Which digital music player?

[Monomer]

I would like to buy a digital music player but I'm not sure which one to get. I've looked at the Creative Zen V plus and it seems pretty cool and has good reviews, but then so does the ipod. Does anyone have a Creative Zen that they would recommend, or some other brand that I haven't considered. Or is the ipod just so superior? Basically I only need something small but I would like value for money and great sound quality. I also don't want to spend more than $300 AUS.

[Tormod]

I would strongly advise against buying ANYTHING that has an Apple logo on it. Apple's customer service is extremely horrible. I am speaking out of experience (both as an Mac user and as the husband of an iPod owner).

As for choice of player, it depends on what you will use it for. If you use it while you run, you should go for a player with flash memory rather than a harddrive. The Creative Zen Micro is an example. If you want a radio, you also need to check if it has (none of the ipods have radios, by the way).

If you want a harddrive, I can recommend the iRiver products - I have an iRiver H10 with a 5Gb harddrive. I have been very happy with it. They have several new models out so you should easily find something to match your budget.

[Monomer]

Thanks for the info on Apple, Tormod. Customer service is definitely important, and something I hadn't thought of. I'll check what iRiver has available.

[theblackalchemist]

try transcend t.sonic products
they are durable, have radio, recording, equalizers, A-B repeat functions, etc
i have a tsonic 610
TBA

[alexander]

T, I dunno, this may be norway-centric, i have had no issues with their service, they were dumb, but so were sony, toshiba, microsoft, dell, hp, alienware, ibm, intel, amd, asus, 3com (just to name a few) support people, but very friendly, and after i told them what they had to do, their shipping and repairing service was simply outstanding, took 3 days between when the laptop left and when i got it, and i mean, i sent it on the 13th, i got it back on the 16th after diags and repairs... (which turned out to be exactly what i told them... duuh) I have to say, that even with dell Gold support, you don't get that kind of service, i have had parts delivered in 4 hours, yes, but i have not had that quick of a turn around time on anything i sent to dell (only because i had to exchange the box). And yea, i've called a hell of a lot of support lines for various work i've done, they are seldom very helpful...

As for music player, i highly recommend Cowan players, they are some of very few that act as a hard drive and play almost any format (except for DRMed ones ofcourse). The only reason i dont like ipods, is because you can't use them with anything but iTunes, and that just urks me.

Though Cowan certainly aint the cheapest...