m4a audio files with the Zen V Plus

[tmcarson1]

Will the Zen V Plus play m4a audio files after the zen firmware has been updated to the latest version?

Thanks much!

[CrowdAds]

[BobbyRS]

No, I'm sorry the Zen V Plus cannot playback M4A files.

[tmcarson1]

Ok, thanks for the reply.

[BobbyRS]

No problem. If you are interested in a Creative player that supports M4A playback, you may want to check out the new Zen or Zen X-Fi.

[Chris Brandon]

Hello - Newby here, so please take it easy on me :-)

As with the above poster, I would really like my Zen V Plus to be able to use m4a files.

Reason being, I've just been comparing the sound quality between my elderly 2nd gen Nano with my new V plus.

Both using a bit rate of 256, The Zen using ( latest) MP3 & the Nano was using the Apple codec. (actual files sizes were comparable)

No matter how many pieces of music I tested, on sound quality terms, the Nano always came out on top. ( The better quality the source music, the bigger the gap).
(Tested using my Senheisser ear buds & also through my Naim pre & power setup).

So, I was wondering if it would be possible to request a firmware update which would enable the use of the Apple codec ?

Many thanks in advance
Chris

[BobbyRS]

Welcome to ABI Chris. You can always try asking Creative, but I doubt they will update the firmware to allow for M4A's. The Zen V/Plus has been out for a while now and was never meant to play back M4A's.

[Chris Brandon]

I emailed Creative asking about the possibility of a firmware release .......

Dear Chrus,

Thanks for contacting Creative Technical Support.

As reagrds to your enquiry, you may like to know that the ZEN V Plus is
only able to support mp3 and wma audio format.

As such, I'm afriad that you are unable to play aac file on the player.

Further to your enquiry, we do not have any information about future
firmware. We appreciate your interest and when Creative does announce
future drivers we typically include information on our Creative website.
Please note that Creative researches and tests hundreds of ideas every
year and not all come to market or materialize in the way the research
suggests. Research only confirms forward thinking ideas and in no way
confirms the drivers of an existing product/new product.
www.creative.com is the definitive source of information for future
firmware announcements.

So, it's highly unlikely to happen, but it's not a catagoric "No"

As regards to sound quality....In this last week I've been putting a seemingly awful lot of time into the various pro's & con's of .wma, .mp3, & Apples m4a

I won't bore you with all the details of what I've been doing, eg hacking windows registry to allow media player to import at 320 as opposed to 192 (.wma) etc but ( from a sound quality perspective) my conclusions are as follows ...

At lower bit rates .wma is better than MP3
As the bit rate increases, the situations are reversed & MP3 comes out on top (....caveat being the codec of the .mp3 being one of the newer "lame" versions as opposed to the Fraunhofer version as seems to be used in Windows Media Player 11 - Vista)

& best sounding of the lot ( bitrate's being equal), seems to be the offering from Apple, but only a few of the newer Zen products will decode these. ( unfortunatley, my Zen V plus won't...as per above info)

I tested the above using my Senheisser earbuds & also my Naim Pre & Power kit.

It all started getting a bit too nerdy for me, so I stopped playing ( Sorry....performing valuable Research & Development) at this point.

I've personally settled on MP3 - 256 VBR, set at very high quality ( ...min 256 but able to go to 320 should the need arise)

Chris

Edit.... For ripping cd's I've settled on using "CDex".....along with one of the newer lame versions

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by Chris Brandon

I emailed Creative asking about the possibility of a firmware release .......

So, it's highly unlikely to happen, but it's not a catagoric "No"

Yeah, that is Creative speak for "no".

Originally Posted by Chris Brandon

At lower bit rates .wma is better than MP3
As the bit rate increases, the situations are reversed & MP3 comes out on top (....caveat being the codec of the .mp3 being one of the newer "lame" versions as opposed to the Fraunhofer version as seems to be used in Windows Media Player 11 - Vista)

Yeah, many have been down that same road and come to the same conclusion around here.

Originally Posted by Chris Brandon

I've personally settled on MP3 - 256 VBR, set at very high quality ( ...min 256 but able to go to 320 should the need arise)

Most of the time I prefer 192VBR. I could never really tell a difference between 192VBR andd 256VBR, but you may have better ears than I.

Originally Posted by Chris Brandon

Edit.... For ripping cd's I've settled on using "CDex".....along with one of the newer lame versions

CDex is good, but I prefer EAC.

Good post!