3. Ergonomic Progress

Creative has often been criticized for its convoluted ergonomics for on-the-move use. The first progress made here is the easy-to-read screen with its nice green back lighting. Then there is a multi-direction dial which makes navigation much simpler and can be used to control all your settings and create your own playlists. Menu browsing is still a bit complicated though, much less so than on the earlier Jukeboxes but by no means perfect. However, the PC part of it is a pleasure to use with its new MediaSource software which is simple and intuitive but not short on functions.

Creative Knows The Score

But where Creative Labs comes out tops is, as ever, in the quality of its playback. Is this not as it should be for a device this expensive? We tested it with WAV 16/44 and MP3 192kbps. The rendering is perfectly neutral with the standard setting. You get the entire spectrum with no parasite noise. Creative claims an excellent SNR of 98dB which we did not measure but are prepared to believe. Hooked up to a high-end sound system (H/K amplifier, 106dB tower speakers), there was practically no background noise, even with the volume turned up high, and no sound transferred from one channel to another. On its own and compared to a high-end NAD CD player with the same items, it lacks a bit of pep. But with the earphones, the Creative EAX effects system on the Zen NX does a very good adaptation of playback systems. A couple of tweaks on the dial give in-ear phones a fuller, warmer and less shrill sound, better than on the i-Pod and much better than the Archos. The merely adequate earphones provided do not do justice to the Zen NX, so we suggest you step out and buy some Sennheiser M500 in-ear phones.

Our conclusion is that the Creative Labs Zen NX is the best-designed portable player around. Its perfectly acceptable size, gigantic storage capacity, good looks, good ergonomics and, above all, outstanding quality playback make this the best device of its kind on the market.