Creative Zen Vision M Portable media player

Can anyone provide me feedback on the Creative Zen Vision M player? How does it compare to the latest Ipod generation 5 player?

I notice that the Zen has FM radio and recorder that the ipod does not have. However I ma more interested to know which sounds better?

The VisionM while being a great alternative to the Ipod has a few drawbacks when compared to the 30GB video-ready iPod. For starters, it's about 1.5 times as thick, and you need a dongle to charge the player and sync files to it. Also, its MediaSource application needs work, especially when matched against Apple's slick iTunes.

You can read a comparative reviw at http://www.trustedreviews.com/articl...ge=5607&head=0

I have the 5G IPOD 60GB and it sounds great with the Etymotic Research ER·6 Isolator in canal earphones. Tonal accuracy is really good, and mid-range sounds are excellent. The low end seems a little bit underrepresented, though.

Etymotic Research's ER6 Isolators are a great way to get into sound-isolating earphones and dramatically improve the sound output from your digital music player.

I have experience with both Creative and Apple players.
Simply put...
Creative has a overall better sound quality (without any equalizer)...very neutral and balanced sound. But it lacks in features a bit. You cant use it as a direct USB hard drive unless you install its driver CD onto the computer...thats something painful. Also if you are planning to hook it up to your amplifier to be used with your Audio rig...it would give you pathetic result..the output voltage is very low out of the headphone-out.

Apple on the other hand looses out on sound quality (not a huge difference). But its more user-friendly. You can easily plug it your main audio rig (amp) and enjoy very good sound.

So if you are planning to use your portable player only (mainly) with your headphone (efficient ones like Grado) then Creative is better..else if you want to use it with your amp ALSO...go for iPod.