Another Zen? Sure why not. Creative’s shotgun approach to product lines has spawned a new, yet very familiar, Zen. The Zen Mozaic is a blend of Zen V Plus and the Zen WAV. It takes all the features of the Zen V Plus and mashed it up with the external speaker of the Zen WAV or – basically - the Zen WAV with the styling influence of the Zen V. However, you would like to mix that up.

The Mozaic is aimed at the budget MP3 player market with retail prices dipping to $60 for the 2GB model, but is there anything more than price to lure buyers to the Zen? Or is it just more of the Creative status quo?

I've been using this incredibly tiny and cheap headphone amp we already mentioned earlier for a few days now and I'm really impressed with its performance. My expectations weren't exactly high when I ordered it, but after testing it with several phones I'd say the Chinese FiiO company managed to design a really fine product.

The amp's construction is very simple. It's powered by one AAA battery and sporting only a 3.5mm input jack that connects to the headphone output of an MP3 player and another 3.5mm output jack where the headphones plug in. The output also acts as the power switch. A red LED lights up when phones are plugged in, indicating that the amp is active. Rumor has it that a National Semiconductor LM4917 op-amp works at the core of the amp. However, this has yet to be verified.

The FiiO E3 was not designed to work with line-out connections since it lacks a volume control. However, what it does for low- (and not-so-low) powered headphone outputs can be quite nice - when one's headphones synergize well with the amp, that is.

I'm quickly running out of ways to introduce small players like the iriver T7. They are small and they have exactly the same specs as the competitors do now and did 5 years ago. Reviewing them is all about finding out if they have anything to offer whatsoever.

The T7's specs are rather unremarkable, but there are a few things speaking in it's favor - on paper. The integrated USB plug matched up with user selectable MSC mode surely makes it a nice alternative for those who want to connect anywhere, but is that enough to join the party of tiny players? Read on to find out

Zen fans have been looking forward to the next big thing from Creative. These fans clamored for a Zen Vision:M replacement which is, in my opinion, the best blend of MP3 players and PMPs to date. Creative’s last biggest release, the Zen, didn’t seem to hush this cry for something new, because it couldn’t yet natively play high resolution XviD/DivX files, failed at integrating the SD slot, and had cost-prohibitive 30GB+ capacities.

The brand new Zen X-Fi is basically a refreshed version of the Zen, but with added wireless features and X-Fi sound enhancement. Will this be enough, though, to satisfy the Zen fans who have been patiently waiting for Creative’s latest addition to the family?

Non-ipods have always received the short end of the stick when it comes to cool docking stations. Docks are still lacking but the Zune is getting a little bit of face time for these types of accessories. iHome has typically made docks for the iPod but has now made a slight deviation and released one for the Zune family, compatible with the Zune 4, 8, 30, & 80.

So if you are in the market for a Zune clock radio, this is more or less your only choice at the moment for a Zune dock with alarm functionality. Read on for my thoughts and a full rundown of the ZN9’s features.

Admittedly I’m not a big fan of MP3 Players without screens since I like to be able to browse what is one my player, but I do see their appeal. Samsung is the third major brand to release a screenless player right after the Shuffle and the Zen Stone. While players lacking screen lack overall functionality the do their best and make up for it in style. Samsung has done a good job with the S2’s design making it more of a wearable accessory with the lanyard style headphones.

If I had to choose one of these faceless players, the S2 may be it since I get a kick out of the glossy finish and extended on the go playlist functions. If you are looking for something simple, please read on.

When Sony released the A820 in Europe and America, they dropped the noise cancellation feature and instead shoved it into the S610 and dubbed the new model S710. This left the users with a choice between noise cancellation or the bigger screen and Bluetooth support of the A820 series as the S710 is identical to it's predecessor except for the noise cancellation. The question is if this was a smart move by Sony or if splitting the new features like this wasn't such a good idea. Read on for a full review of the S710 noise canceling player.

iriver announced quite a few players at CES 2008 and now they are starting to tickle out. First was the E100, now the Lplayer- next the Volcano and SPINN to follow in the next few months. I was a bit concerned that iriver lost its way with the E100 which was a rather disappointing low end player. But now they are back on track with a slick design and nice build quality typical to iriver.

The LPlayer is very much like the clix family of players sans a few of the more advance features. While the LPlayer is another great iriver product, there is not a whole lot of innovation, just a solid player offering another choice to the mix.

A lot has been written about Shure’s current flagship in-ear phone already, but of course that doesn’t stop us from reviewing them. Maybe we just add a bit more to the confusion surrounding them, seeing how the SE530 are either loved or hated by certain people, and seeing how so many reviews tend to contradict each other about their sonic qualities. One thing is for sure: the SE530 do have many virtues, but they also have their fair share of weaknesses.

Let’s take a closer look at these quite expensive triple armature equipped earphones… No holds barred, for s(h)ure.

If you are looking for great sounding equipment a good place to turn to are recording studios since their everyday activities depends on high fidelity sound gear. Usually, studio monitors can cost an arm and a leg compared to most MP3 player docks or the cheap studio monitors don't have a big sound advantage. But there is a little gem made by KRK that does fall into great sound quality at a reachable price.

The KRK RP5 was routinely popping up as a best buy studio monitor for under $300 so I wanted to see how these would translate into a consumer environment. This review is not geared towards music producers but towards the average MP3 player owners looking for a future proof way to “dock” their player to speakers. Additionally, it is geared towards computer user that has a little bit of extra desk real estate for great sounding speakers.

The Samsung U3 has been on the market for a while now, but like other small players like that it's not as easily outdated as bigger players that fight for the newest features. With the exception of adding OLED screens, players like the U3 have more or less been stagnating feature wise for the last 3 years. This means the U3 is still a very good candidate. It's pretty well equipped with an FM radio, touch buttons, recording, and integrated USB connector. Read on to see how well it does in real life

The A820 series is Sony’s latest and flagship in the Walkman line up. As the head honcho of the family, the A820 is the first to sport Bluetooth audio. Unlike recent Samsung players which support extended Bluetooth features, this Sony only supports Bluetooth audio transfer and control. If you have used any of the more recent Sony Walkmans you will get a near identical experience since the interface and the features are the same. The only new thing here is the addition of Bluetooth, larger screen, and different form factor.

With that said, this review will be slightly abridged since have pretty much covered the majority of the A820 in the A810 and S610 reviews. This review will focus mainly on what makes this player stand out from the other Sony Walkmans.

The Zen Stone and Stone Plus was successful when first released in terms of price and features- giving them an edge over the iPod Shuffle. Since then the Sansa Clip and the price cut of the Shuffle have given the Stones more noticeable competition, so it was a pretty good move by Creative when they recently upgraded both Stones to new versions with better battery and an integrated speaker.

The upgrade is noticeable, but not all of the previous model's flaws have been fixed. The menus are still slow, and the music browsing hasn't been improved. Read on to see if the new features make up for the bad.

Meet the Insignia Pilot- Best Buy's latest budget DAP which was covertly introduced late last year (seriously, not even a press release?). The Pilot is the successor to the Insignia NS-DV series of players, which gained somewhat of a cult following on the Internet, particularly in our own forums. The Pilot sports a 2.4” 262K color display and is available in both 4GB, and 8GB capacities. The Pilot also offers a few features which rival those of more expensive players such as Bluetooth support, an SDHC card slot, RDS support, video-out, and dual headphone jacks.

The Pilot is, however, still a budget DAP, and probably won't be making your Zune wielding friends jealous any time soon. But, if you're looking for a solid no-frills player for every-day use, the Pilot might just be for you.

Ultrasone is one of the lesser known, yet quite respected, German headphone manufacturers. They just released the newest member of their mid-ranged product line of closed headphones, the HFI-780. Sporting low impedance, decent sensitivity, foldable design, and good isolation, the HFI-780 work well with even the weakest powered MP3 players. This makes them a viable alternative to the ubiquitous in-ear phones and earbuds usually seen with portable players. For a price of $250 (€195) they deliver sound quality that can hardly be matched by small in-ear phones in the same price range - or even above. Their form factor might appeal to people that don’t feel comfortable sticking tiny buds into their ear canals, but still want good isolation and portability.

Enough of the basics, let’s see in depth what they’re all about…