Featuring a large, hi-res, blue backlit LCD, the NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra builds on the industry-leading music features of the NOMAD Jukebox Zen product line. Simply transfer all your music into the player with Creative MediaSource or the new NOMAD Explorer using ultra fast USB2.0, press the play button and get set to enjoy high-fidelity music. With advanced features such as Quick Scroller Navigation, Find, Playlist Creation and automatic ID3 tag categorization, managing and organizing your music will be a breeze.And the NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra doubles up as an external hard drive for storing all your photos, documents and other data files. Simply open NOMAD Explorer (integrated into Microsoft Windows Explorer) and drag and drop data files into the data folder or music files into the music library.
1 this so called
When i first got my mp3 player I was so excited to use it. Then I tried to put my CD's onto the Creative Labs software. But I had to name all 5,000 of my songs because the ... software doesn't have the CDDB to figure out the names unlike the fabulous iPod (which i now own and is 5 billion times better than the Zen Xtra).
Also when I was at the Gym, I was using the treadmill and all of the sudden my song stopped playing and I noticed that the screen had gone blank. When i went home I contacted customer service and they said I needed to pay 20 Bucks to send it to them and then they would repair the Hard drive and just charge me for it.
When I complained that I had a warranty they said that my warranty wouldn't be valid by the time they would've received my Zen Xtra.
Finally Creative Labs talks about how this piece of ... is "portable". C'mon, do you really think this lugnut will fit in my pocket, this thing is practically a mechanical brick.
The only thing I say that satisfies me is the fact that the battery can be taken out of the player so i can replace when the darn thing fails(which happens wayyyyyy to often).
2 DON'T BUY THIS!!!
This is the only product I have ever purchased that I would ever IMPLORE people NOT to buy. I actually bought one and had to have it replaced after 6 months when it just stopped working. The second one is full of bugs that screw up song sequence. The battery dies quickly and the player likes to shut off for no apparent reason. Customer service is a joke. I'm not saying spend the extra money on an Ipod but STAY AWAY FROM CREATIVE!!!
3 There's a Reason Why This Player is So Cheap . . .
I've been following the specs and prices of jukebox MP3 players for a couple years now, just waiting for a bargain to pounce on and digitize my whole music collection. A few weeks ago, I noticed the impressive price drop of the Creative Zen Xtra (30 and 40 GB models) and couldn't resist.
I guess I should say now that I own an iPod instead.
Why? While this brand and model might be suitable for some, I feel that only one word describes this gadget: CLUNKY. First of all, it's a pretty hefty device, it's size and weight comparable to an old cassette tape player. The screen isn't very sharp, and the menu scroll button is cheap and takes careful "balancing" of your fingertip (you'll know immediately what I mean if you try it). Furthermore, the model I received was either defective . . . or there just might be something to the gripes on this site about the battery life on these models - as my Zen Xtra would chug with juice for only a pathetic 80 minutes. While the Creative Zens are unique (to, say, iPods) in that you can remove and replace the battery, the claims of the company are just downright misleading. That's why I bought it over a variety of other brands: the advertised "12 hour battery life!" Nope.
Of course, there are some things that made it hard to send back for a refund. The sheer memory size, 30 or 40 GB, is HUGE. And Creative DID get one thing right - the SUPERB sound quality. Absolutely amazing, it makes the iPod sound bland. With cool effect equalizers that turn the sound into environments such as "Concert Hall," "Indoor Arena," and "Auditorium," a whole new experience is added to old musical favorites.
But altogether, the bad far outweighs the good. If you're terribly strapped for cash, go for it. But unless you plan on keeping it plugged into the wall for home use, this isn't the player for you. Shell out the extra $50-70 for the iRiver or iPod.
4 Highly Recommended
I've owned several MP3 players over several years, with this one replacing an old hard drive-based Nomad Jukebox (which replaced other RAM-based devices...) I highly recommend this one.
This device is a great value at the $215 I paid for it, especially when compared to the iPod (which I tried and thought was comparable). It's portable and compact, easy to use, high-performance, and the batteries last the whole day on a road trip.
I'd have preferred to see a directory-based listing for selecting genres, artists, and albums like the Nomad had, but once I got used to this format I like it. The desktop application for editing the embedded track information is very good, and highly addicting; I found myself spending hours getting all the data "just right."
Overall, no complaints, a very satisfied customer. Thumbs up!
5 Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 30 GB Mp3 Player
I was looking for an mp3 player that would hold almost every song and artist from my harddrive.There were 2 reasons I picked this over the Ipod.Price and a replaceable battery.I just got this unit today so I'm writing a review on my experiance with this product today.I will write again in 6-8 months to let people know how this is still working.I bought this at circuit city and also bought the 3 year warrenty in case the problems with the harddrive and ear plug jack pop up that I've read about.So far this is a great unit thou.The install of the creative software and drivers installed on my xp computer with no problem.It was very easy to copy from my computer to this unit and very fast.You can also delete very easily if you want to.There is some pros and also a few cons from this unit.The price of this unit for this much memory was much cheaper than the ipod.Also I don't know about battery life yet since I just bought this.When you get it thou you will have to charge it for 4 hrs.
Pros
1)This hasn't been mentioned but when playing if you scroll to the now playing you get song,artist,title,album info and Gendre all at the same time.Here's what it looks like.Note you must be in now playing to see this.
Michelle
Percy Faith
The Beatles Album/Jesus Christ Superstar
Easy Listening
Also if the title is long it will scroll across.
On my lyra 64 I only get the song title.If I want to see the artist I have to hold the Dsp button down.
2)This comes with the 2.0 firewire and it is very fast.
3)The battery is removable so when it won't charge anymore you can just go buy another one.
4)This thing has sound effects for example concert hall,bathroom etc when listening to music.
5)A backlight for night viewing
6)You can shuffle songs and it will play like a radio station.
7)Times between songs are quick for example when one song ends the other imediently starts.
8)This thing holds a lot of songs.500 hrs with mp3 and 1000 with wma.My lyra usually won't hold over 20 songs.
9)This unit comes with music already installed.It includes quiet a few classical songs if you like classical music.It also comes with demos.
10)This can also hold video from your harddrive.
11)You can organise your songs by artist,song,album or gendre.
12)The sound sounds great thru this unit even better if you have the sound effects on.
Cons
1)The case with the belt clip don't have a see thru window.
2)You must put music tracks in the selected music to hear one after another.If you just choose a song from the playlist you won't hear another one following it.
3)It's not as small as the ipod.
4)No stop button.You must hit pause to cut the song off and if you want to power it off just hit the power button after hitting pause.
5)The packaged earplugs don't fit well
You can also play this in your car 2 ways.Either thru using a cassette adapter if you have a cassette player or by using an FM transmitter.I use the Belkin Tunecast Wireless Fm Transmitter.You can buy these for less than $20.I recommend this product just make sure you buy the warrenty.
6 Beware - no customer support
Stay away from creative - far away. They only want your money. The unit itself - a creative zen 20 gb - has a few quirks but operated sufficiently. However, it did not hold up well and each time a repair was made, we were charged $100 minimum. Now, just over a year later, the headphone jack no longer makes contact. We were told "This unit is no longer supported" but we were offered a REFURBISHED unit (now, where did that come from?) for a price more expensive than a brand new 30 gb unit. I thinks its time to get an iPOD.
Consider me a disgusted, former customer of Creative. I will never buy their products again. I expect a several hundred dollar item to last longer than a year and to be supported as well.
7 Nice MP3 player
This is certainly a nice product. It's well put together, attractive, durable, provides some good options, and has great sound.
However, there are a few little drawbacks. First, it doesn't support a very wide array of sound formats; you're basically stuck with MP3s. Second, the "jog dial" scroll button is a little annoying and difficult to use, but not enough so as to ruin the experience. Third, it's practically impossible to read the LCD without perfect light or the backlight on (you can set how long the backlight stays idle, up to 60 seconds). Fourth, and finally, the button style and button/input locations are just a little...off, for lack a better word. The buttons aren't quite sticking out far enough and the button/input locations are a little strange (they work and all, but it could have been designed just a slight bit better).
Besides those few quirks, this is a really nice player. The sound is amazing, and the EAX settings are really nice, albeit some scale down the volume whilst using them. Battery life is acceptable. The player is a little larger than say an iPod, but it's still a nice size. The sync from your PC to the Zen Xtra (or vice versa) is a snap and very quick. Also, there's firmware and driver updates available, and the little harddrive is replaceable; if you ever want to replace or upgrade it, it's really simple. The case is really attractive and more durable than the plastic players out there, but the front case cover is easily removed, which is a good thing but can possibly become a bad thing as well, although I've yet to be able to make it 'accidentally' come off.
With everything the package includes, there's really no reason you shouldn't pick this up. For the score I had to knock off one star (I wish I could knock off only half of a star, though) for the my four small annoyances with the player.
8 Good value for money
Have had mine for about 5 months now...still working fine, battery life lasts 10 hours on mine (but that's only cos I'm diligent about recharging only when it's completely empty) and the sound quality is exceptional.
There are a few downsides, the main one being the size and lack of remote control...now I am sooooo tempted to buy the zen touch...
I've had no problems with the software, I'ved already used up 20GB of the alloted 30GB...mainly with personal files, it also doubles as my backup hard-drive...transferring of files to and from the Nomad to PC is a breeze, and with USB2.0, absolutely flies!
Conclusion is: Not as sexy as the iPod, but for this price, unless you have more dosh than sense, then go for this...
9 Nice little player
Sometimes I wonder who really writes these reviews...I could swear that 50% of them are written by either Creative or Apple.
Regardless, I just received my Nomad today...so everything I write is based solely on first-day use (cannot vouch for long-term performance). I'd like to first address those who complain about software problems/incompatiblity issues, etc. Is it really fair to comment about things like that on a hard product review? When I read through these reviews I was looking for the performance of the player itself, not of Windows problems.
I come from a strict loyalty to minidisc players. So this is coming from college student whos boyfriend inducted her to the world of MD and who swore by hers for the past two years: I really am impressed with the Nomad. My 18-year old brother got an iPod for his graduation, so naturally in sibling competition I had to outdo him. He got the 20gig, I bought Nomad in the 30gb for about $200 less. Ha! I won!
So let's be fair here. I love the touch controls on the iPod, I just didn't have the patience to wait for the Zen Touch's release, or the money to dish out. The fact that Apple includes a remote is quite nice. I do like the address book feature of the iPod as well, it gives me an excuse to hold off my tech-y temptation to buy a palm pilot.
On the other hand, the default carrying case for the iPod has no viewing window. I guess the Nomad didn't have one at first, but mine does. It's sort of faux-leather with a nice feel and a dinky clip (I don't plan on using the clip anyway) and makes the unit feel sturdier than it does alone. The front cover which houses the battery is a lighter material than the rest of the unit and almost seems like its in preparation for interchangeable front panels (I tried to look it up but found nothing of the sort). It has a release button and I have not found a way to make it "accidentally" fall off as of yet. ;-)
I do wish there were a manual hold button, I don't like pressing the power button to lock the keys. With the buttons being on the side, and the openings of the case being there as well, it is pretty easy to hit something when you pick up the unit to move it. Yes, its a bit bulky and larger than the iPod, but I would describe it as sturdier, not larger. My brother's iPod is scratched up so horribly because of the plastic, and he's only had it for about 3 weeks. At least the Nomad has metal covers (as thin as they may be). I'm all about aesthetics, so my superficial side is happy.
As far as sound quality goes, it certainly matches that of my MD player. I love having everything on a drive as opposed to minidiscs...even though they were durable I still had to carry around 5 of them. I thought 5 hours of music on one disc was great, but now I have more than 30 and have barely dented my CD collection, and have used only 2.3GB if not less. The Nomad definitely converted me and put my faith back into MP3 players, which I resisted for the longest time.
Guess we'll see how it holds out. I haven't found any reason to be unsatisfied yet. Although I will mention that I am using a third-party ripper to get my CDs, I haven't tried their software in regards to that.
10 Every Feature Usefull.
I bought the 30GB Nomad several months ago and it has really been a gem of a purchase. I was only expecting to by a 4 GB MuVo but for the extra 40 bucks, 26 GB is a bargin. The people at Creative designed a nice package here. Over the few months that i have had the Nomad i have had a chance to use all of the features. It fits my life style perfectly. You can customize playlists on the fly. You can set bookmarks in the middle of a track (very handy for long audiobook files). The sound quality is fantastic, and the EAX Features make it even better. I also like the fact that it can be utalized as an external hard drive. I have some files i need to transport from school to home and this is ideal. I can keep all of my work files on it and still have enough room for an extensive music collection. The battery life has never let me down and the controls are quite simple to use. The travel case that came with it is also quite nice looking and functional. This is a good bye.
11 Harddisk failure after 6 months
Note that the user manual says you cannot jog with this device, which to me means it can't take normal teenager use. I'm not buying another one for my child.
12 Great when it works
Great sound, battery 8 hours or so but seems to lock up every so often. Must remove the battery to let it unlock.
13 Too new to give 5 stars
OK, I bought this yesterday and it is my first mp3 player, so I'm a little biased. Of course it is working great at this point. I love the idea that I can put my entire CD collection in this little player. I was all ready to buy the iPod (even had the guy start ringing it up) when I went back to the computer department to inquire about a case. I was already cringing at the fact that every accessory for the iPod was sold separately and my total for a $299 player was already over $400 because of necessary accessories. A CREATIVE rep was in the dept and showed me his Zen. Maybe I was duped, but I was attracted to the fact that all I had to get was the player because it came with everything. I saved about $200 and just used a car adaptor from my existing portable Aiwa CD player to play the Zen in the car. I didn't like the software and have been using the Windows Media Player to organize and copy all my CDs.
My needs are pretty simple, I'm just looking for ease, price, portability, and capacity. I think I found all those things with my new Zen. I am concerned when I see people writing about broken headphone jacks and pop-off covers. I do recommend covering yourself with an extended warranty. I got mine at Best Buy, where they have a great service dept. As far as dropping it--don't. That is just common sense. Although this morning I took it flying with me in my uncle's little Cessna and it slid off my lap onto the floor and got wedged next to the door while we were at 6500 feet in the air. I got it out with no problem and with no damage. HOWEVER....I am a big enough person to admit mistakes...and will definitely be writing another review if anything negative happens. What is boils down to is ask yourself what you want and get it. They all pretty much do the same thing, just with different capacities, they all have certain design flaws, and it is always good to get an extended warranty if you're feeling nervous as a first-time buyer. Good luck!
14 Great product for the Price
Like most people i considered the iPod before purchasing the Creative Zen Xtra. The main factor why I choose the this mp3 player was the price (paid $208 on sale at amazon). It was 10 gigs more space and $200 cheaper than the ipod. I've had it for over a week and so far i love it. It's very easy to use, just drag and drop the music into the player. I filled up about 11gigs of space, so i have plenty left. It took me longer to transfer, but that's because i was using USB 1 to transfer. The menus are pretty intuitive and I figured it out easily. I didn't have a problem with the battery cover coming off easily like some people have mentioned, but I keep it in the case all the time.
My only gripes about this player so far is that it's a little big. Carrying it around is not a problem, but it's a little diffcult to navigate the buttons with one hand. The carrying case could defintely use some work since you can't see what is playing or what you are doing unless you open it up. It should come with a window so you don't have to open it up. And once you open it, the case isn't very secure on the player itself. I would also like to see a remote and fm receiver for it so you don't have to open the case. This would take care of the lack of window on the case.
Overall, it's a great product for the price and I would definitely recommend it for those who simply don't want to spend all their money on the ipod.
15 headphone jack
I bought this before traveling to holland for 6 months and i loved it. Its got good sound, its still a lot smaller than a portable cd player, it holds a ton of songs. And its relatively cheap. I paid $250. Here in holland its almost ?400 ($500)
The only bad thing is the headphone jack. my friend and i who came to holland had the same problem with the headphone jack going out. It still works, just the connection has to be just right or you lose it. It gets frustrating after awhile.
Other than that this is a great machine and i would recommend it, just get the warranty so you can get it fixed right the first time. The value of this player is much higher than the I-pod.
16 Could never get CDDB to work on Windows 98
This is a terrific little music jukebox ... but I have had one very annoying problem. The CDDB service (which provides the track titles for your CD's) would not work on my Windows 98 machine. I beilieve that this is a Creative problem, because CDDB was working with Music Match on that machine. Tech support was responsive, but their advice (which I wasted hours implementing) provided no help. So, despite the promise of being able to use this machine on more than one computer, I was actually only able to get the software working on my XP machine. So, I'm happy with what works, but pretty annoyed with the hours wasted, lack of effective tech support, and ultimately the lack of support for my Windows 98 machine.
17 Don't buy this piece of crap if you have Windows XP
I bought this based on what appeared to be solid positive reviews from satisfied customers. To my dismay, I've had nothing but a big headache trying to install the necessary software/ drivers onto my pc. After 3 emails back and forth to Creative's technical support department, and trying every suggestion they had, I'm still left with a player that won't work. Don't waste your time or money on this!!
18 READ!
I love this thing to death(5 stars), but the headphone jack breaks very easily. If you purchase this item, make sure you reinforce it(from the inside) right away! Otherwise, I had no problems, I love(ed) it...
19 Lousy mp3 player
This thing is a shiny paperweight as far as I'm concerned. There are only 2 advantages to the Zen, and they are price and battery life. This thing is built like a carnival toy. The faceplate that covers the battery pops off basically whenever I touch it. So you get what you pay for. Also, Creative's customer service sucks more than their players do. The overall mssage I got when I requested help from them was, "You already paid us, so why should we help you unless you pay us more. Go screw yourslef." By contrast, the Apple iPod is the best mp3 player you can buy. It's sturdy, looks great, has a fantastic interface and is easy to use, and Apple has superior customer service. Instead of Creative's useless 90 day warranty, Apple gives you a year, and you can extend that to 2 years. As to the battery issue, the 8 hour battery life was never a problem for me. I never listened to it for 8 hours in a row without being able to charge it. Plus, the battery is replaceable, it's just harder. I returned my Creative Crapbox/Zen and bought a 15GB iPod, which I love.
20 Nothing bad to say about it but....
I bought this trying to save a little money as an alternative to buying an ipod, and while there's nothing exactly wrong with it, I find myself a little regretful. It's a good product, I've been using it for a couple months and it has never malfunctioned or been irksome, the interface is relatively user-friendly, etc. My friend bought an ipod at around the same time, however, and seeing that in action vs. using my Nomad Jukebox really shows the difference between the two, and that the ipod is worth the price difference. The fact that the ipod's interface is just a little easier to use, that the slightly smaller size really makes a difference, that it works just a little faster, everything all the way down to the fact that the come-with headphones are just a little more comfortable make the ipod a better alternative. Again, there's nothing wrong with the Jukebox, it serves all my needs well enough, but if you're trying to decide which mp3 player to go with, I'd have to recommend the ipod.
21 Somewhat better than the ipod
This is actually my first MP3 and I'm just loving every second of this. The price is so cheap. 30Gb for only $219 or something like that. The ipod is asking for $200 for 15gb. That is indeed a big difference. I know that a lot of people would buy the ipod because it's smaller and it looks cooler. The problem is that the ipod will only work with itunes(AAC files). You can't transfers those types of files to the nomad. It's sort of good for us nomad users because we could buy music from Napster, Walmart, Rhapshody and many more. People should concentrate more on the capacity of an MP3 player, not just the way it looks. The only bad thing about the nomad is that the headphone jack won't last that long(only works for a year or longer). It's better than paying $90 to replace the battery on an ipod. Go for the creative. It's definitly worth the money.
22 The best
So, this is my first MP3 player, but that does not stop me from thinking it is the best available. I have had the unit for just over a month, and I have loaded around 100 of my 400 CD collection with the software that was provided - no upgrades necessary. To rip and fit a CD takes around 3-5 minutes max. I know the rest of my collection will fit. Since I travel long distances for work, and have eclectic taste in music, I can sort and play by genre, artist, album, or song. Admittedly, the scroll joy stick is a little hard to use, and I sometimes select the wrong item in the list, but I can live with that since it is easy to return to the last selection list.
It is simple to operate, and the sound from this little thing is great. Headsets, or powered speakers provide greate stereo separation. I use it as my main music source when I am away from the stereo system. Transferring from my PC to my Nomad could not be simpler. It connects through the USB 2.0, so transfer time is minimal.
The screen is easy to read - even for someone those eyesight fails at 50+, and the adjustment buttons and bars are easy to access.
I am not sure about the battery life. It seems to run shorter than the manufacurers claims, however that is during writing MP3s to the Nomad, which I assume would consume more power than playing. Guess I will find out on my next 12 hour flight in June, but having an airplane power adapter should solve that problem. The A/C cord is small enough to fit in my other pocket!
I am considering buying another unit for the spouse. After looking at reviews of the other units within this price range, I am finding no comparison. Also looking at the 60 Gb version, which should store all of my future CDs!
The only problem I have experienced to date is that it occasionally locks up when being written to for 100-120 MP3s. The reset button is easy if you have a paper clip or mechanical pencil point, and it boots up fast, so little time is lost in transferring activities. Just a little frustrating, so I just reset it each 8-10 CDs or so. This may be my operating system - using XP Professional.
When you select by album, it plays back in the original recording sequence. When you select by artist, you can sort by album or alphabetically by track, so it is easy to find what you are looking for. Selection by Genre works the same way. For play mode, you can select any option from shuffle with and without replay, normal, repeat forever, etc. Only problem with this is that setting the normal after you have selected the album/artist/genre will cancel the selection (or I just have not figured out how to do this yet). So, I go back and re-select and there it is! Selecting a new album switches from the I am listening to within 4 seconds. Not bad. This may slow down some once I load my entire CD set, but I think I can live with this!
Ok - so, no, I was not paid by Creative Labs to write this. Yes, I am planning to purchase another for the spouse.
23 Broken Screen
This thing worked great until the screen broke. It was my fault the screen broke but I was coverd by a three month warranty. I called customer service and they said that they would replace it and the warranty coverd it. A few weeks later I got it back with the screen still broken and a letter telling me it the warranty didnt cover it.
24 NOMAD
What i had:
20gb ipod with 10 gb full
ipod was ok but the sound clarity was just rotten. many flaws in my songs that shouldn't be present when you are paying 300+ dollars for a mp3 player. i HAD all of my cd's on my hard drive in WMA format and the ipod wouldn't take them. a month later all of my music was converted into the format that the ipod would accept. transferred everything over and what a surprise, nothing worked. ordered a new one and that one accepted the music. listened to it and was disgusted. the bass was overpowering and there was almost no mid or high range on the sound. say goodbyte to the ipod. went back to the store.
What i have now:
10gb less useless apple music and no more hassels
bought the nomad because it was so cheap and got pretty good reviews. recopied all of my cds over to creative mediasource (took 4 hours, which is how long it takes to charge the nomad the first time). made playlist as i went, using the info feature to get all song details (always a plus). Transferred the 1000+ songs to the player in a short time (15ish minutes) and al of the playlists went with it. mediasource software is ok but not as good of a program as winamp or something else of that simplicity, but still WAY better than the ipod's itunes. only problem with the whole package is the "now playing" thing. when you play a song, it goes to the now playing/selected music section. this is annoying because when you play a playlist, it adds it to this section and all of the other songs that you were listening to stay there (bad when your playlists have over 100 songs sometimes because you have to individually remove the songs form the list). a minor gripe but could have been deleted but probably wont. also, the player arranges songs in the folders alphabetically, which means that the songs arent in the right order. i can live with it in a 200 dollar player.
overall:
not the ipod KILLER but it is a very well priced alternative if you already have cds on your hard drive in a windows program. if you have a mac or have no music on your hd yet, go ahead for the ipod (its the cool thing to do. EVERYBODY has one and youll fit right in with the followers of the all expensive overpriced world). either way id still go with the nomad only because of price alone. a little bigger & heavier than the ipod but still fits in most pockets and doesnt weigh you down much. make your own choice but beware of the people that havent even tried the ipods and write reviews for it because they are strange
25 Zen and the art of noise - close to the edit
I got this back in March when Creative themselves were running a big sale on their site. I had most of my CDs already ripped on my PC in WMA and this player supported them fine. Most people compare this to the iPod though it really it is like the Dell Jukebox just slightly cheaper (the sizes are almost identical). The iRiver could also be compared to this.
Pros
Almost half the price of the iPod of the same capacity. Sound quality much better than the iPod. Controls on the side mean you don't have to take it out to change tracks. They are not totally intuitive but when you get use to them you can navigate very fast. Battery life great (I'm getting about 14+ hours out of it.) USB2 transfer does about a track in under a second.
Cons
Only currently supports MP3 and WMA, though Real seem to have an update on their site but I have not tried it. It requires drivers installed on any machine you want to dock with. Software is not great. Although much better than previous Creative outtings it still has limitations. For example you can't have two tracks on an album with the same title. Doesn't link to WindowsMedia library correctly if you rip in WM9 (you have to import the tracks - using the watch facility doesn't get the tags). Slightly larger than the iPod. I also have a strange issue on Nomadworld where there is an autoupdate facility for the firmware. Whenever I use it my system reboots!
In all I can live with the limitations because of the huge price difference and significantly better sound quality. By the way if you register your player you get a discount on their site for a select set of their other products.
26 Wandering the world with my Nomad Zen
Purchased: December 2003
I have not had any major problems with this device at all. It's amazing that people whine about the poor design of this device. I have never had the front cover "pop" off acidentally. Neither have I had software or hardware issues of any kind. People, if you drop an electronic device it will break! Wow that is common sense right? The software is really easy to figure out and I had no problem loading my very very large music collection onto the Nomad. I also have taken this to Europe and Thailand and have had no issues with charging using the AC adapter. The earplugs are mediocre and were replaced by headphones but that is only because I am an audiophile. One of these reviews actually said that the button that you use to scroll hurts their finger... ummm yeah never had that issue... time for a little workout or something....
The size could be smaller I suppose but I don't think that its a major issue. The player fits into my front pocket without problem.
I had my first dj experience using two Nomads hooked to a fader to cue music for a prom and i had no problems at all the entire night long. The quality of the sound was excellent and the ability to see the next song in the player was excellent.
In reference to another post, to stop the song simply press the pause button and then the FF button (skip forward) That will bring the song to a stop and you are free to navigate as you wish.
The price of the player also impressed me and the fact that I wouldn't have to worry about any troublesome battery issues. I highly recommend this mp3/wma player to others.
See ipod's www.ipodsdirtysecret.com to see why I really don't like the ipod.
Thanks and enjoi the music.
27 Not as good as it seems
When I first got this in January I thought it was the greatest little machine ever invented and that I'd never need to use my minidisc player again. How wrong I was. It doesn't work now. Why? Because it is simply not durable like a minidisc player. I made the mistake of dropping it by accident, something I'm sure everyone has done to their Discman, Walkman or Minidisc. It's so easy for such a small item to get dropped. Trouble with the Jukebox is that it is simply not built to sustain being dropped. I've been told by Creative's very poor support team that the hard disk needs to be replaced at the cost of $150, half the price the unit costs, the warranty doesn't cover the unit being dropped. Well maybe it should, because the damn thing is simply not durable. This also means that all the hours I spent ripping my CD collection onto it were wasted because the disc is damaged from one unfortunate drop. Don't get me wrong, I think these players are great ideas, but more thought needs to go into the durability. All I want to know now is if the iPod is built to sustain being dropped.
28 I am in a state of Zen of my Zen
I love my Zen. No problems what so ever. The only negative is the case. I wish it had a window on the front cover so I could see the song playing with out having to open it.
29 Good while it lasted
I read a lot of reviews before I purchased the Nomad. The iPod seemed to be a better device but I couldn't justify the extra money and the Nomad seemed to be pretty good. The Nomad software and the device itself aren't the greatest but once I learned how to use them it was acceptable. I used it mainly at the gym so I just wanted it to play when I hit go and it did this okay......for 4 months. One night it stopped playing in the middle of a song and all attempts to restore, reload, format etc. just got me the message "hard drive damaged". Nothing happened to the Nomad to damage the hard drive so evidently it just took it upon itself to die. After the hours I spent going through my CD's and loading the device I am not a happy camper. Luckily I bought at Best Buy and got the extended warrenty so I'll get my money back but that doesn't replace all the wasted time. Ironically the day after it died Creative sent me an e-mail asking me to complete a survey about the Nomad. Needless to say it wasn't very good. I certainly won't get another one. If I buy another mp3 player at all it will be the iPod 20GB. Other than the battery life issue it appears to be far superior.
30 Shudda gone iPod!
Bought this item on December 7th, 2003. Thought I'd done one better than my friends, who went iPod. I told them they could have their cute little iPod while I had my Zen, at only half the price.
Well, my friends are still listening to music and downloading new tracks to their iPod, while I've got a $250 paper weight.
Below are the comments I sent Creative; my latest in a long string of comments sent to them. NOTHING they've told me yet to fix any of my problems with this player has worked. Caveat emptor.
Dear Creative,
How do you guys expect to defeat iPod in the mp3 market? I've had nothing but problems with my jukebox since buying it in December of last year:
1) Ever since trying to update drivers and firmware yesterday, something you guys told me to do, my computer has not recognized the player when I plug it in.
2) My player won't even turn on without the AC adaptor being plugged in.
3) My player ALWAYS rebuilds library when turned on (and don't tell me to update my software, because now I can't--see number 1 above).
4) The AC adaptor that came with my player stopped working, only three months after buying the darn thing, and the only thing you can tell me is to buy a new AC adaptor?!?!!! What great service! There's $15 plus shipping down the drain.
5) Now what are you gonna tell me about my battery? Buy a new one? There's another $50 down the drain...
6) In the end, I should have just bought an iPod. My friends who own iPods (four people so far, two of which own Mac computers, two of which own windows) are all laughing at me and the problems I'm having and the LACK of customer support I'm getting.
This e-mail, and ANY response I actually get from you at Creative/Nomad will be forwarded to the Amazon.com customer service, since I bought this POS from them.
Shudda-gone-iPod,
Michael Tyson
31 good value
i was looking for an ipod when i saw this player on the index page. i bought it mainly because of the price and now that i've had it for a while it seems pretty sturdy and easy to use.(although the software is not very user-friendly i just use my computer and drag-drop)the case that comes with it is really the only complaint that i have it would be nice if you could see the screen but that is easily fixed with a x-acto knife, some plastic and thread. all in all it's a good value for the money.
32 Good, but not great.
This being my first MP3 player, I have nothing to compare it to. It works well and I do like it. BUT, the earphones are the worst design I have seen in my life. They make absolutely no sense. I quickly had to pay to replace them. The front panel does pop off rather easily. It has happened to me twice in one month. And it does lock up rather easily as well. They warn you that it might and how to fix it...but why should it...and so often. The software works well and is quickly learned. I like that you can create and revise playlists so easily on your PC and they convert to the player well. BUT...what is up with the buttons and scroll knob? It is cumbersome. And I have yet to find a way to stop playback other than turning it off. That is odd. Great memory and storage though. OH...and the case that covers the face is very annoying. You are constantly popping it open to make any changes to the songs being played. Very poor design.
33 Hmmm... a few problems
Well I got this Mp3 player about a week ago. i bought it simply because of the price and size compared to the ipods and such. i dont know if i had the right connection for the highspeed usb port, but it does take about 5 seconds to get a song (took an over nighter for me with my 20 gig collection)onto the mp3 player, which can cause a hassle for the first time transfering all your files. it is also fairly hard to find just a song your looking for because huge lists u have to scroll through, or if the software doesnt support your ID tag for the mp3 file (like the file name, and will slap it into a unknown folder). the case for the nomad is very , well, obstructive. you cant see the screen when closed so if you do keep it in the case you have to pop it open everytime u need to switch a song. as for the cover poping off, i haven't had a problem with that as of yet. the battery life is good. it seems very strudy but i still wouldnt wanna drop it :). i use it everday and its nice to have. its fairly convient to carry this thing around because it does have the whole music collection. i give this product 3 stars because of the simple mistakes creative must have looked over.
34 Easily Broken, Hard to Use, Bad Design
The Zen tries to imitate the iPod and fails miserably. It does offer a larger amount of storage compared to a similarly priced iPod, but you eventually get what you pay for with this piece of digital junk.
The problem is that the unit is badly made. If you look at the Nomad sites, the Zen Xtra has been beaten up because of faulty manufacturing such as the very common headphone jack issue where the headphone jack will fail to produce sound after a while. It is almost inevitable. It does not help that Creative only gives a 90-day warranty on this thing (Apple gives a full 1-year warranty on their iPod).
Making the situation worse is the terrible UI of the Zen. If the iPod is using a graphical user interface, the Zen is like using a command line. There are too many button pushes to achieve the same results as on the iPod. Too many clicks of "Open" when trying to drill down into a list to find a song. The scroll-wheel is not very responsive, yet it is very sharp and hurts the fingers after a long period of use.
The screen, although large, is cast in a terrible blue light and even with contrast tweaking is not as clear and sharp to look at as the iPod. The faceplate often pops off without notice because of the badly designed hinge and switch on the bottom of the unit. Some of the buttons are badly placed like the Play, Menu, and Back button.
This is not a machine that an ordinary person can sit down and learn in a few minutes (unlike the iPod). The one good thing about the Zen is the phenomenal sound quality that comes out of this little unit. Also, it is a perk that the battery is removable. Other than that, this unit stinks. Mine broke in less than a years worth of play, thank goodness I had an extended warranty since Creative's was over in the firs three months!
35 works good
Bottom line.
Have had this platyer 6 months with my whole cd collection on it.
Never one crash. Never any problems except for the headphones. which can be chealy replaced. Not a big fan of the software either, i just use "My Computer" and drag and drop. Not a loose headphone jack or shorting out of the left ear. This is a great player and it has revolutionized my life. If you do run into any problems, take your time and don't give up in a week. Very happy with product. Highly recommended.
36 everything i expected it to be
this one of the best buys i have ever made.the price is very good for what the player offers and it has all the features i need to have my music with me all the time.Cons:the player does not have,at the time of this lines being written, accesories that could enchance the use of it.and it does not have good compatibilty with the creative software under windows 98 enviroment.with windows xp, is a breeze.I trully recomend this product.
37 Worst Customer Service i've ever had
I had this mp3 player for not very long. The hook up to the cumputer was loose. Aswell as the other review they said we had forced the usb in on the Nomad. WE NEVER DID SUCH A THING. THEY SHOULD STAND UP TO THERE WARENTY AND NOT ACCUSE PEOPLE. I AM NOT PAYING $80 DOLLARS FOR SOMETHING THAT IS $250. ON THE OTHER HAND,You can get your self an HP. They have the best prices and customer service. I had a broken mouse pad and they fixed it with a total of $0 plus $0 in shipping. Creative Sucks.
38 CREATIVE WILL NOT OWN UP TO WARRANTY!
What I believe to be a manufacturer's defect, the USB connection on the unit loosened making it unusable. The unit had a 90 warranty and was sent for repair on or about day 60. As of today, they have had the unit for 35 days. I am still trying to get the company to own up to the repair under warranty. They are accusing us of forcing the USB plug so they can charge us for the repair! This is ridiculous; we did no such thing! They will repair it for a fee of more than $80, which is about a third of the original cost of the unit! BUYERS BEWARE...if you have a problem, Creative may not repair this without a substantial fee. You probably should just forget about the warranty.
Meanwhile, thanks to Creative, my son doesn't have his most valued Christmas present!
39 Forget the ipod
This player is a wonderful alternative to the ipod. The software works very well and the controls are very easy to handle. And the price makes it so much more attractive than the ipod trend.
For once, somebody bested Apple.
40 Great MP3 Player for even better price.
I've had this player for a month, and I'm absolutely happy with the purchase. Initially I was considering the iPod, but I got quickly discouraged by the fact that you cannot remove the battery and the high price. I read somebody's review that perfectly summarizes both of these players: Apple will give you a good product, but it will work only the way they want it to work. Nomad on the other hand is fully customizable.
Now if you are really computer challenged, by all means go for the iPod, but if you want a flexible, fully customizable product (and have more brains than money), go for Nomad. Also, one of the best features is full EAX capability - you can listen to your songs with environment options like Concert Hall, or Auditorium, a feature I didn't see in other players. I haven't seen a problem with headphones, but I was really careful with the jack. The product is also not as sleek as iPod, but who cares if it spends most of it's time on my car's console. Finally - sound quality is perfect, (after all Creative deals with computer sound on a daily basis).
41 Fun and compact
I like it. Easy to load and build songlists.
42 ipod vs. the nomad: the "old" new cool?
I'll start out by saying this *ahem* THIS is an AWSOME product! Already have your mind made up? Getting that expensive shiny new mp3 player? Getting the eye candy apple calls ipod that spends its life in your pocket? Say hypotheticaly you have $249 dollars for a 4gb ipod mini or get a 30 gb nomad zen xtra by creative labs. Tough choice right? nomad has good software, easy control, and you don't have to change out your hardware if you have an adverse system like Windows Me.
43 ps
by the way, if anything bad happens to your zen and you think its busted... hit the reset button with a paper clip or something.... so far 100% of the time if something happens on mine, that fixes it... (which ive only needed to once after i droped it... oops ;) )
44 A++ really good
Product is great, i havnt had one problem with it at all, setup was simple enough, batter life is definatly awsome, and i enjoy how i can also save data on it when i need to backup something.
So far only thing i dont like about it is this.... you cant download the programs on the cd, and i lost mine, so i cant put the program on my new computer...
45 Headphone Jack Breakdown
I've had my Zen Xtra a little over 2 months. I like the fact that I can get so much storage on the cheap. The sound on the Zen is great too. The option to replace the battery is also a great option. All was well until today when for no apparent reason, I could only get sound from the right earphone. I tried plugging other headphones in the jack and sound still only came from the right side. It's a good thing that I bought a replacement plan because I am returning this thing tomorrow. If you consider buying the Zen DO buy a replacement plan. I am very hesitant to buy other Creative products.
46 Buggy player software.
I bought the player as a gift for my wife. Unfortunately, nearly every time she turns it on, it needs to "rebuild" the library. After consulting with Creative email tech support, I reformatted its disk and reloaded its firmware. This didn't fix the "rebuild" problem, but did eliminate a tendency for the player to freeze completely on occasion.
Creative told me that they are not aware of any firmware bugs that could cause the problem, and didn't offer to swap the unit so that they could investigate the probem(s) themselves.
Unfortunately, Creative's software isn't stable yet and the company tech support is unresponsive. I hope your experience is better than mine has been. In the meanwhile, I'm going to wait a year before purchasing from them again.
47 Unbelievable
It's unbelievable! Creative Nomad Jukebox has made my CD burner, car CD player and portable CD player obsolete in just two days. It was $60.00 cheaper than the 15gb iPod with twice the memory. The only negative is the scroller very touchy it took quite a wile getting use to. Unlike the iPod Nomad has a replaceable battery. My son bought an iPod two weeks ago without doing any research; his battery will not hold a charge and has to be sent back to Apple for replacement. If out of warranty Apple wants $100.00 bucks for a new battery.
Creative Nomad accompanied with a $23.00 irock transmitter makes a 6 Cd car changer look like an old AM radio.You gotta have it.
48 Terrible build quality
Headphone input has broke inside the device after only 2 months of use.
Now I am able to hear only one stereo channel.
Will send it to repair soon.
No Creative devices for me anymore.
49 A great product that has stood up for me
I've read many of the reviews, and the headphone jack seems to be quite a problem. I don't know how common this is, but I have had my player for 5 months now and have had no problem whatsoever.
I work on a farm and use it nearly everyday. I've dropped it, banged it up, and smashed it into things by accident. Yet I still haven't had a problem with it.
I'm not saying that there isn't a problem with the constrution, it does seem a little flimsy, and that is why I docked it a star. But when it comes to sound I have not heard anything better. I have it hooked directly to my stereo in my truck, the player has a car mode. If the power is turned of at the charger, the player will turn off. I think this is neat as hell, just like a normal car radio. Sure you have to mess with the wiring in your car a little, but for me it is worth it.
The software was simple for me, within an hour I downloaded the software, drivers, and 2000 songs. I have no complaints about this product, and I recommend it to anyone. If your unsure about the construction then get an extended warrenty. It is the best sounding player I have ever heard, hands down.
50 get the warranty
I got this item on February 12 this year from best buy. It is a pretty good product, but if u drop it once it will almost definetely break or stop working, even with the case on it. Luckily I got a two year warranty withit and I have replaced it three times because I dropped it. One of the reasons I got it best buy is because you don't have to get a replacement you can get store credit so i am probably pay the extra money and get a 15GB iPod. If you do get this product be sure to get a warranty with it if you want it to last a couple of years.
51 Don't Be A Sucker! The Nomad Is A Great Buy!
I was so nervous about purchasing an MP3 player since it is a relatively new technology and there are so many things that can and do go wrong with it. However, after reading about a bazillion reviews on the Nomad and the iPod, I decided to go with the Nomad and I have not regretted it in the past 3 months that I've had it.
First there is the obvious: PRICE! I paid $273 out the door for my 30GB (And the price has gone down since!). The 20GB iPod is $400! Sure it looks neat, but not hundreds-of-dollars-over-priced neat.
Secondly, I am a PC user. And in the grand Apple tradition, their product only works well if you have an Apple computer. I read dozens of upset reviews about how the iPod was virtually useless with their PC.
Third, accessories. The Nomad's battery lasts longer, and unlike with the iPod, you don't have to send Apple $100 for a replacement battery when it eventually dies. Apparently they didn't over-price it enough if they need the extra cash that badly.
The Nomad comes with a nice snug case that protects it nicely. So does the iPod as long as you get the $400 20GB or bigger. It also comes with ear buds, which kinda suck, but what stock headphones don't? Invest in a good pair, which you should do anyway if you're really a music fan.
Also, unless you have FireWire on your comp (not likely, not many do) then you have to buy the USB cord seperately! (Another $25-$40) The Nomad comes with the USB 2.0 cord so you can start transferring files right away!
Some of the complaints I've heard about the Nomad I have not had myself. One is that the software is terrible. The software is just fine, the only problem I found was that the directions on how to use it weren't the most helpful. All you have to do if you don't understand is just tinker around with it until you get it. It is fairly intuitive and once you do it, it is sooooo easy.
Another complaint is that it is too fragile, i.e. you can't bang it around or drop it. Well duh, you wouldn't want to drop your Discman either would you? I have actually dropped mine twice (on carpet) and the only thing that happened was the casing popped off. I have also banged it tons of times on walls and corners while it was in my back pocket (and without the protective case) and it didn't miss a beat.
Some people say it is sooo big and bulky. Yes, it is bigger than the iPod, but that doesn't mean it's big. It is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than any Discman or Walkman, so what's the problem, it still fits in my pocket.
Lastly, some people have a problem with the controls or they don't like the scrollbar. I have had no trouble with either, maybe these people have extremely fat fingers, I don't know.
So if you want something that's gonna hold TONS of music and you don't want to pay 500 bucks or sell your soul to the devil to get it, then definately go with the Nomad Jukebox. The iPod isn't better, in fact in my opinion it isn't even as good. It's all just hype and advertising, and you sure are paying for it. It is really simply a matter of overcoming snobbery.
52 Great player, But might be issues with earphone jack
Beside the controls being a little odd at first, I figured out how to use it in my car while driving without looking at the screen or controls to scroll my music. I only have 1000 tracks copied to it so it is not hard when I setup folders for the different tracks. Very powerful unit and I love it soo much.
But on around Jan 25th I was heart broken when it started to give me sound problem. I had mine since Dec 25th 2003 and it broke on Jan 25th 2004. The ear phone jack stopped working on the left side. I waited until Feb 15th to send it back. Support was great and issues me a RMA right away. It was replaced within 10days. I just hope the replacement had the same problem and they fixed the earphone jack the correct way. It looks like a lot of owners have ear phone jack problems.
53 ! Beware of Creative Labs !
Unfortunately, I failed to thoroughly research this product before I purchased it. I suffered the same dilemma as many others: the headphone jack crapped out after 4 days of non-rigorous use. I decided to go ahead and have it serviced through Creative Labs since it was still within the "short-lived" 90 day warranty and do not live near a Circuit City. After two weeks of waiting, they finally got around to repairing the product. I was told I was at fault for breaking the soldering joints in the headphone jack and they required me to pay a $50.00 fee to repair it. Ironically, five minutes prior a tech representative had told me that Creative Labs was trying to reinforce these headphone jacks because people were having problems with them; clearly, the headphone jacks are not strong enough to begin with. I am currently working with Circuit City to return the product, although the 30 day return policy has expired. Their customer support is far superior to Creative Labs.
Creative Labs advertises that this mp3 player is priced up to 30% less than the I-Pod. Now I know why; you get what you pay for. Actually I take that back. For $230, I would expect a product that lasts longer than 4 days and half-way decent customer support. I have failed to experience either. I do not recommend this product nor any other product Creative Labs provides.
54 Poor Build Quality
bought this unit when i got shall i say angry at Apple s Itunes music store. I had one of the new Apple Ipods which i havw since sold on Ebay. As for the Zen Xtra. the build quality and design is horrible compared to the solid feeling Ipod. In my case the front casing which covers the replaceable battery keeps popping off if I hold it in the wrong way. There is a tab on the bottom which is supposed to release the face but if i hold the sides it keeps popping off. The blue tinted backlight is hard to read and the menus are hard to use compared to the Ipod. this unit feels like a cheap walkman. It is also bulky and heavy. The one good thing I can say is the sound is better than the Ipod which i guess is worth something.
55 Great capacity, decent interface, horrible software
My experience with the Creative Zen mp3 players has been mixed. As for physical size, they are rather bulky when compared to other mp3 players like the iPod, or my favorite, the Dell Jukebox. The Zen's have a removable case, which is nice to switch the battery, but makes for a loose construction. Also, while the Zen's can have up to an amazing 60GB of space, the controls on the player are uncomfortable. The actual interface is pretty good and intuitive, but the small toggle switch on the side is painful after awhile and hard to manage for bigger hands. The software that comes with the player is absolutely worthless. I had multiple problems getting the player's drivers to work with the included software and with windows media player. The best bet would be to get Notmad Explorer from Red Chair Software. Also, I have heard issues about the player not recognizing some tags. All in all, if you need alot of capacity, this is a good player. Otherwise, stick to something more solid and compact with good software.
56 works great for me...
First off durability. I've had the original 20GB Jukebox for almost a year now. The first week I had it the headphone jack broke, but i returned it to amazon for a replacement. [* more on this below] Now it's almost a year later and my new one still works great. Once in a while it'll freeze up, but the reset button does the trick. I've dropped it a couple times and given it a few dents - still works fine. I use it a LOT - probably once a day. The charge on the battery has gone down a little, but it still holds up for 5-6 hours (out of 8 when it was new).
* To be specific, one of the little bendy metal contacts in the jack got shoved too far sideways and so I was only hearing through one ear-piece. This happens when the plug is half way into the jack and it gets shoved violently sideways; this can also happen if you drop the player and catch it by the chord (so that it pops out just a little bit and then gets twisted by the weight) - be careful with the jack and it'll work just fine. There are probably higher incidents of this happening with the zen because the headphone cord is not long enough to allow the player to land on the floor before it catches itself by the chord, and because the jack is L-shaped.
I'm going to make three comments that are not well covered in the other reviews:
1) The playlist features are much better on the Zen than the iPod. You can make playlists anytime and modify them while they are playing. So you can start playing the first song and add other songs to the play list while it is playing already, then go back and delete songs you have second thoughts about before you get to them (or during or after). You can even interrupt the playlist to preview a song from the library you are thinking about adding, and it will resume from where it left off when you are done. So handy I never realized how much I would miss it with an iPod. If you want a custom playlist with an iPod, you have to completely make the on-the-go playlist and then play it - and no changing your mind: you cannot modify it once you start playing it nor delete songs from it (as far as I know - you just have to start over). You can save playlists anytime on the zen too - I don't simply because it is so easy to make new ones all the time. My favorite thing to do is throw a few albums on the playlist and put it on random - instant custom playlist in less than a minute! try that on the iPod.
2) the headphone jack is a really good quality (fidelity wise, maybe not durability). i have some beyerdynamic dt-880s - top of the line and suck a hell of a lot of power. they actually sound decent straight out of the zen. i use a headphone amplifier when i can, and it sounds phenomenal with this arrangement. Using a tape adapter into an audi a6 10-speaker bose system is just amazing. the tape format cuts out a little bit of the low end (maybe below about 50Hz?) and adds a teeny bit of hiss, but seeing as the low end is getting a bit muddy in my 5-year-old car, it's an improvement. The rest of the spectrum is CD-crisp. I've plugged this into all different kinds of amplifiers and headphones and always been impressed. Beats any portable cd player i've ever owned (panasonic was always on the top of my list there).
3) i have one gripe with the (older) zen OS: it doesn't always pick up the track length info - especially on longer tracks. Mostly it works, but there are times, especially on half-hour-long or longer tracks, where this can get annoying, because the Zen will not fast-forward unless it knows how long the track is. Seeing as though this would be an easy fix, I bet they corrected this since the original zen.
All in all, I'd say, at half the price of the similarly-sized iPod at the time, I made the right choice.
57 Nomads are wonderful, but be carefull!
I first bought a 6 Gig Nomad Jukebox (original). Unfortunatly it was dropped and damaged a year after I bought it. the batteries would not charge. So I took it back to Best Buy where I bought it and exchanged it for a newer Zen 20 Gig model. In that model the Hard Drive just died one morning before my class. It's nothing major, just a bad hard drive, any hard drive mp3 player can have that problem. So Rule of Thumb, no matter what you end up buying, GET THE EXTENDED WARRANTY! It always pays off. Hope I've been of some help.
58 Piece of Junk
I am a soldier serving in Baghdad right now. I bought the Nomad when I went home on leave and it worked great for about a month. The other day when I was listening to a song, it locked up and will not do anything now. It says I have a harddisk problem. And since I'm out here I can't mail it back under my 90 days and they won't help me out cause they say that the conditions here are not covered under the warranty. It worked good for a while. It did lock up on me a couple of times. And then it just froze and now I'm out $300 for their piece of junk.
59 You will be very disappointed with this product.
The reviews of this product can be roughly divided into two groups: (1) those who have had the product for a few weeks and (2) those have had the product for a few months. Those who have had the Nomad for a few weeks are mostly thrilled with it. The price is way below an iPOD of the same size. The Nomad is only sligtly larger than an iPOD. The sound quality is very good. The controls are somewhat harder to use, and there are some oddities about the software tagging system, but most people can live with this. Because of the large capacity of the Nomad, owners can load hundreds of CDs on to it. For most people, they can carry around all or almost all of their music collection. Having access to so much music where ever you go is terrific. They fall in love with the product.
And then it breaks. Usually around the time the 90 day warranty expires. Typically, the problem is the headphone jack -- it was for me and many others. The Nomad is sent back to Creative Labs. They decide that the owner was responsible for the damage and so even if it is returned within the warranty period, Creative will charge you to fix it. In my case, the bill was $81, about a third of what I paid for it. Like many others, I had not abused the product, and had tried to take care of it. If my level of care wasn't good enough, I had to expect that even if I paid to have it fixed it would break again in a month or two.
I'm convinced by my own experience and that of many other people who have posted here who have had the same experience that the product is defectively designed, and will not hold up to normal use. The headphone jack seems to be a major problem. The one other thing I observed while I had the Nomad is that the front cover, which is taken off to have access to the battery, seemed to come undone very easily.
The headphone jack failure seems to occur just about when the warrranty period is to expire. Even if it hasn't expired, Creative is likely to claim that the owner caused the damage which in turn voids the warranty. And most stores will not take back a product 90 days after purchase.
This means that you will have the Nomad long enough to load a lot of music on to it, and get used to having it. So when it breaks, as it will, you will find yourself very disappointed and depressed at the loss of the Nomad. You will find it very hard or impossible to get you money back. You will have a very expensive paperweight.
There are not a lot of good options out there. Most people say buy an iPOD, but they are pretty expensive and also require you to send the product back to the factory just to replace the battery. My suggestion is to wait to see how the market develops. Maybe Creative will come out with a better design, although it will be hard for me and its other customers to trust it again. Maybe more competitors will bring out similar products. And maybe the answer is to buy an iPOD.
Whatever you do, don't buy this product. You will be sorry if you do.
60 O man, not cool.
Ok , im writing yet another review, about a week from my previous one. Honestly, i love this player.
ONE HORRIBLE FLAW, or mayybe more than one.
once again, the sound is awesome, the batterly life is only 6-8 hours, and that is because all my music is 320 kbps which DOES affect the battery life. Ok so i donno about what other people said, how the player breaks and stuff, and the headfone jack, fortunately that did not happen to me. However, my hard drive did fail, and i have not dropped it once.
Therefore im saying im returning it right now, and i will see wat happens with my next zen xtra (same replacement). If that one fails too, and i hope if it does, let it happen in the first 90 days, not later, cuz thats the warranty. if it does, ill give up.
basically wat happened, is that the hard drive failed. thats it. i cant do anything about it, and i have to send back.
the only good thing about this whole process, is that im getting like a 34 dollar amount back, because of the price difference between when i bought it, and now.
Basically u can see that i have given the player 3 stars, instead of 1. you know why? because other people that complain about this player are talking BULL, this player is awesome, it just breaks fast, which is horrible.
Now honestly, i love this player, but with all seriousness, i would not recommend it to other people, because of the breakdown flaw. and i honestly would not recomment the people of the IPOD, THAT CRAP SUCKS BIG DONKEY..... never mind.
i hope my next player doesnt breakdown.. Honestly, the best players without any flaws were the goddam cd players. this is all i have to say.
61 Does not function correctly, unhelpful customer service
Don't buy this player. I recently bought this after my Archos 20 MultiMedia self-destructed (don't get me started on that piece of junk!) and expected it to be flawless. Unfortunately, after loading 280 + songs, all I get now is "Player either not connected or busy." It will not load any further songs on and customer service has no idea what to do. Don't buy this player.
62 Great player, Great Sound, Has flaws however
Alright, well i read alot of these reviews, and i read alot of bad AND good things about this player. Well to say, i had a very bad history with players. One broke, one got stolen, and then i bought the Riovolt sp - 350 . IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BUY THAT PLAYER, DO NOT! THAT PLAYER IS A COMPLETE PIECE OF SH***. I returned it once, then i sent it back, and IT IS CRAP. Now getting back to this. I ordered this player for christmas, and so far i have it for only 2 Weeks. Now as others said, so far this player is an awesome player, there are flaws.
Cons :
1. The display is awesome, you can see everything you want and read it clearly
2. Huge storage space, i loaded my entire collection of music, which isnt that much , 400 songs, and still have 26 GB , out of the 28 provided to you. (28 not 30 because software itself takes space). And those songs mostly are 320 kbps.
3. The sound is awesome, but if u put it too loud, depends on yoursound quality, the sound might crack.
4. With EAX on, you can modify your sound , with 4 different presets, which is pretty good, you can get different variations with it.
5. If you use software correctly, put in all the ID3 tags, you will get an awesome database collection, from which you can EASILY access your songs. You can also search for your song, which is good.
6. I dont know what other people are saying, but the software is awesome. you can easily access ur files, and easily fill in the ID3 tags, which can take a while with a big collection of music, but if your not lazy, you will do it without a problem. And i read today that you can also have online fill out the ID3, so its not a problem.
7. Battery recharge, is an awesome thing, because it recharges in only like 2-3 hours.
8. When you turn on your player, the player turns on REALLY fast, and the music continues to play, as you left it when you were turning it off.
9. You can manage your profile, change the contrast of backlight, make different type of display, either list or tabbed. You can do other different things with it such as choose what kind of "now playing" interface, you can see the interface as Modern or Classical. There is an alarm, i still havent used it yet, but it should be good. There is a Clock, and Date, which can get helpful.
10. The player has firmware, which will remove the glitches, if there are any.
11. The music plays awesome, NEVER skips, even if u run for a bit, so you can listen to music without interruption.
Cons :
1. The one and most major thing that i was dissapointed with, in this player, is the battery life. The Product Manufacturer promised me 12- 14 hours, And what i recieved was 6-8.5 hours max.
i did it like this
EAX on : 6 hours
EAX off: 8.5 hours
2. The panel seems like it will come off very easily as other people have said.
3. You need the software to actually transfer files
4. The player has its minor glitches like for example when i turn it on, 60 percent of the time, it sais, SHUTTING DOWN, which means i have to turn off, and turn it on again, which is not to my likings. Also, the player sometimes freezes, not a very big problem, but can also be annoying.( but as any hard drive, all of them freeze at certain points)
Well thats about it, and as people said in earlier previews that the headfone jack gets messed up, stil havent happened to me, and i hope it doesnt.
63 A great Player, excellent sound quality, hovewer, has flaws
Alright, well i read alot of these reviews, and i read alot of bad AND good things about this player. Well to say, i had a very bad history with players. One broke, one got stolen, and then i bought the Riovolt sp - 350 . IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BUY THAT PLAYER, DO NOT! THAT PLAYER IS A COMPLETE PIECE OF SH***. I returned it once, then i sent it back, and IT IS CRAP. Now getting back to this. I ordered this player for christmas, and so far i have it for only 2 Weeks. Now as others said, so far this player is an awesome player, there are flaws.
Cons :
1. The display is awesome, you can see everything you want and read it clearly
2. Huge storage space, i loaded my entire collection of music, which isnt that much , 400 songs, and still have 26 GB , out of the 28 provided to you. (28 not 30 because software itself takes space). And those songs mostly are 320 kbps.
3. The sound is awesome, but if u put it too loud, depends on yoursound quality, the sound might crack.
4. With EAX on, you can modify your sound , with 4 different presets, which is pretty good, you can get different variations with it.
5. If you use software correctly, put in all the ID3 tags, you will get an awesome database collection, from which you can EASILY access your songs. You can also search for your song, which is good.
6. I dont know what other people are saying, but the software is awesome. you can easily access ur files, and easily fill in the ID3 tags, which can take a while with a big collection of music, but if your not lazy, you will do it without a problem. And i read today that you can also have online fill out the ID3, so its not a problem.
7. Battery recharge, is an awesome thing, because it recharges in only like 2-3 hours.
8. When you turn on your player, the player turns on REALLY fast, and the music continues to play, as you left it when you were turning it off.
9. You can manage your profile, change the contrast of backlight, make different type of display, either list or tabbed. You can do other different things with it such as choose what kind of "now playing" interface, you can see the interface as Modern or Classical. There is an alarm, i still havent used it yet, but it should be good. There is a Clock, and Date, which can get helpful.
10. The player has firmware, which will remove the glitches, if there are any.
11. The music plays awesome, NEVER skips, even if u run for a bit, so you can listen to music without interruption.
Cons :
1. The one and most major thing that i was dissapointed with, in this player, is the battery life. The Product Manufacturer promised me 12- 14 hours, And what i recieved was 6-8.5 hours max.
i did it like this
EAX on : 6 hours
EAX off: 8.5 hours
2. The panel seems like it will come off very easily as other people have said.
3. You need the software to actually transfer files
4. The player has its minor glitches like for example when i turn it on, 60 percent of the time, it sais, SHUTTING DOWN, which means i have to turn off, and turn it on again, which is not to my likings. Also, the player sometimes freezes, not a very big problem, but can also be annoying.( but as any hard drive, all of them freeze at certain points)
Well thats about it, and as people said in earlier previews that the headfone jack gets messed up, stil havent happened to me, and i hope it doesnt.
64 Software problem
I bought the player this week and I like it by far.This is my fourth MP3 player (Creative Nomad Jukebox2 and 3, Rio Chie, and this one), and my third player from creative. Here's something you have to know before you considering about buying this one.
PRO: 1. Removable and cheap battery- a Li Battery usually works properly for 1-3 years. My friend has an I-pod for about 2 years and the battery has so so messed up. His I-pod can only play for a couple of hours with a fully recharging now.
2. Value: comparing data storage with price.
3. Size and style: The appearance is okayed (at least not ugly). The size is small (just a little bit bigger than an I-Pod.)
4. Easy to use: a lot of reviews has mentioned about this
Con: The software, MediaSource, cannot work on my PC. (Laptop, Intel P4-2.0, XP OS). A tons of reveiws has reported this problem and the same here. In fact, each of my creative MP3 players had software problem in the first place. However, the creative Lab did come out new update to fix their software problems. I am crossing my finger and wish they will fix the problem.
PS: (Mediasource provides similar functions with MS Mediaplay such like Cd ripping, tagging , music database managing, music file transfering, and more)
Now I use MS mediaplayer, Musicmatch(free downladed), and "explorer/ My computer/grab files from disk C or D into the player" to replace the Mediasource.
In short, this player is good at size, value, Hardware design but really bad at its software
65 Not worth the Trouble, Just buy an Ipod
I received this as a gift for Christmas. My first impression was positive. After using it for a few weeks (the amount of time before the hard drive crashed) it revealed a few of its shortcommings.
First, the sound quality is okay, but (as at least one other reviewer has mentioned) the EAX can cause audio interference after about 30 minutes. At first I thought it was my headphones but it was not. It was just a problem with the player.
Second, the menu system and controls are poorly designed. The toggle button that is used to scroll is poorly designed and does not work well. The general button placement is not very user friendly. This would not be a great problem if you didn't have so much info to scroll through on a regular basis.
Third, the poor design continues with the case. The flap completely covers the screen because there is no window to see it. It also covers over the power jack when closed.
After the first one fatally crashed, the replacement did not work. I bought an Ipod and am very happy with it.
66 The best jukebox mp3 player, hands-down
I bought the 30gb Zen Xtra from a well-known national electronics store as soon as I saw they were advertising it for $219.99. The combination of the price, storage size, and player features makes this player the best on the market.
The biggest drawback that people have about the Zen Xtra is the software. Fact is, it couldn't be easier to use. These models now ship with Creative's Mediasource program, which allows you to highlight the files on your computer that you want to add to your Zen Xtra, click a button, and transfer it straight to your player. Assuming you have filled in all the ID3 tags on your mp3s, you will not have any problem finding them on your Zen Xtra.
Sound quality on this is amazing, as with all Creative products. Even leaving it on the default setting (without the EAX enhancements) produces crystal clear playback.
The menu allows you to search for files by artist, genre, and album quite easily. The battery stays charged for a long time, and takes no more than 2 or 3 hours at most to fully recharge via the included AC adapter.
Connect the player to your computer (via USB), open up Mediasource, and you can listen to your stored mp3s as they stream directly from the Xtra! Get those mp3s off your hard drive, save space, and enjoy your massive music library. Awesome feature. USB 2.0 transfer is insanely fast.
Minor complaints: 1) Even though the music is sorted via ID3 tag on the player, the option to search for music contained in a folder is unavailable. That is, if a folder on your computer called "MP3" has Slayer (thrash metal), Stravinsky (classical), and Ice Cube (rap) in it, you will only be able to play the contents of that folder by searching for the artists or genres manually. The Zen Xtra will transfer the files to the player, but not the folder name. Not a big hassle as many would have you think.
2) Having unfilled ID3 tags will cause music to be potentially placed in a folder called "unknown." I would recommend against using ID3v2 tags, and stick with ID3v1 only. When the previous versions of the Zens were shipped with Musicmatch, people had this problem because Musicmatch creates both sets of tags, which seem to confuse the Zen Xtra. Take the time to fill in those tags!
3) With Mediasource being so easy, I found no use for the bundled Nomad Explorer software. In fact, it caused my system to hang more times than not, so I uninstalled it and stuck with Mediasource 100%.
So what are you waiting for? Get one now!
67 Not durable enough for this road warrior
I loved this product when I first got it - great sound, easy to use (even though I agree that the software wasn't the best) and held enough songs to suit any mood. I was willing to live with the larger size (inconvenient on the road) but the durability was a big zero. Always carried it in a case in by briefcase but one day the hard drive just zapped. Tech support couldn't figure it out and gave up. I am disappointed and looking elsewhere for something that can withstand the "rigor" of a business traveler.
68 Not what I'd hoped
I was prepared to love it. I've had this thing for less than a month, treated it quite well, never dropped it, and the headphone jack is all screwed up. Now I have to return it and rip all my music again. Good thing I got a replacement plan. Wish it included somebody to re-rip all the songs. Reading other reviews, I don't think the replacement one will be any better. I'm not looking forward to ripping my entire collection every month or two. Maybe I'll get lucky with the next one.
Kind of bulky and the wheel is awkward, but I can deal with that. Software definitely sucks, hangs up my notebook about half the time, but I don't mind buying Notmad. I AM annoyed that the player's not automatically recognized as a hard drive. I don't want to install software and drivers on every computer I'm ever at. Makes me use it much less than I otherwise would.
Looking at the glowing reviews from people that have had this for a week or two, I kind of wish people would wait until they've had a product a little while to review it. I loved it until it broke, but less than a month is not an acceptible period of time for something to work.
69 Those who don't like it are IPOD lovers and are in denial
This thing does its job. I've compared and compared and compared. It was either the 40GB IPOD or this one. I felt better with this one since it had the shuffle feature and I'm not too keen on www.ipodsdirtysecret.com.
The longest that I haven't charged it was maybe 3 days and that's turning it off every now and then. Replacement battery is $50 compared to IPOD's $150.
CONS:
THe only thing I don't like about this is the cover does suck. I dropped it from the couch, landed on carpet and the cover AND battery flew out.
It's kinda heavy, kinda like having a walkman.
Headphones suck, I would invest in some cool ones since it has the EAX feature.
The software sucks. It overrides songs so you have to go in there and put it your own titles especially if you have remixes. Also the feature to automatically put in the song information isn't always accurate. You discover this later when you're listening to a song and it's the wrong title, causing you to rename everything on your own.
70 Great value & great sound; Carry your entire collection!
Pros:
1) Great sound (>98dB signal-to-noise ratio beats Ipod's "unspecified" ratio) and good power output allow the Zen Xtra to drive large head-phones as well as external speakers. With my Sennheiser 497 headphones, the volume is loud enough at 12 (max is 20). The player works well with my Sony SRS-A202 powered speakers.
2) The player user interface (UI) is intuitive to use, and allows easy navigation of a large or small collection.
3) The Nomad Explorer (WinXP style interface) works well to transfer files back and forth to use the Nomad as an external although the tech support web-site states that the primary intended purpose of the player is as a player. The Nomad Explorer provide most of the functionality offered by 3rd party programs like Notmad.
4) USB 2.0 means fast data transfers (1 song/sec!).
5) The cheap, user-replaceable battery ($50 from Creative) is a great advantage over the Ipod's battery which costs $100 to replace.
6) Excellent battery life - 14 hours beats Ipod's.
7) Chic look and good build - the player comes in a compact form with a metal face plate. I use it primarily in the provided protective case although I have dropped it about 3 feet from my desk (by accident) as well as have played it outdoors in -30 Fahrenheit weather (by design) and it has continued to work fine.
8) Creative Mediasource, although not as sleek looking as Windows Mediaplayer, is effective in organizing your collection and is linked to a good CDDB service (Gracenotes).
a. The CDDB downloads information for the CD that you insert such that you do not have to type in the track information such as album, artist, song title, etc. I don't always care for Gracenotes' genre listings but it allows easy editing of ID3 tags.
b. Fast Mediasource CD ripping - takes about 40 seconds for a CD on my Pentium 4 PC (2.4GHz with 1Gb RAM) with 52X drive.
c. I do love Audiosync which allows a one-click synchronization between the player and the music collection on the computer.
9) Wake-up feature that allows you to set up the player to wake up and play Selected Music at a specified time. I have it connected to speakers for a nice musical alarm in the morning.
10) Multiple play modes - tracks in order of album, shuffle, etc., is standard on all jukebox players but worth noting that the Zen Xtra is not deficient in this matter.
11) Minimal pause between songs - less than that on other devices - good achievement for a hard-drive based player
12) Big storage - my entire CD collection in one small device (5717 songs, 491 albums and counting)!
Cons:
1) Player is not plug and play - need to install Nomad Explorer first and Mediasource to transfer files and I had to be patient as I was used to WinXP detecting the player and dragging and dropping the music files into it.
2) Music organization is based on ID3 (by genre, artist, album, etc.) and this can be a problem for older downloaded music files with missing or incorrect ID3 information. This was not a problem for me as most of my collection was ripped from my own CDs and I updated the ID3 tags on my downloaded music.
3) Folders cannot be created for the audio files. This is unnecessary with ID3 tags but people who like to organize their music in folders will not like the Zen as the audio files do not allow subfolders but rely on ID3 tags. The workaround is to update ID3 tags on your files (through Mediasource) but it can be a hassle if you have many such music files.
4) No FM or voice recording - these would have been nice extras.
5) Lack of good accessories - this is more of an oversight of Creative's marketing. Both Creative and third-party powered speakers work great, as do third-party wireless transmitters. A dock is unnecessary as the charger and USB cable do the necessary.
6) The Case occludes the display screen when it is closed. I would have liked to be able to see what is playing without having to open the case.
7) Some people have problems with the flip switch on the bottom that releases the player cover - has not been an issue for me and is immaterial if you use the case as the case covers the switch.
Experience:
Once I got home with it I had to first install Creative Mediasource and figure out how it transferred files to the player. This required patience as I was used to WinXP detecting the player and dragging and dropping the music files into it (which I could do with my flash player). I did already have Mediasource installed due to owning the Creative Audigy 2 soundcard but I did need to re-install it from the supplied CD as the older version did not have the connector to the Zen. Also, I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade and software updates.
Recommendations:
1) Buy an extended coverage if offered by the retailer as this device has moving parts and is essentially a portable hard-drive.
2) Buy a good pair of head-phones unless you already own one.
3) Use files with ID3 tags - not a problem if your CDs were ripped within the last year.
4) A set of speakers and a wireless transmitter are accessories that will add to your player's usability (the latter will allow you to play it on your car radio, home receiver, etc.)
5) Handle the player with care - it is not meant to be dropped.
Resources: http://www.nomadworld.com, http://www.nomadness.net
Pros summary:
Great sound; good interface; replaceable, powerful battery; good software; wake-up, sleep timers; multiple play modes
Cons summary:
Not plug & play; relies on ID3; no FM or recording
Bottom-line: Can't beat carrying 500-CD collection with me wherever I go. My favorite is to play "any track"- am rediscovering my music! Also love waking up to music with attached speakers.
71 Very bad company
I will never buy a Creative product again. I purchased a Jukebox, it got fried while being recharged, they asked for $20USD just to look at it and said that they would charge me for repaing the damned thing. No way, now I have an iPod and I'm a very happy man. Also bought a soundblaster card that they sold for the Mac. Within months they stopped supporting the new Mac OS. What kind of a company does that!!
72 Flimsy product
I recently bought the Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra, and didn't even get as far as charging the battery. The construction of the player is the cheesiest I have ever seen--the front panel refused to clip in correctly, leaving a noticeable gap between the panel and base of the player. This gap allowed the front panel to fly off after barely being touched. I can't comment on the quality of the audio, because it was back at the store before I ripped a single CD.
I'm not willing to accept shoddy construction on something I paid over 250 dollars for. If the casing of the player is this bad, I can't image that the hardware is of very good quality. Don't be pulled in by the great price--you get what you pay for, and there's a reason this model is so cheap.
73 Great Product Great Price
I spent much time debating on whether I should go with the Zen Xtra or the iPod. I decided to save the $$ and opted for the Zen Xtra...and I was not disappointed.
The player is intuitive and outputs great sound quality. Navigation is easy and I found that syncing files from the player to the computer (and vice versa) was easy too. Many have complained about the software included but in my opinion it's easy to use and effective.
I LOVE this player and am extremely happy with my decision. I cannot recommend it enough!!
74 How did I get by without this?
This is one of those items that, at first glance, looked cool but didn't really ring a bell with me. Now that I own it, however, I can't imagine being without it! I have stored around 60 CD's (at 160kbps) on this and have barely touched the available memory. The sound quality is fantastic (CD quality) and it is really great to carry this around instead of stacks of CD's or tapes!
It is exceedingly simple to navigate around in this device. I didn't read a thing about how to operate it--it was just intuitive. I was cruising around the device within 20 minutes. The PC-side software can be goofy and takes a little getting used to but it's not as bad as some reviewers have indicated.
One other plus is that Napster now supports this device via their software.
My one recommendation to Creative is to get some marketing people to work on the names of these things. They have a whole bunch of devices that all have the same-sounding name (and they are long). Whereas some folks have the "iPod", I have the "Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra" (not to be confused with the "Nomad Jukebox Zen NX"). Minor gripe.
I can't imagine why I would spend hundreds of dollars more to have an iPod.
75 Important Zen Information
This player is an overall disappointment with a couple of big flaws that potential buyers should be wary of; and all readers need to know about a third party software company that resolves virtually all of the Creative MediaSource file transfer issues.
Zen Good points:
1. I achieved my basic objective; my entire CD collection is on a portable device with lots of room to store more.
2. Most MP3 players have a gap between the end of one track and the start of the next; it's annoying in music that is intended to be continuous. The Zen has minimal stoppage between tracks; when listening to music that continues from one track to the next the gap is just a hesitation - a slightly audible click; if I am not listening for the progress from one track to the next I don't even notice the click.
Flaws:
1. Creative MediaSource software is OK to rip, catalog & burn music if you are starting from scratch; but I used MusicMatch to rip my CDs before I bought the Zen (272 CDs; 3,350 tracks; 12Gb of music all ripped at 128bps) and guess what? MediaSource did not recognize my tags; my choices at that moment would have been to manually re-tag my music or re-rip using MediaSource. I don't think so. BTW, if you *are* ripping your CDs, MediaSource accesses the CDDB music catalog over the Internet and the few CDs I experimented with all provided good quality [correct & uncluttered] tag information.
2. Despite most reviewers giving kudos to the Zen for music quality, I experienced a flaw using EAX. After about 45 mins of listening there was audible static in the player. When I turned EAX off the static disappeared. When I turned EAX back on the static was also not present. Creative are *the* sound people for computers, I can't understand why EAX would introduce static. Is EAX faulty? Is my unit defective? Was I just unlucky at that moment? Was it a full moon that night? I haven't figured it out yet.
3. MediaSource is an application with serious user interface flaws. Do not underestimate this in your purchase decision. Many reviewers refer to it as "clunky" or "difficult" - heed their warnings.
4. The Zen *stores* data files, but does not allow a folder structure nor does it allow documents to be opened or programs to be launched from its disk (they must be copied to another hard drive to be launched). In other words, the Zen is not a convenient data storage device; only buy the capacity you need for your music collection (see point 2. for some sizing information). My goal of using it as a music player *and* data storage device has not been met; don't make the same mistake.
5. The Zen does not have a Stop button! You can stop playback by pressing 2 buttons, first the Pause button, then the "Next Track" or "Previous Track" button. But this is *not documented* in the Zen manual - neither the hard copy nor the CD version. To discover this I had to read about 10 online reviews (with many complaints about the lack of Stop button) before I found one reviewer who was smart enough to both figure it out & document it.
6. The Zen NX battery requires the AC adapter to recharge; it does not charge by USB cable; this is not tragic, but USB recharging would be a convenient (additional) choice. If you are buying a Zen Xtra check whether the battery recharges via USB; it does not on the Zen NX.
7. MediaSource did not install on my personal notebook. It referred to a "Microsoft Jet Database Engine" error and the install program suggested I download a service pack from the MS website to fix the problem; I did that and re-installed the software but had the same error. Creative provided e-mail support; I followed their advice but that failed, too. I experimented with installing MediaSource on 2 other computers at home and it worked fine. So it is probably "just bad luck" on my part that the personal notebook I own had this install error. However, it did motivate me to find a work-around solution.
Third Party Software To The Rescue
After much frustration (above) I found the Notmad Explorer; cute product name for software that resolves virtually all of the Creative MediaSource FILE TRANSFER & ORGANIZATION problems. I am not associated with the company, I am not providing a URL, but search for NotMad and you should find it pretty easily. This provides drag & drop transfers of music between the computer & Zen; each time it transfers music to the Zen it asks if you want to generate a playlist; it allows playlists developed in other software to be transferred to the Zen (.m3u files are used by most mp3 players like MusicMatch and Winamp, but not Creative); it doesn't care what software you use to rip or catalog your music - Creative or any other company - all my 12Gb of music were transferred to the Zen with correct tags - hooray! Notmad has other features too, but this is not an advertisement so please see the company's web site for more information ...
Conclusion:
If I knew then what I know now I would have paid the extra to get an iPod & avoided the Zen. Given that I already have the Zen the only reason I am happy with it is because of the Notmad software. And I am hoping the static I heard when using EAX was a blip ...
To summarize, I am using the Creative Zen as a mobile device; I am using MusicMatch to rip & catalog (and if I choose, download) music; I am using Notmad Explorer to move music & playlists between the Zen & my computer. The only Creative software I am using is the device driver(s).
76 CD Collection in your pocket
I got this for Christmas, and it is a great gift. I have been ripping songs into it for the past few weeks, and the ease of use is wonderful. The memory will hold an amazing amount of songs, my entire collection of CD's will all fit on this great little tiny piece of digital fun. Plusses are the easy to remove battery and the terrific sound produced by the Nomad. The only two things that stop me from giving it 5 stars are the ho-hum software that comes with the system, and the traveling case it comes with. This is a powerful piece of equipment. It is great to no longer wonder what music I want to take with me for a cross country flight or a two week trip- now I just take everything. Ripping the songs, even with my 1.1 USB connection is still very quick, and the quality is very good. Considering the price and specs, this might be the best buy out there for a large memory MP3 player. Before jumping on the Ipod train, take a look at this marvel.
77 Excellent way to carry your music collection!
After investigating a multitude of player options, I asked for and received the 60 GB Zen Xtra for Christmas. Despite its being slightly larger than the iPod, I must say I was surprised to see how small it was when I unwrapped the box! I am ripping my CD collection into 160 kbps WMA files; this gives an average of around 60-65 MB per CD, good for about 900 CDs in the ~57,000 MB of free memory available to me. File transfers are fast, nearly a song per second via USB 2.0.
Several people have complained of difficulty transferring multiple songs with the same title. THIS IS POSSIBLE!! Since the Zen Xtra does not use a folder structure, the "duplicate name" problem stems from the actual file name, NOT from the song's title/artist/album. Solution? Simply configure the MediaSource software (or Windows Media Player, or your ripper-du-jour) to create file names that include artist and (especially) album names in addition to track names. Using this method, I have not once encountered a situation where a track was rejected, and I have PLENTY of duplicate tracks on live and compilation albums. Even if there happened to be identical track titles on the same disc, you could still edit the file name manually and get them both onto the player.
My one issue with the MediaSource software is that, despite pulling ID3 tag data from the CDDS service, the ripping process fails to populate the "Year" field. Weird.
How does it sound? To my ears, a 160 kbps WMA file sounds just as good as the source CD, and the Zen Xtra sounds just as good as a portable CD player. No complaints there. The EAX features are pretty cool, as well, as Creative has included a number of EQ adjustments that, for example, compensate for the extraneous noise encountered in a car or on a train.
Navigation could be better, but there isn't really anything the Zen Xtra can't do once you've gotten comfortable with it. At the end of the day, what I wanted was a large-capacity player which allows me to easily play any album from my collection wherever I go, and the Zen Xtra's combination of price, capacity and features easily meets those criteria.
78 Good player, bad software
Pros:
* Price and capacity
* Slick-looking design and improved interface
* Removable battery
Cons:
* Protective case completely useless as is since it obscures display window. Had to cut out a window using a Swiss Army knife. How did this gigantic flaw go unnoticed by Creative?
* Scroll button more cumbersome than on earlier models. Doesn't always register push-button movement.
* EAX equalizer accentuates dimished quality of mp3 files. I have to rip everything as a 160 kbps WMA file (as opposed to 128 kbps mp3) to avoid hearing digital garbling.
* Does not provide enough volume when connected to larger headphones, or external receivers (car radio).
* Software is absolutely terrible:
--> Will not automatically transfer songs with identical titles (if you have live albums or greatest hits albums, this will cause you inordinate frustration).
--> Does not recognize player at random times, despite being connected and displaying player's library.
--> Too difficult to change genre/album/track information for large number of tracks.
--> You'll be changing track information a lot because the CD database information utilized by the software is mediocre at best. If you have any multi-disc box sets, you'll notice that the artist's name, album name, and genre will often change with every disc.
Final verdict: A good player at a great price with terrible software that makes ripping and transferring way more difficult than it should be.
79 yet another inferior knockoff
Granted this is cheaper than an ipod. Cheaper in every way. Its far heavier and much larger which might not seem to matter except if you use it while running or keep it in your pocket. Its far more difficult to select songs and has no easy to use on the fly playlist creation such as the new ipod not to mention it doesn't sinc with contact lists, phone numbers, address books, ect. like the ipod (which eliminated my need for any kind of palm device). It also has unproven battery life. Everyone who says I can't buy the ipod because after excessive use in a short time (the man who made the ipod battery life video admitted that he had used it extensively every day and charged fully every night for those 18 months, conditions under which ANY rechargeable battery dies. Use this for 18 months every day and see what happens, Or look at a 2 year old electric razor and see if it holds the same charge as the first day you had it). While it is an alternative to the ipod and one of the few viable ones its just that, an alternative and why would anyone seek an alternative to something that really needs no alternative choice because theres nothing wrong and everything right with it. I'd like to see how well a small company supports its MP3 player in 2 years when its battery dies as all rechargeable do. Finally the software used to put all the songs into it is vastly inferior to itunes on two levels, first it is poorly integrated into the overall player and clunky to use especially with tagging and second the wma audio format sucks, flat out sucks in terms of sound quality compared with the vastly superior AAC format the apple ipod uses and it sticks you with one of the sub par paid music services such as napster instead of allowing to use the itunes store, which, if you ever plan to pay for your music, is by far the best. Before anyone says hey you haven't used the product, I have, my friend received one for christmas instead of an ipod and has since envied me for my vastly superior product.
80 what a beast
i got this awhile ago knowing nothing about it. it is a beast. if i wasnt a runner i would take a bullet in the foot for my nomad jukebox. now heres the stuff you should know starting with the good things: the screen is really big and the blue light in the back is perfect, fast as hell in music transfer, controls are easy to use after mastering the scroll button, GREAT sound and ive heard many mp3 players, a ton of different equilizer type deals on here. There are a couple things i didnt like though but nothing serious: a little larger than other mp3s but still light, the software takes some time to get used to (maybe 10-15 mins), and this thing would definitely be destroyed with one fall. but it comes with a tank of a case and if you cut a piece out where the screen is you can always keep it in the case and still access everything. ive seen em all, the archos, dell, ipods, everything... good price and great sound makes this one the best in my opinion.
81 Excellent Alternative
I got this thing for Christmas and i have been very happy with it ever since. I was planning on getting an ipod, but i changed my mind last minute...mostly because of the whole battery issue, i don't have the patience for those sorta things. My cuzin got an ipod and i won't say it is an awful product, but i will say that for the price, apple could do better as far as storage and battery life goes. The only thing i would complain about the Zen XTRA is that the controls aren't as easy as the ipod's, or as "sexy" looking.
82 Excellent product with a few minor problems.
I became interested in getting a MP3 player when I got a new work computer; while my office bars the addition of any non-work software, it doesn't care if you load CDs onto the hard drive. Over time, I loaded hundreds of CDs onto the computer, and the idea of carrying around all of my music with me became attractive. Many people recommended the Ipod, and I borrowed one from a friend. While the ease of use was very impressive, I was put off by the price -- about $130 more than what I paid Amazon for this player. Also, there is the need to send the Ipod to replace the batteries when they die (which they will).
I have had the Nomad Jukebox for about three weeks now, and I am very happy with it. It's only slightly heavier than the Ipod, and has a longer battery life. The storage capacity is great for me -- I have a large but not huge CD collection and have loaded everything I want to listen to on it and still have 13 gigabytes free. The controls are somewhat harder to use than the Ipod, but I have gotten use to them, and even at the beginning did not think would justify the huge difference in price. Loading CDs was somewhat time-consuming, but I think it would have been with the Ipod as well. I had never loaded my CDs on to my home computer, using my work computer instead. My office would not let me put the software on to my work computer. This meant that I had to take all my CDs and do in a fairly short period of time what I had done over a year at work. If the music had been on my home computer, the transfer would have been accomplished very quickly. I have an older computer, running Windows 98 SE, and so those of you with something more recent would find the process even quicker.
My only reservations about this product concern the tagging process and the way it interacts with the software. When you load a disc, you go to an internet cite for the insertion of the names for the CD and the tracks. While the listing process is accurate for track names(unlike Windows' reliance on the AMG, which frequently gets track listings out of order), the results can be odd. The CD will be classified into a number of genres, and in multidisk sets, you can get separate classifications for different disks by the same artist and the same performance. For example, Jimi Hendrix's 2 CD Live at the Fillmore East had one CD classifed as Classic Rock and the other Psychidelic Rock. Perhaps the weirdest was one of Bruce Springsteen's CDs from the Tracks set being classified as Goth Rock. You can change any of these, but need to be paying attention when the information is downloaded before you copy it. A somewhat more troublesome problem is that the internet site will sometimes give different discs of the same set slightly different names. This will cause the discs not to show up together when you are looking for them on the Nomad. Again, you can change this, but it's harder to spot a minor variation in the title when you don't have the title of the other disk in front of you.
Other tagging problems result (I think) from the Nomad's operating system. If you have two tracks with exactly the same name on one disk, it will not copy both -- it gives you the option of skipping the second or overwriting the first with the second. This is rarely a problem with any kind of popular music, but can be troublesome with classical music where tracks are identified by tempi. I also had it happen when recording a jazz set where there were a number of outtakes of the same song without numbering them separately. The way to fix this is to rename the track by adding a number yourself to the end of the track listing. Also, I can't understand why the software does not ignore "The" when it lists the CDs in alphabetical order. Finally, making playlists from the computer can be complicated because the tracks are listed individually, and are organized by CD, which are not listed but are organized in alphabetical order. In other words, to locate a track using the software on the computer and add it to a playlist, you must know the name of the CD it appears on and then find the track by locating the location of the unlisted CD by looking for tracks that appear on it. You don't have this problem if you make your playlist from the Nomad, where CDs are listed separately. You need your computer, however, if you want to add tracks to a playlist.
These are minor problems, and I list them to save anyone else the trouble of discovering them. Had I not been in such a hurry to load CDs, I would have spotted them sooner. Also, if I had already loaded and tagged by CDs on my home computer, this would not have been an issue. The bottom line for me is that I am very happy with this product. Apple's Ipod is dominant now, but I have to wonder whether the price differential will mean that in 3 or 4 years its market share will drop significantly.
83 in a word ... AMAZING
i got this for christmas. i was going to get a 10GB ipod, but after looking at the 10 DAY WARRANTY FOR IPOD AND WWW.IPODSDIRTYSECRET.COM (BATTERY LASTS 18 MONTHS ; IT costs like 200 dollars to replace - now you mail it off to get the battery replaced for like 99 ... what a big improvement ... lol) and the fact that lots of people have had problems with iPODs on windows computers, i realized this is a much better buy. Not only is it more affordable, but its a better player for windows, which is what i have. anyway, on with the review.
so far i've only had it since christmas, so i cant tell you much about the battery life. it hasnt gone below the second notch (i charge mine whenever i'm at home and not using it), so the battery life seems fine (so far).
SOFTWARE: for the people who complain about software, please, stop complaining. once you hook the thing up to the computer (via the USB cable), the machine instantly recognizes the fact that it's there & installs the drivers. from there, you transfer files from your computer to the mp3 player (with the help of the media sniffer...read the manual). my only complaint would be that you need id3 tags & that takes a while to do if your mp3 files don't have them. if you're copying CDs with windows media, its really simple to give your songs id3 tags, so thats what i do. oh...and file transfers are fast & easy.
THE PLAYER: it's silver. a little weighty (9 ounces ... no biggie), but otherwise fine. people complain about the scroll wheel, but its not a big deal at all (though it is just a LITTLE annoying at times). it's easy. the buttons are easy to use, and its easy to navigate. the big backlight makes things easy to see, and the writing is big enough for people to see. my favorite thing about the nomad is the EAX feature. you can customize bass, etc. like usual, but also you can customize the sound of the player (like how it would sound in a concert hall, jazz club, etc). its really cool. sound quality is AMAZING. i was expecting worse, but its really good (especially if your files have good sound quality). you can also slow a song down & speed it up, which is cool too. BUT THE EAR BUDS SUCK! BUY NEW ONES ASAP. every time you move your face or something they pop out. for a 250 dollar player, they could have thrown in nice headphones. a remote would have been cool too ... but lets not push it. oh... one more thing. i forgot, the case doesn't fit. my case doesnt close...maybe mine was just faulty, but the case isnt that great.
so far the player froze on me once (i started pushing buttons before it loaded) but since is hard drive based - you have to expect that. so all you do is stick a pin or something small in the reset button & you're golden.
also, you can store data on it, which is a plus. for all you people who want to buy an iPOD just to say you have an iPOD, don't bother, this is a MUCH better buy. HOPE I HELPED !
84 Great Product
Well in the beginning i was asking around for mp3 players. So then i came across the ipod (10 GB). So i was all excited about the ipod but then the day before i went to Best Buy to check out the other mp3 players and i came across this one. Well i decided to get this one. Well i have to say that this product is very good i mean it might be a little big but it still fits in your pocket. Well surely this is a product that i recommend someone in getting rather than any other mp3 player (at that size and the price). Well just one con- its not really plug and play at first i mean its very confusing to start the program but one you do it, it will be a breeze. Enjoy
85 It doesn't get any better than this.
Before asking for the Zen Xtra specifically for Christmas I researched many different MP3 players but finally decided on this one, and now that I have it I couldn't be happier and I'm convinced it's the best one out there. Many people have written about the software being its one downfall, personally I haven't had a single problem with the software, I'm running Windows ME. The CD ripping to mp3 is so easy, and you can even rip the cd directly to the mp3 player, so it won't take up space on your pc hard drive. The software runs smooth, it's nice to look at, it's very organized, easy to follow and makes things very simple. The controls on the player are very simple, no need for a manual. The player is fast and sounds great, it also has many options like slowing or speeding up the music, or making it sound like you're hearing the music in a huge auditorium. The battery lasts very long when playing music, but writing files to the player drains the battery fast, so you need to have it plugged into an outlet when sending files. Playlists can be made on the fly, without aid of a computer, and you can use play modes like shuffle and repeat for your 'now playing' selections or playlists. The software couldn't be better and the mp3 player works like a dream, I couldn't give this anything but a 5, I wish there was a 6.
86 Buy this instead of an iPod
With this MP3 Player you get much more memory for much less than an iPod. An iPod with the same amount of memory is $150 cheaper. the reason for this the iPod has "a better user interface". i have found that the inter face on the nomad is very easy to use if you have a basic knowledge of a computer. Also the iPod has games on it. Games are ok for a cell phone, but MP3's are for music.
87 Good For the money, but software is awful
After looking over multiple large mp3 players, i decided to get this one. for the price and size and features, you can't beat the price. A 10 gb Ipod is just as much and i have heard from multiple sources that the Ipod is very loud and you can heard the hard drive everytime it spins, accesses files or does antyhing. I think the reson for the creative being larger is for sound dampening and protection, whihc is a plus, but then again it is only speculation.
The buttons and interface are very easy to use. Simple click buttons, back buttons volume and display are very easy to read, access and use.
But the major problem i had was with the software. You are not able to simply import files, but rather you have to go through multiple steps to find them. the instructions that come with it don't explain how to make things simple. the quick sync isn't any good becuase it either needs to be configured properly or just isn't very useful. I tried to make sense of the file transfer program and just got more confused. i tried to take a cd and simply rip it onto a hard drive and then transfer into the player. well that was not a simple task. i ended up suing windows player to make mp3's (actually wma files) and then using the probram to transfer.
i think the lack of the mp3 player being able to run without special software is also a downer, becuase it makes it more cumbersome for people less computer illiterate.
Buy this for the storage and price, avoid it if you know nothing about computers.
88 A great player for the price.
Summary: Lots of flaws, but exceptional sound quality, HD size, and price make it a good buy.
PROS:
Excellent Sound - I found the music reproduced faithfully through the Jukebox. There was no distortion and it sounded great, especially with EAX Environmental Audio enabled.
Transfer Through Windows Explorer - Windows recognizes the Jukebox as an additional hard disk, so it allows you to simply drag and drop files from Windows Explorer to a folder for the Nomad. I found this to be a much easier method of transferring my music to the Nomad than using their software. However, it doesn't register instantly as a hard drive like other players. You have to install the software to the computer you're transferring to, instead of just connecting it with a USB connection. This would have been much easier.
The Nomad can hold any type of file, not just Mp3, so you can use it as a portable hard disk. I found it very useful for transferring large files to another computer. This almost made it worth the price alone. I was able to easily copy 2Gb worth of video files from my computer, and then transfer them to a friend's.
Huge Storage Space - Even at 320Kbs, you can store a ton of songs on this thing. 30Gb is more than enough for most people.
Having USB 2.0 makes for very fast transfers. It only took me about 10 seconds to transfer a 200mb file. It took maybe 15 minutes to transfer 1000 songs.
CONS:
Navigation system - The Zen Xtra uses Id3 tags that are embedded in the Mp3 files to organize your songs. This is great as long as all of your music have Id3 tags, and if you've downloaded your songs off the Internet, many probably don't. It would have been much easier to use a Windows Explorer style navigation system. You can't simply open up a folder from the player and play all the songs in it. Whe you transfer your songs to the Jukebox, it dumps ALL of them into a single folder, and then sorts them by the ID3 tags.
FM Receiver - It has none. I would be nice to have a simple FM Receiver so I could pick up local stations. That way I could get rid of a walkman alltogether.
Cheap Construction - They should have made the player out of hard plastic and put some rubber on the corners. The player feels VERY delicate, as if I'm holding an actual hard drive. I'm not sure if it would survive a fall from 3 feet. As a portable player, it should feel a bit more durable. The top of the player is a thin metal piece that covers up the battery and is removable. I could crush this thing in half with two fingers if I wanted to. This is not a player you can take jogging.
The songs don't play one after another like on a CD. You have to add them to the Playing List. I can't simply bring up my entire list of songs, click play, and then hit next. You have to add all the songs to a play list. There is probably an easier way to do this, I just haven't found it yet.
Software - The software is crap. I use it for ripping CDs, which it does a pretty good job of. Otherwise, it is difficult to figure out and awkward. Like most people, I don't want to read the instructions, I just want to use it. Even after reading some of the instructions, it's still hard to figure out. I would recommend replacing the existing software with the "Notmad Explorer," which is simpler to use and can be found on the Internet.
No Line Out Jack - As I said, there is none. The headphone jack acts as a pseudo line out jack. So you can plug your Nomad directly into your stereo or use a car adapter, but you don't get the quality from a true Line out jack. It sounds decent, but I would estimate you get maybe 80% of the quality that you would from a true line out jack.
Controls are a bit awkward. The controls definately took some getting used to. It wasn't as easy to fast forward or pause a song than it was with a regular walkman. When I first had it I kept finding myself having to look at the Nomad to figure out where the skip button was. A sliding old fashioned volume knob would also have been easier than the digital version that was included. I want to have instant access to the volume, not have to hold down a button and have to wait a half second for the
