Despite the Zen's nice screen and low price, the sound quality is simply mediocre compared to similar players from Sandisk, Samsung, the Zune, and Cowon.
Using my Shure E500 IEM buds, the Zen is clearly upper-mid-range dominant, with rolled off bass. I won't comment on the high frequencies because the E500 is sub-par at reproducing them.
Another major problem with the Zen's sound quality is that images are very unfocused, so that instruments blend into each other instead of having their own, well-defined image in space. Overall, the sound quality is below acceptability FOR ME, BUT if you think that it sounds good, then this is the player to get because it offers the best combination of features for the price range.
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