The equalizer, I've found out, is not going to be put in in future releases, but here's why: the hardware simply won't support it...before you go cursing MS for such a dastardly thing, here them out: In
a recent c|net article, Donald Bell discovered:
Despite my whimpering about the removal of the EQ, Microsoft seems fairly confident that the latest crop of Zunes offer audio quality equal or better than the first-gen Zunes (which many considered better than the iPod's). In an e-mail conversation I had with Jason Reindorp, Zune's marketing director, he said, "we've gone to great lengths to ensure top quality throughout like with the signal path, delivering 32 ohms to the headsets, ensuring we compare very favorably to other devices like iPod in terms of signal to noise ratio." Jason may be right, but the irrational ape in me still wants the EQ back.
So I'd say don't knock it 'til you try it. From personal experience, using the same premium earbuds, the zune 80 sounds way better than my Zune 30.....hrm.....could MS know what they're doing?....