You didn't think we would leave this one unscathed did you? For the last few days the Zune HD sat particularly close to the tool set. After passing by it a few times eying them both, I could not longer resist and started tearing it apart.

You will need: Tri-wing screw driver. #0, T-4 & T-5 Screw driver, Tweezers. Tri-Wing screw drivers can be found on Amazon or if you need to search elsewhere it is the same screw type that Nintendo uses on their Wii and DS Lite

Everyone loves to peek inside and see what makes these players tick and its always helpful to see them pulled apart for future repair or swapping out parts for customization.

The Clip+ resembles the original clip insides but with some upgraded silicone. Disassembling was easier than the original and fairly straight forward with the right tools. All you will need is a slim piece of plastic to pry the two half apart and a small screw driver. You can take apart and put back together the Clip+ without damaging the plastic housing if you are careful. Before your start, take a look at the pictures and mind where the latches are that hold the two pieces together. Then carefully pry at those locations. Good luck!

You know we're big fans of taking a look at the chips, circuit boards, and inner workings of our cherished mp3 players- so we love to see that interest has spread to our forum members as well. Trikon000 did us the honor of posting a guide to the Cowon S9 tear down with lots of pics.

I’ve taken my S9 apart as well so I will mention that it's not for the faint hearted. It’s not an easy disassembly and it will void you warranty. So unless your S9 is broken / out of warranty or you have done this before, I recommend just checking out these cool pics in the S9 forum.

Earlier this year SanDisk introduced a new format to deliver music called slotMusic. This is simply a 1GB microSD card with DRM-free digital files on it. This format is backed by some of the major record labels such as EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner.

To go along with this new format SanDisk has introduced the slotMusic player. This memory-less and screen-less player relies solely on microSD for music playback. The idea is that non-tech savvy users will be able to swap out their purchased slot music albums.

I don’t believe that slotMusic will revolutionize the music industry, but may do well in certain niche markets. Aside from the new music format, the player itself is an interesting story.

Ever wanted to know what is inside the Zune Pad? You are in luck- my compulsion to take things apart kicked in the other day after a bout of boredom. The pics may not be for the feint hearted, but I can assure you that no functional Zunes were harmed in the making of this disassembly. This one was already on its death bed. I would also like to mention that opening up the Zune Pad will render it useless.

Please read on for some great pics and a bit about the tech behind the touchpad.

I got an email from abi reader Reece saying “i couldnt be bothered sending my iAudio 7 to korea to repair, as i had broken the menu button off inside the player. i decided to give it a crack myself, and i fixed it fine.”. Massive props to Reece for taking matters into his own hands with a little bit DIY and many thanks to him for sharing his slide show of this endeavor.

If you need instructions on you probably shouldn’t be taking it apart. Cracking this bad boy open requires a small screw driver and a little bit of patience. If you forget how to put it back together perhaps these photos will help. Thanks again Reece!

The iAudio 7 review, if you missed it. Also in related news, just yesterday Rockbox dev Daniel posted a photo of the i7 with custom code running on its way to getting Rockboxed.

For those who were wondering what’s inside the new Creative Zen X-Fi, here is your chance for a peek. The Zen X-Fi opened up similarly as the Zen did with clips around the edges holding the face to the back. However, this time the face separates from the backing with the circuit boards and such attached to the back plastic plate. Also this time around there is a little bit of glue applied to each clip holding it together; this likely the reason the Zen X-Fi feels a little sturdier than the Zen.

I would only recommend opening your Zen X-Fi for repair and not just for fun since you may not get it back together with the same tight feel it had before. If you are planning on surgery I would recommend checking out the Zen teardown video for some pointers on getting the case cracked. Otherwise below are lots of pics of the wireless player splayed for your viewing pleasure.

Also be sure to check out the Zen X-Fi review.

Here is a teardown of SanDisk’s latest. The disassembly was straight forward being that the housing was held together by plastic clips on each side. Once inside, the removal of the LCD is just a matter of releasing it from a set of clips.

This may not be something you want to do for fun since it may not go back together as tight as it once was. So I would urge you to only use this guide as a repair reference if you are going to take the Fuze apart. Otherwise please enjoy this journey into the depths of the Sansa Fuze’s internals.

If your Zen is in need of repair or you just feel like looking at its guts, take a look at this simple guide. The method of opening the Zen is non destructive and can be opened with a few simple tools. You will need a #0 Phillips head screw driver, a slim pocket knife and/or a set of plastic pry tools. A credit card or driver’s license will work in place of the plastic tools.

The difficulty of this disassembly is moderate with nothing overly difficult, but it’s more getting the guts to dig into your fully functional Zen.

Cracking open the Sansa Clip may not be for the faint hearted since getting into it may render it useless. Although not impossible since the Clip is snapped together and not glued. Regardless, I broke mine so you wouldn’t have to. =)

So what makes that Sansa Clip sound good? Well, I’m not an electronics engineer, nor am I well versed in chip design, but I did find something interesting. Sound quality has some to do with the SOC (system on chip) and / or the DAC (digital audio processor), but it also has to do with the sum of the components, how they are laid out on the main board, and also how they interfere with each other. Then unusually, but smart thing I found inside the clip was a metal plate shielding the circuitry from interference. This is the first time I have seen this out of the many players I have disassembled that did not have wireless functions.

Below there are a few pictures for your browsing. Also be sure to check out the Clip review if you with thinking about purchasing one for the holidays.

Don’t feel like waiting for the next get 16GB flash MP3 players? Then make your own. One of our forum members had put together a nice tutorial on upgrading your 1” hard drive based Creative Zen Micro to a full-on 16GB flash player.

In this particular instance there is not much saving on battery life since the current draw is close to the same, but you may see a few minute improvement. With a compact flash upgrade you may also see an improvement in data durability.

If you are interested in doing this same hack, forum member trikon000 has put together easy to follow tutorial as well as a disassembly guide.

[16GB Zen Micro | Zen Micro Disassembly]

It’s always interesting to take a look inside of gadgets so once again I cracked open one of SanDisk’s latest creations, the Sansa Express. While there is nothing inside that is user replaceable, it may come in handy one day if you break or jab a button. Some industrious readers have been using these guide to buy broken player off of eBay for pennies on the dollar to pull together parts- fixing them and reselling them.

The disassembly is simple with 4 screws and a snap to the entire process. The ribbon cable may be difficult to new comers. Deataching it requires you to flip up a little brown bar over the cable with a flat head screw driver. You will understand when you see it. Other than that, follow the chronologically ordered pics and you will be on your way to Sansa guts.

Creative dropped the Zen Stone seemingly out of nowhere to compete head-on with the iPod Shuffle, doing so at half the price with more to offer. Creative’s screenless player is a very basic offering - only audio playback and data storage. However, the player does step out of the current Zen lineup feature set by offering up true MSC drag and drop, catering to all operating systems.

The Zen Stone makes a great secondary player to your audio arsenal, handy for the gym or any place you need a simple, truly portable music solution.

Read on for a look at all the features Creative has managed to pack into this player, as well as a peek at the Stone’s insides, disassembled for all to see.

Cowon’s new portable media player, the D2, is a touch screen flash based player with a really great form factor. Along with Cowon’s usual great sound quality, the D2 sports a very impressive and rarely found feature of a 16.2 million color screen. But this isn’t a review, it is another guild to cracking open your precious gadget.

The disassembly is fairly easy if you are somewhat mechanically inclined. But the guide may not be useful as the battery looks to be custom and not user replaceable even if you can get into the player. Nonetheless, Cowon has pretty good customer service and will repair their devices at a reasonable cost. Really, this guide is just for the pr0n of it… enjoy…

Please be sure to check out the in depth iAudio D2 review for another candid look at this fine player.

It is time to crack into a new gadget. The SanDisk Sansa c200 series, more specifically the c240, is splayed for your viewing, repairing, hacking, or Rockboxing pleasure. Just follow the detailed step-by-step pictorial. It is a very simple teardown and I didn’t feel the need for instructions. If you need instructions, you probably shouldn’t be taking it apart.

One very interesting note, as you can see, is that SanDisk is now using its own flash memory. Previously, in the e200 series it was using Samsung memory. The e200 I took apart was a very early version so SanDisk may be using their own memory in the e200s now on the shelves.