Creative Zen X-Fi

Audio
Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the audio quality of the Zen X-Fi is quite good. I can’t say it was great in all honesty, but it was good nevertheless. With the X-Fi turned on, the quality is definitely a lot better, but your recordings will have to be immaculate in order to enjoy the truly superb sound quality of the EP-830 in-ear bundled earphones paired with the player. Music fanatics may have a bit of an issue with the bass level when the X-Fi is turned on.

Thankfully, all can be controlled with help from the music settings menu that provides a set of EQ presets and a manually customizable graphic EQ. The X-Fi also has the Creative Smart Volume option, so your player will try to prevent you from losing your hearing by keeping the volume level in check. The Bass Boost feature is something I’m particularity fond of. But again, if your recordings are not perfect, you’re not going to like the jarring one bit. Something has to go. Take your pick.

The highs may sound crisp and clear with the X-Fi engine running but the mid frequencies are a bit off and the bass is reduced slightly, which I did not like, but on the whole it was an interesting experience and much better than its predecessor. Playlists can be created directly from the drive on the PC without the use of any software.

Other kinks that should have been worked out are the access to the Audio Settings from the music submenu. Sadly, as with some of the less impressive players, you’ll have to go all the way back to the main menu, scroll down to the Settings and then go into the Audio Settings. You can’t even assign it to the shortcut key. However, once the desired option is selected, you can click on the Play key to go back to the track playing and return to the Settings by clicking on the Return/Back key.

The FM radio works quite well, providing decent enough reception even while commuting. It did take a while to locate and store the presets though – over 25 seconds, which is way too long for me. It didn’t store all the stations either. But once you’ve manually found the missing ones, you can just save them and won’t need to worry again. FM recording is also present, as well as a separate voice recorder.