ZEN Stone Plus w/speaker vs. ZEN Stone and ZEN Stone TravelSound

Hi LSlothuus

I'm the owner of a ZEN Stone, 1GB, no speaker. I listened to the ZEN Stone Plus and I preferred the Stone, *to my ears* it sounded better.

As for the integrated speaker... well, it sounds like crap. It's mono, for a start, which by itself would render the speaker a toy. With the integrated speaker you get a more expensive, bigger, sturdier and heavier player, and the only benefit is that you can annoy other people by playing noises thru the speaker

As for the capacity: OK, 4GB is four times more music than 1GB, but even using topnotch quality MP3 files (VBR around 200kbps) you can fit more than 10 hours on 1GB, which is more or less the expected battery life. 4GB is four times slower to fill I've automated the filling of my Stone, and I prefer 1GB over 4GB because I can fill it in a hurry. Even with 4GB you will have to fill the player from time to time, and IMHO (since the player charges from the USB port) it's better to refill frequently. You will get better battery life and the music will renew a lot

If you must have a portable speaker setup, I think that the TravelSound will sound a lot better than the flimsy integrated speaker.

I don't know your needs, of course, but I can tell you what *I* would do: I would buy the ZEN Stone 1GB and the Philips SBA1500 speakers (the ones which have a battery-driven amplifier), or the same speakers without the amplifier (I think they're called SBA1200 or something like that. They're black, not white, and the Stone is capable of driving them to a very reasonable volume, I've tested because I have both ))). OK, it won't be as portable, but sound quality would be much better.

Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado