[guitarman19853]

i need some opinions... I currently have a Creative Zen Xtra 30Gb... When i bought it in May 2005, the guy reccomended buying the extended replacement warrenty and then no matter if something was wrong or not, exchange it for a new one towards the end of the warrenty period. so i went for it intending to do this all along. however, the Xtra is no longer sold (? and even if it is, its not sold at best buy anymore). From what i've been told, i can go to best buy and get the cost of the player towards another player (since they dont carry it)...

Problem is... the Xtra (although i wish it supported some kind of lossless) is such a great box! the replaceable battery means you could keep it going forever and i just recently discovered that it uses a standard 2.5" hard drive... so i would be dropping in an 80Gb drive if i kept it... but still... i have the option of getting something new that would support lossless.

So heres the 2 questions...
1. Should i keep the creative or trade up for a new player?
2. Regardless of answer 1, what would be a good Mp3 player? (I want lossless support and it has to have adjustable EQ... which rules out the iPod, unless the Rockbox mod adds EQ)

 

[ILikeMusic]

The Xtra is a pretty good unit, especially if you are into self-service... can't beat that easy-to-replace standard notebook hard drive. If you did want to replace it I think you'd really like the Vision:M as it has a much better custom EQ implementation, but no lossless (is lossless really necessary on a portable player anyway?) The ZVM does have an internal battery but if you're comfortable swapping hard drives then you should have no trouble tossing a new battery in there every 4-5 years.

 

[Fatality_]

That player seems like a tank, keep it in my opinion

 

[YamiTenshi]

1. If you really love it there's no reason to upgrade just the sake of upgrading.

2. iAudio X5/X5L gets good reviews around here but I don't think Best Buy carries it. Hmm, what does Best Buy carry?

 

[scorpian007]

If you really want to upgrade, go for the Zen Vision:M. Simply kills everything thats on the market right now.

 

[Orestes]

I'd return it for a zen vison:m.

 

[guitarman19853]

I guess i should explain that i dont really use a portable as a "portable". to me, it is more my main music output. I listen to it at night before bed to fall asleep to, and also at work. in both instances, sound quality IS desired. I know lots of people question lossless on portables because you probably would'nt notice, but 80% of the time for me, listening would be in a quiet environment that quality would be noticed. That being said, much of my music collection from the days of download is in *cringe* 128kbps. Some is in 192 but its rare to find downloaded music of mine in mugh higher. Imagine my horror when i discovered that a cd a friend had sent me had been ripped in 96kbps! I have recently re-ripped all of MY cd's to lossless, but there is still a large poor quality collection of music. However, its hard to imagine me being satisfied listening to something as detailed as Dark Side of the Moon or the Lord of the Rings soundtracks in anything less than lossless. (i need to ABX them with 320kbps to see if i can notice...)

curse you head-fi! you have turned me into a legitimate music buyer! before all of this, i was fine to say download everything and never buy cds... now... i cant stand the quality of downloads...

(i dont think a statement like this, or this post is against the rules even though it discusses downloading, because i am stating my complete turn away from that route of music aquisition. if i am breaking the rules, let me know and i will re-write this post)

 

[Head Creep]

With your equipment, I doubt you're going to hear much difference between lossless music and well-encoded, high-quality MP3s. So what it comes down to is whether you're happy with the Xtra or not. If you "upgrade", you'll get a different GUI, different controls, and a smaller physical size, but you're almost guaranteed to lose the ability to exchange the hard drive and battery. Personally, I'd stick with the Xtra; I've regretted giving mine away since about an hour after I recieved my X5.

 

[ler337]

I upgraded to an ipod 5g from an xtra. Yea its smaller and has color, but its battery life is much worse. None of those factors are that big of a deal to me. The only thing that sets them apart in my mind is the scroll wheel, which is way nicer then the chincy toggle on the side of the xtra. Well its kind of a draw because i feel like a total loser with an ipod in public so i have to keep it on the downlow whenever i use it.

 

[DJ e]

You could upgrade the harddrive to 80 GB and use .WAV files on your Xtra. Then you could keep your Xtra and hear high quality music.

I also have the extended warranty on mine. You have the option to take it back and its not broken?

 

[guitarman19853]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ e I also have the extended warranty on mine. You have the option to take it back and its not broken?

I got the 2 year replacement warrenty. The only reason i bought it is because the person there when i sold it reccomended getting it and towards the end of the warrenty, trade it in regardless just to get a new one. I could nitpick and find things wrong with it. i think there are some small defects with mine anyways. but supposedly, you can trade in no questions asked.

 

[LaBreaHead]

Financially, can you afford to keep the Xtra and get something else? After all, it's a working relic of the early DAP wars -- it should grow in uniqueness and sentimental value as time goes on. Maybe that "old tank" will outlive several of your subsequent players.

 

[pauls]

As DJ said, you can use wav's on the Xtra (or any Creative player including my JB3 and muvo2), but 'wav's don't have tags unfortunately. Navigation is a real pain - however, SQ is sensational.

 

[Head Creep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pauls ...but 'wav's don't have tags unfortunately.

Outside of the Xtra, that's true. But you can tag WAV files once they're on the Xtra, since it has a database (it doesn't have to actually write anything to the WAV file itself).

Quote:

Navigation is a real pain - however, SQ is sensational.

Navigation is all relative. Personally, I loved it. The rocker nub thing is a bit slow for scrolling through large amounts of music, but the rest is easy enough to get used to, and I've yet to find any DAP that can match the Xtra's on-the-fly playlist support.