Want to buy NX Xtra but is the headphone jack going to be a probl

Question

Hi,
I have being doing research on the various HDD players currently available and I am leaning towards getting a 60GB Zen NX Xtra but the only thing holding me back is all this stuff I keep reading about the defecti've headphone jacks.
Does anyone know if Creative has solved this problem yet? If so is there anyway to tell (e.g. serial number etc.) whether it is a good one or a bad one? How about the Zen Touch, does it also suffer from this defect?
thanks,
Aidan

Answer 1

If reliability was not an issue my decision would be so easy - I'd purchase the Xtra without a doubt. Now I am really going back and forth. The Xtra has everything I need for the right price but I still don't trust it. I've looked at many ofl the review sites and some of the reviews are just plain scary and very off-putting! There are some really dis-satisfied customers out there. Even if I got the yr. extended warranty it still would be a huge hassel if I had to return it, probably not worth it to me. I really want to buy it but the only thing holding me back is my impression of the poor reliability. I've also looked into other players apart from the iPod. The iRi'ver looks good but I read that it is very slow once the hard dri've starts getting filled up. This is not acceptable to me as I know I will have a filled up dri've. I was scared off the Rio Karma and RCA Lyra by reports that I read of reliability. My requirements are very simple but it's not easy to find a product that meets them. My basic requirements in order of importance are:
. Reliability and longevity. I think this is something that should work perfectly for many many years, NOT months. I am not an early adopter of technology, I have my laptop for 5 years already and it should do me for another 5. My desktop is even older.
2. 60GB so I can store my entire music collection and have room to keep adding more or at a bare minimum 40GB. I proabobaly will have close to 40GB after I finish ripping all my CDs so that's why I'd prefer 60GB. It should work just as effecti'vely with the dri've maxed out as with hardly anything on it.
3. Decent sound quality - doesn't have to be audiophile quality, just decent
4. Reasonable ease of use.
5. Painless connectivity with my old Windows laptop and desktop machines
6. Something that doesn't break the bank. Around $300 seems fair, but I could be convinced to part with $400 especially if it aced all the other requirements.
These are pretty simple requirements but I'm having trouble finding a player that meets them. I'd love it to be the Xtra, but as you can see it's my number priority that is holding me back here. I'd like to hear someone say something reasuring to me about this but a player that has worked perfectly for 2 whole months does not quite seem reassuring enough.