HDD-MP3 player roundup

This is our first roundup of HDD-based players, so it is with great inclination for learning and joy to do the honors of testing these players.

Once again, it’s time! NordicHardware has brought in five HDD-based MP3 players
to the test lab. This is our first roundup of HDD-based players, so it is with
great inclination for learning and joy to do the honors of testing these players.
What is a HDD MP3 player then? What differentiates them from the previous flash
players we’ve tested? A flash player isn’t made up from any mobile components,
it’s the circuits that contain the music. Inside the machines that we’ve brought
in this time, there are small rotating magnetic discs that all the data is stored
on. The advantage of this is that you can store large quantities of data and
the disadvantage is that you have to be extra careful with them since there
are mobile parts inside.

Unfortunately, things like catastrophies in Asia, computer malfunction, camera
malfunction, trouble with testing examples and too much work has thwarted this
review and delayed it. But as you say, ”den som väntar på något
gott väntar aldrig för länge.” Well met and enjoy!

Iriver is one of the largest companies in the MP3 player market and every manufacturer
with certain esteem certainly have a HDD-based player in their product range.
Iriver has two. NordicHardware has brought in their latest creation from the
H-series. The precursor’s name was H-100 and succeeded so-so if I’m understanding
it correctly. The H-300 series accommodates two identical players, with the
exception of the storage space, and today it’s about baby brother H-320. Its
big brother is called H-340 and has a 40 GB HDD instead of the usual 20 GB one.

Specifications:
Iriver H-320
Music support:	MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG
Memory	20 GB
Actual memory:	18.9 GB
Price per MB:	0.21 SEK
Type of display:	2″ TFT LCD with 260 000 colors
Battery type:	3.7 V Lithium Polymer
Battery life: (according to the manufacturer)	16 hours, 50 hours (!) with battery pack
Features:	– MP3 player – USB 2.0 – FM radio – Picture browsing – USB host – Text reading – Remote control – OGG vorbis
Frequency span:	Not stated by manufacturer
Power output:	Not stated by manufacturer
Size: (WxHxD)	115 mm, 20 mm, 65 mm
Weight:	210 grams, including the battery
Price:
Recommended price:	4000 SEK

The OGG support is very nice since the new music format is better than I thought.
Many people who are snowed in on MP3 players would never buy a machine that
couldn’t read OGG, which makes it good that you can play it ”by default”
without having to mess around with new firmware and such. The display is a very
cute 2 inch TFT monitor with 260 000 colors, which is better and bigger than
most cellular phones with a camera on the market. The battery life without the
”backpack” are some ordinary 16 hours, which sounds about right, as
long as you don’t have the display powered on more than necessary. With the
battery pack you’ll have much longer battery life. Those figures depent on which
batteries you have. Duracell’s ”top model” lasts longer than noname
batteries and I suspect that they’ve used premium quality batteries for these
figures since I managed to make it play for 42 hours with cheap batteries.

The weight is alright for a player of this caliber and these measurements.
Too large to hang around your neck but small enough to put in your pocket. The
20 GB HDD is in my opinion a bit louder than the other tested players in this
review. Only marginal but still worth mentioning. The most interesting feature
is the USB host. The previous Sony had this feature and I can’t really say anything
other than that I like it very much. You just plug the camera in and transfer
all your newly taken pictures and then shoot on as you wish. It works with any
USB device, but only if it has UMS support, which means that it’s described
as a ”removeable storage media” in Explorer.

What’s included in the box?
The last Iriver player I tested had a very nice accessory package and I don’t
think they will break away from such a nice tradition.

Contents:

– Manual – Battery bag – Bag – Remote Control – Two USB cords – Power adapter – CD-ROM disc – Microphone – Line In cable – Headphones – Headphone cushions

We’ll begin by taking a look at the little bag. It seems to be a pretty hard
bag with a type of hard cardboard piece inside which is covered on both sides
with a strong synthetic weave. The outside is reinforced with some leather.
The player itself is well-protected and is kept inside by a little buckle
with a hold button on the top. Simple and functional. On the back there is
a clip to fasten the bag with the player to your belt or trouser waistband.

The transformer on the upper right picture is of the standard issue and has
a cord of about 1 meter. You can charge it without having a computer available,
which is a fitting accessory for vacations. The microphone next to it is a
microphone head on a fragile string. It has a clip fastening on the back to
put on your collar or where you want to record. Nice solution if you want
to be able to record things but not keeping the player out in the open, which
is fitting for secret spy missions. That’s what I use it for, or dream about
using it for.

There are two included USB cables in the box. The first one is an ordinary
1 meter long grey cable that works like a USB cable should. The other one
is a little more unique. It’s not a male – male plug but a male – female plug
which is used for connecting another player to H-320 and using the file transfer
feature. The remote to the right is a pretty feeble thing, no fun display
or nice features, just plain boring plastic and the standard issue of buttons
that are on every remote control. It doesn’t require much more than that,
but considering the accessory package was pretty great, a little display would
have increased the luxury factor even more.

A little battery bag is included with H-320 that can contain ordinary AA
batteries and makes the player able to play for almost two days. This battery
pack is pinned to the player by twisting the bottom portion so that it locks
on to the player. The power supply is taken care of by the power adapter-like
plug. When the bag is connected, the H-320 becomes twice as thick and twice
as heavy. This isn’t very suitable for your jeans pocket but if you keep it
in a backpack, it won’t be a problem.

The headphones:
With the H-320 there’s a pair of well-known headphones included. The same
headphones were used with the previous Iriver player and to save some time,
I’ll just copy my old comments. My opinion of them hasn’t changed since then.

Specifications:
Iriver H320 headphones:
Frequency span:	18 – 20 000 Hz
THD: (Total Harmonic Distorsion)	1 %
SPL: (Sound Pressure Level)	125 dB
Cord length:	~1 meter
Impendance:	32 Ohm

The model is available at retailers so we’re not talking about a special
kind of headphones produced only for Iriver. For those of you who are interested,
these headphones in particular are called Sennheiser MX400 and cost about
200 SEK. The first thing I thought of was that they are small, very short
and that they look very discreet when they’re placed on your head. They’re
all plastic, which isn’t very surprising since the weight must be kept low.
The comfort is tolerable but not as nice as iAudio’s headphones. They may
rub a little as the part kept in your ear is completely symmetrical and the
fit isn’t that perfect. At least they’re kept in place and don’t fall out.
The supplied ear cushions are slipped on pretty easily, but they fall off
just as easily and during the test, the cushion was often still in my ear
when I took the headphone out. It was difficult to discover and maybe it wasn’t
that fun to walk around in the city with a little cushion in your ear. I slept
alone that night. Anyway, the earpieces become a little bigger and softer
with the cushions on. They shut better and stayed in place in my ear. The
cable is designed so that one of the pieces gets a longer cord than the other
so that it can be pulled around your neck and then into your ear. This is
the best way in my opinion, since you don’t have to have the cord hanging
around your neck and it looks more discreet if you can hide the cord behind
your neck.

The sound is the most essential when it comes around. Sennheiser has really
succeeded in this and have made a pair of headphones with sufficient amounts
of everything. The bass is acceptable and the higher frequencies receive a
higher mark. Not as good as iAudio’s headphones but MX400 isn’t very far from
them. High sound pressure is not a problem, the distortion isn’t there until
at the highest volume steps. It depends on which type of music you’re listening
to but some decent heavy metal is not a problem.

Iriver H320 is a pretty strong block of electronics. It’s actually the biggest
player in the test but also the test’s most comprehensive machine, so they pretty
much even eachother out. All the navigation is managed by the six buttons on
the front and it feels like the player is designed for holding it in one hand
with the thumb on the buttons. If we look at the design of the player on a whole,
there’s nothing peculiar about it. It’s square and made from transparent plasic,
and you can see some fake carbon fiber through it. Maybe it’s not the nicest
design but at least it looks a bit unique and high-tech.

On the front we find a bright blue navi-button which is intended to control
menues and such. If you press it, you will enter the exploring mode. Around
this navi-button there are winding and volume buttons. On the sides you will
find play, stop, play mode and another menu button. Everything is terribly easy
to control with only your thumb and by holding the button in long or short intervals,
the button does more than just one thing. This means that you can reach the
menu you want faster without having to go through long menues.

On the upper gabel we find three 3.5 mm inputs. The first two are line-out
and line-in, which are used to for example plug in your stereo for recording
or playback. The rightmost input is used for ordinary headphones and that’s
probably the connector which will be used the most. The funny connector in the
middle is for the remote control. Note that the remote control connector is
also plugged into the headphone connector so that the headphone output is moved
to the top of the remote control instead. Down on the edge we see a lever for
the hold button. It’s very sturdy and there is no risk of it going back to the
normal mode when the player is in your pants.

On the bottom we find a connector for the power adapter. Maybe you don’t have
access to a USB connector for charging it via the computer, so you might as
well charge it from the wall socket. Next to it there are two mini USB connectors.
Maybe you’re asking yourself why H320 has two of them. Is it so that the transfer
speed will be twice as fast, or what? No. One of them is for connecting the
player to the computer or another device with USB host. The other connector
is H320’s own USB host, where you can plug in your friend’s MP3 player and transfer
some nice songs from his player to yours. It could also be used for dumping
your pictures taken on a camera, so that you can empty its memory and shoot
on. It works on all devices that are shown as a ”portable storage media”
in the Explorer. If the device uses special programs to transfer files, you
won’t be able to use that device. The irony in this is that almost every Iriver
player in its default configuration requires a special program to tranfer files
and this makes Iriver’s own players incompatible with H320.

The back is empty with the exception of a large sticker on which there is some
information about the player. There’s also a little SRS logo in the corner of
it. Since the player is fairly heavy, it has a robust feeling to it. My
guess is that the battery makes up for the majority of the mass. All the buttons
are located where they should be and they don’t feel like they are going to
come loose if you push them a little. The player maybe is a little too high
to wear in a pair of jeans, but in that case you can always use the bag and
stick it to your belt. If you don’t like it, you can hide it somewhere and use
the remote to control it. It could feel a little messy with all these connectors
on the top and bottom but that’s for you to decide. I would like to put some
rubber plugs in the holes so that dust and other things in your pocket won’t
get stuck in them.

This is probably the most interesting part of this review. The display of the
H320. It’s a really large display with exemplary sharpness and a nice color
scheme. Everything is good except one thing. It’s not very fast. The graphical
equalizer piles on each of the sides of the display get really unsharp and you
can clearly see that they can’t keep up to the music. Unlike Sony, Iriver has
chosen a much more fun and cute interface. A little color has never killed anyone
as far as I know. The arrangement is also very nice and everything’s laid out
in an educational and ingenious manner. There’s not much more to say than that
this is the best display in the test, no doubt about it.

How’s navigating the H320 then? Intuition tells me that it should be great
because of the big and colorful display. Let’s find out. Read on.

Menu system:
Iriver has a big advantage towards the other players. A color display and
the generous measurements allows it to make very good looking and smart menu
system since you can distinguish things with the help of color. Not quite unexpectedly,
Iriver has taken advantage of this and made a very flexible menu system that
you can master in mere minutes. You can easily get around it fast and you don’t
have to look very far into the menues to change a setting or navigate to the
next song.

The MP3 player mode is very beautiful to look at with all the information on
the display. It’s not crowded, so you can’t mix the song specifications at
the same time as you have a nice graphical equalizer that changes in beat
to the music. The possibility of using colors is well-used as you can see
on the pictures, and you get a very cosy feeling.

Image browsing and gallery works as painlessly as all the other functions
in the player. Radio, recording and file transfer to another player are also
painlessly taken care of and there aren’t any problems in getting a good view
because of the big display. Navigation and menues leave little to wish for
on the Iriver H320.
 

Software:
As it should, a CD is included with the H320. On this we find a program
that updates the player’s register with all the ID3 tags on new songs that
were stored on it. It’s not a peculiar program and that’s how I like it, UMS
and no obstacle course for transferring or sorting files on the player. Go
Iriver!

The last test that is left is a little tranfer test where we will compare
to the previous players we’ve had in the test lab.

The name Sony has almost everyone heard of, they are if not the biggest manufacturer
of home electronics, one of them. With awesome technical knowledge and a faithful
user base, they should be able to make a splash on the MP3-player market as
well. One might wonder why Sony haven’t done this before. To me its obvious
when MP3-player are superior to Sonys old Minidisc technology, but Sony held
on to it and released the NetMD, which was to be a competitor to MP3-players
but it had no success.

Specifications:
Sony VAIO Pocket (VGF-AP1)
Music support:	MP3, Atrac3 Atrac3PLUS, WAW, WMA
Memory:	20 GB
Actual memory	18.9 GB
Price per MB:	–
Type of display:	2,2″ QVGA screen with G-Sense touchpad. 320 * 256 resolution
Batterytype:	5.2V Li-Ion
Batterytime: (according to manufacturer)	20 hours (with Atrac3Plus)
Functions:	– MP3-player – USB 2.0 – Picture show. – USB-Host – Touchpad – Remote control
Frequencyrange:	Not stated by manufacturer
Output power:	Not stated by manufacturer
Size: (WxHxD)	115mm, 20mm, 65mm
Weight:	210 Gram, including battery
Price:
Recommended price:	Not stated, have seen 499$ in US

The first thing we notice is that the VGF-AP1 supports Sony’s old Atrac3
format, the meaning of this is beyond me because its takes an awful lot of time
to compress music to Atrac from Ogg, WMA and mp3. I don’t believe that
anyone has any music in Atrac format lying around on the harddrive. The 20GB
harddrive is really quiet and you can barely feel the vibrations when you hold it in your hand,
but I did hear it a little when I was lying in my bed and streamed a DVD-movie
to it from my laptop. It can however get warm if you used it heavily (streaming
movies, load large files) and charge it at the same time, not something hurtful
but worth to notice.

The USB-host function is very nice if you are going on a vacation with your
digital camera, just connect the camera to VGF-AP1 and push copy, and all the
pictures (or those you choose) are copied to the harddrive and you can continue
photographing. With that pleasant menu, you can check all pictures you have copied
while you’re playing heavy metal in your ears. Clever is the word.

The battery time given by Sony is 20 hours when you listen to music, it’s
very likely that this time is correct cause the battery held 12 hours when I
copied large files,watched movies and played music at the same time. The battery
would probably hold a lot longer if you treat it nice and only listen to music.
For the one with a need for storage there will be a model with 40 Gb of storage
capacity.

The weight is by me nothing to worry about when it comes to this type of player,
you feel it in your pocket and you don’t loose it, also the size is acceptable
if you have in mind how large the others are. The Touchpad mentioned above is
a very special thing, I have actually never seen such a ting before and I must
say that I’m hoping to se a lot more in the future. How it works I will go into
later.

Whats in the box?
The big black box should contain a lot of fun stuff that are useful, scroll
down for a survey of the box and its content.

As you see its only standard accessories that come along. No flashy strap or
car charger, only what you need to get a working player. The remote on the other
hand is a little bit special, maybe you don’t see it on the picture where
it’s above the power cord. It’s a cute little creation in grey metallic
plastic with a green high resolution LCD display in the middle.
Everything important can be controlled by the remote and even the display on
it shows everything you can imagine to need, song title, playtime, album name
and volume. A remote is a must have on this player when you have it in your
pocket/backpack and it’s a bit boring to dig it out every time you might
want to change song or volume. Having this player around your neck is not recommended,
it’s a bit to big and heavy for it.

In the centre of the picture we find a regular transformer with a VAIO mark
on it which supplies the VGF-AP1 with power. The length of the cord is about
1 meter and it feels like an acceptable length. As seen there is another cable
needed to get the charging running. It’s a regular power cord with a plug
on it. If you look carefully you may see that the plug I got isn’t
Swedish but Japanese, however the models that are coming to Sweden will have
a Swedish plug.

The grey USB-cable is like another grey USB-cables one may find in the world,
its about 1 meter and has a small plug in one end and a standard plug on the
other. The cradle on the right is however more interesting. It’s very
smart that you just put the player in the cradle and with a light push its charging
and connected to a computer. The downside is that it can’t be charged
or connected to a computer without the cradle, you are going to need it wherever
go if you like to charged it or copy some music. As seen there is four input
sockets, three of them are visible on the picture while the fourth is hiding
under the USB mark between the power socket and the USB-outlet. Behind the little
hatch we find a full size USB-socket, the same as you have on your computer,
to it you can for example connect your digital camera and copy all the pictures
or borrow your friends Mp3-player and copy his songs to your player.

Head phones:

Specifications:
Sony VGF-AP1 Head phones.
Frequency range:	10 – 23 000 Hz
THD: (Total Harmonic Distorsion)	–
SPL: (Sound Pressure Level)	–
Cord length:	~30 cm
Impedance:	32 Ohm

The model available in stores goes under the name MDR-E838LP, but it comes
with a longer cord. They fit well in the ear and are small and discreet. The
extreme short cord forces you to use the remote control to get the head phones
to reach you ears. It’s perfect if you have planned to use the remote
as it comes to a perfect height and you get rid of all unnecessary cords. If
the remotes should brake or if you don’t want to/can use it for some purpose,
you can’t use the head phones neither. One thing that you don’t
see in the picture is that one cord is longer than the other, the reason to
this is that you can put the cord behind you neck and get a more discreet look.
The sound is average and for the regular user these will do. A little boring
base and tremble but for come-along head phones are they good. For the music
lover, new set of head phones is a must but that counts for almost every player
on the market with some few exceptions.

On the next page we go through the player..

Sony VAIO has a slightly different design than the other players in this test. The display is posisioned along the long side and not along the short side as on the other players. You hold the lump to the right in the palm of your hand and put the thumb on the touchpad. Somehow the players design remind me of Sonys reknowned VAIO-laptops, can’t specify what makes me think that.

The front is very sparse on details. On the right side we find the revolutionary touchpad. It may look like a bunch of unmarked buttons, but that’s not the case. The whole area on the right side of the display is just an ordinary touchpad but instead of a completely smooth surface Sony has deviced the brilliant idea of placing buttons on the touchpad that corresponds to a space on the display. How the navigation works we’ll come to later. Cause everything on this side is in one piece and there are no cracks it will stay clean, no dust in the cracks as with conventional buttons in other words.

On the rear we don’t find anything worth mentioning. Remarkable though is that you can unscrew and remove the lid at the bottom and replace the batteries without a hassle, perfect when it gets worn out after a years usage. On the bottom we only find one thing, it’s a socket no one will recognize. It’s the socket for the docking station and it’s through the docking station transfer and charging will be made. Annoying when you’re out traveling and want to transfer files from another source or want to recharge the batteries. On the top there is just a normal headphone output and the input for Sony’s remote, the remote that comes with the player has a special plug that covers both sockets with one plug. At the end we find the power switch which also acts as a hold button, the only moving component.

On the whole the feeling of the player is superb, no twisting or bending and the components fits perfectly as we are used to by products from Sony. The shell is made of aluminum with the battery hatch as the exception and even that contributes to a nice feeling of quality. The player feels like a Sony product and will last a few years and a few involuntary drops on the floor won’t make a difference (not that I feel like trying but that’s my guess). All sockets match each other perfectly and I have searched but haven’t found a single uneven edge or leftovers from the casting, excellent work!

The color display is the largest one of the test and as icing on the cake it has the best resolution of them all. The only bad thing about the display is the color theme they’ve chosen, black and different shades of gray may not be so cheery in the autumn darkness. The Iriver has chosen a much happier color theme that Sony should have copied. There are no variations of the colors either, what you can see in the picture below is the whole spectrum. They display is fairly fast though. Fast enough to make changes in the menus, I.e. no delays that can become so very annoying after a while.

On the next page we’ll go through the navigation part and we’ll also take a look at the software.

Menu system:
Sony has like Iriver a color display. But as we just stated, they haven’t made use of the performance the display is able to offer, but has chosen a monochrome theme that could have been showed on a LCD-display. Well, after a while of loading you enter the MP3-playing mode (maybe should be called ”Atrac3 playing mode”) and the last song you listened to is played, and if you have a cover to the album it’s showed on the display. No bitrate or anything that tells you about the quality of the file is seen on the display, may be because Atrac3 doesn’t store that information the way an MP3-file does.

The display shows album name, song title and artist in a very nice way, even if it may seem like a lot of empty space that isn’t used for anything. This empty space gets filled as soon as you touch the touchpad and two menu’s appear from each side of the display where you control everything from. I have to state that the touchpad works really great with the small buttons with this type of menu, quick and easy to navigate.

Unfortunately you can’t do much else than listen to music on this machine. No radio or recording possibilities are available. But you can connect it to another USB unit and transfer files from it. This is managed in a quick and easy fashion by the built in browser function.

Software:
On the bundled disc there are two programs. Sonic Stage is used to transfer music and convert it to Atrac3. A software that does it’s job, looks good, it’s easy to learn and has a shop function matching that of iTunes where you can buy your music directly from the software. Beware though, it takes a few seconds to convert each tune to Atrac3 and then a few more seconds to transfer it to the player. So if you have all your tunes in the MP3 format (like everyone else) so be prepared to get USB1 speeds when you transfer your tunes. The other software is just a worthless clone of Windows Explorer which worked with its own agenda, which was exactly the opposite of what I wanted it to do. The bundled software was early beta though and I got them on a ordinary CD-R disc, since nothing was decided at the time I got the player.

That was what Sony had to offer, now let us take a closer look at the Muvo.

Creative is one of the large participants on the audio card front and makes speaker sets especially for computers. With that solid experience, they should be pretty practiced when it comes to sound and music. The distinguishing feature of Creative’s earlier MP3-players has been their comparative low prices but they have also suffered from a tad low quality and a lack of innovations. Hopefully Creative has managed to set things right with their latest product, Creative ZEN Touch.

Specifications:
Creative ZEN Touch.
Music support:	MP3, WMA, WMA
Memory:	20 GB
Actual memory:	18.9 GB
Price per MB:	0.12 SEK
Type of display:	150px * 104px LCD
Battery type:	Li-Ion
Battery time: (according to the manufacturer)	25 hours
Functions:	– MP3-player – USB 2.0 – Touchpad
Frequency range:	20 Hz – 20 KHz
Output:	Not specified by manufacturer
Size: (WxHxD)	105 mm, 22 mm, 68 mm
Weight:	199 Gram
Price:
Recommended price:	2400 SEK

The music support is the usual standard formats; OGG is not supported but will eventually be supported later with an update of the firmware. The display is a fairly large monochrome display with blue backlight which is nice and gentle for your eyes. The battery time is best in test and has a good endurance if one doesn’t use the display to much but let it play nonstop in the pocket with the display turned off. The harddrive is actually much quieter than the other tested players, maybe it doesn’t matter too much since one use it as a music source but I also like to use the MP3-players as an external harddrive for my laptop, and then it might be annoying with a high pitched whining noise.

The weight is acceptable considering the storage capacity and the appearance, but the size of the player leaves a bit to wish for. It is, like the iRiver, quite long which makes the player fairly visible in the pocket and at least I think it isn’t too good-looking. The probably most interesting thing about the player is its price, it costs considerable less than other 20GB players, ZEN Touch costs equal to an iPod mini which has 16GB less storage capacity and a third of the battery endurance, this makes the Zen to a real interesting alternative for the price aware buyer. There isn’t a lot of functions, it can’t do much else than play music in a digital format. I think that one should be able to implement a dictaphone and a radio in a player of this size.

What’s included in the box?
Creative has a reputation when it comes to bundling nice accessories and it shouldn’t be different now?

The bag is in elegant fake leather with a Creative logo at the bottom. The inside has a fleece lining and on the back we can find a clip for attachment on belts. The bag is quite thick and protects the player very well, nothing more to wish for. The electric adapter consists of two pieces of which the transformer and the cord which goes to the player is one part; the second part is the cord which goes from the socket to the transformer. There isn’t much more on the transformer than a small lamp which indicates when the player is being charged.

The manual that’s included is written in 15 different languages and only covers the basics on how to get the player started; one will have to read the long version on the computer. The included USB cable is a black standard cable and it has a length of almost 1 meter.

Unfortunately there weren’t that many accessories. Only the carrying case was something above the ordinary. It could be one of the reasons for the low price so one maybe shouldn’t criticize that. If Creative would have included a remote, docking station and other accessories, the price would probably not be below 3000 SEK.

The headphones:
MuVo2 and Touch uses the same type of headphones, there isn’t any logo on them and I haven’t seen any similar so I assume that they are made especially for Creative.

The design isn’t like any other headphones. For a starter the color theme is a mix between gray and white which is the color of the cord, unusual colors for technical products (apart from iPod). I unfortunately have to say that the ergonomics of the headphones aren’t the best, to me they are too big, they do not fit in my ears even if I removes the foam rubber. I also want to mention that I have never experienced problems with headphones being too big before. The design feels a bit 1990s too, totally symmetrical headphones isn’t the optimal solution if you ask me.

The sound isn’t too good either. There is a lack of edge in large parts of the register and there isn’t any depth in the lower frequencies, I don’t get any response in the higher frequencies either. Mediocre is the word for it. Distortion comes early and one will have to settle for a low sound volume. It’s sad that the headphones can’t match the good sound quality the Zen Touch can deliver. A new pair of headphones for your Touch is a must.

Creative Zen Touch is a player that isn’t too different from the competitor iPod. It has the beautiful white color and a similar metal back but Touch has chosen to varnish it to a metallic gloss instead of achieving it by polishing the metal of the back as Apple have done. I have to say that the subdued white color match de silvery back very well, very stylish. The varnish seems to be very robust and some scratching with keys and similar things didn’t leave any marks.

The front consists of a large display with blue backlight and below the display we can find a small original keypad. In the middle of this lovely creation there is an oblong touchpad which could be compared to a step less scroll wheel. It works in exactly the same way, if you move your finger upwards along the ”touch area”, your marker will also move upwards on the display. This is one of the quickest and best ways of moving through large play lists with music files. Beside the touchpad there are six buttons in two groups with 3 buttons in each group. With these buttons you can manage rewind/fast-forward, play/pause, the menu and there’s one button to start playing a randomly selected song. A pretty nice button which I used quite a lot during the test period, it’s perfect when you’re a bit tired and can’t decide what to listen to. In the center of the player one can find a round button with ”OK” written on it and even the least technically advanced person can guess what it’s for…

On the right side we can’t find something especially interesting, there’s only a single jack for connection to the charger. On the left side of the player we can find three buttons of which two is a bit large than the third. The two large ones are for controlling the sound volume and the third button is for starting and shutting off the player, this button is also enlighted by a faint blue light when the player is on. All buttons on the player have the same stylish silver finish. The back and bottom is completely free from inputs and outputs.

There is although a bit more components on the top of the player. To the far left we can find a headphone output with a combined output for a remote. Do note that one doesn’t have to use a remote (one have to buy it separately) so there is enough room for all headphones with a straight or slanted plug. In the middle there’s an ordinary mini-USB plug, it is of course possible to transfer data in USB2 speeds. On the right there is a slide switch which controls the key lock.

The 150*104 pixel large display has nice blue backlight and an easy-to-read black interface. The large display makes it possible to show all information you can imagine at once. The display holds 6 rows of high resolution text at the same time and this makes it easy to navigate through long menus and play lists. The display is fast, it’s especially noticeable when scrolling up and down in play lists with the touch pad. There isn’t much to say really, it would have been nice with a color display but with the price in mind this is an excellent display.

How does the ”scroll pad” affect the handling of the player? Move on to the next page

Menu system:
Zen touch has like its smaller brother an enlighted blue display but the display on Zen touch is a bit bigger. A large spacious display with a nice blue backlight together with the convenient touch panel gives you a feeling of total control and a speed in the menus that’s simply not possible with buttons. Speaking about the menus, the navigation between albums and/or by genre is very convenient and makes it possible for one to see a lot of albums at the same time which gives a good oversight of what’s stored in the player. The options alternatives are also very good with a lot of options for both screen and sound.

The navigation in the MP3-mode is good with song title and artist in the middle, graphic and text based event meter in the bottom, battery meter on the left and play mode above the song title. Unfortunately I suffered from a camera failure the day before the display was photographed so you’ll have to settle for inferior pictures, the display is sharper than what one can tell from the pictures. I can’t say much more than that Creative has succeeded in all ways when it comes to navigation, a lot thanks to the very responsive touch control.

There’s no radio or record mode in the player but it is possible to obtain by buying the free-standing remote for a couple of hundred Swedish crowns. There is although an "on the fly" editing of play lists which makes it possible to add and edit play lists without using Zen media explorer all the time, perfect on long journeys without access to a computer. To make it even easier to use the player one has the opportunity to search for an artist/album. That function is necessary when you got 20 GB of music. 
 

Software:
On the disc we can find Adobe Reader to be able to read the manual that is available on the disc. The bundled software is Creative’s mediasource which is an all-round software for Creative’s hardware. You get it bundled with almost all multimedia related products from Creative. You can do almost everything with this program, burn discs, sort music, rip music and transfer music to the player. But personally I can’t really see the purpose of a program for transferring files, "drag & drop" is the best and most convenient way if you ask me. In any case it’s a pretty nice program with a lot of functions, though nothing new that we haven’t seen before.

Since ZEN Touch isn’t an UMS-player, Creative includes a little simpler program than mediasource to transfer files. Zen explorer is an exact clone of Windows Explorer so that everyone can feel at home while using the program. But after all I can’t see why they couldn’t skip the software entirely and just display the MP3-player as a removable storage device when it is connected to the USB port as it is supposed to be.

Now there is only one player left, it’s time for iAudio M3 to show us what it got.

Not too long ago we tested the iAudio M3’s little brother, the iAudio4, and at the time it fared really well. It is now up to the larger, harddrive-based M3 to show us what it’s made of. To the extent of my knowledge, iAudio has to this day never put a crappy player on the market; they have all been caracterized by high build-quality and impressive sound. I personally hope they have not broken their trend, and rather produced yet another full-quality player for this test.

Specifications:
iAudio M3
Supported formats :	MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV
Memory:	20 GB
Actual memory :	18.6GB
Price per MB:
Type of display:	128*96 backlit 6-row LCD
Battery type:	Li-Ion, charged via USB/power adapter
Batterytime: (according to manufacturer)	16 hours
Functions:	– MP3-player – USB 2.0 – FM-Radio – Picture display. – Extremely slimmed – Docking station
Frequency range:	20 – 20 000 Hz
Rated power output:	20mW * 20mW (16 Ohm)
Dimension: (WxHxD)	60mm, 14mm, 104mm
Weight:	136 gram
Price:
Recommended price:	3300 SEK

iAudio have managed to cramp support for every sound-format there is into this player, so there’s no need waiting for no-show firmware updates; all formats play out of the box.  In fact, out of the players tested thus far, the M3 has the best format support of all.  Where’s the display, you might ask yourself after having skimmed all the pictures, for on the player itself it’s certainly not.  The display is actually located on a remote, plugged into the player through a cord, and its attachment is not necessary for the player to function; a power- and space-saving solution.  The battery is a built-in Li-Ion that actually delivered the promised battery-time within an error margin of only a few minutes, despite heavy use of the display.

The size and the weight are taken together quite the positive surprise – slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes and half the weight compared to the other 20GB players in the test.  Perhaps most appealing of all is the slim profile – the player is hardly felt nor noticed when carried in a pocket.  The power output is really high and that’s important to me, for I almost always toss the included earphones and don my dome with something sturdy instead.  At an output of 20mW this player can drive almost any pair of headphones without distortion.  

What’s included in the box ?
The box seems filled to the brim and I can’t wait any longer, must open it pronto!

If we begin by looking at the included carrying-case we’ll notice it does not completely cover the player.  It covers the front and the back, but besides the elastic banding holding the case together the sides are left open and unprotected.  The pro to this design is the easy access to the volume control and the built-in microphone, so there’s no need removing the player from its case in order to operate it, but the con is the lack of protection from the sides.  The case is semi-stiff with some sort of plastic or cardboard inside, dressed with synthetic material on the outside and felt on the inside.

Two different kinds of docking stations are included.  The first, and the one I prefer using, is of a more stationary variety and rests with its rubber pads securely on top of the table.  When using this dock you’re able to plug in your computer via USB, line-in/line-out, and a transformer for charging.  Next to a handsome TFT-monitor this unit looks quite slick; the two match each other, so to speak.  Docking station number two is a more portable version and basically just converts iAudio’s proprietary plug to four standard plugs:  USB, line-in, line-out, and 5V for power and charging.  Note that the player may be charged via the USB port, so if you tend to use your computer a lot the transformer becomes redundant.

The transformer is of standard type with an output of 5V and a cable length of one meter.  Included is a one-meter long line-in cable, for connecting the player to a stereo for recording or playback.  The USB-cable is a miniUSB to USB and is about one meter in length.  Unlike all the others this one is not gray or black but rather a bit more suave; transparent casing and a liner of woven steel improves the cool-factor remarkably.

The M3 remote is a bit more sophisticated than the other mp3-player remotes I’ve seen.  That feels like a given in this case though, as the player itself has no display and everything needs to be handled via the remote.  Anyway, this is a little critter weighing in at about ten grams and attaches to the player through a 70 cm long cable, via a special iAudio remote-control plug.  On the remote we find the display smack in the middle, and the on the surrounding edges two toggle-switches for volume and tracking, hold-, record-, and also a mode-button.  On the back is a clip for attachment to clothing and on the side an earphone plug.

The measurements of the control feel just about right and justly proportional to the size of the display.  The buttons feel sturdy, though I would have liked a bit more of the solid metal-feel the base unit gives.  This is plastic all the way through, but I can’t help but to like it anyway, perfectly setup with a toggle switch on each side of the display.

The earphones :
iAudio continue on the same track when it comes to earphones; Cresyn AXE is still their choice and that’s not too shabby.  Copying my old review of these earphones.

The body of the earphone does not rest against the ear but rather stands out a bit; super-comfy if you ask me, but I’m sure these earphones will be less comfortable for someone with differently shaped ears, probably causing them to easily fall out.  There’s after all a relatively small surface that has contact with the ear and this ought to make them prone to falling out.  They’re not entirely symmetrical, the round part that goes inside the ear is a little bit bigger on the one side.  Excellent ergonomics if you ask me.  As you can see from the picture a rubber gasket with three openings surround the earpiece, and I do not find this to have any negative side effects on the sound quality whatsoever.  Not having the cold steel directly up against the ear but rather a thin layer of rubber feels good.  I actually can’t see anything bad with these earphones, ergonomically speaking, except their slightly larger profile, compared to other headphones.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find any specifications, but at least the model name is AXE2.

The sound in these earphones is actually really good, despite them not being of a recognized brand.  Cresyn are the makers, and to be honest I’ve never heard of them prior to getting the iAudio unit home.  As mentioned the sound is really good and surprisingly powerful, at least to be coming out of a pair small earpieces.  The special and comfortable design provides a snug fit, resulting in a slight amplification of lower frequencies.  In other words the bass reproduction is top-notch.

iAudio M3 is the most slimmed player of test, relative to hard drive size, and we can thank the external display on the remote for that.  The M3 is available in two different colors, first the originally released silver and now the—in my opinion—more attractive brown metallic.  It might sound dull, but it’s actually quite handsome.  The M3 is the only player in the test lacking a conventional display, but as we’ll see it makes up for that elsewhere.

As stated above the M3 has no display decorating its front, but rather three polished aluminum buttons controlling the three main functions, allowing the unit to be used without the remote.  However, it’s virtually impossible to operate this player without the remote unless you know every song of every album on the entire player, and what order they’re in.  I strongly encourage you not to lose the remote.

The topside of the player is adorned with three status-LEDs, telling you whether the player’s being charged or running on batteries, playing radio or reading from the hard drive.  Hardly necessary, but pleasing to the eye.  On the left side is the headphone jack and right next to it the jack for the remote.  You can’t use the headphone jack on the player if the remote’s plugged in; then you have to use the jack on the remote instead.

The other side holds additional perks.  At the top a toggle switch for volume that also functions as mode-switch (radio/mp3/line) if pressed perpendicularly.  Underneath is the record-button for radio or line-in and below it the hold-switch.  Further down are the microphone and lastly the reset-button for the M3 operating system.  The system might freeze, but during my test period this never happened once.

The backside has nothing but boring serial numbers and a couple of screws, should one lose all common sense and open the player up.  I’ve been severely tempted a few times, exposed screws just WANT TO BE unscrewed it feels like.  But after some mental wrestling I decided for the better and left the screws alone.  The quality of the player is good all the way through, aluminum is really attractive on MP3-players, especially when it’s anodized brown.  No creaks anywhere or feeling of instability, compact, hard and good-looking.  Super!

On the following page we’re going to look at the M3 navigation.  After all, you have 20GB to keep track of, which is not the simplest task with a small display.  

Menu system:
The iAudio M3 has as already stated a few times no display on the player itself, but rather on the remote. The surface of it might not be the biggest I’ve seen but with the right setup it’s manageable. We have 128×96 pixels to play with and fancy blue backlight. After a flashy intro featuring a dude dancing we’re brought straight into the MP3-mode. Album name scrolls above artist and song title, works rather smoothly and is actually not as chaotic as one might think. Graphical status-bar is right underneath and shows total length together with elapsed time of song.

The bottom row shows all information about current play mode, equalizer and song-file details.  Right above this row, below the status-bar for time, there are two graphical bars moving together with the music.  I don’t quite understand the point of this, as I’m not the kind of person easily mesmerized by such things, though I have to admit it looks pretty cool.  Better than empty space at least.  A slight push on the bottom toggle switch will take you to the navigation-window, presenting the content of the entire hard drive.  Even .avi-files and equivalent are shown.  You navigate with the two toggle switches, which works like a charm, allowing one-hand control.

The radio-mode works just as expected, auto-searching for stations or allowing manual tracking at 0.1Mhz intervals.  Recording-mode is works also just as expected, just push the record-button and a recording will be saved, continuing until the drive runs out of space or you abort, whichever comes first.  Even the other sub-menus work perfectly, navigating and controlling them with the same toggle switch you use for navigating albums.  I can’t say much else other than that the M3 has a very sophisticated handling despite the small display and it being located on the remote.  Intuitive is the word I’m looking for.  
 

Software:
It’s the same software bundled with the M3 as the older iAudio4 I tested a while ago, so I’ll just make it easy for myself and copy-and-paste that review.  Worth mentioning is the manual in PDF-format iAudio include, should one lose the hard copy.

The first piece of software is called JetShell, which is a standard program for transferring files to and from the player.  It’s a simple program very similar to Windows Explorer.  It allows for slightly better overview and also features a built-in media player at the top.  There’s a good tool for adjusting bit-rate and switching file-types.  Overall a decent program that’s quick and easy, does not require much of a learning curve either as most people are already familiar with Explorer.

The other piece of software is a very advanced media player capable of handling all formats, even works well as a karaoke machine.  Despite the seemingly infinite number of buttons it’s a quick program and one can swiftly have music up and playing.  However, it does not offer a very good overview and if you’ve got a lot of music on your machine it will quickly turn sluggish.  Anyway, the program offers more settings and functions (some better than others) than one thought possible.  New skins are available for download from the Internet for those who want a more individual JetAudio.  Despite this I’m still not convinced to abandon the almighty Foobar.

This was the last test page for today, time to throw some files over to the players and see if we can melt a few USB-ports.

We’ve now reached the data transfer performance tests. I will be conducting a
test where I transfer a 700 MB movie. The timing will be done with a regular
stopwatch. ZEN Touch requires its own software for the file transfer, namely,
hindering tyhe use of software for the timing. The testing will be done using a USB2 PCI
card from Adaptec, all the players in this test use the USB2 interface.

None of the players seems to stand out with any extraordinary results, they
all hover around the same results. The iAudio is a tad faster than the others
and beats the VAIO by only a few KBps. The MuVo2 drags behind a litte. But we
can probably disregard that shortcoming, seeing as it’s not at all the same type
of hard drive and doesn’t have the same demands for speed. The MuVo2 has a
considerably smaller storage space.

OK, that’ll have to be it for now, time to sum things up on the following
page.

Finally! The monster review has come to an end. It took some time, but we’ve
reached the end, all the tests have been made, but which player’s the winner?
Well, since not all players are geared toward the same category, a fair judgment
will be tricky. The MuVo2 doesn’t have the prerequisites to really compete. It’s
a generation older and has 16GB less storage space. However, it makes up for its
shortcomings through its small size and attractive pricing. You get
adequate storage
and a fully capable player for about two thousand SEK. For that same amount, you
could get a flash player. So if you value space but don’t have money, the MuVo2
could be an excellent alternative.

The other competitors, however, can definitely challenge each other. The ZEN Touch
definitely carries the most GB per SEK, but that’s about the only thing it has
going for it. It lacks some functions, and looks a little tacky. Although having
the nice touchpad, it isn’t enough to help it compete with the three
remaining contestants. I’ll probably have to place Sony’s unit on second place.
It all comes down to not being able to play MP3s, instead, having to convert the
songs to an inferior Atrac3, otherwise being a great player. With a MP3-firmware,
this device would earn a lot more credit.

Now things got harder. Will the Iriver H320 snatch first place, or will the iAudio M3
be crowned the victor of hard drive players? The Iriver is the best player
technologically speaking, with the USB-host function, a wonderful color display,
excellent features, great equipment, and a remarkable battery life. The iAudio has
the best appearance, great accessories, exclusive quality, and feels slightly
more stylish than the technology-bloated H320. The remote control solution on
the M3 is for the individual to decide if it’s sensible. I don’t have a problem
with it, but some of my friends haven’t been too thrilled. The H320 is the
obvious choice for the techno-fetishist, the M3 is for the chic person that
values looks before function. I’m seriously techno-sexual, so my vote finally
falls on the Iriver H320 as the best hard drive player of today’s tests.

Iriver H320	Sony VAIO	ZEN Touch
Positives
+ Equipment + Battery life + Screen + USB-host + Great sound + Nice navigation	+ USB-host + Battery life + Looks good + Nice remote + Touchpad	+ Cheap + Touchpad + Nice navigation
Negatives
– Feels like a brick – Expensive	– No MP3 – Lacks features	– Lacks features – Boring design – Headphones

MuVo2	iAudio M3
Positives
+ Cheap + Removable battery + Small	+ Exclusive look + Great equipment + Slim + Superb quality + Great remote
Negatives
– Worst display – Difficult navigation – Small hard drive – Headphones	– No display on player.

And that’s it for this MP3 test, but rest assured, I will be back with more,
sooner than you’d expect.