Portable Music Player Advice: Creatize Zen Touch OR APPLE IPOD or Sony MZ-NH1 Hi-MD ?

[amdguy]

I've done some reasearch while apple has its plus, i hate the childish look and its lame internal battery which is not user replacable and I basically hate anything that is associated with apple.

The Zen Touch is a good contender offering superior battery and better sound quality and is a perfect compliment for my Bang & Olufsen A8 earphones.

However the above 2 are HDD players and what worries me is that can they withstand the rigours of long-distance running and sports etc?

My final choice would be the Sony MZ-NH1 Hi-MD player with 1GB of storage/disc. It has respectable batterylife of 17 hours, small and light which makes it another enticing choice.
HI-MD

So what should i get? Any advice and tips are welcome!

 

[MDE]

That Sony can't play MP3 files, only ATRAC3. I'd rule it out because of that. I'd get the Creative.

 

[amdguy]

i understand that Sony uses ATRAC but it is on the fly conversion and if i use a higher quality setting, will still loose out alot of sound quality?

 

[MDE]

Re-encoding files over and over again will cause quality loss but if you're listening to it while jogging, I'd doubt you'll notice that much.

 

[jdogg707]

I really do enjoy my 15GB iPod, especially in combination with iTunes. Wouldn't give it up for anything.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you own real CDs instead of warez mp3s, you can always rip them directly to Sony's format.

If you can stand lousy lossy 128kbps p2p music now, then re-encoding to ATRAC might still sound acceptable. If you use a higher bitrate for the ATRAC then it might not lose much (more) sound quality.

 

[nboy22]

These damn MP3 players are friggin' expensive, I was looking to get an Ipod I was thinking maybe a 20 GB but when I saw the price I decided that it's way too much for an MP3 player that I wouldn't use a ton.

 

[slpaulson]

The main problem that I have with my sony netmd isn't the fact that it converts everything to atrac, but their horrible software. The default software will only allow you to put a song on three discs. It was so bad I actually used a plugin within realplayer *gasp* to put my music on my netmd.

I think that if you're going to be running you might be better off with a flash player, unless sony has improved. I'm not sure if you'd want to be running with a hard drive based player.

 

[Cerb]

I know a few people w/ the Ipod and Zen. They love what they have to death.

If you want a non-HD player, go for CD/MP3 player or solid state player.