[mrarroyo]

In a way my wife and I were lucky. Many of our friends know we are into portable music and for some un-real reason we received two(2) Brown 30 GB Zunes for Christmas.

Being users of iPods we both felt bad about the gift because we know that the units are not cheap, the lowest price I found was $165 plus S&H. Neither one of us is ready to start learning another software and a new device so we are thinking of selling the two units.

What do you all think? Should I return the gift and risk pissing off the giver, or just sell the unit and get a larger capacity iPod? We do not see these people often so it is not like they would be asking us "Where is the Zune?".

I am inclined to selling the Zunes and then letting our friends know what we did.

 

[big-fi]

Zune's are superior to iPods sound-wise
I'd keep the zunes

 

[Amblin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif In a way my wife and I were lucky. Many of our friends know we are into portable music and for some un-real reason we received two(2) Brown 30 GB Zunes for Christmas. Being users of iPods we both felt bad about the gift because we know that the units are not cheap, the lowest price I found was $165 plus S&H. Neither one of us is ready to start learning another software and a new device so we are thinking of selling the two units. What do you all think? Should I return the gift and risk pissing off the giver, or just sell the unit and get a larger capacity iPod? We do not see these people often so it is not like they would be asking us "Where is the Zune?". I am inclined to selling the Zunes and then letting our friends know what we did.

Give one a listen before you go off and turn them back in for money. The sound is much better (!IMO!) then even the new generation iPods.

PS: The brown Zunes during the holidays were on sale for only $80 at buy.com, cheaper at some places.

 

[darkswordsman17]

What iPods do you have? Depending on the model you might be sacrificing battery life. Almost certainly you'll have some trouble making the move to the Zune software (which I personally don't like much at all, but as long as you mainly use it just for syncing it shouldn't be too bad, not sure if the one hack allows you to drag and drop your music or not). It seems like most people agree that the Zune has better sound quality and user interface than the iPods, so there is that.

If you decide not to keep them you can always cite the brown color I guess.

 

[Amblin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkswordsman17 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What iPods do you have? Depending on the model you might be sacrificing battery life. Almost certainly you'll have some trouble making the move to the Zune software (which I personally don't like much at all, but as long as you mainly use it just for syncing it shouldn't be too bad, not sure if the one hack allows you to drag and drop your music or not). It seems like most people agree that the Zune has better sound quality and user interface than the iPods, so there is that. If you decide not to keep them you can always cite the brown color I guess.

Most true audiophiles will choose sound in quality, rather than quantity.

That is, comparing the Zune's (relatively) short battery life, but, (IMO), better sound quality to the 6th Gen's longer battery life but (again, IMO), inferior sound quality.

 

[serpico]

I have to agree, I switched to a Zune30 after years of owning ipods and the sound is much nicer. Sure, it took awhile to get used to the new pc software but it's nice overall. Too bad I can't listen to my flac files though. I don't have luck with rockbox'd ipods. Native flac is what I would like.
The brown zunes were on sale from $80-$99 through the holidays.

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

@serpico
why you dont transcode the FLAC to WMA Lossless ?

 

[mrarroyo]

Thanks for the input. I will add that currently I have a 4th Gen iModded iPod Photo 60 gB. I also have a large music library in Apple LossLess (over 18,000 songs) which I do not look forward to transcode. Finally I would like to have a large number of songs w/ me and thus I was looking for at least 100 to 160 gB capacity unit.

Amblin, I was not aware that the 30 gB Brown Zunes were on sale for $80 in December. I did a search yesterday and the prices are now over $160 plus S&H. If I open one of the units and I decide to sell them I could not sell it as new.

So, would you say that $135 including S&H in CONUS would be fair price? Thanks.

 

[serpico]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ricardo Dawkins /img/forum/go_quote.gif @serpico why you dont transcode the FLAC to WMA Lossless ?

It's like what others say, transcoding takes time and I have thousands of songs, hundreds of cd's between the wife and I. I used to have Apple Lossless but I'm fixed to itunes/ipod scenario and it will be the same thing with WMA Lossless. It's like a battle that never ends! I decided to Flac it to be able to use it on mac or pc or any compatible device if required.

 

[vranswer]

You could re-gift the Zunes, and give to someone else. I didn't care for Zune's SQ, bass bloated and volume steps insufficient.

 

[virtuoso]

i would suggest that you have been using the iPods now and i would suggest that you should the new players a try.. may be they offer much more things than the iPod!

 

[santiclaws]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, would you say that $135 including S&H in CONUS would be fair price? Thanks.

That's a fair price; I guarantee they'll bring at least that on ebay - probably more like $150+, not including shipping. Around here, folks tend to look for bargains, so you may be less successful.