After numerous installments in this series, we are finally done with the preliminaries.  we have talked about the design of each of these players, the controls, and even the menus.  Now, it is time to get down to business with what I think is the single most important segment in this series: sound and audio.  Let’s get right to it.

Finding Your Media: Let’s start with how to find your media.  Almost all of these players arrange your media on the screen in an alphabetical list.  This list can be organized by song, artist, album, genre, or playlist (and more). 

The problem I have with this paradigm is that you have to scroll through the entire list to get to the entry you want to play.  This is true for the Sansa View, Zune (left), iPod Nano, and Samsung,  There is simply no easy way to jump further down the list. 

The Sony Walkman  Video (above) and the Creative Zen X-fi (below) both offered a solution to this problem.   In addition to the alphabetical lists, a separate menu across the top (on the Sony) or down the side (Creative Zen) allows you to jump to a specific letter in the list.

So, if you want to play “These Are Days” by 10,000 Maniacs, you do not need to scroll through the whole list.  You can jump straight to the letter “T” and take it from there.

The other thing I really like to do is shuffle my music.  Since this is how I usually listen, I really appreciate it when the shuffle option is easy to find.  The iPod added a shuffle option to the main menu.  The Zune made it almost as easy, making Shuffle the first option in the songs list.  The Sony Walkman took this another step by adding two shuffle options.  Intellishuffle, which is an advanced shuffle option; and time machine shuffle, which will randomly select a year and randomly play music recorded in that year. 

The iPod also includes an option to employ Apple’s new Genius Playlist.  Select this feature, and the iPod will select about 20 songs which are related to the one you are currently playing, creating a new playlist for your listening enjoyment.

Some of the other players, including the Samsung, Sansa, and Creative Zen make you dig into an options menu, either from the main menu, or from the within the music screen.  I was disappointed by these players, which required me to hunt around to find this option.

Finally, there was one feature which was unique to the Sony Walkman, and that was the Initial Search option.  Just select whether you wish to search artist, album title, or song, and then choose the first letter to begin the search.  This is just another option designed to make it easier for you to quickly find the item you wish to play.  And I loved it!!

What You See Is What You Get: Now that you have found your music, let’s take a look at what you are going to see on the screen.  Initially, the all appear to be pretty similar.  Each gives you the name of the song, artist, and album title.  They all also display the album art and typically will show how much time is left in the song.

The really cool thing about the iPod Touch is that it employs one of the cooler features Apple has introduced lately.  Turn the iPod sideways, and it will use the included accelerometer and enter Coverflow mode.  This is really pretty slick.

The Sansa includes a small display under the album art image.  Pressing the selection button will toggle this display between: time remaining, equalizer, a larger picture of the album art, and the next song to be played.

The other players also feature some additional options and menus from the play music screen, but overall, they are all pretty similar in their displays.

Listening Along: OK.  Everything we have covered up till now is all well and good, but what you really want to know how these things sound.  I mean, we are talking about music.  Your ears are much more important than your eyes here (unfortunately, I could not find a good way to recreate the sound of each player here, so you will have to take my word for all of this.)

Now, in the past, I have been reluctant to talk too much about how different media players sound, mainly because there are so many variables that get in the way.  In this case, though,  I attempted to minimize as many variables as possible in order to focus on the sound quality of each individual player.  First, I tested all of the players with my Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 earphones.  Second, I listened to songs from a variety of artists and genres, and used the same recordings and playlists on all of the players. 

My test playlist included: “Get Back” from the Beatles Love CD; Tiny Dancer from the Almost Famous soundtrack (Elton John); Yummy by Gwen Stefani; and Money for Nothing by Dire Straights.  I selected these songs because the featured a wide variety of musical genres, including softer tones, loud pieces, highs, lows, and a great deal of bass in some parts.  In other words, these songs offered pretty much the entire spectrum of music.  I wish there had been a way to perform blind tests, setting it up in such a way that I could voice my opinions without knowing which player was which.  Unfortunately, this was not possible.  However, I attempted to remain as objective as possible.

I have to say that the results of this test did not come as any surprise, and were pretty consistent with my notes over the past couple of months.  What I found was that there was an extremely clear division here.  Three of the players, the Sony Walkman, Zune, and iPod Nano rose to the top, with a crisp and clear sound.  In the middle of the spectrum was the Sandisk Sansa View.  If you were to listen to the Sansa, without sitting side-by-side with the others, it really sounds very good.  I have been a big fan of this one in the past, and I think it is a fairly good option.  Just not as good as some of the others.

I have to say, however, that I was disappointed by the Samsung and Creative Zen.  Both of these sounded muffled and much softer than they should have.  Not quiet (I had the volume cranked) but soft, and not nearly as crisp and clear as the others.  I also noticed that both of these could not reproduce some of the background sounds, secondary tracks, or other notes which were occurring beneath the main score.  This resulted in a subtle alteration of the music, making it sound less rich or full than it should have.  [You may notice that there is no album art displayed in these pictures.  This was my own fault.  When I transferred the music, I inadvertently stripped some of the metadata, including album art.  Both players will display album art, without problem.]

Let’s take a minute, though, and go back to the top three.  I spent quite a bit of time in a sort of second round trying to figure out which was the best of the three.  To be honest, the Zune, Sony, and iPod were all pretty close, so putting them in any kind of order was extremely difficult.  In the end, however, I have to admit I was pretty surprised by the results.  Here was my final analysis, putting all six players in order:

• Microsoft Zune
• Sony Walkman Video
• Apple iPod Nano
• Sandisk Sansa View
• Samsung YP-P2
• Creative Zen X-fi

Yes, that’s right.  The iPod Nano, which may be the most popular media player in the world, was not the best sounding to my ears.  In fact, I have to say that for me, this one was not even a particularly close call in the end.  The close part was really between the Zune and the Sony.  Interestingly, the two players on top of my list are also probably the two most underexposed players out there.  When I talk to people about the Zune, I am frequently met with disappointing blank stares.  Likewise, the Sony usually draws a response like, “you mean the same company that made my tape player in high school?”  This lack of exposure, however, allows them to be overshadowed by what I felt was the inferior sounding iPod Nano. 

If you missed any part of this series, don’t forget to check out the archives, where you can read every installment.  And stay tuned.  Coming up, we’ll be looking at video and photos, as well as a number of other features, before we ultimately crown a winner.