!

http://www.misticriver.net/boards/showthread.php?t=8753&highlight=car

litirspam

Big help Greenman thanks

secret_squirrel

Tony the Zen's and The Irivers are both considered to provide better quality playback than the Ipods. A quick google on some of the more hifi oriented sites will prove this.

Personally I cant fault the sound on my Zen Micro - except it sometimes shows up the poorer sound quality that lower bit rate recordings have.

Greenman

litirspam wrote:

Big help Greenman thanks

Your welcome,
This link is also worth a read!!!
http://home.comcast.net/~srgilbert1/Iriver/iriverptcmount.html

Regards JD!!!!

sinjin_smythe

Just got my Zen micro last week .Its really small and the touch thingy only takes about ten minutes to use plus one big factor is you can record things off the radio which id say is petty handy plus like most players has an adjustable storage device for any kinda file .The only tiny problem with it is it doesnt have a 2.0 USB (only 1.5 ) but that isnt much to think about only split seconds really!

secret_squirrel

weedhead wrote:

The only tiny problem with it is it doesnt have a 2.0 USB (only 1.5 )

Errr - the Zen is a USB2 device - there is no such spec as USB 1.5 (1.1 is the other main spec - and there is much more than a coupla seconds difference between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 transfer rates.

Just for reference :
USB 2.0 max rate 480 Mb/s
USB 1.1 Max rate 12Mb/s
USB 1.0 Max Rate 1.5M/s

Weedhead if you are only getting USB 1.1 speeds you best check that you have SP1 installed under winXP.

sinjin_smythe

no i saw it in a review that it had a 1.5 USB ill try find the site.

sinjin_smythe

Nah cant find it , anyway your probably right secret squirrel .I could a sworn i saw it in a review a well

Greenman

weedhead wrote:

no i saw it in a review that it had a 1.5 USB ill try find the site.

This pic dosen't lie!!!

sinjin_smythe

Yeah im lookin at it now but the review said 1.5 ! Anyway ok youve proved your point and made me feel like a complete idiot thanks alot im gonna go and cry in my room for a couple of hours while listening to my zen micro! lol

Makaveli

secret_squirrel wrote:

Personally I cant fault the sound on my Zen Micro - except it sometimes shows up the poorer sound quality that lower bit rate recordings have.

Is that not a plus? The fact that you can properly distinguish between crappy bitrates on mp3s rather than a 320kbps one sounding like a 128kbps one?

Tony one thing I would recommend is buying new headphones or at least not using the ones that come with the players, the Zen and iPod ones are terrible, IRiver ones are ok, not great, but I hate in ear phones anyway.

As for USB 2.0 and 1.1, I can upload about 100 songs in half an hour to the Zen using USB 1.1, I just finished uploading 1,000 to a Zen Touch a few minutes ago, that took half an hour too. Massive difference. I upped 400 albums to a h140 in a pretty decent time too.

cormie

I had my 40gigs ready to put on my IHP before I got it. I used usb 1 to put it on. It took about 26 hours or so!!!!

I then got USB2 on my new laptop and it took about 6 mins to transfer 5 gigs!!



Tony, according to many reliable sources, the iRiver is one of the best for sound quality! You could also go for the H340 from www.mx2.co.uk works out at about €430 delivered now. You can view photos and play videos on this!!! My brother has it and it makes my H-140 look slightly out-dated but I still love my 140. If you like your music, hard drive based mp3 players are the best spend ever. I paid €460 for my 140. Which is extremely expensive in my oppinion, even its current price of €340 is very dear. But for me it was definitely worth it. If you have the money, go for the H-340, if you don't go for the H-140

cormie

Makaveli wrote:

Tony one thing I would recommend is buying new headphones or at least not using the ones that come with the players, the Zen and iPod ones are terrible, IRiver ones are ok, not great, but I hate in ear phones anyway.

Definitely.

If you want to spend about :
€50 get the sony fontopia 71xls
€100 Shure E2's
€170 Shure E3's

there are other options like eptonic E4's andE6 I think they are. You can get E3's cheaper on EBAY too!! But when you spending so much on a "MUSIC" player you don't want to have to rely on the bad earphones provided. Your paying the money to listen to music so you may as well splash out for a decent set of earphones!

Tony

thanks guys, looks the the 340 is the one but just one question does it have line out for speakers, could not get a definite answer from the specs I looked at ?

cormie

Well you can hook speakers up to the earphone jack either way. It doesn't have optical out/in like the H-140/20 though.

Still though, I don't think I would let either of these issues stand in the way:) when you get this head over to www.misticriver.net they know their stuff there and have programmes for converting videos to the right type etc, everything you need including things to change your on screen skins (colours used, text etc) they also discuss various problems you may come across (as with all players on their forums)

Now you also may want to consider the Cowan iAudio X5. It looks nice, I don't know too much about it though.

Tony

340 it is , thanks for all the help guys

cormie

good choice, www.mx2.co.uk is cheapest, if you find cheaper let me know.

My brother just figured out the video encoders. He's not that familiar with computers and was able to do it no problem. I'm seriously thinking of getting one now myself, I'm happy enough with my 140 for now but I'd like to be able to watch videos in my hand!!

Let us know how you get on:)

Tony

thanks again, just order from mx2 could not find any cheaper

cormie

My brothers in the process of converting a DVD (from its disc) to format for H3XX, It will take another hour or so.

I'm gonna be well jealous if it works! haha.

Mini DVD player, thats just cool!

Tony

cormie wrote:

My brothers in the process of converting a DVD (from its disc) to format for H3XX, It will take another hour or so.

I'm gonna be well jealous if it works! haha.

Mini DVD player, thats just cool!

I'd be interested in the results, maybe make movie watching on a plane possible if the airline allowed hard driv devices

Tony

well guys Iriver 340 just arrived just in time to brighten my day as house was broken into this morning. I'll let you know how it goes as soon as I figure out how to use it

Greenman

So Tony how are you getting on with H340???

Tony

Greenman wrote:

So Tony how are you getting on with H340???

been snowed under so not had much time to play with it but the sound quality seems pretty impressive

Tony

ok just getting the hand of ripping cds in to mp3 using windows media player, I'm impressed with playback quality

secret_squirrel

Tony wrote:

ok just getting the hand of ripping cds in to mp3 using windows media player, I'm impressed with playback quality

You mean to WMA format dont you?? WMA is far superior in Audio quality to MP3 for the same bit rate. My advice is to use WMA-vbr at one setting down from the highest - its a good compromise between size and quality.

Also dont forget to uncheck the 'Copy protect my music' option in media player so it doesnt add nasty DRM.

Tony

secret_squirrel wrote:

You mean to WMA format dont you?? WMA is far superior in Audio quality to MP3 for the same bit rate. My advice is to use WMA-vbr at one setting down from the highest - its a good compromise between size and quality.

Also dont forget to uncheck the 'Copy protect my music' option in media player so it doesnt add nasty DRM.

you are right of course its WMA. I have it set to highest quality as i'd rather lose space than quality. Thanks for your advise, windows media player seems pretty handy for doing this but is there a better program?

secret_squirrel

Tony wrote:

you are right of course its WMA. I have it set to highest quality as i'd rather lose space than quality. Thanks for your advise, windows media player seems pretty handy for doing this but is there a better program?

I think WMP10 does the job well - I know a lot of others dont like it. Also its Sync list is the easiest way to get my tracks to my Zen Micro.

Tony

secret_squirrel wrote:

I think WMP10 does the job well - I know a lot of others dont like it. Also its Sync list is the easiest way to get my tracks to my Zen Micro.

yeah its seems to be working well so far. I like the way it puts ecah artists cd in to his/her own folder and then you just drag and drop

Tony

ok just finsihed copying in all my Cd's in the Iriver, have to say I'm very impressed with the sound quality and ease of use. Found a free program on the mystic river forum called iriverter which converts mpegs in avi compatible with the 300 so well pleased I can watch video on it as well. Have it in the glove box now connected to the AUX of the car stereo, great for long trips on random shuffle

jesus_thats_gre

I have the Iriver H340 after having the Zen Micro for a short while. Man am I happier..

lomb

the new 6gb ipod mini with 20+hour battery life looks tasty.

Mohanned

IRivers are better IMO

jozi

I-river has a 5 gig player out to, H10. Peats have it, very nice i think. Was nearlly going to get one but decided to holdon to my H140 till i-river squizes a 10/20gig hd in the H10.
I-rivers sound is excelent btw.

Jozi