Rating: 
Summary: Lyra vs. Zen vs. iPod: A 40GB MP3 Player Guide
Review: I've owned all three 40GB players available today: Creative Zen, RCA Lyra, Apple iPod. This is the review I wish I had read before I started shopping. It was a originally more comprehensive but I had to trim it to 1000 words. For the most part, the Creative Zen has the best features of the three, as well as the best price. It sounds like a no brainer except for the fact that these things break like crazy! If you read some of the other reviews on here, you'll see a few people mention that their headphone jack shorted out when they dropped the player....well mine shorted out while the player was sitting on my desk not moving at all. I don't know a single person who bought one of these players and didn't have their headphone jack malfunction! Many reviewers suggest buying an extended warranty because of this problem. I would most definitely agree with them on that one, but personally I don't have the patience to wait a few weeks every time the player decides to stop working. Those warrantees are supposed to be purchased just in case something goes wrong; not because something most likely will! The Lyra from the moment it came out of the box to the moment it stopped working for no apparent reason, four hours later, was on the whole a piece of junk. That said...on to the comparisons. PRICE: As just about every anti-iPod reviewer mentions, THE IPOD IS MORE EXPENSIVE AND DOES PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THING. The iPod is basically the BMW of mp3 players...the other mp3 player work like, and cost about as much as a Kia. They all do basically the same thing, but the cheaper ones are cheaper for a reason! SIZE: All three players are smaller than a walkman, so it's kind of silly to even discuss this, but it seems to be a hot topic in the other reviews. From largest to smallest the players are ranked as follows: Lyra, Zen, iPod. The Lyra is the only one of the three which will not fit easily in your pocket. It is the widest /longest /heaviest of the bunch, and personally, I hated the way it felt in my hand. The Zen and the iPod were both a pleasure to hold. CONTROLS/NAVIGATION: iPod gets first place here simple because it's touch sensitive navigation wheel allows you to get from the first album in your collection to the last in seconds and it stops on a dime anywhere in between. The Zen's controls are very good however it takes longer to scroll through your entire collection and when it really starts moving fast, it continues scrolling after you release the button sometimes skipping past another 50-75 albums! The Lyra had decent navigation, but the buttons had to be pushed more than once before they responded almost half of the time! The Zen and the iPod can be operated easily with one hand. PLAYLISTS/SONG RATING: The Zen wins here without a doubt. It is the only one of the three where you can create, edit (even while it's playing) and SAVE multiple play lists on the player itself without connecting it to a computer. The iPod allows you to make ONE play list on the fly, which cannot be edited or saved.
The Lyra allows you to tag songs you like or don't like and it makes play lists of each...yes, it makes a playlist of songs that you tell it you DO NOT LIKE...if that doesn't explain what's wrong with this product, nothing will! The iPod allows you to rate songs 1-5 stars on the player, and then make a play list automatically based on those ratings when connected to a computer.
BATTERY: Again, Zen is the winner here. Not only does it offer a battery that lasts 14 hours instead of iPod and Lyra's 8 hour batt. it is also the only player of the three where you can remove and replace the battery when it deteriorates with age as all rechargeables do. It should be noted that the battery times I listed are the official times given by the manufacturers. The Zen actually lasts about 10 hours the other two go between 5 and 6 before needing a charge. SCREEN: The Zen not only has the biggest screen of the bunch, it also scrolls the album title in the directory screen allowing you to see the whole thing instead of just the first few words. TRANSFER TO PLAYER: All three units use USB 2.0, the iPod also can be used with Firewire. TRANSFER FROM PLAYER: The Zen allows you to transfer music freely from your player to any computer loaded with it's software. The iPod does not allow this however third party software that can be purchased and used to pull songs from the iPod. In all honest, the Lyra broke before I could find out if you can pull songs off of it. </P> SOFTWARE: iTunes is easy to use and offers tons of ways to organize your music. Creative Media Manager takes a lot of getting used to but is decent once you figure it out. Musicmatch, which comes with the Lyra is garbage. It's slow, difficult to figure out at times, and constantly badgers you to buy the upgrade to its premium version. EXTRAS: The only one that actually has extra features is the iPod which comes loaded with 4 different games, the ability to read text documents that are stored on the hard drive on the player's screen, a date book, and an address book. The Lyra's ONLY advantage over the other players is the fact that it comes with a complete car kit (charger/tape adapter)....which is pretty nice, but useless when the player turns itself into a paperweight after just a few hours. All three players come with a case....iPod's is the only one which does not give you access to the player's controls when it's in the case.
Hope this helped.
Rating: 
Summary: What's with the low sound?
Review: I bought the Zen Xtra 40Gb yesterday, taking it back today. The sound is awful. The volume range goes up to a 25, and even with the EAX or whatever it's called on, it's barely audible. I don't know if it's the jack gone like you all say or if this is just designed for easy listening. No good for loud music. Prepare to listen to background noise, not your music. This thing sucks. Don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: ps
Review: by the way, if anything bad happens to your zen and you think its busted... hit the reset button with a paper clip or something.... so far 100% of the time if something happens on mine, that fixes it... (which ive only needed to once after i droped it... oops ;) )
Rating:
Summary: A++ really good
Review: Product is great, i havnt had one problem with it at all, setup was simple enough, batter life is definatly awsome, and i enjoy how i can also save data on it when i need to backup something. So far only thing i dont like about it is this.... you cant download the programs on the cd, and i lost mine, so i cant put the program on my new computer...
Rating: 
Summary: Problems with Firmware / Creative software?
Review: My tips is to go straight to www.nomadness.net where Independently developed software is available. Some of the best trasnfer tools and more stable firmware updates around. Quality stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Best for price
Review: I've only had the Zen Xtra a couple of weeks but am totally hooked on it. I was wary on buying a Creative Lab product after the Jukebox I bought 4 years ago from Creative which crashed with regularity. This one is different, so far no problems with playing or downloading to it. The volume on this player is sufficiently improved as well. It does have a couple of minor drawbacks but they are over shadowed by all the advantages the player has. After downloading the newest driver and updated software it was a snap to upload music to the player. It take less than 30 seconds an album to upload to the Zen using USB 2. For simplicity, I'll compare the Zen Xtra to an 20 gig Ipod. Ipod 20 gig
25 % smaller than the Zen
Simple interface
Bauhaus design industrial white
Zen Xtra 40 gig
Twice the drive space for a LOT less
WMA capability
Since the same quality WMA is 1/2 the size of MP3, the Zen holds 4 time more music
Has more sound controls
Has more play choices User replaceable battery (what was Apple thinking!)
Leatherette case included
File drag and drop from File Explorer
Mass file tag editing
On the fly Play lists
Rating: 
Summary: Headphone Jack Breakdown
Review: I've had my Zen Xtra a little over 2 months. I like the fact that I can get so much storage on the cheap. The sound on the Zen is great too. The option to replace the battery is also a great option. All was well until today when for no apparent reason, I could only get sound from the right earphone. I tried plugging other headphones in the jack and sound still only came from the right side. It's a good thing that I bought a replacement plan because I am returning this thing tomorrow. If you consider buying the Zen DO buy a replacement plan. I am very hesitant to buy other Creative products.
Rating:
Summary: First and Last
Review: This product is the the first Mp3 Player that I bought and it has turned me off from buying anything from creative again. As others have mentioned the headphone jack breaks quite easily, but not from rough use, it just breaks down. I barely had this thing a month before it started giving problems, and I only used it to go from home to work. This I guess is why people flock to the Ipod, cause you may not be able to replace the battery but it is damn sturdy. This is just a piece of junk
Rating:
Summary: warning! headphone jack breaks
Review: This is a great player in every respect (I'd rate it 5 stars otherwise), I loved it, right up until the headphone jack broke. I use mine for snowboarding so it takes some pretty tough abuse, but I notice that my iPod's headphone jack is part of the case rather than part of the PC board and the iPod is still playing fine after years of snowboarding. The Zen's headphone jack is completely separate from the case and is only held to the PC board by three small solder joints which, as it turns out, break quite easily. So be warned, if you use the Zen for any physical activity it will break.
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Summary: Beware of the cover mechanism
Review: Most everything about capacity, flexibility and comparisons have been written already for display here. Just one caution. With my jukebox, the cover doesn't not stay on. If I "snap" it on it can easily pop right off, if I set it down it pops off. What I'm going to see is if this is an issue if the player is kept in the carrying case 24/7, which is how I use it. Any engineers out there? This is a wonderful example of a poor design that can fail at anytime and necessitate the long arduous process dealing with "support" and repacking, shipping and waiting and probably paying more money in addition to the original product purchase. There simply are too many parts of disparate materials that can fail, metal, plastic of differing grades etc, at any joining of dissimilar materials is a point for fatigue and stress. These guys flunk engineering 101 on this design. We will see if it is a fatal flaw or just one more thing the consumer has to work around.
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