Customer Reviews

Zune Travel Pack

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is an excellent selection of accessories for the Zune. Though it's marketed as a Travel kit, I find that I use most of the accessories frequently, such as the AC charger and extra synch cable, the much improved earphones, and the remote. I even use the case as it is excellent for keeping all my Zune accessories in one place.

Regarding the case, it is well organized and quite roomy, though it resembles a shaving kit more than a case for a media player. It has a padded socket for the Zune with an elastic strap to hold it secure. It also has a custom fitted place for the earphone case and the AC adapter. The general use storage has plenty of room for the synch cable, remote, additional earphones and such.

The earphones are very good and are quite an improvement over the stock earphones that come with the Zune. There are 3 different sized pads, so this should work for most users who aren't adverse to in-canal earphones. It includes a plastic case that keeps the earphones and pads secure, but is a little unwieldly to wind the cord up and jam it all in. The base is strong and the treble is good, and since these are in-canal earphones, they do an adequate job of blocking out some noise, though they are not noise-canceling.

The remote is actually a nice suprise for me, as I did not expect to find it useful. It's great for keeping the Zune stored away in a jacket pocket or backpack, but still have access to basic functionality like volume or changing tracks. It also does dual purpose as a splitter, so a second listener can jack-in and listen along with you.

The additional synch cable is needed for connecting the Zune to the AC charger, and can also be used for connecting to a PC or an Xbox 360, both of which will charge the device. Having this second synch cable enables me to leave one cable connected to my PC at home all the time, but insures that I always have a cable with my Zune for opportunities to charge, synch or output to an Xbox 360 while away from home.

Strongly recommended for Zune owners.

Amazon needs to provide this information in its description: The wired remote only works with the Zune 30GB. It does not work with the newer Zune 80 or 4 or 8. Even Microsoft is a bit obscure about compatibility. You can find the information in Microsoft's forums.

The travel pack comes with a remote that can attach to your clothing so I don't have to reach for the up/down buttons when I want to skip a song. I attached the clip to the seat belt that crosses over my chest. I am not distracted my taking my eyes off the road. I put my travel pack in my backpack and take it to work. I charge my Zune while sitting at my desk. The premuim earphones are awesome. You can hear the bass in the music and it dorwns out all background noise. You never need to turn up the volume on your Zune while using the premium earphones. I love my Zune accesories.

The headphones are good, but not great. The charger is just a USB charger with the Zune logo on it. The extra cable is only there so you have something to plug into the USB charger, and the headphone splitter/remote is really only useful if you're planning to share your traveling Zune experience with a 2nd person. And if this is a Travel Pack, why is there no car charger included?

The real draw of this kit is how all of these accessories work along with the case. The case is compartmentalized, so all Zune-branded products fit snugly into predefined niches which keeps everything from rattling around. You can purchase non-branded versions of all these accessories for a lot less money, but if you're really hung up on organization, this is probably the way you want to go.

I've been literally waiting for the mailman each day to deliver the travel pack to me and it finally arrived today. Even though I was very excited about getting it, I was even more excited with actually using the accessories. The case is nice: big enough to fit anything important in it and small enough to travel with. It is also very organized. The adapter's nothing new, it charges the zune (obviously). I suppose its good for when there isn't a computer available, but I already had one, so I didn't care a whole lot. The dual headphone jack controller is extremely convenient. I tend to go on vacation with my family and not everyone in it wants to listen to what's on the car's radio. I can share my music with my friends and family now and not have to either listen to it with the volume too high or the volume to low. I can control how I want to hear the music, and they can control how they hear it. The most fascinating item included were the headphones. I knew that they were supposed to be able to isolate noise, but I didn't realize that it made that much of a difference. As soon as I put them on, everything went silent and the only thing I could hear was the music. However, this does not mean that they necessarily reduce all noise to nothing. At the time I was alone at my house, and as soon as people got home, there was audible noise. I did notice an extreme reduction, though, and am happy that I bought them for the price I paid. Strongly recommended for travelers and non-travelers alike.

Overall I think this is a nice accessories pack with some useful items I think everybody would appreciate.

The premium headphones are by far the most useful accessory out of the whole pack. That's because, of course, they are headphones, and would be getting the most usage with your Zune from a "Travel Pack". They are not "sound canceling" (that is, they do not have an external microphone that reverses the audio heard from the outside and lays it over the music being played) but they do block sound very well, much better than I expected. When I first got these, it took me a while to first figure out how they best fit in my ear, but after a while of use it became natural and easy to use them. Since they do block external noise pretty well, the volume of the music outputted is significantly reduced from the stock headphones. It's not too much of an issue, except for the fact that you can no longer just take the buds out of you ears and turn the volume all the way up so other people can hear it. With these headphones it is guaranteed that the person sitting next to you in study hall won't hear your music no matter what volume it is. After about 3 months of use, the rubber the rubber part of the speaker wire started to separate at the endings (so you could see the copper wire inside). At first it had me worried, but the ear buds still functioned fine so I shrugged it off and made sure to be a little more gentle. At about 7 months, they finally broke. The wire at the end of the 2.5mm plug finally became separated from the plug itself. I did take good care of them, so I guess 7 months is a little short for a pair of headphones.

The case for the headphones is terrible. Not that the case is bad, but it's purpose is worthless. At first I thought it would be useful to unplug the headphones and wrap it in it's case for safe travel in my pocket from class to class, but it became apparent how much easier it is just to wrap them around the Zune itself like I've always done. What's worse, the Zune does not fit easily in the travel case with headphones wrapped around it, so it becomes necessary to wrap the headphones in their own case so the travel case will zip up nicely, only so I can throw it in my backpack and have to unwrap the whole thing again once in the car.

The AC adapter is very nice, works well to have it next to your nightstand to charge before you go to sleep and still keep the original USB cord plugged into the back of your computer. Also, this is an AC to USB adapter, I've had a friend successfully charge her iPod shuffle with it, however my brother's Zen Mini will not charge on it, but that's just one of many problems we've had with his device.

Not much I can say about the Audio Splitter/Remote, I've only used it once or twice, but it does work as expected. The buttons are a little hard to press, and the audio is a just a little lower on the volume when using 2 or more headphones simultaneously (3 total possible), but not noticeably.

The case itself is build as expected, kind of a hard-shell type case with sturdy foam padding for the Zune, a divider flap, and special sections that fit the premium headphones' case, the AC adapter, and the USB/Remote wires. Overall, nothing too impressive.

This is a nice set to have, and if you don't already own the AC adapter or any headphones better than the stock ones, a good buy.

I purchased this travel pack before a long international trip and found the the travel pack to be quite useful. The earphones are a good upgrade from the standard ones that came with the Zune. The travel case, extra cables and charging device are a perfect compliment to any serious traveling Zune user.

My one complaint is the price: If you have the time (I didn't) to find alternatives you will most likely assemble an equal set up at a more reasonable price.

Overall, this was a great buy for an even better price. The ear phones do a good job of blocking out other noise, even on an airplane, and are MUCH more comfortable than the standard ones that come with the Zune player. Use of the splitter does significantly use more power, however. Good thing it comes with an AC adapter. The entire package is a good buy.

The headphones work much better for my ears than the ones that came with the Zune. I'm glad to have a wall charger so I don't have to use my laptop to charge it. And I think the travel case is great--although I won't carry my Zune in it while traveling (I'll be listening to it!). I will use it to carry the accessories and it will also hold the chargers for my cell phone, PDA, etc., as well. All in all, a very worthwhile purchase.

Great price and works for my Zune HD 32g. The pocket is a little big but the strap keeps the Zune HD in place. Headphones are decent (these aren't the "good" ones but are better than the ones that come in the box) but nothing special, however, the bass sounds pretty good to me. I like the extra charger and cable so I can leave 1 cable at work and the other in the case. That's worth it alone seeing how an extra USB cable costs just as much if not more than this entire case. I haven't tried the splitter thingy yet.

The case is a little on the big side (about the same size, width and height, of 4-5 DVD movie cases) but it works for me because I only carry in a bag when I travel.