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[Dee Jay]

Check this out...I bought a cheapy chinese no-name brand MP3 player for 9 bucks. It looked a lot like this iPod Shuffle but with LCD. View attachment 1It sounded good, not colored with any digital "enhancers". It had EQ presets and many other basic necessities. It had no onboard memory storage but expandable up to (I think) 32GB microSD. LCD is important if you listen to 32GB's of music like I do. There were just a few annoyances such as:

- flimsy aluminum and plastic body

- no buttons lock

- no dedicated volume control (had to activate the scroll buttons for volume)... many times I'd accidentally skipped to the next track (while in the middle of an hour long DJ mix) trying adjust the volume. PITA

Other than that, it worked well until I sat on it in my back pocket. The only visible damage was the bent clip, I guess all the buttons were pushed simultaneously and shorted out the whole board.

SO. ..

I broke down, took my own advice and bought the Creative Zen M300. Creative is Singapore brand which has been around since the early days of Soundblasters "multimedia" 16bit soundcards. ($200 bucks for a 16bit Soundcard...LOL) I used to drool at the their soundcards and fantasized about digital audio wave editing and freaky electronic sounds I could produce! LOL I wondered if Creative has been taking steps forward or backwards as so many other electronics manufacturers has. I figured Creative survived this long so I took a chance on their M300 media player.

So far, this thing is pretty neat.

Pros:
-Onboard 4GB $49 (expandable up to 32GB microSD) $69 for the 16GB model

-dedicated volume control

-intuitive software environment,no brainer

-buttons' lock

-touch screen buttons

-good size screen, not too small

-bright GUI, can be seen in daylight, brightness adjustable

-plays wave files

-FM radio (useful only for post apocalypse lifestyle)

-bluetooth stereo transmitter WOSOME! Will make my current JBL speakers bluetooth

-view Photos

-play videos

-free firmware updates

-solid build

-not too small

- the packaging was not too fancy, that was very encouraging since I noticed that products with fancy, bullet proof, elaborate packaging usually fail. think Beats, LOL!

Cons:
A few annoyances, some that can be corrected via firmware

-Individual music file folders are not visible so every piece of music need to be
categorized in Playlist, Albums, Artists, Genres


-video has to be converted to their special format

-photo quality is lacking

-doesn't accept all microSD's, only certain brand/models, mostly established brands

-AC charger not included. Will charge from PC USB but won't play while charging. I found that it will play and charge with AC USB powersupply (directly, not USB Hub)

-battery will discharge when plugged to a USB hub!

-Oh and the max volume is not ear bleeding loud, big headphones would probably drain it faster

Very decent product overall. All I really want is a solid music player with many soundfile formats cos I hate having to convert sound files. Most of the other features that aren't in the pros: list aren't so important to me. So yeah, it's a decent product for 50 bucks. I plan on making a wrist band for it, maybe black leather with rubber studs and spikes :lol: . Maybe even fag out with fake diamonds he he! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[fizzit]

That Creative one looks really nice. I hate Apple, but my current mp3 player (that I use every day) is a 2nd gen ipod touch that I got for free and is holding my 400-odd songs. I've had a Zen before and I really liked it, but to me that one doesn't seem like a winner because I really value the ability to quickly find and play whatever song I feel like.

 

[Dee Jay]

I really value the ability to quickly find and play whatever song I feel like.

It was only last year when I was still using a CD "walkman", then someone gave me a 1st generation iPod Shuffle and got hooked on the practicality but hated not being able to see track names or skip tracks in long DJ mixes.

my son got a free iPod from his older cousin. I played with it a little to see if I'd get hooked into the Apple fanaticism but it didn't happen, it was way too much machine for me, as I expected. And I can't get passed paying so much for electronics with batteries that can't be replaced. Imagine how you'd feel when the battery on it dies on you? I think it would be a sucky feeling :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

When that day comes, I plan to rig an external battery to my Zen using a modded usb cable.

 

[dingoEsride]

mines been my phone for a few years now, very convenient when it rings especially on a bike but did use a compact cassette player some time back

 

[Dee Jay]

It's been about 3 weeks since I bought the Zen M300. I finally got the chance to check out its other features.

*bought a compatible (class 4) 4GB microSD. Interestingly, the chip does not show the music files in the normal M300 categorized format the way the built-in 4GB memory does, The chip shows File Folders which was what I wanted..although the category format is starting to grow on me. Interesting having both. And the chip doesn't recognize Wav files and Playlist files. Strange.

*Streamed music to my Logitec BT stereo receiver, it turned out that the Logitec's Stop/Play button controls the M300. Also I understand now why the max volume is set so low, Creative expects you to buy a BT headphone (preferably theirs) for louder volumes as well as to save energy on the M300.

* listened to FM radio. It's pretty dang neat.. I haven't listened to radio in ages!

*converted some videos and was pretty impressed with the quality. Now I can use it like them souvenir pens with a buxom babe in a bikini, tilt the pen the bikini slips off, LOL. Or I can use it for that old joke: Do you have naked videos of your wife? No! Wanna see some? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Read some complaints about:
*not being able to stream FM radio. Possibly due to FM vs BT frequency interference/conflict. Would be nice to stream FM radio tho..

Owners of other Creative MP3/media players aren't impressed with the M300 saying other models were much better.

There are other minor annoyances that can't remember ATM.. but again, for 50 bucks I'm really satisfied with the M300.

While searching for M300 reviews, I found a very cool website called AnythingButiPod.com. If you're like me who's irritated by Crapple fanboys iThis and iThat...i i i i i i i iii i i i i i i you'll find this site refreshing.

 

[dogman dan]

Ipod classic 160 gig. The old 60 gig only held half our music. Now I have the best radio station on earth, the playlist is 22860 tracks, and my wife chose every one. Put it on random, and you hear the same song every 69 days, if you never turn it off. 8)

Still have a looooong way to go, ripping vynil into the ipod. But I prioritized, and the all the pre 1970 vynil is in the Ipod.

 

[dogman dan]

Also, nobody on acid ever touched my wifes records. So that pre 1970 stuff sounded good still.