steaxauce
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 23, 2006
- Posts
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- 17
If you wanted to compare the iPod to the Zii Egg, you shouldn't have spent the majority of your first post explaining that you were making that comparison because of how much the Zune HD sucks. You've angered the Zune-likers (and there are clearly many), and this thread is now useless.
You're obviously wrong about the Zune being irrelevant, no one liking it, its features not stacking up to those of the iPod no matter what your purposes for it are, etc. I, for instance, am most likely buying the Zune, first because I absolutely require a subscription music service. I'm a music lover before an audiophile, and if I bought all of the music I listen to individually, I would be homeless. Pandora wouldn't work for me, because I primarily listen to classical music. I want to listen to whole symphonies, not listen to the 2nd movement and then be forced to move on to something else, and I want to be able to listen to the best recordings available of given pieces, not whatever Pandora feels like spitting out. I also like the idea of being able to download music to the Zune without connecting to a computer.
Second, the HD radio is a huge plus for me. I listen to NPR almost exclusively, and the NPR station in my city broadcasts several HD subchannels. HD radio is also of much higher audio quality than FM radio. FM radio is equivalent to about 20kbps, whereas HD radio stations range from about 100kpbs to over 300kbps, sometimes even in surround sound, etc. The Zune HD can also fast forward and rewind HD radio.
Third, there's the OLED screen. The screen beats the iPod's in every category except for performance in direct sunlight hands down. It's definitely better for video playback. The iPod's screen is wider, but for widescreen media (which is primarily what I'll be using the Zune for) this is wasted space. You get the same size picture watching TV and movies on both devices. Web browsing is really the only time the iPod's 4:3 screen comes in handy.
Fourth, the user interface. Both the iPod and the Zune HD have sufficiently good user interfaces. I, being a music lover, prefer the Zune's. I love seeing album artwork in the background when music is playing, being able to read about the artists, etc. That the Zune automatically tags music wherever I get it from is also a huge plus. I tried it out at Best Buy, and thought the UI was beautiful and intuitive. The web browser is considered decent, but not as good as Apple's. For someone who will rarely use the web browser, this is good enough.
Fifth, the dock has a bitperfect spdif output. This is huge for me. It means that I can use it as my home music server with an excellent DAC. With DACs that have asynchronous sample rate converters and are thus virtually immune to jitter, this dock works just as well as any digital source available, regardless of price. It's hard to imagine a better home music server.
The iPod has some advantages over the Zune as well, such as the much more developed app store the option for more storage, etc, but I happen to not be too concerned about most of these. The only advantage the iPod has over the Zune that I DO care about is that its lineout is accessible. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about this. But other than that, the Zune is the hands-down winner for my purposes.
You're obviously wrong about the Zune being irrelevant, no one liking it, its features not stacking up to those of the iPod no matter what your purposes for it are, etc. I, for instance, am most likely buying the Zune, first because I absolutely require a subscription music service. I'm a music lover before an audiophile, and if I bought all of the music I listen to individually, I would be homeless. Pandora wouldn't work for me, because I primarily listen to classical music. I want to listen to whole symphonies, not listen to the 2nd movement and then be forced to move on to something else, and I want to be able to listen to the best recordings available of given pieces, not whatever Pandora feels like spitting out. I also like the idea of being able to download music to the Zune without connecting to a computer.
Second, the HD radio is a huge plus for me. I listen to NPR almost exclusively, and the NPR station in my city broadcasts several HD subchannels. HD radio is also of much higher audio quality than FM radio. FM radio is equivalent to about 20kbps, whereas HD radio stations range from about 100kpbs to over 300kbps, sometimes even in surround sound, etc. The Zune HD can also fast forward and rewind HD radio.
Third, there's the OLED screen. The screen beats the iPod's in every category except for performance in direct sunlight hands down. It's definitely better for video playback. The iPod's screen is wider, but for widescreen media (which is primarily what I'll be using the Zune for) this is wasted space. You get the same size picture watching TV and movies on both devices. Web browsing is really the only time the iPod's 4:3 screen comes in handy.
Fourth, the user interface. Both the iPod and the Zune HD have sufficiently good user interfaces. I, being a music lover, prefer the Zune's. I love seeing album artwork in the background when music is playing, being able to read about the artists, etc. That the Zune automatically tags music wherever I get it from is also a huge plus. I tried it out at Best Buy, and thought the UI was beautiful and intuitive. The web browser is considered decent, but not as good as Apple's. For someone who will rarely use the web browser, this is good enough.
Fifth, the dock has a bitperfect spdif output. This is huge for me. It means that I can use it as my home music server with an excellent DAC. With DACs that have asynchronous sample rate converters and are thus virtually immune to jitter, this dock works just as well as any digital source available, regardless of price. It's hard to imagine a better home music server.
The iPod has some advantages over the Zune as well, such as the much more developed app store the option for more storage, etc, but I happen to not be too concerned about most of these. The only advantage the iPod has over the Zune that I DO care about is that its lineout is accessible. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about this. But other than that, the Zune is the hands-down winner for my purposes.
