Please provide all differences between iRiver iHP-120, Creative Zen
Micro, and Creative Muvo Micro. Note: storage size is not that
important. Do not use that as a great differentiation factor. Please
make a final suggestion as to purchasing one of the three products -
also, what date is the Zen Micro released? The thing I am most
interested in is a quality/price ratio.

Thanks

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Request for Question Clarification by endo-ga on 20 Nov 2004 21:06 PST

Hi,

Are there any other factors to quality/price that influence your purchase?

Thanks.
endo

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Clarification of Question by justwannaknow-ga on 20 Nov 2004 21:56 PST

Well, the ihp-120 is going to stop being manufactured (which affects
software upgrades etc.) which is something I am interested in. Also,
I'd like to know about the usefulness of the optical in/out besides
the obvious record from a cd player, because everyone talks about how
great it is, but that feature doesn't seem that amazing. I think it
would be much more logical to just create the mp3s by ripping the CD.
Also, another important factor is availability - I'm not sure when the
Zen Micro and the Muvo Micro 1GB are being released, and I need this
within 1.5 weeks most likely. Also, one major question I had was, lots
of sites like amazon.com show pictures of the zen micro with a white
backlight showing (which looks amazing!) but then creative advertises
it as having a blue backlight - what's the deal? Let me know if I can
clarify any more. Basically the main battle is between the ihp-120 and
zen micro, and a major question is the usefulness of the ihp's optical
in/out.

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Clarification of Question by justwannaknow-ga on 21 Nov 2004 00:50 PST

Also, something great would be to point out a place where I could try
these models out (in my hands).

Dear justwannaknow,

    The main thing that sets the iRiver apart from the Zen and the
Muvo is its ability to play media encoded in the Ogg Vorbis format as
well as .WAV files which the other two don't. Ogg Vorbis is an open
source encoding format (read: software to encode and play any ogg
vorbis file is free), and you can obtain more information about this
format from http://www.vorbis.com if you feel so inclined.

    Because some regard ogg vorbis as superior to mp3 in terms of
audio quality (when comparing similar file sizes), it seems fitting
that iRiver would choose to include an optical digital I/O on their
player. In addition to allowing one to record digitally onto their
player (conceivably; I'm not sure if the iHP 120 supports this), it
also allows one to connect to a home receiver equipped with an optical
digital I/O which is effectively superior to a standard analog
connection. You will have to be the judge of that though. Good luck in
your search!

                     Sincerely,

                     sage_shaman-ga