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The Nomad Jukebox is essentially a portable hard drive with software that will play MP3 audio. Since hard drives include spinning and moving parts, this player is not ideal for active MP3 users from joggers to snowboarders.
We cracked open the box, inserted the rechargeable batteries (two sets of four AAs are included), plugged in the AC adapter, and waited the recommended 12 hours for them to charge initially. This is a very important step. This was our second set of batteries--we didn't bother to heed Creative's initial charging directions when we first got the product, and our first set of batteries soon lost the capacity to be recharged.
After installing the included software (we tested the Jukebox on a Macintosh G4 using SoundJam MP; for PCs, Creative includes PlayCenter 2) and connecting the USB cable, we quickly deleted 2 GB of starter MP3 and audiobook files and started loading our own music. We started with about 500 songs, but noticed after the load had finished that not all the songs made it onto the Jukebox. Also, the SoundJam software didn't like us doing any other work on our Mac G4, stalling out the load whenever we switched to another program.
We found it was best to load in smaller numbers and to keep SoundJam up as the active application (unfortunately, not the most efficient use of computer time). The transfer rate is about 6 minutes per 100 MB, which translates to around 25 songs. (So far, we've loaded 861 songs and we still have over 2.3 GB left of storage.)
Once music has been transferred to the Jukebox, you need to create an active playing list by navigating one of three lists--artists, albums, and genres--then adding songs to the queue. (This points out the need for creating thorough ID3 tags, an electronic label that can include song title, track number, year, and more. ID3 tags can be created via the PlayCenter and SoundJam software manually or be imported from the online CDDB database. For more information about tagging, see the Amazon.com Making MP3s Guide.) Playlists can be saved in the Jukebox, though it can be a bit tedious (there's no keyboard), and you can't add songs to an existing playlist.
The Jukebox also sports some nice additions. It has a line-in recording capability (using an external microphone) that records WAV files that can be adjusted for optimal (or low-end) sound quality, and it can play audiobooks.
The biggest downside to the Nomad Jukebox is its portability. As noted, it does run on rechargeable batteries, but they'll last far less than the advertised two hours. Also, this isn't the device to take jogging; its internal hard drive, though somewhat shock and motion resistant, just won't take that kind of activity. It's really made for stationary play using its included AC adapter.
It also has a few playback glitches, the biggest being that you can't fast- forward or rewind within a song. Also, there's no bookmark feature for audiobook listening--a necessity for long files.
Ultimately, the Creative Nomad Jukebox isn't perfect and isn't suited for everyone's MP3 needs. But it has become a staple of our gadget life--it travels with us daily to the office and hooks in nicely into stereo systems, both at home and at friends' houses. Someday, we'll all wonder what we did without an MP3 jukebox. --Agen G.N. Schmitz
Pros:
Other highlights of this player include special effects algorithms that alter the way your music sounds, making it seem as if you are listening in a concert hall, in a stone room, or in a forest. You also have the flexibility to adjust the treble, bass, and middle tones to your liking. You can slow and speed the playback of files, a feature that is particularly helpful if you are running through the minutes of a meeting you just recorded or are listening to other spoken word content.
The NOMAD Jukebox offers USB interface for lightning-fast data transfer between your NOMAD Jukebox and your PC or Macintosh. It includes headphones and four rechargeable NiMH AA batteries.
One more thing, to the person who said that his jukebox would not even turn on with and without the batteries. You need to stick a pin or paper clip into the reset hole in the back while turning it on or off [if it is hung in the off position]. I read how you bought all those accessories and feel for you.
Aside from the quick battery drains, the Nomad Jukebox is a great piece of technology. If large storage space and superior anti-shock are your main concerns, go for the Nomad Jukebox. If you want mobile music go for a more battery-efficient MP3 player.
Solution for the battery problem- purchase Radio Shack high capacity NiMh batteries and recharger and charge up batteries outside of the Jukebox. I've been getting close to the max (4 hours) by not using the Jukebox recharger.
There are no real solutions to the other problems... it's annoying not to be able to upload some of your MP3's to a friends computer.. but you can save a copy of them when you rip them and share them via email/ftp download.
I have to admit, the Mac IPod looks much cooler, and probably weighs less... however, who wants to use a Mac anymore? Until they make an IPod for the PC, I'll stick with my Jukebox.
Definetly worth the money!
The included software also will rip songs from CDs to the Nomad or to the PC. All my good CDs fit on this thing, and I even may clean up and move some of my Greatful Dead concert tapes onto it. The sound quality is excellent, and I really like being able to select just the good songs and not the filler songs artists seem to emit.
But, to echo previous posts the user interface is slightly weird and will probably take getting used to. Also, battery life is an issue.
That is about it for whats bad about my jukeboxe, another is...THE DARN BATTERIES ARE NOT WORTH ($$$) FOR 4!!!
This is crazy i think. Also to all who feel those "GOLDEN PRICED" bateries donthave a long life UR WRONG. They last plenty if u charge them your 1st time for 20 Hours with the unit off, and when low for 4 hours. Plus when ever possible like while using @ home with speakers, have the Power pack in, to conserve power.
I do infact have a few thing id like to say that are good. I love the fact that this unit has NEVER!!! EVER!!! skipped, not even when my bus driver goes 65Mph over speed bumps down hill!!!,
Not even when im walking,jogging or running.
Saddly i bought my jukebox WAY to early and payed out the throat for it. I should have waited . Now i may soon be purchaseing a 20GB or 30GB model .Most jukboxes above 20GB are easily found at www.ebay.com. They go up to 40GB now!!!
One more quick comment i'd like to say be fore i go is that, sadly I have dropped my juboxes about 5 times on rugs and kitchen floors, and happily the play back has not been hindered one bit. (...)
I don't care too much about size everyone's been complaining about since I'm not going to be jogging with it.
The weird UI is really the only complaint I have with this. If you just create your playlist and don't muck around the menu too much, it's all fine.
But having said that, the unit works well once you get your tunes in there and don't stray far from a power outlet. I keep it by my desk and hardly ever touch a CD anymore.
Secondly, the playlist navigation is almost a joke. When in random mode or shuffle mode (yes, those are two seperate modes - how novel), skipping forward plays a new and completely unexpected song. Good. Skipping backwards however does NOT play the last song you heard. No, it's essentially exactly the same as pressing the forward key. What?! Who thought this up?
If you're thinking that isn't all that annoying - how about this? If you shift from "random" or "shuffle" mode to "once" mode during song play, the device completely forgets what the heck is going on. It will continue to play the active song, but display on the LCD panel the very first song on your playlist. Next, it will play the second song, and the screen will catch up to itself. Completely unacceptable. It should continue to play AND DISPLAY the active song, and then proceed in order through your playlist from that point.
Sigh. Using this thing drives me crazy. And mastering it's operation is almost self-defeating. As you get better at being familiar with the intricacies of how to navigate the device, you can quickly advance to the point of being faster than the device. Key response time needs help, and desperately.
But, all in all, what do I think? Well, I love it. I mean, as long as I don't touch it or look at it, it's great. It was designed to be listened to, and for that, well, wow, it really excells. Songs sound amazing, and the idea of leaving my apartment with every CD I own, all in my pocket .. well, c'mon now .. that's just darn cool. Creative needs desperately to get their act together with the firmware, but the hardware itself is definately worth the price.
PROS
----
* Good sound quality
* Nice storage capacity. Hundreds and hundreds of songs.
* Reasonable size given it's capacity
CONS
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* Battery life UNACCEPTABLE (1-2 hours, if that)
* Painfully slow interface. Stop, change songs, even the volume - you are forced to wait for it to happen
* Slow download from computer to device.
* No ability to skip forwards or backwards WITHIN a song.
I say wait for the technology to improve or get another unit that addresses these problems. I do not recommend this unit at this time.
Software that comes with the unit is easy to use, and is very fast on 1.6Ghz P4. Had my entire CD library downloaded to the unit in a couple of nights.
Negatives are its short battery life, inability to scan through songs (can only jump to the next track or start same song again), and lack of shock protection (smaller units use flash memory as opposed to a hard drive). Also, the unit will only play WAV and MP3 format.
In short, if you need a storage device for your MP3s that is portable enough to take in a car or elsewhere, but don't need an MP3 player to jog with, then this product will surely work well. Prices for these units continues to decline, and I presume the newer units will solve many of the concerns of present units.
I think an MP3 player is only as good as what you need it for. So while I know there are a lot of complaints that the jukebox doesn't have this or that (an FM tuner, for example), it doesn't bother me AT ALL because that's not why I bought it. Granted, for the price, I suppose it could use some extra features. But frankly, I would never use any of them anyway. Also, while hard drive based jukeboxes ARE more expensive than tiny portable MP3 players, they're a much better deal when you compare how much memory you get for each dollar you spend.
I bought the jukebox for one reason and one reason only--to transfer all of my all-time favorite artist's music to one device. Right now, I have almost 4 CD binders full of her music (that's about 400 cds--lots of bootlegs obviously!), and I wanted to be able to carry it all without having to lug 4 big binders around with me. So while some people complain about the size of the jukebox, compared to 4 binders stacked on one another, this is pure bliss. So the size and weight of this device is not a problem for me at all.
Another complaint that many people have is the battery life. I agree that it's not the greatest, but then again, I don't plan to use the jukebox without its AC adapter. My commute to work in only about 30 minutes (which is why I have my Nomad IIC), so carrying 6GB of music isn't really necessary. Plus, because the hard drive contains moving parts and I catch the bus to and from work, I don't trust it being jostled in my purse. Again, that's why I have my Nomad IIC with its non-moving parts.
Playcenter 2 couldn't be any simpler to use. I've read a few complaints about it, but I am more than happy with it. It's so easy. I'm not a big Napster/Morpheus fan, so all I'm using the software for is to encode CD tracks to MP3s and transfer them on to the jukebox. All you have to do is insert the audio CD in your CD drive, click on "audio CD" in Playcenter, select the tracks you want to record, and transfer them! How easy is that?! USB transfer isn't the fastest thing in the world (it took me about 6 minutes to rip an 11-track CD), but I don't mind. Remember those days when you wanted to records CD tracks on to cassette tape? You had to record everything in REAL TIME. I know CD burners today are capable of burning entire CDs in seconds, but I don't burn many CDs so my biggest frame of reference is my old school days of transferring everything to tape. And compared to waiting more than an hour while a CD burned in real time, 6 minutes is not a big deal. Plus, you can multitask and do other things while you're waiting.
I haven't played with the jukebox for very long yet, but from what I can tell so far, my only complaint would be the playlist feature. It's kind of annoying that you have to create a playlist in order to listen to more than one song at a time. Not that creating such a list is a hard thing to do at all, but I'd rather select an album, hit play, and be able to listen to the entire thing without adding each track to my playlist. Very minor irritation that I'll get used to after a few more hours, I'm sure.
As for the memory space, 6GB is A LOT. Still, because I want to transfer so many CDs, I'm going to upgrade to either a 30GB or 40GB hard drive. (...). I'd rather have a 40GB, but the prices are still too high since it's brand new.
The sound quality is also really good. I'm not too picky about sound though, so maybe my opinion here isn't very useful. But regardless, I'm very pleased with the quality. Oh yeah, and the volume is LOUD! Be sure to adjust your automatic start volume, or you'll risk blowing out your ear drums. I guess it depends on where you'll be using your jukebox, but since I'll mostly only be using it at home, I set my volume at 8 and it's still too loud sometimes.
One more thing, the firmware upgrades available for free download on the official Nomad and other websites are sooooo fast. I almost thought it didn't work, it was so quick. But then I checked my system information and there it was: version 2.94.
So basically, to make this very long review very short: go out and buy the Creative Nomad Jukebox. NOW!
A few points; First, download the new software for Playcenter as soon as possible. The version that shipped with the player had serious problems with CDDB. Also, download the firmware and upgrade the player before doing a lot of file transfers. Do make sure that the player works and is functional before you upgrade, though.
The sound quality is awesome, as good as CD quality. The included headphones are pretty comfortable, and I found them adequately loud. The included case is cheap, and as others have mentioned it doesn't allow you to have the headphones attached to the player while it is in this case. Dumb design, but I guess it drives revenue for Creative. Also, Creative has mentioned that the IR port will support future applications, and has mentioned "IR file transfer" and "remote control". Since D-link just come out with a similarly priced product with the remote included, Creative should get on the stick and get the remote out _soon_. It would make an already excellent product even better.
Lastly, a pet gripe; the manual is just too darn thin, and there are too many features that are not adequate documented (disc-cleanup, HD reformat, etc.) Creative should have put the time and effort into a better manual, though given that some of these features have changed in the last several firmware revisions, I can see why they didn't.
If you have oodles of CD's and use music to keep yourself sane in the office, studying, etc., this is the right product for you.
Things I Love:
Every CD I own is on the nomad
You can copy data files to it
You can do live recordings with it
Things I Wish Were Better:
I wish I could just use this as a USB harddrive
I wish the batteries didn't run out so quickly
I wish it was smaller
I have had nothing but a good time with my nomad. Creative had some issues with the operating system on this thing when it first came out, but not too many big issues left to deal with. There were some people who had trouble with the hardware and batteries, but I wasn't one of them. I bought this...so even if I hated it I would like it, just because it cost so damn much.
Here are the cons:
Easy to use...one you get the hang of it. I agree that the documentation for the unit is pretty substandard and the interface is non-intuitive. But once you work your way through it and become accustomed to it, it is easy to use--easy to add, delete, make play lists, etc.
Upload and download--Move stuff from your PC onto your Jukebox, then back again! Some reviewers have said they can't do this, but I do it all the time. No probs.
Battery life--About 4 hours with each set of batteries...and you get two sets. That's pretty good. WARNING: when they say 12 hours the first time you charge, they mean 12 hours. Any less, and you've screwed your batteries for good.
Playcenter software--actually this is easier to use and more intuitive than the Jukebox's internal software. Great, easy, reliable and fast.
Cons:
The carry case sucks...buy another quickly. I bought the larger padded case from Creative, with plenty of room for headphones, a car adapter, extra batteries. And it has zippered access to the ports, so you don't have to haul it out every time you want to connect it.
Ummm...that's it, really...although I wish it played Audible content. Maybe a future upgrade.
An excellent buy, especially now that you can get a 20gig one.
The only major problem with this merchandise - and I mean MAJOR - is that you must use the Creative Rechargable Batteries ONLY. These batteries are awful. They only last about and hour and a half and they are impossible to charge. You are supposed to be able to put them in the player and plug it in to the wall and it will charge them.
This rarely works.
I called the manufacturer to ask what was going on. The customer service rep explained that the batteries have a "memory" and that if they are not TOTALLY out of juice when you plug the player in to charge them, then it won't charge the batteries.
The solution was to buy a seperate bettery recharger you put the batteries in and plug into the wall. This takes 15 hours to charge the batteries, though. (As opposed to the eight hours it is supposed to take when you charge it in the player.) You have to constantly be charging the batteries if you use this every day like me. The equipment is totally useless without these special batteries.
What I find to need improvement is the documentation. Learning to use my silver mp3 player has been mainly an educated guessing game. Most of the features (the small things) which lend ease of use for my personal enjoyment have been found through trial and (mainly) error. A comprehensive Users Manual would be a welcome addition.
Pro's: -Amazingly huge amount of memory (5.7GB and not 6GB as Creative claims, but what the heck, 0.3GB!) -Excellent connectivity. The Jukebox can be connected to any stereo or speaker system and it supports Dolby Digital AC-3 and 4point surround. Plus a line in plug so you can record from a mic, from the radio or even from the T.V.!! -Very fast transfer rate (500Kbps!!!!!) via USB port. -The ability to run it direcly from DC unlike the Nomad II MG and many other MP3 players, thus saving battery power and lifespam. -Big display, nice backlight ;)
-The three soft buttons that change function according to the mode you're in, thus having less buttons and more stylish look.(just like the NAV key on most Nokia phones like the 3310) -Great software (PC, haven't tested the Mac) nice design unlike many others said, AMAZINGLY CLEAN RIPPING, very high sound quality,in fact, others complained about the software because they hadn't updated it! updates are always available at [their website]! -Exceptional batteies! More power than any othe battery you could imagine! thrash duracell and energizer, the Creative batteries are a power station! (built for a power hog :P ) -Compatibility with WMA format after the upgrade (see above)
Ok, now the FEW cons (well, man isn't perfect and never will be. so are his creations! right?) -Battery life...hmmm...well it's not bad at all! but it's still a con compared to other MP3 players who last for 10-12hours. the Jukebox lasts around 4hours of PLAYBACK, and since Creative provides you with 8batteries, you can say it lasts 8hours of PLAYBACK, right? well it's a HARD-DISK running on AA batteries! Quite amazing battery life then! -The carrying case!! OOOOH GOD, that's THE CON. No holes for headphone plug, no place to store headphones nor spare batteries, the strap is so short it is meant to carry it like a handbag. But a SOLUTION to this costs only 19.99$. You can buy one of the other GREAT carrying cases Creative offers at [their website]-I'm not gonna talk about the size and weight because for a jukebox they are pretty cool: weight:14oz, dimensions: 5"x5"x1.5"
Well, that's about it. Finally, here is a summary of what you get when you buy the Creative Nomad Jukebox: -The Nomad Jukebox Unit (duh) -Stereo Backphones (which look great but sound a little less great ;) -2 4pack AA NiMH batteries (that makes 8batteries for those who donno math :P) -USB cable, Universal Power Adapter, Installation C.D., installation booklet (quite comprehensive, plus comes in 4 languages) -Carrying Pouch (I wish Creative kept it for them, they would've spared themselves the embarrasment! ) -Preloaded 20 that's TWENTY HOURS of music, including classical, jazz, hip-hop, dance, pop, rock, and two audiobooks(frankenstein and robinson crusoe)
Well, I hope this review was of use for you people. Thanx for reading.
The main drawback I have encountered is the PlayCenter software. I downloaded the latest from the Nomad web site right after purchase (you better have a fast connection, it's a big download). The software is very obscure, and documentation is almost non-existent. It splits into two views, and without useful guidance I set these up as: a `my computer' view of songs presumably on your computer, and a view that represents what is in the Jukebox. I have a large, organized directory structure of songs on my computer, split out by artist and then album. I have never been able to get the `my computer' view to work in any sensible way. It sees the songs (though it misses half of the built-in tags - generally it catches the album name but misses the artist name, for example), but using the PlayCenter to play songs on the computer is hopelessly complicated. Building playlists also seems maddeningly complex. I have used MusicMatch software for some time (and have a registered copy), so I am not new to this stuff, but the PlayCenter seems to go out of its way to make things very complicated, and there is no useful on-line help or examples. I eventually gave up and limited myself to uploading completed albums to the Jukebox - which works, but of course as the number of albums grows large it becomes quite unwieldy. The PlayCenter also crashes my Compaq computer fairly frequently (accidentally press a button on the Jukebox while connected and you see the blue screen of death, though it also crashes randomly as well), and it appears to hog resources so that it does not run well in the background. The software is the very weak spot of this unit.
The interface on the Jukebox is not quite as obscure but still difficult to use while driving. About all I can reliably do is select albums (by scrolling through an alphabetical list) and play them. Given the large storage capacity of the Jukebox, you would think a functional way of finding and organizing things would be a high priority, but this is clearly not the case. It's not much better than having a stack of CD's to go sorting through. I had high hopes for creating custom playlists, but have been unable to successfully do this through the software.
The unit worked for a few weeks and then the USB interface failed, so now I am trying to sort that out through tech support (can't tell if it is the buggy software, or a hardware failure). The Jukebox is a great idea, but this version of the software needs a lot of work to be useful. It could use less splash and more function (and more debugging). It's hard to recommend a product like this, given the cost and the problems it has. Since I can only make albums work, I would probably have done better with a `CD magazine' player in the car trunk, a less expensive option that does not need buggy software to manage it.
Sadly the aformentioned battery life, lack of a true "automobile" solution and cumbersome operating interface has reduced the gift to an expensive paperweight. The complexity is to much for her.
The promissed remote, 12 volt adapter and a more sophisticated "battery" sollution would make this a "contender" for those that require a "walkman" type of solution.I am a bit more of a hacker and may find a use for it, but it is not a product for the faint of heart at this time.
I do like the company and the "idea" of the product, I wish it would get better "faster". I would even buy another if it was improved.
Update with the play dock:
Up to 4 stars.. works great, a great desktop jukebox (as if
I have ever seen a desktop jukebox before)and even ac/dc. I
noticed the Creative site has a FAQ on auto use, but as others
have wrote it still needs a remote or better interface
to use in the auto. My wife now uses it in the "dock". We
will likely buy a 20GB'er this comming year.
A boat owners dream!!
The Jukebox comes bundled with software for PlayCenter 2 (for the PC) or SoundJam (for Macs) to use for ripping CDs & Mp3s from your computer to the Jukebox. It also comes with decent headphones (loudness is NOT a problem) & a carrying case, plus all the necessary equipment for setting it up. Setup is pretty easy, and using the software is a lot more intuitive than I though it would be. It takes me around 5 minutes to rip a CD from my computer the the Nomad. The best feature by far is the OMD description searcher-- if you're online while your ripping CDs, the OMD finds the album name, year released, genre, artist, & ALL the track names, so you don't have to type anything in. You can also rip Mp3s from the Nomad back to your computer. The songs in the Nomad can be categorized under Albums, Artists, Genres or Play Lists to make it easier to navigate. It supports data, MP3, WMA, and WAV files (plus many others). You can download updates from the Nomad website for better software or firmware for the player, so even if something isn't perfect now, in the future improvements will be available. The player also has an infrared port on the front for future additions (like a remote control). It comes with 2 hours of free music (mostly classical) and some Audio Books. It includes jacks for line-in recording from radios, microphones or stereos, and line-out hookup to stereos or speakers.
Of course, the Nomad Jukebox is a very new kind of Mp3 player, so it has a few MAJOR flaws:
1) BATTERY POWER- Hard Drives tend to suck up an endless amount of power, and that's exactly what the Jukebox is-- a Hard Drive disguised as an Mp3 player. You can ONLY use the 4 rechargeable batteries that Nomad gives you (AA size) to run it without the AC adapter, and those only last around 3-4 hours by themselves. Nomad includes an extra set of 4 to replace them, but you always have to make sure they are fully charged. Maybe in the future there will be more options (battery pack?)
2) WEIGHT - It's around the size of a first-generation CD player, and it weighs around 2 lbs with batteries. This isn't really a problem for me, but it depends what you want to use it for. It's not meant for use while jogging or biking, etc-- it's more for use over a long period of time away from home, on the bus/plane/dorm/in the car, or at home, plugged into the AC adapter and a pair of speakers. Besides the weight, in my opinion, it looks VERY nice- it has unique, smooth design, coloring and shape (and the LCD screen is easy to read).
The Nomad Jukebox is the best in its category of high-capacity Mp3 players-- It holds 100 times more music than a normal Mp3 player, and its price has been drastically reduced, making it a lot more affordable than it was before. Overall, I am very satisfied with it. It has its flaws, but in the future there will be improvements & upgrades available. It is the best option for anyone who's ever wished they could bring all their CDs with them without actually having to CARRY them... and I think that I will be using it for a long, long time from now.
The down side is:
I would like to see bettter support through the webstie from Creative Labs. This is a costly item, it would be great to have Web chat or something to get simple answers
The software is not the best. When I try to rip Mp3's from a CD the first track is always messed up. I have to rip the first track from the CD to the hard drive and then trasfer to the CD. This is annoying because I am trying to save space on my hard drive.
.wma files are supposed to offer better sound quality at lower kb rates, so therefore smaller files so more can be stored on the Jukebox. But, I can't seem to get the same quality when ripping from CD to .wma with the Play Center software included. I get better .wma sound using Windows Media Player, but again that goes to the hard drive then to the Jukebox.
i also can't figure out how to trasnfer from the Jukebox to a PC. The Jukebox comes with a couple audio books that I would like to put onto PC and make room on the Nomad for more music.
Overall the next version of the Jukebox should be great. It needs a bigger drive, maybe 20 gig. It also could use a tuner for FM signals to make it more of a complete product. I would also love to see a digital out to plug into a good quality stereo. I would say people should hold off buying until the next gen of players are on the market. But, if you want something that holds 150 CD's now (600 if I could figure out how to get the higher quality .wma files on it), it's as good as it gets.
p.s. Be ready to buy some headphones. The included ones are not very good.
Unbelievably bad customer support. I will by nothing from Creative Labs ever again!
One feature that will protect you and that I've used is the software update capability. Should give you some future protection.
The issues that got to me are:
1) Long start-up time... really only an issue in the car. It takes almost a minute to start-up... about the same time as my Mac! Consumer devices should be instant-on.
2) User interface - It takes a lot of steps to do simple things. They should have a "quick list" with 2-steps to getting your top or last 5 played.
3) My SoundPlayer software on the Mac had problems. A few times songs I'd rip would play fine on the Mac, but would give me a "Internal Write Error" when I tried to transfer to the NJB. Then the NJB would wipe out it's titles until reset. I use Apple's iTunes and it seems to work just fine.
Again, the fact that you can upgrade the software should protect you in the future, (except the instant-on feature which would require more flash and burning the core "OS" into it).
So, the pros:
1. It holds an amazing amount of music, even at a higher bitrate than normal. 2. Considering that fact, it's quite small. About the same as the first generation of portable CD players. 3. The controls are relatively easy to navigate with. 4. It seems rugged and well-built.
The cons: 1. It is small -- for a major music archive -- but it's heavy and bulky for, say, running or skiing. 2. Start-up time is very very slow. 3. Software on the unit is clumsy, simplistic and slow. 4. Creative Play Center 2 is perhaps the worst ripping and file organizing software I've ever seen. The software for both PC and Nomad are utterly unintuitive. I would like to see some sort of playlist update function that allows me to tweak my playlists and harddrive contents without having to sweep everything clean or do it piecemeal. This point will become clearer to you after you've used it. 5. It's a battery hog. 6. Earphones suck and don't fit me so well. You might be different.
Summary: a good Version One. I am looking forward to the final draft.
Tips: You can do a lot of file maintenance for you Nomad via other software, such as MusicMatch or RealJukebox. Don't toss those programs away. On that note, use those programs to rename tracks with duplicate titles. Nomad is not too bright about telling the difference between Irma Thomas and the Stones doing Time is On My Side, and PlayCenter is a terrible file management system. So get all your file names and titles cleaned up in a good program and then dump them all over to PlayCenter to make your playlists.
And also, turn off the EQ settings ("EAX") when you're using an external amplifier (computer, car, etc) to save battery life.
-there is a problem with the transfer software, most songs go onto the player fine, but some don't go on at all or are put on with gaps in them -it's a hard drive- which means that a large enough shock will kill it. i don't feel comfotable with it because i am afriad i will kill it. -it's big. no bones about it, it's the size of a gen 1 portable cd player, but heavier. - no am/fm tuner
in my opinion, when considering the price tag, i think that you might be better off buying a regular nomad and getting lots of memory for it. still, for people who have lots of mp3s and want selection, this is great. you could run a party off it if you wanted to. however, while it is technically sound (except for the transfer problem, which will probably be corrected by firmware updates) and lots of fun, for me it is too big and makes me feel too selfconcious.
The PC-based software for managing your playlists is also very poor, nonintuitive, and lacking in a great many simple features that would make it a lot easier to use. I wish I had the room and time to provide a complete list.
On the plus side, the sound quality is very good, storage space is ample, and the device itself has a nice look, but I was very disappointed with this purchase.
What everyone says about the extreme storage is true. It's awesome to be able to carry hundreds of songs wherever you go. And the company did put out a software upgrade for the machine, so not being able to rewind/fastforward or download songs to your computer from the nomad is no longer a problem. I think that in the future they will make a remote control available, hopefully not very expensive. The car adapter is still in the makings.
The Good
- 6GB of MP3
- Fast transfer
- Great Sound (once you get a decent pair of headphones)
- I think the Playcenter software is ok; it does pretty much everything I want.
- EQ Features are great
- Looks cool (The is nice silver, the blue is not so good. No wonder some places charge more for the silver)
- Backlit display (Take that PJB100!)
- Upgradeable firmware
The Not-So-Good
- You have to (or should) upgrade the firmware first thing (can it be really be a mass market product if you have to upgrade it the moment you open the box?)
- Long boot time: It can take over (some people say a LOT over) 30 seconds for it boot up
- The case is almost worthless. Would it KILL Creative to give a case that allows you access to the player controls?
- It's a little buggy. Hopefully future firmware upgrades will cure this.
- Poor battery time
- Car power adapter not included nor offered by Creative
- To large to use exercising
- Included headphones are only useful in that they provide an incentive to buy a good pair.
Not perfect but pretty darn good.
I had been thinking about purchasing an mp3 player for a long time, but all I saw was little itty-bitty 32- or 64-meg players. Now, I have a CD-writer; if I wanted an hours worth of music, I would just make my own CDs, thank you very much. Then I stumbled upon the Jukebox. "Six gig? That can't be right." Yep, it is. Currently I have 1800 songs on it (recorded at 64kbps), with rooom for probably another 1000 or so. There are a lot of other good reviews on this site, so I'll just mention a couple of minor points.
First, yes there IS a random function (it's accessed in a strange place, from the song detail screen, but it IS there). Also, this is one of the few downsides of the player, as I have noticed it has trouble randomizing a LARGE, i.e. over 1200 song, queue. It has a tendency to only play songs from the first half of the queue. But, it's really not difficult to keep your playlists to under 1200 songs. ;)
Also, it can be difficult to play that one song that is itching at the back of your mind; the interface is simple enough, but it just takes a while to scroll through the 120 artists or 200 albums to find a single song.
These are extremely minor quibbles however, and this player is easily the best ... I have ever spent.
I traded in my ridiculously featureless Philips Expanium for this thing (and an additional $200 :)) and couldn't be happier with the decision. Seriously, after six hours I have the thing upgraded with the latest firmware and have already filled it 1/3 of the way with some of my favorite CDs. I've been using WMA format, since I can't get the files back off the unit, the extra compression pays off.
Navigating menus is a breeze and the bundled software is incredibly intuitive.
Here are the negative points: 1. No shuffle options (hopefully changed in future firmware?) 2. Battery life is rumored to be short (haven't tried them yet)
The positives are so numerous, I can't list them. I'm going to run right out tomorrow and pick up a 12V power supply for my car and then I'll be able to have about 100 of my favorite albums with me anywhere I go.
Well, so much for being speechless...
PROS:Holds 6 gig of space, Multiple environments, preloaded with 200.0 mb of songs
Cons:These features may overwhelm you at first! haha
Pros:
1) As you may have heard, it has 6 GIGS! of music. I mean, come on. Oooh, I'm going to buy this 64 Meg Mp3 player that's 3/4 the price of a 6 GIG player. What kinda flipped out logic is that?
2) The transfer speed is pretty fast, though with the amount of information you're moving, it's still going to take some time.
3) It does have a pause button. Hit Stop once for it to pause, twice to stop. It worked this way before the first firmware update.
4) After the update it does have a scan, though it's not wonderful, but it exists.
5) There is a random play for playlists, go to the active queue list and hit details, but there isn't for the every song on the player, though you could create a playlist from everything and randomize that.
6) I've not had any volume problems using a pair of cheap earbuds, but I'm no audiophile.
7) Also, after the update, you can upload non-write protected mp3's from the Jukebox to your computer.
Cons:
1) The playcenter bundeled software isn't very good. It crashes quit a bit on my system. Also, there's no randomize playlist option on the software. It would be really nice to be able to just select a list and randomize it for later listening. It doesn't have a drag and drop option only select and transfer. Would be nice to just choose a directory and everything under it was transferred.
2) Battery life. 4 Hours is pretty not cool. I realize that this is an energy hog, but still....
That's really it for either. In my opinion it's a very high quality device that will be able to stay current for some time to come as Creative updates the firmware. It does, however, have some software problems that should be fixed to make this as perfect as anything can be.
I've had this product forabout a month now, and overall I'm happy with it.
Here are thegreat/good aspects of the product:
- It works as advertised. I'veripped over 100 jazz CDS, and still have room for more.
- The soundquality is fine. I've read complaints from others about soundquality, volume not being high enough, etc. I realize everyone hasdifferent standards, but I myself find the quality about the same asmy CD player and certainly better than standard MP3 players. And Iconsider myself relatively picky about sound quality.
As forvolume, if I go beyond level 16 (and the highest volume control islevel 20) it hurts my ears, so the volume strength is certainly finefor me.
(Note: get a good pair of headphones or use your favoritepair...as is usually the case, the headphones that come with the Nomadare pretty much garbage.
Here are the 'drawbacks' or 'weak points'that Creative should address in the next version of the product
- Mybiggest issue (and I think everyone is in agreement) is battery life.At BEST they last about 3.5 hours for me, though individual mileagewill vary. Yes, Creative does provide a 2nd set of batteries, but tome that's a sign that Creative knew this would be an issue and tookthe path of least resistance.
- The software is 'OK'. It works,and can get you where you need to go, but Creative really didn't dotheir homework as far as learning what 'power users' would want out ofsoftware. For a beginner, it's fine. Beyond that, it's kludgy.
Iuse another ripper that supports Variable Bit Recording (VBR), so Irip with my other software and just use the Creative software totransfer files from my computer to the Nomad Jukebox.
- The userinterface for the Nomad itself is 'OK', but again kludgy and a tadslow. It's almost funny to tap the volume control and have to wait asecond or two before the Nomad responds. (It's amazing how you takethat kind of thing for granted on a normal walkman.)
- The manual.I read it. I laughed. I tossed it aside. Enough said.
- Thedesign of the AC adapter is strange. Again, a tad bigger and morekludgy than needs to be. I hope Creative addresses this in thefuture.
- Along with the battery issue, here's the other one thatactually annoys me: the carrying case is another example where theyreally didn't keep the customer in mind. You can't comfortably fitthe 2nd pair of batteries in, nor can you fit in the AC adapter, etc.For the price tag ..., I really would have expected Creative to throwin a better carrying case. I'd even consider it OK if they'd offer aGOOD carrying case as an add-on accessory (and maybe they do, but I'vesearched their Web Site and can't find one.)
Miscellaneous comments:
- I've played with EAX, and, well, it's not for me. To me, it'smore 'gimmicky' than anythingelse. I truly don't care that I don'tuse it...but I do care that Creative should have paid more attentionto other details.
Now, someone may read this and wonder why I gaveit 4 stars...bottom line, I love the sound quality and I love having atruckload of CDs in one little place. Yes there are weaknesses inthis product, but the core of the product works very very well.
Ihope this helps.
My only qualms are: -The earphones included are "cool" looking but cheaply made. -The included carrying case has no openings for the earphone plug, nor does it have an opening to work the controls through. -The manual wasn't too clear about this, but I suspect that the built in remote control window is only there for looks for now, and only later versions of the Jukebox will have the remote option. -There is no car kit available yet for it. You need a 12V DC adapter for your cigarette lighter if you want to power it while driving. But any simple cassette device included in portable CD player car kits will work to listen to the Jukebox in the car (I also use it to hear my MP3s on my stero system). -The Creativeware computer program insists on alphebetizing your MP3 files, so song tracks on a single album can end up out of order. -The 20 hours of music and audio that come with the Jukebox are write-protected, so you can't combine them into other directories, or edit (or even see, due to the non-scrolling display screen) some of the long title names.
There are a couple other minor inconveniences like these...but it's pretty easy to discover ways to work around them. Perhaps future versions of the updatable software will fix these bugs (I can't seem to get the latest version I downloaded to install on the computer...weird.)
All in all though, I'm very, very happy with the Jukebox. I can drive to the music during my weekly two hour commute and I never have to push a button or hear the same song twice! I highly recommend this item.
While I wouldn't recommend it for use while exercising (it weighs a good pound or so), the number of ports it has makes it rather versatile. There are stereo mini jacks for headphone-out, line-out (2 of them), and line-in (for digital recording). There's a power port (12V DC), the aforementioned USB port, and a curiously unused IR port in the front of the unit. If you need a port, it's there. This makes it easy to send audio to a receiver, or plug it into a car stereo.
The first thing that I immediately noticed while driving was the contour of the Jukebox. Whether intentional or not, the bottom is curved just enough such that it can sit sideways on my leg without shifting or sliding. This means it doesn't have to sit on the seat beside me, or in and of the dashboard or front panel trays (although that's where it eventually ended it). After a while, the controls become fairly intuitive - even in the dark I was able to perform all of the functions of the Jukebox without taking my eyes of the road... much.
As for the sound quality... well, the "EAX-enabled" headphones are awful. But aside from the glaring faults that are inherent in Frauenhofer's mp3 codec, the sound is great. I would recommend encoding classical music at 256 kbps, though, and I still have issues with anything that's been encoded by the included software...
The only issue I have with the Jukebox is with the software that comes with it. It encodes and rips poorly and slowly, and the import function is horrible. Importing is done with either a standard file open dialog or by autoscanning. The PlayCenter does not support drag-and-drop importing, and does not have the handy 'Recurse Subdirectories' feature that WinAmp has. While this isn't a problem if all of your mp3s are in one directory, if you've got your music collection on a number of partitions of a 60 GB drive, it can take up to 1/2 hour just to scan them all, and the software does nothing to inform you of what's going on.
Other than that, though, the software is decent. USB uploading is pretty fast - around 500 Kbps. (Still, uploadng 5.5 GB takes about 4 hours). PlayCenter handles a lot of internal jukebox functions, like deleting files, creating playlists, etc., and for those functions it works very well.
Minor faults aside, this is an outstanding product. I'd probably give it 4.5 stars, if possible.
In my job I do quite a bit of travel and spend a lot of hours in the office. The ability to tranport the favorite bits from my music collection with me is a Godsend. The 6 GB Nomad Jukebox was therfore a must-have product.
I havn't been disappointed. The Playcentre 2 software makes ripping your cd's and transferring mp3 files a breeze, although it is annoying (but not surprising) that two-way transfer isn't possible.
I find the player navigation really easy to use. I would suggest that some of the other reviewers havn't played around with their menus yet. Contrary to reports, there is a facility whereby the active queuelist can be randomly played. The stop key also acts as a pause button which is obviously useful if listening to audiobooks.
The headphones look smart and produce a good sound. I would agree however that the EAX sound system is gimmicky and those with a keen ear may be disappointed.
Despite my minor quibbles, I have to come back to the fact that on my system I currently have 1250 of my favorite songs with room for more. This sort of portability was a fantasy until this player came along.
If you want your music on the move the positive points of the Nomad Jukebox more than outweigh the negatives. Nothing on the market at the moment can touch this product. Worth every cent!
1. In my opinion, the battery life is the biggest limitation of this product. This device is a portable harddrive, and it eats power. As a result, Creative provides two sets of four 1600mAH rechargeable AA batteries. They look like normal Duracells, but a standard disposable battery contains about 750 mAh. This is milli-amps, a measure of the storage capacity of the battery. Four Duracells would probably last about 10 minutes in this thing. In short, you need super-batteries to run the NJB properly and the company gives you only two sets. Each set, when fully charged, get **optimal** play life of four hours. Plan on less. If you travel a lot, like me, and want the NJB for longer trips, you need to buy extra batteries and an external charger. (It comes with a cigarette-lighter adapter for the car)
To optimize you batteries with the NJB, buy extra sets of 1600mAH batteries, and an external charger. Get a charger with a conditioning feature that fully drains the battery before recharging. You can run the Jukebox with no batteries inside, just connected to the AC. I always run my NJB on AC when available, and only charge my batteries in an external charger.
2. There are some annoying problems with the NJB that the company plans to fix soon. A few a really important for DJs who might want to use this for dance mixing. There is no A-B looping feature within a track, and the NJB places a pause between tracks that you cannot eliminate. These will be fixed, appartently in future firmware upgrades. My advice to people looking to use the NJB for DJing -- hold off the flurry to buy now, because the features you want are still a few months away.
3. There is another annoying problem that really irks me. The NJB can only recognize one song title, even if the album and artist are different. So if you want to put Ella Fitgerald's and Billie Holiday's version of "All of Me" on your NJB, you have to rename one of the tracks, e.g. "All of Me 1" and "All of Me 2" This is annoying, especially for classical music and jazz fans.
4. The cool headphones are not very loud. Many NJB users I know have purchased headphone amps to increase the sound. I am not much bothered by this, but you if like LOUD headphones, you need to buy another gagdet to get the most out of this.
5. Perhaps the biggest design flaw is that the reformatting function for the NJB is triggered by pressing "play" and "stop" together. Since they are the two largest buttons on the player, this was a mistake. It hasn't happened to me (you have to respond Y or N to "reformat?" ...I'm not that brave..) but this seems like a stupid mistake.
6. Plan on several weekends of CD ripping. I still have 2GBs to fill after intensive copying sessions.
7. You can not upload files with the .mp3 extension from the NJB back to your computer. But you can upload files with the .wav extension from NJB to computer, and you can simply add the .wav to any file on the NJB with the enclosed software.
8. As for the enclosed software, PlayCenter 2, its an adequate CD ripper/Mp3 encoder. Creative didn't spend a lot of time on the software. If you have a favorite encoding software, don't chuck it until you check out Playcenter. Its really weak, especially with multiple file transfers.
9. You need a pre-amped mike to record on the NJB. Basically this means a mike with a battery in it. I have one, and have made one recording. The recording is awesome, and very simple to do.
All in all, the NJB is GREAT. I love it, I use it everyday. but there are some glitches that will be fixed in future upgrades, or at least you should be aware of.
Good points: * 6gigs is nice, but easy to fill up. * Size is fine for home or car use * Navigation and use of the unit itself is pretty good. * Looks cool. * Sound quality is pretty good.
Bad points: * Their proprietary software (PlayCenter 2, I think) may be okay in a generation or two. * Display is too small to use safely while you're driving * No cigarette lighter adapter included * Burns batteries quickly
More about the software.
First off, it's a snazy looking app, but the window is not resizable, so you're stuck looking at a fairly small portion of the available tracks.
Second, the windows lack an edit menu -- especially a "select all" option.
Third, copying to the Jukebox can be a huge pain if you get midway through copying a lot of tracks and have to restart. There is no way to automatically skip all tracks already on the player. There is an option to overwrite all, but that takes longer.
Fourth, if you store your music with different subdirectories for each artist, then subdirectories for each album, it will take forever to get them on the Jukebox, as PlayCenter does not have an "all the files below this directory" option.
Lastly, it would be nice to be able to bypass the PlayCenter software altogether and use Windows Explorer. SmartMedia readers for digital cameras show up as an extra hard drive -- this would be a much easier way to work with mp3's!
All in all, the jukebox is very cool, anyway.
Another great feature is the software that comes with the Jukebox. It too is very user friendly. I really appreciate the ability to rip CDs directly to the Jukebox without saving them to my hard drive. Personally I don't have 6 GB of space on my hard drive for MP3s, so this is a great feature for me.
If you can spend the money, buy this player. You won't regret it. Ease of use, 6 GB of space, lightweight, and throw in the pre-loaded music and audio books, and you have a great deal.
I don't care if the batteries last only four hours. Usually, 4 hours is enough, and you can still buy more rechargeables.
Got a fast internet connection? Got Napster, Imesh, and found the our-mp3 site? Then this Jukebox will be worth every penny!
Pros : -6 Gigs, duh. -Fast upload. -Easy to use.
Cons : -Rather heavy, but it doesn't weigh more than my CD player(Panansonic with metal body). -Plastic body that scratches easily.
-For people who has slow connection, buy a cheap Mp3 player instead, because you will download for months until you obtain 6 gigs of music.
At the end, there are some features missing from what I expected(random selection and smaller body), but 6 gigs... No more Cds, no more cheap Cd players... Woohoo!
I like:
--> the download time of 15mb/s from my computer to the jukebox
---> the weight!
----> memory (considering others are still averaging around 64mb)
-----> CoOOoOl backlight (which is NOT a reason you should buy it!)
I don't like:
--> NO scanning function! (aghhh! )
---> too much for its own good! the guys at creative have been so busy eith the 6GB chip, they've let go of the basics as in more sound, and the forest/concert/stone room effects suck - they basically lower the music so much, you have to strain to listen to it!
So - itz up to you... i found that the creative guys boasted too much and the expectations were too high for this gadget - in my book, its pricy, its got bugs, the design needs fixing so its something if i could return - i would and tick to me Discman!
The problem is it cannot back-up anything. Once an mp3 is uploaded to the Jukebox, it cannot be downloaded. Is this flaw problematic enough to return this otherwise evolutionary product, and wait for something that can both upload and download mp3's? It was for me.
However, here are my complains:
1) No fast-forward/backward (within a track/mp3 file, you could skip forward/backward to next track though)
2) no pause button. (at least I haven't found it yet).
This is a little bit painful if I want to listen to lengthy speech mp3s (e.g. audiobook). This means I cannot resume to the section I was listening to before I was interupted (e.g. "peanuts and diet coke, please, Ms. Airline attendent").
I think this should be easy to fix for their next release of firmware. But I am still trying to find their tech-support email for Jukebox.
Battery life is not good either (4 hrs tops, I tried), but I could go around it, just bring extra set of batteries.
Overall, it's "almost" a perfect system, if you only listen to music.
Upgradeable firmware in a volatile technology is a comfort that is not matched by the two 100 MB plus competitors that I am aware of. It is about the size and shape of a portable CD player, but with it one carries the equivalent of an entire CD collection. At its present price, it is not that much more than a top of the line Rio or Nomad, yet it has more features and a spectacular storage capacity that does not require expensive flash cards. I've owned mine since the day it was released for sale in the U.S.A., and here are my observations regarding its other strengths and where it has room for improvement.
File transfer is a huge improvement over the parallel port apparatus of my Nomad I. USB is much quicker, and I have experienced none of the buggy transfers that sometimes plagued use of my Nomad I. Also, I would rather wreck a thing than use a manual. (I'm not lost, the road signs are all wrong). I have made recourse to the manual only once to use a feature of either the player or the PC software. This speaks well of a very thoughtful, intuitively lain out design. Finding and playing tracks is easy. One can browse a library of tracks by album, artist, title, or playlist. I find the ability to save and play lists of songs especially convenient as I like different styles for work or for working out, and I do not have to spend any thought or time at matching a situation or mood because I can simply load a list of songs. The player has many extras. I like the battery power meter, which reads in terms of percentage remaining, as well as the ability to turn-off the backlit display entirely or after a specified delay. Spatialization (the ability to make the sound seem wider or narrower in source) and effects that can make a track sound as though it were a live performance in a club, arena, opera house, or out of doors are schmaltzier items I neither use nor like. I do welcome the addition of a three band equalizer, which can be adjusted to set the midpoint of the frequency range. This can go a long way toward overcoming the weaknesses of a particular track or a particular set of headphones.
Adequate volume remains a minor issue, but the devise seems to play slightly louder than my Nomad I, and with ear buds it is fine for me on the street. Although the overall sound quality does not quite match the quality of my expensive, near audiophile quality home CD player, it is still quite good with high bit rate recordings, and I do plug it into my home stereo. I would never dream of doing this with the noisy output from most computer equipment. In fact, except when I sit down just to listen to music, this ultra convenient devise has become the primary player even on my home stereo. The supplied headphones are cool daddy-o "backphones" with one wire in to the left earpiece, so there is no dangling "Y" of wire hanging in the way. The phones fit behind one's ears like a pair of glasses and are connected by an unobtrusive strut that runs behind one's head, they are not in the way when removing hats and bike helmets, and they are comfortable (once you learn to put the strut behind your ears), but the sound is mediocre. Sennheisers from my home stereo make them sound absolutely sick, but of course there is a several hundred dollar difference in price. You may want to budget-in a set of your preferred headphones, or ear buds for loud environments.
Also, like the smaller Nomads, this player can be used to store any kind of file, so you can transfer files of nearly 6 GB to and from work or school with it, but like its smaller nephews, it will not allow you to transfer MP3 files from the player to another computer. I did not notice this probable nod to the music industry with my Nomad I until a reviewer noted it, but I imagine it could be quite irritating if you had a need for transferring MP3 files. Also, like the feature that convinced me to buy the Nomad I, this player has the capacity for voice recording (and, obviously, a much better capacity for long discussions or proceedings). However, with the Jukebox, a preamplified microphone is needed but not built-in or supplied.
Finally, the Jukebox's weakest point is that it does come with two sets of four rechargeable metal hydride batteries that recharge while the player is plugged into a wall socket, but you may need all eight batteries if you make a lot of house calls. It is a power pig. If I load a list then leave the player alone, I can get about 4 hours per set of batteries, but using schmaltz features, frequent fiddling with the controls, or especially rebooting will cut into this time significantly. Personally, I can comfortably live with the limitations, but the failure to use a lithium ion battery and the inability to use standard, alkaline batteries with the player irk me. Normal batteries drain in about one hour. The player comes with a carrying case that would be adequate except that there is no hole to plug in headphones while the player is encased. I would prefer a belt clip of some sort.
The Jukebox is excellent for what it does, which is put every CD you own at your fingertips. You should know yourself if you have a use for this or not. The Jukebox is perfect in the car or at work, where it is unfeasable to bring 100 CDs along. You don't have to change CDs, and you can edit the playlists to reflect your tastes at any given moment. When I was sick for a week, I had my complete collection at my bedside. Long trips would also be an excellent time for the Jukebox.
Seek time between songs is about the same as the pause between songs on a CD. The hard drive inside makes noise, but I wasn't distracted by it. The case is exactly the size of a portable CD player, and only an ounce or two heavier. The Jukebox is Creative's flagship model, so everything is high quality. The package includes a nice carrying case, excellent-sounding headphones (which are a bit tight), extra batteries, all the cables, etc.
If you have extremely sensitive ears, don't expect any MP3 player to have true CD audio quality. This is a compressed audio format, so you get what you pay for. I love the sound quality, but a recording studio technician might hate it. And don't expect to take this jogging. Although it can be done, the Jukebox is certainly not made it. It is designed to be used on a desktop, plugged into the wall.
Unfortunately, the battery life is way too short. You will need to buy a power adapter for every location you use the Jukebox regularly. (i.e. home, work, the car...) Carrying around the power cord defeats the purpose of portability. A power cord for the car is not included.
Lastly, the price of the Jukebox (and MP3 players in general) is way to high. Be careful that it doesn't get stolen.
And the final test - I use this everyday! I love it. Navigation is easy, everything is easy. I certainly got my money's worth.
The Downsides:
1) Battery Life: It's only four hours! So, you can store hundreds of hours of music on the thing, but only listen to four hours between charges; kind of lame. The good thing is that creative DOES include two sets of rechargeable batteries. That makes up for the low battery life.
2) Size: This thing is heavy! It is, as Creative says, the "size of a CD player." The size, yes, but not the weight! If you're thinking about going jogging (or even walking, really) with this thing, go buy something else. It 's just too big.
3) The Hard Drive Deal: How creative could have stored 6 gigs on a portable player without a hard drive, I don't know, but the hard drive just doesn't work that well. There're the vibrations, the heat (it can get REALLY hot copying stuff to it), and the possibility of damage. I haven't dropped the thing, yet, but I imagine that if I did, it would not be good.
The Upsides:
1) The space, of course... lots of music 2) The organization software is pretty decent (I hate the SoundJam software for Mac, though)
So, in summary, if you just NEED to have all your MP3s with you, this thing is great (as long as you can deal with the battery recharging). If you're looking to just play some MP3s on a jog, run, or in the car, go get a Rio (or a Nomad, if you like Creative--they're both fine).
1) It's not loud enough. If I can't hear normal volume music when walking my dog on city streets, then it doesn't cut it. I couldn't hear music in a store either with volume full blast. My panasonic cd player has no problem with this - I'm not deaf or anything - it simply seems designed for use in quiet rooms. Forget using it at a gym where they might be playing their own dance music or something.
2) It doesn't scan through songs - you can only skip from one song to another. This is contrary to what the box says (although the manual confirms that it doesn't scan). In this day and age, how can you do without this feature???
3) It doesn't recognize regular wav files - only mp3s.
4) Sound quality is inferior (if you care about this sort of thing - I do) to the DACs in most modern portable audio devices (again, my Panasonic portable CD is wonderful).
If they fixed all this, I'd reconsider, but for now, I took mine back and received a full refund. Not yet ready for prime time.
The Nomad beats it on price... It's "cuter" looking, depending on ones point of view.
The PJ cleans the Nomads clock when it comes to play time. 10-12 hrs, versus Nomads 2-3 (these are real world numbers not manufacturer hype). The PJ uses one large LI battery as opposed to the 4 "AA" in the Nomad. Recharge time on the PJ, with its built in circuitry is on the order of 3 hrs. Additional batteries are about $... a pop. So it takes 12-16 batteries to equal the power of the PJ. At $... a set (it'll give you minutes of play time on anything other than NiMh)
