I've not heard the Zune HD but the one thing I know is that finding a LOD is almost impossible to find. So if you ever decide to amp your headphones or use an external dac you will be extremely limited with the Zune HD.
x2 on the LOD for Zune HD, plus the Zune HD is being phased out afaik. They don't carry them in stores anymore and the personalization option on microsoft's site is gone for them.
Never heard a Zune, but I love the sound from my iPhone 4. Sounds great with both of my headphones and has plenty of volume. Sounds flat and detailed with good staging and separation.
I've not heard the Zune HD but the one thing I know is that finding a LOD is almost impossible to find. So if you ever decide to amp your headphones or use an external dac you will be extremely limited with the Zune HD.
I have a first gen zune set to no eq running through the headphone out and it blows away my iphone with lod and amp as well as the headphone out with almost all the eq settings tried. I can't comment on the hd but I'm sure the same amp is used. Honestly, as good as my first gen sounds through the hp out I wouldn't even bother with a lod for it.
Most sites I have read say the the Zune HD's headphone out is extremely good, hence why a LOD was never created. I can attest to this -- I love my Zune HD. ABI ranked the ZHD up there with the Cowon J3 and Sansa Clip+, but they are slightly biased against iProducts.
My 16GB Zune HD sounds as good or better than my wife's Sansa E250 and Clip+ both with Rockbox and playing the same songs in FLAC vs. the Zune's in 320kbps MP3. Generally the Sansa players, especially once Rockboxed are considered upper tier of portable sound quality, so I would make the assumption that the Zune HD will sound better than the iPhone 4.
I'm not sure how the latest iPod Touch compares to the iPhone's but my Zune HD with the SR60i definitely sounds better than the Touch, a handful of my cousins also agree (even the iPod owner.)
Sounds better with both my Turbine Pro Gold's and my woodied Grado SR60i.
Zune headphone out is night and day better, as for amping it, sadly you'd have to just amp the headphone out... but if you're not worrying about running a portable amp, the Zune is a better player than the headphone...
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