Creative Zen

ZEN refers to the series of portable media player designed and manufactured by Creative Technology Limited, the names of which start with the word ZEN, e.g. ZEN, ZEN X-Fi. The players evolved from the NOMAD brand through the NOMAD Jukebox series. Three of Creative Technology's players won the Best of CES award from 2004 to 2006 in their respective categories, with one winning the overall award. The ZEN series has a strong foothold in Asian markets, especially in Singapore, the company's headquarters.

All players support MP3 and WMA formats, while some models support also WAV and Audible formats. They are bundled with device drivers and Creative MediaSource, a media player that includes transferring and syncing abilities exclusively for the players. Some models are PlaysForSure-certified for being compatible with Windows Media Player via (MTP) and supporting the Janus DRM. They are natively compatible with Windows, with some also supporting Mac OS X.

As of 2016, Creative has not released new Zen players for 4 years, and firmware updates for 3 years. In addition, their website designates the Zen line as "archived".

The ZEN X-Fi3 is Creative's 3rd MP3 player to feature its proprietary X-Fi audio technology. It includes X-Fi Crystallizer. Primary function of the Crystallizer is to "restore portions of the sound which were lost during compression".

The "compression" that is meant here is not the digital file-size reduction achieved by digital audio data compression technologies like for example mp3. Rather, the idea is to reverse the effects of dynamic range compression. X-Fi Expand allows you to experience surround sound effect on your earphones.

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Wikipedia