|
| quote: | Originally posted by webmeister
Battery life is about 10-12 hours, charging takes about 2 hours from empty to full. It can also trickle power via USB from a computer, though it can't recharge via USB.
Unit size is slightly bigger than the iPod.
Sound quality is better than the iPod, Creative have been making audio hardware from day one, so the audio meets the highest standards.
Normally when you spend a crapload of money on something you have some occasional pangs of regret, but I've never had one about this. Extremely happy  |
Zen doesn't have LCD, touch sensitive jog wheel or remote.
Something I read AGES ago on /. :-
You know what's funny is that I was shocked to read above that a top guy at Creative wouldn't know what is up with MPEG-4 and especially AAC, and not even know that everything Apple (Mac OS X, QuickTime, all Mac apps, iPod, iTunes) are all fully MPEG-4 and AAC.
Then the next question the Creative guy goes to is about 48kHz sample rates! The CEO of Creative wants you to use Windows Media and he doesn't even realize that 48kHz is itself like the Windows Media format of the 1980's.
The 48kHz sample rate was chosen by the RIAA for "consumer" digital audio recording (DAT, MiniDisc, Hi8) so as to make it harder to make CD's from those recordings.
The small increase in quality you get by sampling at 48kHz instead of 44.1kHz does not pay for the HUGE decrease in audio quality you get by a Sample Rate Reduction from 48kHz to 44.1kHz. It's more destructive than converting to analog and then back to digital with good converters.
To still be talking 48kHz in 2003 is abysmal. The next rate that's useful above 44.1 is 96kHz, which is high up enough and done at 24-bit or 32-bit and gains you so much quality that you can then come down to 44.1 right at the end and you're better than if you stayed there through the whole process.
Creative's stuff is sub-par. It's good PC gear but it's not good audio gear. iPod is both good PC gear and good audio gear.
In short, iPod and Apple are MUSICAL ALREADY. Creative are not as creative as Apple.
Apple = Music, not Creative [Creative have only just started using their own hardware on their sound cards again, since after SB 16 (i think?) they outsoruced their chip and had it made by someone else, hence they don't get used by producers. IF Creative were good audio, they'd certain have professional producers using them (where as every1 loves Apples for production ;P)]
--djway
___________________
|
