am thinking of getting this mp3 player since, after 4 and a half years of loyal and active service, my CD player just died (RIP). Anyway i have been eyeing up this model for a while, but it seems alot to shell out considering i have never had an MP3 and don't know whats good. But have heard many good things about creative.

Anyone have this model or similar? what are your thoughts. Reviews look good so far...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...e&n=560798

just seen it cheaper here but not sure about reliability of this site

http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/prodi...FSLiEAod_23Ifg

MB....I had this model..and i must say to me it was the BOMB...however i think there is design fault...mine packed up after just 6 months..the harddrive went...couldn't restore it...took it back to Comet..who then told me they stopped making the damned thing so I was FORCED to get an Apple..which i HATE...its so impracticle...My advice research it a bit more ok..

I was determined to get anything BUT an ipod because everybody told me that they weren't the best and so on. So I tried a few different models and they all had problems. Either with synching properly or crashing or dry batterys.

Since I relented and got the ipod I've had exactly NO problems and the damn thing is a joy.I've even gotten to prefer itunes to wmp. I'm a heavy user with a large overwieldly library and lots of bouncing outdoors useage and I've had this toy a while now.

I don't know about this specific model MB, it wasn't one of those I tried but those are my thoughts anyway.

Kunjufu wrote: see, that is exactly my worry with any brand of mp3. while researching on amazon (which i have been doing for well over a year!) peoples main complaint with ANY make or model is the fact that it packs up, breaks down, loses songs, or just plain doesn't work quite arbitarily.

I kept hearing that creative were better than apple and that apple weren't even the first to come out with mp3's, they just popularized it.

But so far i have read no complaints about this particular model. But i guess if its relativly new, faults won;t have had time to show themselves.

I worry that i'll get it now then in about 3 months i will start reading revies about how bad it is lol

Point is, it's a hell of alot of money to pay for something that only seems to have a shelf life of a few months (although in looking around £161 is cheap for 30 gig considering some 4gig cost nearly that!!)

Footprints wrote: i hve actually seen the model i want from an ebay power seller http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-CREATIVE-Z...tem?hash=item2 and they have 99.3% positive feedback on well over 40,000 sales.

But i understand what you are saying about buying from ebay (even though i too have got lots of great stuff from there), which is why i was trying to steer clear of them. But i would save nearly £20 on the amazon price (which i thought was cheap anyway!)

But as this person is a power seller with an "ebay shop" i was thinking maybe it would be ok.

For something like this, and that amount of cash, i would never go to an "ordinary" ebay seller. They themselves could just be trying to get rid of a defective product (assuming you receive the order in the first place!).

I wouldn;t be bidding on the item in the normal way, because it would be from the persons online shop. Plus it would be shipping from within the UK.

I should probably take my own advice. I am always saying "anything good ain;t cheap and anything cheap ain;t good" and "buy cheap, buy twice" but i am REALLY tempted to get this from ebay, despite dire warnings!!! Plus the ebay seller has more info about it than amazon.

The Watcher wrote: see, now i am also trying to steer away from ipods just as you were lol again, heard they weren;t the best and that creative were better quality with more features etc.

Also, i think a comparible model with an ipod costs in excess of £200 for similar features and gig. Plus it seems to have more negative feedback than the creative.

However you say you have had no problems with it, despite vigorous use (and i need to know it can withstand vigorous use and bouncing around!)

Now i am totally confused!! after a long time of shopping around, i thought i had found my model (original one i wanted at 20 gig is no longer available).

I was going to get an mp3 from long time, but other financial comittmants came up and my CD player was still alive (RIP) so wasn;t a necessity.

Now am more confused than ever!!

But if nothing else i will defo be doing some more shopping around before parting with cash.

Thanks for your help guys

ok, have just found an ipod that has similar-ish features for same-ish price. But this quote from one reviewer put me off

The main disadvantage of the iPod over the iriver is the fact you have to use iTunes, don't get me wrong, it's a good programme, but the iriver is so much more flexible as it is treated just like a hard drive so you can just drag and drop music, photos, videos and they will play on the device. With iPod you have to first move stuff to iTunes and then sync.

plus the ipod doesn;t have the 8 level eq of the creative and the same reviewer says iRiver has a better sound quality.

This is the model:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Apple-iP...;s=electronics

confused3

next stop, iRiver lol though i think i have looked at those before. failing that, i may have to be getting the creative from ebay (sorry Footprints!)

Here's the one that we bought our teenager. So far there haven't been any problems. It is very easy to sync music to. We use Windows Media Mgr. a simple drag and drop. These units also come in a variety of memory sizes. I added a link so you can read some of the customer reviews:

SanDisk Sansa e250 2GB Digital MP3 Player (SDMX4-2048-A70)


http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/SanDi...oductDetail.do

MB

PLEEEEEEEASE don't buy an iriver! It has so many glitches and mess ups it's untrue. That was the worst make of MP3 i had no lie. Crashed all the time, synched tunes out of order and not in right playlists or ten times in same playlist... it was just crap!