Since I'm really only talking about the "music" portion of the Zune experience, I decided to post it here.
In a nutshell, if you're a music lover...GET THE ZUNE PASS!
I recently picked up the 32g HD, mainly because I wanted to try out the Zune Pass. I don't normally buy genres such as pop, rock, soul, hip hop or country, being mainly a Jazz guy, but I do enjoy songs from those other genres. I figured if I got the pass, then I could have lots of other music for a relatively low monetary investment (15 bucks a month or a one-time payment of 150 bucks a year).
From the first hour, I have been hooked. There is just so much music available with so many choices it's really amazing. The most amazing part, for me, has been finding somewhat obscure artists whose CD's on Amazon run over 30 bucks a pop being part of the music menu. I mean, c'mon!
I'm not sure at all how the Zune HD compares in sound quality to my various iPods, as I've not uploaded any of my own CDs (which is the ONLY thing I did with the Pods) and I've done nothing but downloads on the Zune. As far as pure sound quality goes, I think the downloads are a bit lacking in that department. My guess is it's sort of like going from a 1080 to a 720 big screen. Is it noticeable? Sure. Does that make the 720 less enjoyable? I'd argue no. I think I'll try downloading something I have on my iPod onto the Zune and compare later. But for now, WAY TOO MUCH NEW MUSIC to be that concerned with all the audiophoolia BS.
The Zune (with the Pass) has been one of my more pleasant purchases in my own personal audiodom.
Cheers.
