Which mp3 player has the best sound, and what format to put it in?

[johnnr892]

Hi, I'm looking to get a hardrive mp3 player, but I want one that has the really good sound. I'm lookin gat the creative Zen micro for £130 and I have heard good things about it, also what format do i purt the songs onto it to make it sound best? I probabably would be able to stretch upto around £150 for superior sound. Give me your opinion and views please. Thanks,John.

[5lab]

creative are renouned for having the best sound quality around. for that money, it might be worth stretching to a 20 gig zen (i think they are around that price) and simply putting larger mp3s (192 or 256kbps) on there

[johnnr892]

what about the battery life of the larger zen, i know the micro is close to 20 hours which is about 2 and a hlaf times better than the ipods. Also the micro has a radio, and is the larger zen much more bulky? John

[johnnr892]

I think I'm swaying towards the micro because of the size, tha radio and the more sleek design, anybody convince me otherwise?

[Spud1]

ya, its micro..tiny capacity...

Your after top sound quality yes? so that means mp3s at a minimum of 192kps, 320 if you r being picky, or something like .ogg

Now a low capacity player like the micro/iPod mini wont hold that many of these quality mp3s, you proabably wont get 20 hours worth of high bitrate music on there to the battery life isnt the issue anymore

plus when are you going to listen to it for 20 hours straight anyway? The 8hr life of the normal Zen/iPod is fine really, just remember to leave it on charge when your not using it.

The micro isnt even that much smaller than the normal zen, i dont understand ppl who spend £130 or whatever on the smaller capacity ones when for an extra 20/30 you can get a 20gig model..makes no sense

[Howard]

Creative definitely. You'll need a bit of space for high bit rate stuff yeah

[johnnr892]

yeah, will the higher bit rate soo much more of a difference? Also, does the zen touch feel too bulky and like a cd player in your pocket rather than a small minidisc player for example?

[johnnr892]

It's the differcne in size that is bothering me at the moment. Look at these two reviews and that shows the differnce in comparative size:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_Zen...-30907933.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_Zen...-31151919.html

[5lab]

i'd say the zen tougch is noticably larger, but you get used to it if ya know what i mean. the latest micros come up to 6 gig iirc, which is large enough for quite a lot of music (50 hours at the very very least, even with 256kbps encoding)

make sure you budget for some nicer earphones, cos the creative ones are naff. go for some sony fontopia ones that are about £35 in the shops, £30 online or £20 on ebay.. they fit *right* into your ear and are very very very good.

[johnnr892]

Where can i get the latest micros?? in uK

[johnnr892]

anybody know where I can get them from in the UK? the reason i want to know soon is that i want to order my mp3 player tonight for my birthday. Or do you know when they are available in UK thanks. jOHN.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

A bunch here, pick your colour

[5lab]

also try creative directly (they have thier own shop which is pretty good and has loads of accessories) and ebuyer

[PanzerKnight]

iriver H320 has great sound, read some of the reviews off google

Also it can now play movies!!

[johnnr892]

OK, bad news, had my zen micro 4 days and it was great, but it now has the headphone jack problem where the sound crackles because the headphone jack is not properly soldered. So, i'm not sure what to do now. i have requested a refund from micro direct to seek youre advice on what to buy.(i'm sending it back on monday) Should I buy a new 5gb and hope that the headphone problem doesn't turn up because I found everything else about the micro superb, or do I wait for the 6gb ones to be available and hope they have sorted the problem(when will they be available in the uk stores like micro direct??) Or I have a third option of going for something different or bigger like the zen touch, rio carbon, rio karma or new 6gb ipod( don't know where they are available??) Thanks, for your advice, John. Oh and this is for my birthday so I would preferably like to get it sorted soon and not import from america, thanks)

[muddyfox470]

best sound, RIO KARMA, 20gb, may not be the smallest thing, but is very versatile

available for £139.99 from comet.co.uk inc free delivery

beats the socks of most mp3 players

ian

EDIT: Damn i was too late, if you want, take the Micro back, get a full refund and get the Karma i love it, tis an absolute beaut of a machine