[Pearl]

Hi,
I want to buy an new Mp3-Player and I think one of these 3 is the right for me ;-D . Important is:

1.The Soundquality

2.The Features

3.The Video-Qualtity

 

[wolfen68]

The h320 and X5 are pretty nice...and pretty dead even on sound quality IMO. Some features vary such as screen res...etc.

 

[WhiteShadow]

I recommend the X5L for the 35hr battery life.

 

[B-side J]

I have both the X5L and h120. To me the h120 sounds better. The X5's mids are to recesed for my tast (and 5EBs

) So in terms os SQ alone the iRiver wins, but the X5 has more features (if they matter to you)

Maybe that will help a bit?

JB

 

[GSTom1]

The Zen Vision: M excels in all three criteria. Once you stare into that 256K color screen, you'll be mezmerized!

 

[fongalv]

Hi there...Ive been lurking around here ALOT lately because I had a similiar situation...

initially I had the H340 at the top of my list, then after some time, I started to feel that its fast becoming an old DAP and Iriver dosent seem to be developing down this particular route of a good sounding large capacity player...support was of high priority for me and iRiver seem to be lacking not only technical support but also 3rd party accessories...also, its impossible to find a h320 now(locally for me) and the rare h340 is more than the price of a 60gig 5g crappod...

then I had my sights on the X5L, with the superb battery life, good case and tonnes of features but upon research, found that the line out was kinda inferior with an equally inferior subpack...plus the joystick was also kinda problematic...
the thing that put me off the most is the fact that I would be amping the player, thus amping from the headphone out would render the remote useless + you would need to take out the player more oftenly + use the weak joystick more frequently...the screen was also kinda weak when compared to the newer players...all these just kinda seem to generate more problems then they should...rockbox for this unit is also probably gona take much more time? and also like iRiver, technical support/accessories was a large tad inferior...

hmm...creative...even tho Ive used a nomad and currently a muvo, Ive come to believe that the quality of these players are are not something I would want to see in my next DAP...as much as I liked them before, I tend to steer clear from them now, and I admit its partially because of the design which I tend to find "weird".

then I started to edge towards the dark side...the ipod 5G seem to be doing pretty well according to some pple here...sure its got a scratch magnet case, lousy itunes requirement, inferior battery life, but on the plus side, rockbox is already developing pretty well meaning most of the -ve points can be removed from the ipod, but most imptly(for me), its got loads of official support(abeit costly) and the amount of 3rd party accessories are only what the other brands can dream of...im not really referring to the cosmetic skins fanciful speakers here, but things like external battery packs, user replacable battery, user replacable harddisk, etc...and it seems the SQ from the 5G is not that far off when properly amped/matched...Im now actually looking beyond the aesthetics of the ipod, but more on the real life issues that affects a DAP...so many people are now trying to find EOL players(rio), pray their old player dosent age out(h120/140) or for the matter of fact find new/better battery/harddisks...I just visited a site that still stocks high capacity battery from 1G to 5G...thats just too much for me to take, and not to forget the more than decent video capabilities on a 30g/60g harddisk...

end of the day, you got to go according to your priorities...if SQ is that impt go listen to all of them and see if you can hear the difference...features wise you got to see what you REALLY need the USBOTG/FM/etc...

as you can see at the moment, Im pretty much leaning towards the ipod 5G(still deciding tho)...rockbox, 60gigs of space, decent video, decent sound, wide range of replacable/additional parts available is almost too good for me...

lol...thats alot of raving I have...guess its all the regurgitation after I leeched so much here the last few days...

p.s. disclaimer: all the above is IMHO only...I am by a far cry compared to the other veterans here...

 

[mail4u]

Fongalv,

I liked your mini review. I'm tending to lean to the 5G ipod also but I'm hesitating because I'm finding itunes not as flexible as other media players. It does a good job if you agree with the itunes way. For example, for some reason I couldn't move podcasts into a playlist like I could with Yahoo media player or WMP.

 

[jnev]

don't get the iriver, it was awesome for its time, but now the X5 improves on virtually all of it's features. while the ZVM has much better video quality, the X5 has more features, longer battery life (the L version, the regular i think is the about same as the ZVM), and is UMS.

 

[Ingo]

The Zen Vision: M is a definately a step up from the H320. I haven't owned the X5, but I don't think that it's even as feature rich as the ZVM. The video quality is litterally at least twice as good on the ZVM compared to the X5. Only bad thing is there's no UMS support for the ZVM. But, it's not that big of a problem if you have Windows XP SP2.

 

[apnk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by B-side J I have both the X5L and h120. To me the h120 sounds better. The X5's mids are to recesed for my tast (and 5EBs ) So in terms os SQ alone the iRiver wins, but the X5 has more features (if they matter to you) Maybe that will help a bit? JB

Well the iems you have dont really help with the mids.

I say the x5, ipod, or the iriver 120 because they have/will have rockbox firmware!!!

 

[Ploop]

i say the ZVM. If it sounds as good as my ancient Nomad Xtra, its worth it. That thing sounded pretty good.

On the other hand, the X5's BBE is tantalizing. I love it. I'm hooked on it. It sounds great. It improves the clarity ten fold. But then you lose the mids somewhat (and i have shures) and the sound looks like this \_/ which isn't always the best.

as for iriver, i too have owned one (H10). It had SRS which was a nice feature, and it sounds pretty good...

however, i will probably myself get a ZVM.

 

[fongalv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mail4u Fongalv, I liked your mini review. I'm tending to lean to the 5G ipod also but I'm hesitating because I'm finding itunes not as flexible as other media players. It does a good job if you agree with the itunes way. For example, for some reason I couldn't move podcasts into a playlist like I could with Yahoo media player or WMP.

haha can that really be considered a mini review? its just some personal opinions after the last few days of reading...currently just withholding from running down to the shop to get any DAP...hopefully someone wise enough can come along and whip some common sense into me...

well...thats the thing...now that theres rockbox, the 5G can be treated as a UMS(universal mass storage), you get file tree browsing and you DO NOT need iTunes...there are SOOO many crappod users out there and it really baffles me why so few actually know that they can actually have a rockpod...

chk out this link
http://www.rockbox.org/

personally I felt when you get a player like H120/140/320/340/X5L/ZVM now, yes you do get audio bliss but the next thing you usually do is you pray for the DAP not to age out...theres almost little to none potential "upgrades" for these players and for me, its really kinda no fun...I like twinkling/customising/upgrading stuff(more $$$ tho)...

hmm...maybe I oughta look more closely at the ZVM...

 

[jnev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ingo The Zen Vision: M is a definately a step up from the H320. I haven't owned the X5, but I don't think that it's even as feature rich as the ZVM. The video quality is litterally at least twice as good on the ZVM compared to the X5. Only bad thing is there's no UMS support for the ZVM. But, it's not that big of a problem if you have Windows XP SP2.

not to argue, but:

-the X5 plays more formats (ogg, flac)
-has USBTGO (VERY conveniant)
-will have a rockbox port soon
-file tree = awesome (although this is completely subjective)
-I want to be able to carry my files between computers, something that is not possible with the ZVM unless you partition the HDD (that's the way it is with my zen micro, correct me if I'm wrong)
-and this is JMO, but creative's software/firmware SUCKS (personal experiance, not something I heard)

though if those don't both you, then by all means get the ZVM. it does have a MUCH better screen than the X5 and MUCH better video playback.

 

[Skrying]

I've been trying to decide between the X5L and the ZVM, and I was really wondering. Is it that the ZVM's video playback is jut that good, or is it that the X5L's it that bad?

If the X5L's video playback is at least at acceptable levels then I'll be going with it, but if its simply bad then I might go with the ZVM.

 

[scorpian007]

^ Awesome avatar

I have the ZVM and I can safely say that its completely blown me away. The screen quality is amazing, everyone I've shown it to has been very impressed (even non tech-geeks) and the video playback is excellent. Supports DivX, Xvid, MPEG and WMV so its unlikely that you'll need to convert your videos.

File transfer is drag & drop for music and files as long as you have WinXP SP1 installed with WMP10 (only has to be installed, you do not need to use it). You do need to use the software to transfer video's and images.

Overall, fantastic player. I love the interface, they've gone beyond the Zen MicroPhoto interface (which I already thought was great) and I find it a joy to use.