Crave: Take the iPod Challenge

You've heard of the Pepsi Challenge, right? With the help of Jasmine France and Donald Bell, I do a very unscientific study in the courtyard of the CNET offices to discover which MP3 player our participants preferred! The results may surprise you (or not).

Next week, Donald and I have our recap of Maker Faire, the excellent D.I.Y. fest from Make Magazine. Here's some of the other CNET coverage from the event this weekend!

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[navsimpson]

This Was Awesome.

I wish I could explain why, but the idea of an 'iPod challenge' made me inexplicably happy. More of these would be great!

[x1800yolk]

Noise to sound ratio

The Zune has a higher Noise to Sound ratio than the ipod (86db compared to 80db) so it was supposed to sound better. One thing that the Zune does do is cap the bit rate of the songs to 320kb/s. I don't know if the ipod does this, but if it doesn't, then lossless audio might make a big difference. It's cool to see a review on audio quality!

[tcardone05]

No Zen Vision:M

The CNET review says that the ZV:M "has excellent audio and video quality". The Zen would have gave the Zune good competition, but this was a cool test. Maybe some more like comparing headphones or something?

[equinox_zero]

Where is Sony & Creative?

I want to see a Sony Walkman & Creative Zen V Plus thrown into this mix. Hell, why don't we have a large scale fidelity test on popular mp3 players out there?