I've got an F40.

by hoob - 1/16/06 5:20 AM

In Reply to: Toshiba Gigabeat 60Gb vs Ipod Video 60GB by pauldwade

Which is identical in form factor to the F60. The only difference, as far as I know is just the storage space. And yea, I'd just like to say that I love the player. It's got great audio quality. There are something like 32 equalizer settings, including the 3 SRS WOW settings and a customizable equalizer setting, too. and people complain of distortion and whatnot, but I've not heard that at all. I found that most of the time, distortion and audio problems had to do with the files themselves. And yea, the gigabeat is sonically superior to the iPod from what I know...although I haven't listened to the 5G iPod yet, so I can't say for that one.

And the Plustouch pad isn't as hard to use as cnet made it out to seem. It appears they just didn't read the manual. Sure, there are little quirks, control-wise, that the Gigabeat has, but they're nothing major. Let's see, you just learn to slide your fingers across the pad for accessing menus, touch the pad to change songs and whatnot, and that's about the gist of it. Maybe I'm too used to the plustouch pad now, but I just can't seem to get comfortable with the scrollpad on the iPod. It's just more foreign to me, after using the Gigabeat for so long.

Well, since you're saying you're more about the audio than the video, there's no real reason to wait for the new Gigabeat S series. The only real problem that I see people having is with the Gigaroom software. I can see how people would think it's buggy, but it's run perfectly fine on my computer. The only time it gives me problems is if I'm trying to transfer a file that turns out to be corrupt onto my Gigabeat.

There's also a firmware update rumoured to hit sometime this winter, which should significantly improve sound quality, too. But that's still vaporware, as of now. I also like the fact that it comes bundled with a remote (F40 and F60 models only) and a cradle (all models) for the player, just makes it that much more attractive to me. I got an F10 back in June when it first shipped and then upgraded to a Philips HDD6330, whch was terrible, and went with the F40. I have not regretted that one bit. Well, maybe the Philips player bit, but otherwise, yeah..I'm immensely happy with my Gigabeat.

Hope that's helpful.