hello,
I bought dh a creative for his birthday last december, he didn't take it out of the box untill august and he very cheekily took it back to the shop and exchanged it for the latest model which does video and allsorts. I couldn't believe it, the manager was amazing!
having said that, he got as far as putting all of his music and photos onto it and it has since been in its box...
anyway, when I went in search of the mp3 player, every sales person I asked recomended the creation over the ipod because of quality (the ipod is probably more fashionable though, if that matters to your dh!)
hope that helps a wee bit!