MP3 Players

MP3 players are everywhere these days, and there are many choices of models and brands. Last year I decided to get one, so I began my research. The iPod definitely caught my attention for its beautiful styling and ease of use, and the scroll wheel was rated as the best of any of the systems. I combed through review sites and the iPod consistently was rated the best. The one fatal flaw for me was the battery – iPods do not have user-replaceable batteries. When your battery fails (and it will), you have to send it back to the factory for replacement. This also precludes the possibility of packing an extra battery, which I had found to be a very handy practice with my digital camera.

So the iPod was out. I wanted a 5Gbyte model, so my choices were narrowed to Creative Lab’s Zen Micro, or the iRiver H10. The iRiver featured a color screen for viewing photos, but that wasn’t on my needs list, and the Zen Micro was made by Creative Labs, a much bigger name. So I chose the Zen.

I’ve had the player for a year now, and although it’s not a bad player and it seems well-made, if I knew then what I know now, I would probably have chosen the iPod. The two biggest strokes against the Zen Micro are: device driver support is poor, and accessories are substandard when compared to iPod. I had no trouble setting up the Zen the first time around on my own Windows XP computer, but I didn’t like the included Media Explorer software; I discovered that Windows Media Player works fine with the player, so I dumped the Creative Labs software.

I began ripping music from my CD collection and everything was fine. My girlfriend has an even better CD collection than I do, so whenever I was at her house I ripped her CD’s onto her computer so that I could later add them to my Zen. This was the beginning of my frustration; her computer runs Windows 2000 (an earlier version than XP), and I spent hours trying to install the Zen Micro device drivers for it. There was no mention of this problem on the Creative website, and I couldn’t find any forums where the problem was discussed. After a few icy letters to Creative Labs threatening allegiance with iPod, they finally admitted it was a problem and sent me a CD from Microsoft (figures) along with an apology. You’d think that if the solution is provided by Microsoft, a simple Windows update would take care of it. Shipping a CD seemed a bit archaic.

I have purchased two accessories for my Zen, a set of speakers and an FM transmitter (which allows the Zen to be played through any FM receiver). Both items involve a messy tangle of wires, which is near the top of my list of pet-peeves. The FM transmitter, made by Belkin, is cheap, sounds crappy, needs its own batteries which drain immediately, and has joined my expanding collection of wish-I-hadn’t-bought-it items. The speakers are not bad, but nothing like the iPod offerings, which are made by premium speaker companies Altec Lansing and Bose. Better yet, the iPod docks directly onto the speaker base without any wires, and the iPod recharges while it’s docked - very elegant engineering. I’ve seen the iPod FM transmitter in action, it clips right onto the unit without wires, the sound is great and you’d never know it was an FM broadcast.

I guess there’s a reason that iPod dominates the MP3 market. If you’re considering joining the masses, my advice is to choose an iPod.