Creative Zen X-fi

Nadeac

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Hi thinking of buying one ,but cant make my mind up about which one

Has anybody on the forum got one ? was going to get the 8 meg version then if i ineed be get some extra mem i will buy an sd card,but iv noticed that the 16 /32 meg versions come with wifi .

Question being what do u need wifi for on a poratable player?. I have also noticed that the 16 2 meg versions are a lot more

seen the 8 meg version for less than £80 delivered

16 meg for about £140/50{some places twice the price}

32 meg version around £200{some places even more}

Is it really worth the extra money for the wifi and for what these days what is such a small memory upgrade?

Afterall iv seen 16 meg sd cards on ebay for £15 /20

Many thanks mark
 

Tonya

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My daughter has the 32Mb Zen X-Fi with the wireless built in. You can use it to log into MSN Messenger, download podcasts, special programming from Creative, etc, in fact it's really usefull. IMHO, the audio quality knocks the iPod into a cocked hat and the battery life is quite frankly astonishing. The screen is razor sharp and the supplied earphones not so bad, although the unit has plenty of grunt to power full sized cans with ease. Expanding the internal memory is done by slotting in a readily available memory card. I was impressed when she asked for one of these as it's fashionable to be seen with the iPod, however as each one of her friend's units break down, they are gradually switching over to the Creative model. Her previous player was the Creative Vision M, which I now use as a small portable hard drive. Even after several years of her constant use of it, it still delivers 14 hours of battery life. Hope this helps!
 

saintsboy

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Every review I have read about the X-Fi praises the sound quality. There MUST be something wrong with mine, as the sound is appalling on mine. I have number of players- Iriver, Samsung, Sony, Sandisk amongst others- and the only player with worse sound than this is an old Philips one. I'm using Shure SE530s and I'm not joking- the sound is harsh, thin and no bottom end. I've played about with the equalizers, and nothing makes it better.

Tempted to send it to Creative and see what they say. I have an old 1Gb Creative Zen which sounds way better which surely can't be right.
 

Nadeac

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Ok thanks for replies as for MSN messanger and podcasts ,never used them and probably never will {im 38 a bit to old for all that!!}

Anyway found the 16 gig version for £116 so a may go for that ,but i dont think i will ever use the wifi side .

What do u reccomend in other MP4 players?

I have a Creative Zen touch 20 gig which is gettin on a bit now ,but i want MP4 capability .

I remember when i first got that {a secondhand Ebay purchase} i was very dissapionted with the sound .infact it was so bad i thought it was faulty ,till i pluged in a set of Sony earbuds totally transformed the sound its like night and day.It was that bad with the cheap supplied earbuds i would never of used it

Have u tried different earbuds? The ones supplied are supposed to be good ,but they maybe faulty

Mark
 

Tonya

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The supplied earbuds are not bad, but size DOES matter in this case, and you just can't get decent bass from a tiny membrane. I personally use several models of closed ear type headphones, for my studio work I use an ancient pair of Beyer Dynamic, or a more recent AKG set (the model number escapes me). My daughter uses a set called Skull Kandy on her X-Fi, but I'm not sure if they sell them in the UK. You may want to go to a dealer with your player and ask to try a few sets of phones. Earbuds will make your ears hurt no matter how clever the design is, but the closed ear type are way more comfortable and isolate the outside noise. Remember that not all headphones are easily driven, so the maximum volume will vary from set to set.
As usual, audition several and choose the ones that sound best to you and your music.

I personally use an Archos 5 series PVR when I'm travelling as it's got a HUGE screen and the battery life is around four hours when watching a movie, which isn't too bad at all. The one time it did go wrong (and it does get a bashing), I emailed Archos service department who arranged for a courrier to come around and send it to France.
It came back a few days later and they had repaired the fault which was a defect switch, replaced the outer shell and supplied a new battery.
All my content was still intact.
A few of my collegues swear by the Cowon iAudio 02 player, it sounds great and sports a pin sharp 800 x 480 screen.

The Creative X-Fi series, IMHO, wee-wees all over the iPlod every time whne it comes to audio and build quality.
If you experience anything less than spectacular sound, then change to a good set of headphones and listen again!
 

saintsboy

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As i said, i'm using Shure Se530s and the music is ripped at 320. Even If I leave the equalizer flat and I put on the bass boost for example, it distorts badly. The x-fi sounds like someone has thrown a towel over the music. I'm sure mine must be faulty, as the sound off my Sansa Clip is better. Even my tone deaf missus can hear it.
 

Tonya

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Hmm!
Try a good set of headphones (just remembered the ones I use, the AKG K141) and if that doesn't change the sound, then your unit must be somehow defect. Not that your Shure earbuds are bad, but if there is an impedance mismatch, they will sound dull and lifeless as you describe. Try to audition an identical player if possible as the X-Fi is currently represents the state of the art in mobile sound reproduction in my humble opinion!
 

Nadeac

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Purchased the 8 meg x-fi yesterday from comet £88 .So far pretty pleased with it at the price ,but glad i didnt spend on the bigger wifi models as the the thing its advertised for the Crystalizer and the expand technology actualy degrade the sound when turned on .Much better with them off , like a lot of reviews say

They seems to work better with a higher bit rate to begin with ,thought the idea was to improve low bitrate music

Thanks Mark
 

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