Poor product

The microphone simply doesn't work. It's meant to be a 'noise cancelling' design but it's more of a sound cancelling design. I could only get it to register any input by blowing hard into it; it didn't pick up anything at all when speaking at a normal level. This has been recorded in other reviews of this product so please fix the microphone Creative.

Creative products are normally good. I own their Gigaworks T-40 speakers which are great. These aren't. Don't buy them.

Superb

This thing is one of the best purchases I've made in a very long time. The build quality and sound quality are exceptional.
Creative provide you with a mains adapter plus continental plugs and everything else you need ( other than batteries ), which is more than can be said for a lot of companies.
The design is clever and aesthetically pleasing.
The little remote control works a treat and to be honest, overall, I can't fault this thing at all for the price, an easy 5 stars.

X-FI OEM

The X-FI SB0460 OEM is of course the retail model shipped without its box and extras so its not an inferior version but this point should be made clearer. My card was shipped by Kikatek but with the CD installation disk - vital for the use of the soundfont manager. I installed the card having previously disabled the on board sound and had also run CTZAPXX.EXE available on the creative website to completely remove any previous drivers. You may find it better as I did to allow WinXP SPK2 to detect and load its own drivers and then install the updates downloaded from creative site if you dont have the installation CD or run the installation and then the updates with firewalls and antivirus turned off. The card itself in my opion is superior to the Audigyzs , greater clarity , more robust with lots of power and it maybe cleverly enhancing the sounds. The main X-FI update itself had my Audigyzs beat by default where I had spent sometime trying to get the best out of that other card.

Good for certain people.

I've had this mp3 player for roughly 6 months now, and for my lifestyle, it has been perfect.

I usually spend 3/4 hours per day using my computer so keeping the machine charged is never an issue. Whenever i do use my mp3 player it is either for roughly an hour on the bus per day or otherwise whenever i feel like it, so again the battery life isnt an issue. However, for people who do not commit to the same life as i do then these things could become more of an implication, having to keep your PC on to charge your mp3, aswell as having a slighlty limited playback time.

At first, the touch pad was a little lairy to get used to, but then again i had never even used an ipod before so thats all fair, and i picked it up within days so there isnt a problem there. The photo function is a little limited in as much as i will never really find a relevant time to use it as the screen is too small to give sufficient details that i can show people using my PC and the internet.

The colour screen is a nice addition to the look of the player, it is a cool player to have.

One flaw possibly is the irritance of not being able to see the screen clearly outside, but i found just shading the screen with my hand easily cleared this issue.

One final point, i promise, is the headphones. If you treat your mp3 like i do, as in taking it in and out of your pocket every 20 minutes or so, then expect to lose the foam coverings for the headphones within a week :P.

Overall perfectly suited for the commuters / teenage lifestyle, relativly robust and dependable.

this is mine fo eva its amazing!!!

Right i got this mp3/4 about 6 months ago i think it is absolutley fantastic the colours are great, very vivid compared to the ipod which is pretty dull,at the moment i have about 21 videos on it 4 of them are simpsons episodes and i have about 370 songs and i still have 26gig left
believe me if you get this you woont be disapointed

a couple of bad things though the screen scrathes quite easily so i got a protector for it, but i took it off cause it makes it look tacky

umm the headphones are pretty naff to so i got some in-ear bass boost ones and what a difference it makes!!!

it has only froze two times but i think it was because i was asking it to do to much lol :-)

what i did find easy was syncing things like contacts songs videos every thing onto it,and the charging it is sooo quick about 2hrs if from mains!!

so what are you waiting for if you are lookin for a great mp3/4 player with great look and great video quality look no further!!!!

Perfection

Many researching a high end speaker system will hit a road block - the Creative ProGamer G500 series or Logitech Z-5500

Having owned both systems for the last two weeks I concluded the following non-technical review of the Creative G500

Sound Quality - 8 / 10
Bass Quality - 10 / 10
Loudness - 9 / 10
Features - 5 / 10
Connectivity and set up - 10 / 10

What sets the Creative G500 apart is the quality and loudness of the bass, I must suggest that many who wish to listen purely to music will find that the bass can be somewhat over expressed, yet at extreme volumes you will find the treble overpowers the bass.

A comprise can be created using the very accessible and straight forward remote allowing for rear, centre, sub and treble to be adjusted independently.

Sound quality, supported by a THX rating is perfect yet better suited to games and music as opposed to movies however the CCS setting on this system allows for the user to switch between stereo and surround sound instantaneously.

Aesthetically speaking, I was slightly disappointed with the look of the speakers in comparison to the Logitech series. On the other hand the speakers of the Creative G500 are light weight and MUCH easier to wall mount with screws included in the box. The subunit bass of the creative G500 power wise is indistinguishable from that of the Logitech Z-5500 yet halve the size, perfect for smaller rooms.

What are you getting for your money? Without onboard Dolby Digital recording or multiple source connections; this system was intended for PC system multimedia use as opposed to multi-functional set up or larger rooms. If you wish to connect to both a pc and a games console or dvd player I would consider this system ill-suited to such a purpose.

However all in all you are paying just over £150 for a quality (8.5 / 10) that sounds perfect, easy to set up with generous cable lengths and is extremely loud. I am very pleased with the system to date, not to sure if the neighbors are though.

The only small player that will record off-air...

Lot's of people complaining about build quality etc. Look after your Nano, get a little soft case for it or something - what do you expect for the money - diecast aluminium? I've had no problems. More importantly, what other player can actually encode to MP3 from the built-in FM radio - how amazing is that?!? Record your favourite radio show whilst you're out. It even has a line-in facility. Sound quality good and handles CBR & ABR MP3's, haven't tried VBR but I expect it'd be OK. Holds *a lot* of music at 137k ABR, which is the lowest I can go before my ears aren't fooled anymore... Battery life incredible. If anyone remembers the first Sony Walkman that offered record as well as playback (90 minutes on magnetic tape) for well over £100(!) they will appreciate the Creative Nano very very much.

Be Wary

It is not possible to"Restore" detail that is lost in mp3 compression. That detail is lost. Notice that the ad says"Restore SPARKLE" what it should say is"Adds sparkle". In other words, the sound may be brighter, but it is LOWER QUALITY again than what is left by the mp3 compression.

I don't know how they justify the claim of"on a par with studio quality". This is AT BEST a highly optimistic claim.

However, if you are listening to mp3s, you probably don't mind these technical points.

excellent sound but not perfect

Generally I'm very impressed with these headphones. The sound quality for the price is excellent. You would probably struggle to find better sounding phones for the price. The bass is somewhat overblown (at least when plyed through a Creative Sleek MP3 player), and this can cause some very bass heavy tracks to sound slightly distorted (a sort of vibrating effect -hard to describe). Dynamic range is good with clear trebble. The phones also look very good and more than their modest price. The biggest problem with these phones however is that they are pretty uncomfortable. I've got a small head and ears but they seem to put pressure on my ears which becomes painfull after about 20-30 minutes. I've had lots of phones and have not usually suffered this problem. If you want prolonged listening then look elsewhere.

works fine on the Zen V

I bought mine from an Amazon reseller for £4.99 and it works fine with my Zen V 4gb - went from empty to full charge in a little under 4 hours... NB this will NOT work with the Zen vision plus. minus one star because of the misleading description and at full price it would have been a bit overpriced!

Fantastic

If you're looking for a sound system to fill your room - this is the one.