[Thermonuclear]

I JUST LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My system comprises :-

Brand New un-opened in Box Creative Zen Vision M 30gb
Creative Vision M docking station.
Creative Vision M AV cable
Creative Vision M sync adapter
Creative 5vdc power supply
Brand New Creek OBH-11 headphone amplifier
Sennheiser HD485 full size headphones

My little daughter has an Ipod Nano 8gb which she just loves, she is 10 yrs of age and she flits to and fro between settings , album art etc etc, it takes me a minute to work out how to turn it on ......seriously

A superlative reference track that I use to demo audio gear is theres a train that leaves tonight by mary black, I got her ipod and asked her to copy that song onto it and id give it a listen using her ipod in ear headphones.

Well...........................disappointing isnt the word. Mary sounded like she was singing with a clothes peg on her nose and the width of the sound stage was pretty narrow. I told her it sounded great, of course, Im not that heartless

I had the same song on my vision m and had it connected to the dock via the line out and amplifed through the creek. The harsh nasal quality as projected by the ipod was gone, the soundstage just expanded ever wider, you could feel the plectrum strumming the acoustic guitar and mary`s voice was velvet smooth and sugar sweet, just beautiful. I also had 320k sampled mp3s of jazz music originally ripped from blue note cd`s, the solo brass player sounded smooth and not ragged like so many other players reproduce it, the double bass was resonant and full and the drum cymbals sounded accurate and real and not tizzy and splashy in the way some players make them sound.

I was careful to source all original creative products, there are copies and OEM stuff out there . Its portable, easily moved and having the power supply means its not tied to the pc, I can leave it on the dock all day long and the battery is always charged. The vision m is pricey and if a genuine un-opened one is available, its a no brainer, best darned player ive ever owned by a long long way.

Thanks for reading

 

[meta21]

I have TWO Creative Zen Vision M 60G and the output just far too weak for Sennheiser CX500.
The iPhone 3G does dive the CX500 nicely.

 

[andyalfa]

I had a Zen 60gb which was an absolute joy to listen to until I dropped the damned thing and shattered the disk. The output via the headphone socket was rather on the weak side and led to me being hugely disappointed when I first got my Ultimate Ears SuperFi 3's. However, after reading about the advantages of using a headphone amp, I tentatively took the plunge and bought a (cheap off eBay) PA2V2 and was suitably amazed at the difference.

I also discovered after further reading, that the dongle that came with the player provided a line-out socket, bypassing the (I now realise rather feeble) on board headphone pre-amp giving an even cleaner and considerably more powerful output signal. The results were that for the price of the IEM’s and the amp, I’d transformed a reasonable sounding player into a rig which rivalled my pretty decent home set-up.

+1 for the Zen in my book. I’m currently “watching” a few possible replacements on eBay.

 

[Thermonuclear]

for on the move listening, i take my zen 4gb (with san disk 8gb additional card) with me and either my px100 or px200, ive never even plugged into the headphone socket on my vision m, it sits in the dock (powered by power supply, not pc ) beside the creek obh-11 in my living room beside my comfy seat and footrest................bliss. After a hard 50 mile cycle last night , my missus made me a cup of tea and i set the hd485`s on my head and had a most satisfying listen to Elgar cello concerto, the vision m set up is worth every penny in my opinion.