Paul's Academy MP3 Player Review</a> <center><font face="arial" size="+3"><b>MP3 Player Review</b></font></center> <br> <center><font face="arial" size="+1"><b>iPOD vs. Zune vs. Insignia Sport/Pilot vs. Creative Zen vs. Sansa View</b></font></center> <br> <center><table border="0" width="60%"><tr><td> <center><table border="0" width="75%"><tr><td> This mp3 player review is brought to you by the <a href="http://www.paulsacademy.com" target="_blank">Paul's Academy Podcast</a>. As always, I only review items bought with my own hard-earned money. So unlike "professional" reviews, you'll get an honest review here. Don't forget to listen to the <a href="http://www.paulsacademy.com" target="_blank">Paul's Academy Podcast</a>, and to vote for it at <a href="http://www.podcastalley.com/one_vote2.php?pod_id=51259">Podcast Alley</a>! Good luck finding the right mp3 player for you. It ain't easy! </td></tr></table></center> <h4>Narrowing Down The Contenders</h4> <p>My initial research to replace my broken mp3 player quickly narrowed the field down to just two candidates. There were five initial contenders—the iPod, Zune, Insignia Sport/Pilot, Creative Zen and Sansa View. Truthfully—I <u>did</u> give the iPod and Zune fair consideration. Yet I still had to disqualify them almost immediately, for the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li>Both are grotesquely overpriced on the basis of (Apple and Microsoft) name recognition alone. A 4GB iPod Nano or Zune costs the same as a 16GB unit from other reputable brands.<br><br> <li>Neither allows you to easily load and organize your music collection the way <u>you</u> want it by simply dragging and dropping music files from Windows Explorer directly onto your mp3 player. Thus, they cannot be used as jump drives for data either.<br><br> <li>Both force you to use proprietary software (or Windows Media Player) to “synchronize” your music collection onto your mp3 player. The last time I used WMP to “synchronize” my music collection, it left the entire Beatles catalog off, but made sure to include all those 5-30 second recordings of me cussing at bad drivers on Interstate 40 when I kept accidentally hitting the record button on my voice recorder back in 2005.<br><br> <li>“Synchronize” is a euphemism for “doing a bunch of potentially hazardous things to your computer, your mp3 player, and your entire music collection, but we won't tell you what the hell we're doing, how we're doing it, or when we're going to do it, and we won't tell you what personal information may or may not be transmitted to Apple/Microsoft every time we do it. So just be an obedient consumer who's willing to pay extra money for the privilege of being seen with an mp3 player that has our logo on it, and trust us.” Trust Apple? Trust Microsoft? Yeah, right. </ol> <p>My essential criteria for a new mp3 player were the following:</p> <ul> <li>8-16GB minimum <li>Flash drive preferred over hard disk <li>Allows dragging and dropping music files <li>No proprietary software needed <li>Easy menu navigation <li>Low or no emphasis on “subscription services” and other internet-related junk. I already have a music collection. That's why I need an mp3 player. <li>Prefer to have expansion (memory card slot) capability </ul> <p>ipod and Zune immediately failed on five of these seven criteria (hard disk, no drag-and-drop, pathological obsession with proprietary software and “subscription services”, no expansion slot). A Sony mp3 player was also immediately disqualified when I noticed the name “Sony” printed on it (installing spyware on customers' computers comes back to haunt you, Sony). I did glance at a few other brands like Samsung, which makes some fabulous products. The Samsung looked nice, but it was limited to 4GB and had no expansion capability, so I couldn't seriously consider it.</p> <p>I also gave Best Buy's own “Insignia” brand serious consideration. By the way, “insignia” means “logo”... get it? Get It? The big brains at Best Buy really are clever. Come on, it's funny—laugh! Laugh, dammit!</p> <p>The Insignia Sport and Pilot models packed a formidable punch in terms of features versus price, yet they were still overpriced because those features include Bluetooth support, which is only appealing to attention-craving twits who want to be seen wearing those ridiculous-looking little cyborg devices with blue flashing lights on their ears. Besides, a decent pair of Bluetooth-enabled headphones cost more than $100, which actually makes Insignia brands <i>more</i> expensive than the competition, if you want to use all their features.</p> <p>Another problem with the Insignia brand was that the devices felt like they were made out of cheap plastic. That wouldn't have been so problematic if they didn't include Bluetooth support and were priced lower, accordingly. For example, at $70, the 4GB Insignia Sport with expansion slot might have been worth purchasing, even with the expectation that it would only work for a year or so. But the Sport was priced at $120, and went on sale at $90—presumably because of the Bluetooth support. Thus the price per Gigabyte for the Insignia was comparable to far more reputable brands, even when on sale.</p> <p>I should mention that if I didn't find a good player in the 8-16GB range, I planned to purchase the tiny $60 Sansa Clip (2GB), which offers a nice value for the price. I hoped to avoid this, however, because 2GB is terribly restrictive.</p> <p>So the field was rapidly narrowed to just two reasonable candidates: the Creative Zen and the Sandisk Sansa View. The Zen is Creative's flash drive replacement for its popular hard-disk Zen Vision M model. The Sansa View is Sandisk's second-generation replacement for its excellent and underrated e200 series. The player I was replacing was a Sansa e270 (6GB), and I loved it tremendously for the three months that it worked after I bought it. I dropped it from a towering height of about 6 inches and cracked the LCD, creating a dark splotch that quickly consumed the entire display. Although, technically, this was my own fault, I couldn't help feeling cheated that my e270 had broken so easily. That experience had always left a bad taste in my mouth toward Sandisk. However, when it worked, the Sansa was indisputably the best mp3 flash player on the market, so it wouldn't have been fair if I ignored the new Sansa simply because my previous Sansa broke when dropped (from 6 freaking inches???).</p> <p>So I bought a Creative Zen and a Sandisk Sansa View, and put them to the test before deciding which unit--or both--to return. The remainder of this review focuses on the pros and cons of these two mp3 player models.</p> <h4>Size, Shape and Controls</h4> <p>The Zen is unbelievably small—exactly the length and width of a credit card, and not much thicker. It features a large 2.5” display, with push button controls on the right-hand side. The front face has a beautiful black shine, and just like Henry Ford's Model T, Creative makes the Zen available “in any color you want, just so long as it's black”. The backside features a grayish plastic with a barely legible ZEN logo, and appears somewhat “cheap” compared to the rest of the unit.</p> <p><table width="100%"><tr><td>The Zen's main control is a square button surrounded by four other buttons on each side of the square. This centerpiece control is flanked by two more buttons above, and two buttons below. Once you learn which buttons do what, it's pretty easy to navigate the menu system, except for one important limitation—there's no tactile response, so it's almost impossible to “feel” your way around the controls without looking at it. All buttons are the same height (almost flush with the unit's face), and the buttons do not have tactile bumps like the “F” and “J” keys on a keyboard, to help you position your fingers without looking. Compared to a click-wheel or track-pad device like iPod, Zune, Sansa View, or even the old Zen Vision M model, this button-only control system was frustrating from the very beginning. That said, the buttons responded fine, and when I could watch what I was doing, I found it very easy to navigate the menus using these buttons. Be aware that these buttons are tiny, however.</td><td align="center"><img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/paulsacademy/creativezen2.jpg"></td></tr></table></p> <p><table width="100%"><tr><td width="80%">The Sansa View is noticeably longer than it's predecessor. At nearly 4.5 inches, it's a full inch longer, and about 30% thinner than the e200 series players. This concerned me because I always felt the e200 series was the “ideal” size and weight for an mp3 player. I still believe that, actually. But after using the Sansa View I found that it's length didn't pose any real problem, other than being “less than ideal”. I was more concerned by the Sansa View's thinness, because a long, thin slab of any kind is bound to experience forces that cause stress at the center—right where the bottom of the LCD is located.... Especially when dealing with a portable device that, by definition, is constantly being moved around in pockets, backpacks, and so on. The Sansa View's larger size is said to accommodate the larger 2.4” display (compared to a 1.7” display on the e200 series), yet there's quite a bit of unused space on the View's face. I would have preferred that Sandisk cut a half-inch from the length, and matched the thickness of the e200 series, instead. The Sansa View's side and back are made of an alloy that resembles dark aluminum, but feels slightly rubberized to limit sliding. Whatever this substance is, I love it, which probably means that the state of California has determined that it causes cancer.</td><td align="center"><img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/paulsacademy/sansaview2.jpg"><br></td></tr></table></p> <p>The Sansa View's interface is ridiculously simple—one click wheel with a central button, and one more button to the upper-right of the wheel. That's it. Nothing else. </p> <p>The Sansa View's click wheel is rubberized, and spins (almost) as smooth as silk. It's easy to press the wheel buttons in all four directions, and the center button produces a satisfying “click” when pressed. The View's click wheel is an improvement over the e200 series plastic wheel, which was already the best wheel on the market, in my opinion. The iPod and 2nd generation Zune controls are nice, but it's easy to overshoot your mark with those devices. The Sansa View wheel takes you exactly where you want to go.</p> <p>One major difference between the Zen and Sansa View's control systems is that the Zen's buttons make a lot of loud clicking noises, since you must press a button for EVERY action, and the buttons click loudly to begin with. The Sansa's control system is almost silent. This may be an issue if you navigate your mp3 player in a quiet environment.</p> <p>Reading “professional” and user reviews on the Zen and Sansa View models, I noticed something interesting. The “professional” reviewers (e.g, CNet) almost bowed down and worshipped the Zen's appearance, while implying that the Sansa View's appearance was just one step above bland. Meanwhile, user reviews gave high marks for both units' appearances. I agree with the user reviews—both units are very attractive, in their own ways. As we'll see, the “professional” reviewers frequently exhibited a lot of unreasonable bias against the Sansa View, and a lot of unreasonable bias in favor of the Zen. That's the problem with “professional” reviews of any kind—when you're paid to do reviews, there's a lot of political/corporate pressure to suck up to the popular brands, and to undermine the underdogs.</p> <h4>Headphone Jack and USB Ports</h4> <p>The headphone jack is located on the right hand side of the Zen, and this is a good position to keep the headphone cord out of your way. The Sansa View's headphone jack is located on the bottom, left-hand side of the unit—right next to the USB cable interface, and this presents a problem. Not only does the headphone cord get in your way while holding the Sansa View in your hand, but the jack is positioned right next to the USB port. Since the View's proprietary USB interface is unreasonably large (a full 1 inch wide!), with spring clips on each side, the USB interface plugs in just fine. But you must unplug the headphone jack in order to squeeze the spring clips to release the USB interface. This puts a lot of wear and tear on the headphone jack--already one of the most fault-prone parts of any audio system. I have no explanation for Sandisk's decision to place the headphone jack on the bottom, or to use a huge proprietary USB interface, or to position them right next to each other. It's not a fatal flaw by any means—you get used to it. But someone at Sandisk was definitely asleep at the wheel when they designed this aspect of the Sansa View.</p> <h4>Expansion</h4> <p>In terms of expansion, the Zen features a full-size SD card slot, and it even comes with a “fake” SD card inserted, to keep the dust out. The Sansa View has a micro-SD slot, which is fully exposed to the air at all times (not really a problem unless you live/work in a pig pen). SD cards are available with higher capacities at lower prices than micro-SD cards, and the tiny micro-SD cards are easy to lose. You must also use a micro-SD to SD converter to read the micro-SD cards on your computer. So I definitely prefer the Zen's expansion slot. I use expansion slots mainly to load podcasts on a regular basis, so I appreciate anything that makes this process easier and less expensive. Still, compared to the iPod and Zune, neither of which feature expansion capabilities, any form of expansion slot is a feature worth having.</p> <p>Note that the Sansa View merges SD card content with content in its internal flash memory, while the Zen segregates SD content from it's internal memory, forcing you to use entirely different menu paths to reach SD or internal memory content.</p> <h4>Power/Hold Buttons</h4> <p>Both the Zen and the Sansa View feature a power button “slider” switch/hold button combo. In other words, you power up or down by sliding and holding the button for a moment, and you enter “hold” mode (where controls are disabled) by sliding the button to lock in the other direction. No real difference between the two units here, except that the Sansa View switch is located on the left-hand side, while the Zen switch is found on the right-hand side.</p> <h4>Playlists</h4> <p>For some reason, I've never gotten into playlists. However, I did give it a shot on these units and found that it was a simple matter to create a playlist for the Zen using Creative's software suite. Just add song titles to a list and name the playlist. The Sansa View only allows users to create one playlist using the player's controls. It's my understanding that you may add more playlists to the Sansa using Windows Media Player if you synchronize your music with WMP. But since using Windows Media Player is only marginally safer than installing a free password manager downloaded from a Russian website, I'm not gonna try it. I'll let some other reviewer take that grenade.</p> <h4>Display</h4> <p>“Professional” reviewers like CNet are almost orgasmic when describing the Zen's LCD display. CNet in particular almost sprays you with their ecstasy with statements like, “No two ways about it: the Zen's screen is fabulous. Photos look vibrant and bright, with excellent color saturation and good detail. Videos are similarly impressive—clear and bright with no pixillation... and the viewing angle from side to side is excellent.”</p> <p>The problem is, when you view the Creative Zen's display all by itself, it looks pretty good. But when you place the Creative Zen next to the Sandisk Sansa View, the Zen display looks like... well..., excrement.</p> <p>For one thing, despite CNet's insistence that the Zen display has an “excellent” range of viewing angles, I haven't seen such a narrow viewing angle on an LCD screen in years. If you've seen those “privacy” screens that hang on CRT/LCD computer monitors to restrict the viewing angle, then you know what the Zen's display looks like. There was really only one position where I could see the screen at full brightness at all—looking at it head-on. And even then, compared to the Sansa View's display, the Zen's display appeared dark, dreary, washed-out, with very little contrast. If that's the only display you ever saw, you might think it looked “nice”. But under no circumstances could the Zen's display be called “fabulous”--especially when compared to the Sansa View's utterly awe-inspiring display. The View's display was consistently crisp, clear and bright regardless of the display settings. Viewing the Zen's display was like looking through a filthy windshield on a sunny day, or a clean windshield at night. </p> <p>But don't take my word for it. And don't take CNet's word for it. Look at the photos below and decide for yourself. Each photo shows the best display each unit was capable of producing.</p> <center><img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/paulsacademy/mp3review.jpg"></center> <p>The Zen's display dims after a user-defined amount of time, but the backlight always remains on unless you slide the power switch into “hold” mode. If you access your controls often but don't want the display to remain on all the time (eating the battery), you will have to switch the Zen from “hold” to “normal” mode repeatedly. The Sansa View handles this situation much better by automatically turning off the display completely after a user-defined amount of time, unless you're viewing photos or video. The display instantly awakens when you press any control, without processing the control command that woke it up. And if you're worried about hitting controls accidentally, the Sansa's "hold" switch remains an option.</p> <h4>Photo Handling</h4> <p>This difference in display/power management becomes an even bigger issue when viewing photos. The Sansa View display remains on permanently when you view photos. But the Zen's display still dims after a user-defined amount of time (maximum 30 seconds). As a photographer who uses his mp3 player to display photos often, I found the Zen's automatic display-dimming nothing but a nuisance. At best, it meant changing the backlight dim setting from 5 seconds to 30 seconds every time I wanted to view photos, and then switching the setting back to 5 seconds when done, to conserve the battery. In this regard the Zen is not very photo-friendly.</p> <p>On the other hand, the photo menu navigation on the Zen is superior to the Sansa View's navigation. Specifically, the Zen allows you to create photo folders that can be viewed independently--including thumbnails. The Sansa allows you to browse photos in unique folders by their text names, but the thumbnail view is only available when viewing all photos in all folders. The thumbnail browser on the Zen is also superior to the Sansa View's thumbnails, because the Zen zooms in on each thumbnail as you highlight it, while the Sansa View merely shows a thin border around the highlighted thumbnail. <i>However</i>, to make matters even more confusing, you <u>can</u> select a main menu Settings option on the Sansa View that displays photos <i>larger</i> than a thumbnail while browsing unique photo folders. This more or less compensates for the lack of a zooming thumbnail browser.</p> <p>Oddly, despite its more efficient photo-browsing, the Zen fails on one major count. When you reach the last photo in a folder on the Zen, you can't click forward to view the first photo in the folder again. Instead, you must click, click, click those tiny little buttons to go backwards until you reach the beginning, or jump to a previous menu and begin viewing the folder over again from the beginning. (Likewise, the main menu options don't roll over, so you must click the control butons up and down, up and down, to reach all the Zen's main menu functions). The Sansa View's click wheel smoothly rolls over from the last photo to the first, allowing you to view photos in the same folder over and over as often as you like, even in slideshow mode (with "loop" setting turned on). The Sansa View's main menu also rolls over, so you can repeatedly see all menu options by rolling the click wheel in just one direction.</p> <p>Both players only recognize JPG photos. GIF and other image formats must be converted using the manufacturer's media converter software, but it's a simple process. Animated GIFs are not supported at all. The Zen does offer one really nice feature that the Sansa View lacks--the ability to zoom in on photos.</p> <h4>Menus and Wallpaper</h4> <p>One area where “professional” reviewers show obvious bias in favor of the Zen over the Sansa View is the menu system. CNet in particular claims that the Sansa View's menu system is uninspired, while the Zen's menu system is alive with effervescence. Personally, I like the Sansa View's menu system better, because it's simple, straightfoward, and gets you where your going MUCH quicker than the Zen's menu system. You navigate the Sansa View by spinning the wheel and clicking a few buttons. You navigate the Zen by click, click, clicking buttons, and then clicking some more buttons, to get to the exact same function.</p> <p>The Sansa View's main menu weakness is the wallpaper. The View only allows you to choose from a couple of basic wallpaper colors, which is tantamount to no wallpaper at all. The Zen allows you to use any loaded photograph as your wallpaper. This allows your Zen to look much “cooler” than the Sansa, but it doesn't affect either player's function. Unfortunately, the Zen's capacity for user-defined wallpaper is all but ruined by a stylized, hazy, split-screen image that obscures your nice user-defined wallpaper with images of your most recently viewed photos and videos. If CNet honestly believes the Zen's cluttered menus are superior to the Sansa's clear and simple menus, then the “C” in CNet must stand for crack, which you'll have to smoke plenty of before you'll regard the Zen's menu/wallpaper system as anything but cluttered and tedious.</p> <p>The only area where the Zen's menus are superior is that they're fast, and they have more functions/features than the Sansa View. You pretty much get instant response to button clicks on the Zen, while the Sansa View often takes a half second or so to process a command when you press a control button. I find this delay annoying, but the speed with which the wheel allows you to navigate overall more than compensates for the delay. You'll still get where you're going much quicker on the Sansa View, period. And there's not even a basis for comparison when using these players with one hand in an environment where you can't keep your eyes focused on the player (i.e., while crossing the street--where you really shouldn't be fiddling with an mp3 player to begin with). The Zen controls/menu system are all but useless in those situations.</p> <h4>Freezing Up / Lockups</h4> <p>User reviews for the Sansa View often complain about the unit freezing up. Whether it's because I'm lucky, or because I'm not crazy enough to use Windows Media Player to “synchronize” my files, I've never experienced a freeze-up on the Sansa View. I have experienced two instances where the device stops responding to commands for about 10 seconds (while playing music normally), as if the machine were catching up with itself. But after that pause, the controls work again just fine.</p> <p>The Zen literally locked up and froze on me completely, however. Twice. I'm sure it's only a coincidence that this happened after I tried “synchronizing” to Windows Media Player, just out of curiosity....</p> <p>The first lockup was really scary, because I could not power-up the Zen at all. It was just dead, as if the battery had been removed. Plugging and unplugging to the computer had no effect. Pushing buttons on the unit had no effect. Praying had no effect. I thought I had a bum unit and had already packed the Zen up to return it to the store—with all my files still on it—before I thought of trying the tiny “reset” button on the bottom. With no paper clips handy, I used a straightened-out staple to press the reset button, and the Zen rebooted and went back to normal operation. No harm, no foul, I guess. But what if I were on a bus or train when that happened? Who am I going to ask for a stapler, or a paper clip? That gangsta who has been drooling over my mp3 player ever since I sat down? It's definitely the Zen that has a problem with freezing up, not the Sansa View. In any event, avoiding “synchronization” by dragging and dropping files directly from Windows Explorer will probably prevent most lockups and freezes.</p> <h4>Loading Photos and Video</h4> <p>Speaking of dragging and dropping from Windows Explorer, the Zen and Sansa View resemble iPods and Zunes most when it comes to transferring photos and video. Because of resolution, codec and other limitations inherent to mp3 players with small displays, you can't always display photos and videos that are copied onto the player without converting them first. So both units come with their own conversion software. </p> <p>Well, the Zen does, at least. The Sansa View requires users to download the Sandisk video converter from the internet (for free). Ditto for the PDF User Manual. Shame on Sandisk for assuming that everyone is addicted to the internet. It took me two days before I finally had a friend download the Sandisk converter and hand me a jump drive so I could install it. Then I returned the jump drive the next time I saw him. That's a hell of a lot of effort and time just to install free software (and user manuals) that should have come with the player in the first place. The same engineer who put the headphone jack next to the USB port must have come up with that brilliant cost-cutting idea. What do blank CD's cost these days? 10 cents apiece, bought in mass quantities?</p> <p>Oh, wait a minute... What was I thinking? The Sansa View <i>did</i> come with an installation CD. Problem is, it only installs the bullshit software from Best Buy, not the video converter or user manual. Those you still have to download from the internet....</p> <p>On the other hand, once I finally got a copy and installed it, the Sandisk video converter worked more smoothly and intuitively than the Creative software, which consists of a whole bunch of programs and files and folders and... ugh, just too much crap! Worst of all, after installing the Creative software, I received a message in Windows Media Player asking if I wanted to synchronize the Zen's clock to a clock on the internet. I now receive this message every time I play <u>any</u> any media file in WMP, whenever <u>any</u> mp3 player is connected to my PC (including the Sansa View). Like I said before, I don't have internet access at home, so there's no way to get rid of this asinine message other than uninstalling the Creative software. Like Microsoft and Sandisk and so many other companies, Creative needs to figure out that the Internet is <u>not</u> a vital necessity that every citizen has, or wants to have, at home.</p> <p>Both companies' converters automatically transfer converted photos and videos onto the mp3 player. So after using the converters, you're good to go. Neither program would convert a DVD directly into something I could view on my player. Instead, I had to rename the .VOB files from a DVD to an .MPG extension, and convert (and watch) each file individually. In other words, I really couldn't watch DVD's at all on either player, without wasting the time it takes to watch a DVD converting it into something I can watch on a 2.5” screen. I guess that's why they call them mp3 players, rather than DVD players.</p> <p>I mainly want video capability for displaying humorous clips, homemade video, and video podcasts. Those are relatively brief videos, so both converters worked fine for those clips. However, neither converter recognized flash FLV or ASF files—which represents my entire collection of clips from YouTube and Google Video. So I can't view about 10GB of my archived video on either mp3 player. Ever. I don't understand this omission, considering that the FLV/ASF formats are specifically suited for viewing video on small, low-resolution screens (like YouTube). The Sandisk converter consistently froze at the last instant before finishing a conversion on very large files (1GB+). In each case I just terminated the process with Task Manager, and found that the files had been converted and transferred to the player correctly after all. Again, no harm, no foul, but why the hassle?</p> <p>In terms of video playback performance, neither unit really shined. The Sansa View's display is vastly superior for video, just as with photos. However, by the middle of a half-hour “In Search Of...” episode, the lipsynch was off on the Sansa View. The Zen kept the lip-synch, but introduced so much popping, audio stuttering and other noise, that it was equally annoying. Short video clips from 0-5 minutes played just fine on both units, though. Unfortunately, neither device has a "loop" function for video. This is a really annoying omission when playing short video clips, which return to the video menu almost as soon as they've begun playing, making it almost pointless to load any video less than 10 seconds onto your player.</p> <p>Bottom line for video: At 8-16GB plus SD card expansion, there really isn't much room for storing lots of video to begin with, so if you want to watch DVD's, you might consider buying a DVD player with a monitor that's larger than your pinky finger, rather than using an mp3 player that fits comfortably inside your underwear. I'm just tossing out ideas here....</p> <h4>Audio Quality</h4> <p>Oh, by the way, the Creative Zen and Sandisk Sansa View also play music. So let's take a look at the audio quality, with the caveat that audio “quality” is extremely subjective.</p> <p>Before discussing audio, however, I'm once again compelled to note that CNet's reviewers simply oozed with praise for the Zen's audio performance, while only grudgingly acknowledging the mediocrity of the Sansa View's sound. Even if you don't recognize bias in statements like “We're hard-pressed to find anything not to like about the Creative Zen” and “Overall, music was rich, warm, and detailed... and it just made us happy”, it's worth noting that the byline listed the name of only one person as the reviewer. So where do “we” and “us” come in? This sounds suspiciously like the group known as “FC” --better known today as the schizophrenic individual called the Unabomber, who liked to refer to himself as “we”, “us”, and so on. Yet another reason to regard all “professional” reviews with suspicion.</p> <p>I'm an audiophile, but not one of those pompous asses who claims to recognize a difference in sound quality between a $49.99 stereo cable and a $4.99 stereo cable (there is no difference unless one of them is a piece of shit cable, by the way). I'm also a musician and podcaster who records his own stuff. So I know a few things about audio engineering. I can't tell you which mp3 player will sound better to you, but I can know pretty much for certain—and with good reason—which one sounds better to me. So here we go.</p> <p>After conducting A/B tests on a variety of songs from different genres, where I flipped a switch to swap between the audio from each player, I can state with authority that there's really no bloody difference between the Zen and Sansa View's unequalized sound. That's not to say they sound the same—they don't. But in real life you don't listen to A/B tests, switching back and forth between sources. As you listen to any decent-sounding device for an extended period, your ears get used to it and you perceive it as sounding at least good enough for government work. You might wish you had more bass on this song, or more treble on that song. But overall, it just doesn't matter. The whole point of unequalized digital audio is to transmit an accurate and unmolested representation of the music to your headphone jack or speakers. At that point, it's the headphones or speakers--not the mp3 player--that determine how the music sounds. “Professional” reviewers who claim to recognize a meaningful difference in unprocessed audio from one mp3 player to the next are the same kinds of pretentious assholes who think they look cool wearing blinking Bluetooth earpieces at Starbucks.</p> <p>The headphones (ear buds) that come with relatively inexpensive mp3 players like the Zen and Sansa View are basically junk, to keep costs down. Keep them with you in case your quality headphones break and you must choose between listening to mp3's with stock ear buds, or listening to Hillary Clinton lie to the world on television. Otherwise, you'll only get good sound from any mp3 player if you use good headphones. And when it comes to “good” sounding headphones, we're dealing with a subjective interpretation. If your headphones sound good to you, then they are “good-sounding”, even if I think they suck.</p> <p>All that said, the question is, which player more accurately reproduces the recorded sound? The best way to answer that question was to listen to music and audio that I've composed and recorded myself, because I know better than anyone how I <u>intended</u> that audio to sound.</p> <p>And guess what? Neither the Zen nor the Sansa View reproduced my own recordings (unprocessed) to sound like I intended when I recorded them. Both were close, but I could certainly notice many subtle differences where one player sounded better or worse than the other. On average, however, they sounded pretty much the same. If I had to choose one over the other for reproducing unequalized audio, however, I would choose... the Sansa View. To my ears, the Zen consistently sounded like it was processing audio rather than reproducing it, even with the equalizer turned off.</p> <p>Many reviewers have voice dissatisfaction with the Sansa's bass response, and they might be right. However, without equalization there was no comparison between the Zen and the Sansa View with Rush's <i>Signals</i> album. Geddy Lee's bass guitar literally thumped with raw energy on the Sansa View, but it fell flat on the Zen. By the way, the Sansa View features a "high/low" volume menu option--presumably the equivalent of a loudness switch--and it sounds less distorted on low. For the Zen's part, it features a "Smart Volume" (normalization) menu option that does a decent job of keeping the volume of each song roughly the same. It seems like a pretty shady marketing ploy to call this "Smart Volume", however, as if Creative was offering something new; the rest of the audio engineering world has called this "compression" for the past several decades.</p> <p>Both units feature equalizers with various presets (rock, jazz, pop, etc.) and a custom EQ function. Both brands' custom EQ's are 5-band equalizers, which in my experience do more harm than good. A 10-band equalizer offers some room for tweaking the sound to your taste, but 5 bands is little more than a glorified bass/treble control. As a rule, I tend to trust that the sound engineers who produced my CD's knew what they were doing, and they produced audio that sounded good without equalization. So I usually listen to music without any equalization at all. Being the critical bastard I am, I blame the artist and sound engineer who produced the audio, not the mp3 player, when music sounds like shit. Blame the source, not the messenger.</p> <p>The Zen and the Sansa View both have excellent sound, so there's really no reason to debate their relative audio quality. Get a good set of headphones, and 99% of your problems will be solved, regardless of which player you choose. If you still notice a significant difference, then be sure to pick me up a Grande Latte Pretente next time you're at Starbucks.</p> <h4>Other Features</h4> <p>The Zen has one feature that I absolutely love—and the Sansa View lacks. I'm talking about a “protected” mode that allows you to password protect specific photo and video folders. Protected content doesn't even appear in the browser. This feature comes in handy when your boss or priest asks to see how your mp3 player works, while you have 15GB of porn loaded onto your 16GB device.</p> <p>Both the Zen and the Sansa View have FM tuners with auto-seek functions and plenty of preset slots. I would dare to say that the Zen picked up more stations indoors, but the Sansa View is able to record FM Radio, which more than compensates for any deficiency of indoor reception. The Sansa's FM recordings even display the radio station, date and time the recording was made. Sadly, neither player features RDS support to display song/artist information from radio stations.</p> <p>Both players do feature voice recorders. Don't expect CD quality from the voice or FM recorders, but they sound surprisingly good, and are nice features to have. Unlike the Sansa e200 series, which had a record button on the player's exterior, you must use the Sansa View's menus to reach the recorder (ditto for the Zen). That might be a good thing, because I always used to hit that record button accidentally on my e270 model. On the other hand, it takes time to maneuver the menus to fire up the voice recorder on both models, and that might pose a problem if you're pulled over by a bad cop, or run into a gray alien who has something notable to say.</p> <p>For some strange reason, the Sansa View's FM Radio and Voice Recorder functions are not available from the main menu, even though they were available from the main menu on the e200 series, and both icons appear among other main menu functions on the box the product came in. Bizarre inconsistencies like this do little to improve Sandisk's reputation as a credible mp3 player brand.</p> <p>The Zen has a nifty “DJ” function that allows you to play songs based on just about any criteria you want, including most popular, rarely heard, and random play. Best of all, the Zen's DJ doesn't call you "Bro" or "Dog". The Sansa View sorts music by the usual catagories (artist/album/genre/songs/playlists/etc.), and features a shuffle (random) option that pretty much transforms a DJ into just another guy at the party who can't figure out which direction a baseball cap is supposed to be worn (the bill goes in front--it keeps the sun out of your eyes).</p> <p>Both units support audiobooks and offer one free audiobook from Audible.com (well, it's "free" after registering with Audible and providing your personal information, fingerprint, urine sample, stool sample, DNA sample, retinal scan, spinal tap, etc.). However, only the Zen features audio bookmarks, which are almost mandatory when listening to large spoken-word audio files, like podcasts. Hopefully, future Sansa View firmware updates will add audio bookmarks. Both units feature some form of video bookmarking. But again, if you're watching DVD's on an mp3 player, you've got bigger problems than figuring out how to pick up watching <i>Saw III</i> where you left off.</p></p> <p>Both players feature fast-forward and rewind functions. They're pretty clunky though. The Sansa View's fast-forward and rewind works just like the e200 series, which isn't good. Fast-forward and rewind on a Sansa involves clicking and holding a wheel button, and then praying to whichever God you prefer that it fast-fowards or rewinds, rather than jumping to the beginning or end of the song. Meanwhile, the time counter jumps in spurts, so you really have no idea how far you've moved the transport until you release the fast-forward or rewind button. The Zen's fast-forward and rewind is better, in that the time counter moves smoothly. However, audio is disabled on the Zen during fast-forward or rewind. At least you can hear the spurting audio while the Sansa View fast-forwards or rewinds.</p> <p>The ZEN also features a calender, alarm clock, and some kind of <i>synchronization</i> with Microsoft Outlook that allows you to download contact information and such. Unfortunately, this Outlook content is not encrypted or password-protected, so I can't imagine why anyone would want to download so much private information into a hand-held device that makes a juicy target for thieves. Back in the dark ages, before computers, we had this thing called "human memory" that we used to store our friends' names, telephone numbers, and such.</p> <p>The Sansa View claims to feature "gapless" playback, which smoothly transitions between songs that segue together (as much progressive rock does). Unfortunately, it doesn't work. There's nothing that even resembles "gapless" playback on the Sansa View. So expect a moment of silence for personal reflection between each song on Pink Floyd's <i>Dark Side of the Moon</i>, for example. On the bright side, the Zen doesn't even promise gapless playback, so you won't get it in either case.</p> <p>The Zen is so small and square and slippery, it's just a matter of time before you drop it. The Sansa View is also slippery, but that extra inch in length over the e200 series just might help you hold on to it better. Either way, it's worth investing in a good case for either unit (damn the manufacturers to hell for all eternity, for making the cases so expensive). I'd also highly recommend purchasing transparent LCD protectors and slapping one onto your LCD as soon as you take your new mp3 player out of the box, before you even turn it on the first time. That'll prevent scratches to your LCD better than anything else.</p> <p>As for battery life... both units seem to have adequate battery life (15 hours or more). Unfortunately, I plugged the units into my computer so often while testing them, I really don't know how long the batteries last. Most reviews claim that that battery life specified by the manufacturer is somewhat overstated, but generally accurate (more so for audio than video). I've witnessed more of a battery drain on the Zen than the Sansa, presumably due to the perpetual backlighting. But compared to replacing a AAA battery in my first mp3 player every 6 hours, the rechargeable battery life in the Zen and Sansa View give me no cause for alarm.</p> <h4>Included Demos</h4> <p>I never expect much from free "demo" music, photos and videos that are included with mp3 players. But in the case of the Creative Zen, my expectations were overly optimistic. From what I could tell, all of the music demos were MIDI files created by Creative Labs engineers during their lunch breaks. Even the MIDI-based "symphonic" demo sounded suspiciously like a cheesy Star Wars theme rip-off. Creative Labs built its empire making sound cards, which included state-of-the-art MIDI support. So why does my cheap home-built MIDI studio sound exactly like the London Symphony Orchestra, while the Creative Zen's MIDI demos sound like something from an early 1990's video arcade? Either somebody at Creative Labs lost a bet, or Creative just doesn't care.</p> <p>The Zen also includes quite a few photo and video demos. As a photographer, I found most of the demo photos uninspiring, despite many beautiful subjects. High-resolution photos of the Bellagio in Las Vegas make great wall art, but a tiny 2.5" screen is better-suited for displaying Larry King's mugshot, or Paris Hilton's talent. Worse, the demo videos are nothing more than advertisements for--get this--<i>other</i> Creative mp3 player models. Yes, friends, Creative is advertising its other mp3 player models on the mp3 player you just bought from them a few minutes ago. Someone should really check for carbon monoxide leaks at Creative Labs headquarters.</p> <p>The Sansa View includes real music demos from a variety of genres, pre-loaded to also demonstrate how music files are organized by artist, genre, etc. Unfortunately, they're the same demos that came with my Sansa e270 unit a few years ago, so Sandisk doesn't seem to make the connection between using <u>fresh</u>, <u>new</u> music to highlight their <u>fresh</u>, <u>new</u> mp3 player model. For previous Sansa owners, at least, this leaves the impression that the Sansa View isn't much of an improvement over the e200 series, since the demo music wasn't even updated....</p> <p>Hey--here's an idea. There's roughly a zillion talented, hardworking independent artists and bands out there who would love to be paid $1000 per band member for mp3 player manufacturers to use their songs as demos on their mp3 players, with proper credit given. A dozen demos from bands averaging 3 members each (including solo artists) comes to $36,000 well-spent on quality demos, while giving independent artists good exposure. That won't break the bank of any company that enjoys annual billion-dollar revenues. In case anyone's interested, here are links to a couple of friends of mine who make great independent music and would love to be featured as a future Zen or Sansa demo: <a href="http://www.squiddotheband.com" target="_blank">Squiddo</a>, <a href="http://www.christophercash.com" target="_blank">Christopher Cash</a>.</p> <p>There's also a lot of untapped potential among talented amateur photographers and videographers out there....</p> <p>The bottom line with demos is this: The demos themselves aren't as important as the amount of effort a company puts into providing quality demos that demonstrate an overall concern for quality, keeping things fresh, and respect for the consumer. Failing to provide decent demos, or failing to update decent demos on newer models, only demonstrates that manufacturers are committed to mediocrity. And that should concern consumers who are searching for a place to throw away $100-$300 of their hard-earned money.</p> <h4>"Podcast" Capability, and Other Bullshit</h4> <p>I see a lot of corporate sales literature and reviewers boasting about the “podcast” capabilities of various mp3 players. As a podcaster, let me make something perfectly clear here: a “podcast” is nothing but an .mp3 or .wma file, just like any other music file. The only difference is <u>how</u> you obtain the file from the internet. Using an RSS subscription service, your computer can automatically download new podcast episodes as soon as they become available (or you can visit a podcaster's website and download the files manually). Otherwise, they're just audio files, like any music file. So there's really no such thing as “podcast” capability as a unique feature.</p> <p>MP3 players may come with software that allows you to search and subscribe to podcasts (like Creative's ZenCast). But in the end, you can use Google Reader for that, or visit Podcast Alley (www.podcastalley.com--don't forget to vote for Paul's Academy there!). Adding a directory labeled “podcasts” to an mp3 player is misleading. It creates the impression that a podcast is some kind of special audio file. It's not. Just create your own folder called “podcasts” (just like folders for “Beatles”, “Led Zeppelin” and so on), and you'll have accomplished the same thing—at no additional cost.</p> <p>Jesus, I hate the way that corporate marketing takes advantage of people who don't understand what a podcast is, by portraying “podcast support” as a special feature. Listen to Episode 001 of Paul's Academy (www.paulsacademy.com) to learn everything you need to know about podcasts, if you're interested.</p> <h4>Recommendations</h4> <p>Now, if I were to recommend changes to Creative and Sandisk, here they are:</p> <font face="arial"><u>Creative Zen</u></font> <ul> <li>Add a tactile "bump" to the center button on the square controls, and the two buttons above and below the central controls <li>Use a display that doesn't look like crap, with a wide viewing angle <li>Prevent the unit from freezing up in normal operation <li>Consolidate the software suite into one program that can also convert FLV/ASF files <li>Add FM recording capability <li>Add an RDS radio station display <li>Add a menu option to turn the backlight OFF after x seconds, rather than relying on the “hold” switch <li>Add a "loop" option for video clips <li>Allow users to roll over photos in folders from the last photo back to the beginning <li>A rubberized back would help prevent accidental dropping/sliding <li>Make audio audible during fast-forward and rewind <li>Include "gapless" playback for songs that segue together <li>Put some effort into providing interesting, quality demos. See "Demo" section above. <li>Include a quality user manual that explains <u>all</u> functions, including how to add album art <li>10-band equalizer??? </ul> <font face="arial"><u>Sandisk Sansa View</u></font> <ul> <li>Put enough space between the headphone jack and USB port so that the headphones don't need to be unplugged in order to unplug the USB interface. Better yet, move the headphone jack to the top of the unit. <li>Replace the proprietary USB connector with a standard mini-USB connection <li>Add audio bookmarks <li>Allow users to set their own custom wallpaper from their own photos <li>Add a protected content function <li>Add a zoom feature to the photo viewer <li>Add FM Radio and Voice Recorder to the main menu (like the box shows), rather than hiding them in secondary menus <li>Add an RDS radio station display <li>Add a "loop" option for video clips <li>Add FLV/ASF support to the video conversion program <li>For the love of God—include the freakin' video conversion software with the mp3 player, rather than assuming that everyone has internet access at home <li>Switch expansion slot to SD cards, rather than micro-SD cards <li>Include "gapless" playback for songs that segue together, and stop advertising it until you actually offer it <li>Make fast-forward and rewind functions move the transport smoothly, rather than in "spurts" <li>Put some effort into providing interesting, quality demos. See "Demo" section above. <li>Include a quality user manual that explains <u>all</u> functions, including how to add album art <li>10-band equalizer??? </ul> <h4>My Final Choice</h4> <p>You may wonder which player I chose in the end. Well, it was honestly a very tough decision. Both the Zen and the Sansa View are impressive mp3 players, with loads of features and excellent capacity for flash devices (8-16GB), with SD expansion capability. The Sansa View is so thin, I'm concerned about stresses on it's longer body causing the LCD to crack. The Zen is so small and slippery, I'm afraid of dropping it. The Sansa's wheel and menu system make navigation a breeze—even with one hand. The Zen has a couple of features I adore—like audio bookmarks and protected content. The pros and cons just go on and on... Why can't one of these companies just do <u>everything</u> right, sell it at a decent price, and dominate the market?</p> <p>In the end, I just couldn't ignore the fact that the Zen froze to death twice, and the display couldn't hold a candle to the Sansa View's display. So I returned the Zen and kept the Sansa View. So far, I'm happy with the decision. But I probably wouldn't have been unhappy if I had kept the Zen instead.</p> <p>For the record, my Sansa View is running firmware version 01.01.06a. Let's hope the next firware update includes audio bookmarks.... So far, I've loaded 125 albums (1275 songs) onto the Sansa View, using less than 5GB of the 16GB available.</p> <h4>Adding Album Art To The Sansa View</h4> <p>I couldn't figure out how to (manually) add album art to the Creative Zen, but adding album art to the Sansa View was easy. In case you're wondering, just create a .jpg file at 250x250 pixel resolution, name it “Album Art.jpg”, and place it in the music folder that the album art represents.</p> <p>I was also successful with 400x400 pixel resolution. However, around 5% of these album art files wouldn't display on the Sansa View. When that happens, use the Sandisk Converter to convert and upload the file to “My Album” (that's automated in the converter). Then use Windows Explorer to move the file from “My Album” on your Sansa View to the music folder you want the art associated with.</p> <p>As near as I could tell, if an mp3 file contains it's own integrated album art (e.g., a podcast logo), that art will override any album art you place in the same directory as the file. So you shouldn't lose custom album art by placing your own art. Also, other resolutions and filenames may work. I just used “Album Art.jpg” each time, and it worked, so why fix it if it ain't broken?</p> <p>Be aware that accurate and consistent ID3 tag information is crucial to sorting and searching your music collection on an mp3 player. Spelling errors cause problems. Inconsistencies cause problems. Spend some time getting your ID3 ducks in a row before uploading music to your mp3 player, and you'll enjoy your player a lot more. At least one reviewer lamented that the Sansa View displayed songs on albums in alphabetical order, rather than by the album's sequence. My Sansa displays album song sequences in the correct order, after taking the time to update the ID3 tags.</p> <p>Also, in case you missed it in the quick start guide, you should not convert both photos and video at the same time using the Sansa Media Converter software. Be sure to convert only photos or video simultaneously.</p> <p>Finally, keep in mind that USB ports are fickle things.... Repeatedly charging an mp3 player can burn out or otherwise damage a USB port, and the energy transer via USB is nowhere near as smooth and reliable as using and AC adapter. So I'd highly recommend purchasing a dedicated AC adapter for charging your mp3 player, and use the USB port only when transferring files. You're battery will last longer, and your computer will thank you.</p> <hr> <center>Listen to the <a href="http://www.paulsacademy.com" target="_blank">Paul's Academy</a> Podcast</center> <hr> </td></tr></table></center> </html>