- 40 GB model holds up to 10,000 songs; supports MP3, AAC, WAV, MP3 VBR, Audible (6), and AIFF formats
- Mac and Windows compatible; FireWire and USB 2.0 interface for fastest digital transfer available
- Included docking station makes charging and synching easy
- More than 8 hour battery life on a 3 hour charge (1-hour fast charge to 80% capacity)
- Features redesigned and backlit navigation; includes dock, wired remote control, earbud headphones, carrying case, and AC adapter
For the most part, the Creative Zen has the best features of the three, as well as the best price. It sounds like a no brainer except for the fact that these things break like crazy! If you read some of the other reviews on here, you'll see a few people mention that their headphone jack shorted out when they dropped the player....well mine shorted out while the player was sitting on my desk not moving at all. I don't know a single person who bought one of these players and didn't have their headphone jack malfunction! Many reviewers suggest buying an extended warranty because of this problem. I would most definitely agree with them on that one, but personally I don't have the patience to wait a few weeks every time the player decides to stop working. Those warrantees are supposed to be purchased just in case something goes wrong; not because something most likely will! The Lyra from the moment it came out of the box to the moment it stopped working for no apparent reason, four hours later, was on the whole a piece of junk. That said...on to the comparisons.
PRICE: As just about every anti-iPod reviewer mentions, THE IPOD IS MORE EXPENSIVE AND DOES PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THING. The iPod is basically the BMW of mp3 players...the other mp3 player work like, and cost about as much as a Kia. They all do basically the same thing, but the cheaper ones are cheaper for a reason!
SIZE: All three players are smaller than a walkman, so it's kind of silly to even discuss this, but it seems to be a hot topic in the other reviews. From largest to smallest the players are ranked as follows: Lyra, Zen, iPod. The Lyra is the only one of the three which will not fit easily in your pocket. It is the widest /longest /heaviest of the bunch, and personally, I hated the way it felt in my hand. The Zen and the iPod were both a pleasure to hold.
CONTROLS/NAVIGATION: iPod gets first place here simple because it's touch sensitive navigation wheel allows you to get from the first album in your collection to the last in seconds and it stops on a dime anywhere in between. The Zen's controls are very good however it takes longer to scroll through your entire collection and when it really starts moving fast, it continues scrolling after you release the button sometimes skipping past another 50-75 albums! The Lyra had decent navigation, but the buttons had to be pushed more than once before they responded almost half of the time! The Zen and the iPod can be operated easily with one hand.
PLAYLISTS/SONG RATING: The Zen wins here without a doubt. It is the only one of the three where you can create, edit (even while it's playing) and SAVE multiple play lists on the player itself without connecting it to a computer. The iPod allows you to make ONE play list on the fly, which cannot be edited or saved.
The Lyra allows you to tag songs you like or don't like and it makes play lists of each...yes, it makes a playlist of songs that you tell it you DO NOT LIKE...if that doesn't explain what's wrong with this product, nothing will! The iPod allows you to rate songs 1-5 stars on the player, and then make a play list automatically based on those ratings when connected to a computer.
BATTERY: Again, Zen is the winner here. Not only does it offer a battery that lasts 14 hours instead of iPod and Lyra's 8 hour batt. it is also the only player of the three where you can remove and replace the battery when it deteriorates with age as all rechargeables do. It should be noted that the battery times I listed are the official times given by the manufacturers. The Zen actually lasts about 10 hours the other two go between 5 and 6 before needing a charge.
SCREEN: The Zen not only has the biggest screen of the bunch, it also scrolls the album title in the directory screen allowing you to see the whole thing instead of just the first few words.
TRANSFER TO PLAYER: All three units use USB 2.0, the iPod also can be used with Firewire.
TRANSFER FROM PLAYER: The Zen allows you to transfer music freely from your player to any computer loaded with it's software. The iPod does not allow this however third party software that can be purchased and used to pull songs from the iPod. In all honest, the Lyra broke before I could find out if you can pull songs off of it.
SOFTWARE: iTunes is easy to use and offers tons of ways to organize your music. Creative Media Manager takes a lot of getting used to but is decent once you figure it out. Musicmatch, which comes with the Lyra is garbage. It`s slow, difficult to figure out at times, and constantly badgers you to buy the upgrade to its premium version.
EXTRAS: The only one that actually has extra features is the iPod which comes loaded with 4 different games, the ability to read text documents that are stored on the hard drive on the player's screen, a date book, and an address book. The Lyra's ONLY advantage over the other players is the fact that it comes with a complete car kit (charger/tape adapter)....which is pretty nice, but useless when the player turns itself into a paperweight after just a few hours. All three players come with a case....iPod's is the only one which does not give you access to the player's controls when it's in the case.
Hope this helped.
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The iPod is awesome. That's a fact. So let me dwell on some practical advice here:1. Instead of this item, buy the newer version of the Apple iPod 40gb (manufacturer cat no. M9268LL/A). The new version costs the same (as of October 2004) but has 12 hours of play instead of 8 hours. They look the same with similar description so BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE CAT NO.
2. Most likely you'll need a carrying case. Budget that in. The Apple one is nice but is around $50.
3. If you import a lot of CDs, your desktop or laptop might not have enough space on the hard drive. We're talking 40gb here! A good solution is to buy an additional hard drive. This can also serve as a backup (it's very depressing to import CD after CD and then have your hard drive crash...).
4. A very cost effective way to get an extra hard drive is to shop at your local computer store (e.g. CompUSA), look for the ATA drive that's on sale this week, and then, if you have a laptop, also get the "enclosure" that makes it into an external USB 2.0 drive. I just got a 160gb Seagate drive + the enclosure for around (...). Also great for backup of your music + pictures + hard drive etc.
Read Best Reviews of Apple iPod 40 GB White M9245LL/A (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL Here
Update: It went dead, probably because of a really bad power surge here, and Apple replaced it without questions in 72 hours. Nice work! My original review is appended. ****************************************************************In what has to be the slickest execution of a new piece of hardware yet, this Apple-linked but PC-compatible product will make all portable music players obsolete in no time flat. I have been following trends in this area for a long time, and my last big MP3 player investment was in a SONICblue Jukebox. Wow, how fast things evolve! That machine, cutting edge 2 years ago, had a 6 gig hard drive and allowed only for rather slow uploading of music through its balky software interface via a USB 1.0. In addition, its organizational abilities were limited.
The iPod is about 1/10 the size of the old Jukebox, absolutely ultra high tech looking, with backlighting that awes and controls that work intuitively, and it uploads easily through a firewire or a USB 2.0 (optional) connection.
Music can be categorized and recalled quickly, with the scroll control making it all simple to access.
Sound quality is awesome, its earbuds light years ahead of anything similar. Capacity is incredible in the 40 gig model, holding 10,000 songs!(the 10 gig unit will hold 2500 songs, 15 gig unit will hold 3,700 songs, the 30 gig unit about twice that number). Battery life (6-8 hours when fully charged) is just fine. The (optional only in the 10 gig model, included with the others) cradle will recharge and synch the unit to your PC, but I bought the optional car charger for longer road trips. I also bought the FM transmitter that attaches neatly to the unit and allows you to play the iPod through your stereo sans wires, though the cassette adapter works better for that purpose.
A word about Apple's customer service: WOW! I ordered my unit on a Sunday, with the additional $19 for custom engraving on its silver back. In an hour I got an email that my order was being processed, and in 6 hours I got an email that it had shipped! The email included a tracking link, and I watched it move from Taiwan across the world in 2 days. I got it on Tuesday evening (!) and it was factory sealed/shrink wrapped and in fine condition. When I opened it (even the packaging is high tech) and took it out of its protective inner wrapper, I was delighted to find the engraving was there and was done just perfectly.
If delivering a great product and offering perfect service is to be lauded, Apple must be given the highest kudos possible.
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The iPod is one of the first Apple products I have ever purchased...before the iPod the only apple product that I had the displeasure of using was QuickTime. However, with the extremely favorable reactions that the iPod recevied from many different magazines I went out to a store and decided to at least give it a shot. I fell in love instantly with its ease of use and look.So I purchased the 40 GB model. The first thing I noticed about the product was its rather...unique packaging. After finally realzing how to open it and finding the rather small unit I followed the directions located in the iPod manual and connected it up to my PC. Installation was anything but easy. The software automatically overwrote a newer version of MusicMatch jukebox and any time I tried to open MusicMatch it only would crash on me. Thus, I was forced to uninstall Music Match completely download a new version off the internet and install it. Once this was completed I succeeded in getting the iPod connected successfully and working properly. However, using Musicmatch to transfer files to iPod was a horrible experience in general.
Via a tip from a magazine I installed Apple iTunes which is now available for the Pc and found an excellent very fast product which worked with the iPod flawlessly. If not for iTunes exteremly excellent intergration with the iPod it is quite likely I would have returned the unit however iTunes completely changed my opinion of the iPod and made it actually a pleasure to use.
The actual iPod unit itself is very nice. A exteremly stylish exterior and very easy to use controls and designs make it a pleasure to hold and use. Except for the fact that it can get dirty very easily there is almost no trouble at all in transporting it around. I have gone over quite a few bumpy roads and some quick jogging and found there to be absolutely no skipping even after a 10 minute+ exposure to conditions that make my Sony CD player skip like crazy.
The only problem I really experienced in the use of the product was the lack of ability to create and SAVE a playlist directly from the unit. For example you can select and browse through all your songs and make a temporary playlist using the iPod itself. However, in order to save a playlist it is required that you use iTunes or Musicmatch and import it in that fashion. This can be quite annoying when you are like me and like to make many playlists on the fly corresponding to your emotions. However, this is a small problem when looked at regarding the rest of the unit.
One other small qualm I had was that I have quite a few WAV files that are themselves compressed in mpeg layer 2 format within the WAV format. These files do not play properly on the iPod so if you have a lot of these for some reason (I do) be prepared for lots of converting.
The last issue I had with the iPod was that it only contains 1 Dock connector to firewire plug and this plug is required to both dock the iPod to a computer and also to connect the iPod to an AC socket. If another Firewire plug was connected it would be quite nice.
All in all I was pleasently surprised with the iPod in general. The player works quite well. My main tip to other users is to not even bother with the Music Match jukebox and instead download the new Windows version of iTunes available on Apple's website.
Plug your iPod into your computer and almost instantly every song on your computer is sucked onto the iPod for transport anywhere. The iPod has the capacity to hold every song I own (my entire CD collection and it's a big collection)! I now carry EVERY CD I OWN around with me in a gadget that's smaller than a pack of cards. And best of all, it will play them THROUGH MY CAR'S STEREO SYSTEM, THROUGH ANY HOME (or office) STEREO SYSTEM, or, of course, through earbuds while exercising, hiking, etc. All with remarkably high quality. When I play the iPod through my home stereo, I cannot distinguish the reproduction quality from that of the source CD itself hence, I have not touched a CD since I got my iPod (except to load it onto my computer).
The iPod is the kind of product that puts a human face on technological advancement ... and it's smiling!
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