Creative Labs (70PD039000000) xSound Blaster Wireless Music
1 Initially Great - Ultimately Disappointing
I was pretty excited when i bought this. I picked up a wireless G router and set-up was quite simple. Had a few minor connectivity issues, but their latest software downloads took care of those.
The trouble started when I began to build up my music library. Once I had built my library to about 20GB, this thing really became sluggish. Navigation got so slow and eventually things just would freeze up. Pain in the neck!
Now that I have my library built up to about 80GB, this product is worthless. It sits in my closet along with any other failed projects :)
In the end, I have to say it was a nice attempt by Creative, beautiful product with a way cool remote control... but they just couldn't pull it off.
2 Pretty Good, still a few bugs
Works OK except for:
1. If you press play from the start of a playlist, the system will automatically play all songs in the playlist, as desired. However, if you want to start a song that is somewhere within a playlist, it will play that one song ONLY, and you manually have to play the next song, and the next song, and so on. Really poor design here.
2. When adding songs to the playlists, it appears that there is an incompatibility with music that is also used by iTunes. When you add music to the Creative Labs organizer, you loose all the of embedded mp3 data in iTunes.... information like artist, title, genre, etc.
3. Songs have a longer-than-expected delay before playing. This often makes me question whether I pressed play correctly, or whether the system missed my Play command.
3 excellent product
wow...what an excellent product...
people freak out when the hear the "Creative Wireless" name...
i have a Linksys 802.11b router....and it took me 10 minutes to set everything up...(eventhought that i have WEP encryption in my wireless network)
the Creative wireless works like an IPOD....easy to use
when you select a song, dont espect to listen it inmediately, its gona take about 8 seconds...but not a big deal
4 Works as advertised
Bottom line: this product is not w/o some minor warts, but overall it is high quality and does an excellent job of streaming your digital music files to your home stereo.
The remote control is where the negatives lie. The features on the remote are fairly limited, and it is essentially a line of sight device. Navigating through the menu to select your music is sometimes a bit clumsy. I also do not believe this item has the capability to stream video, as there are only audio (both analog and optical) outputs on the receiver.
I had some minor problems during installation. I followed the instructions precisely and still had some difficulty. The receiver immediately recognized my network, but the software that comes on the installation cd wasn't quite as accommodating. My best advice for installation is insert the cd, install all applications, restart your computer, and then power up your creative receiver. The installed software should load as windows starts, and then it should take over from there. The rest is very easy.
Overall, this is a high quality product that has liberated my audio collection. I can now listen to all of my music without fumbling around with CDs. It's a good thing.
5 useful little gadget. wish the software was better !
this is such a neat little gadget. it has revolutionised the way we listen to music in out house. my large and unwieldy CD collection had grown to the point where i could never find the song/CD i wanted. now i can. my song collection is now 1500+ and this devices handles it ok. i run the server on a windows 2000 box.
problems
1. about 1 in 5 times, (of the unit being turned on), it cannot
connect to the server. almost always, a quick switch off/on
of the unit fixes the problem.
their software could do with a lot of improvements. some suggestions.
1. editing / data entry : tab movement, auto completion should
work like it does in all windows program.
2. if a song has more than one artist, that song must be
reachable by looking at either of the two artists.
currently, if you enter the two names comma separated, the
result is a new artist (whose name is a concatenation of
the two names.
3. faster search for songs, artists, etc from remote.
currently, the first level menu is a list of single letters
from A to Z and the next level is the name of all the songs.
6 It works!
I purchased a different system first and returned it because it would work and tech support could only say "router incompatibity". Although this system did not "immediately" recognize my network, I went to the second step and used the USB connection to configure and it worked instantly. My only complaint is that the playlist does not allow you to shuffle or rearrange the music. I will definitely buy at least one more unit to add to my system.
7 excellent in concept, weak in implementation
I used this device for 6 months but the slow performance, clunky software, and intermitted stopping during MP3 play caused me to put it up for sale.
Wait for next release of product or buy something else.
8 Can't Get It To Work
I must give this product 1 star as I have never been able to get it to work. It could not find the wireless network from my LinkSys router. The troubleshooting documentation is not helpful and the online support refers you back to the same inadequate documentation. The people on the online forums offered suggestions, but nothing helped.
Others love the product, but for me it is useless.
9 Best so far but still leaves a lot to be desired
With any product based on an emerging technology, it tends takes a few generations before they work out the kinks. Having used a few, I can say that this definitely holds true for networked mp3 players. However, if you are like me and want to be the first geek on your block to have one, this MP3 player is your best bet.
Installation:
As usual with these sorts of things, the instructions promise easy set-up without incident but if you honestly believe that you have apparently never done something like this before. As expected, my network would not detect the player "automatically" and I had to manually configure it. Still no luck, even after removing all security features of the network. I finally got someone at Creative support who seemed to know what they were doing who suggested that I switch my packet encryption on the network from G(802.11g) to B(802.11b). Even then it took a few tries before I could get the mp3 player recognized on my network. Why this wasn't something Creative anticipated with all of the new wireless G routers being sold I have no idea.
Finally after setting it up it was time to install the software and set up my wireless pc music library. Unfortunately, Creative's media organizer does not recognize real audio, so I had to convert thousands of my real audio files to AAC or MP3. In my case, this was a big inconvenience, which takes me to the point where I begin ranting and foaming at the mouth about Real Player, ITunes, et al, and why they can't just agree on one digital music format and be done with it.
Anyway, finally having switched my packet encryption, removed the wireless security features, assigned IP addresses to everything on my wireless network, and converted my files to AAC I was in business. Simple!
Performance
The unit performs just as advertised, giving you access to your entire PC music library via the remote with LCD screen. In my opinion, it is the RF remote that makes the Creative labs unit so special. You can walk around the house and scroll through your music library, control volume, fast forward, and every other function you would want. The only thing the interface is lacking is an easy way to create playlists, but perhaps the next generation will have that...
Pros:
Good file retrieval speed over wireless network
RF remote with display
Optical out to stereo
Cons
Easy installation - Hah!
Unit needs to be manually powered off after freezing
Media organizing software leaves much to be desired.
Wireless laptop users squatting on front porch to take advantage of free wireless broadband access
Hours of life squandered waiting on hold for creative support
10 Wireless Music Blaster Issues
I think by now everyone understands the "Pros" of this unit and most of the cons. I thought I should mention my "Cons" for anyone interested.
1st - If you own a 2.4Ghz phone system, you will have dropouts. This happened to me everytime the phone rang. You then had to reset the system (by unplugging the power cord). I eventually upgraded to a 5.8Ghz system and this problem went away.
2nd - Range of the receiver is very limited. Even though I have a fairly strong signal where the receiver sits, it occasionally won't lock-on and just sits there blinking at me. Move it closer and it works.
3rd - Still unexplained lockups. Occasionally, the unit will still "lockup" for no good determinable reason. Again a reset is required.
4th - If you have a song in the playlist that for some reason is not available (i.e. the file no longer exists), the system will lockup and not respond. I have found that the mediaserver software likes to rename files and occasionally "looses" them because they have been renamed. Make sure you run the option to look for all your files periodically to prevent this problem.
When it works, it is indeed a "cool system". I almost threw the remote last night when it couldn't locate the sever AGAIN. I'm not sure that Creative will ever be able to fix all the software/hardware problems with firmware/software updates. I have the latest and greatest versions and I am still experiencing the problems described above.
11 Best combination of features and price
After a month of using the SBWM, I'm mostly satisfied with it. It's missing a few features that would make it outstanding but overall for (...) (...) this was a good way to free the music sitting on my PC's hard drive.
Setup on my secure wireless network was easy. The radio frequency remote with the LCD display is what sets this unit apart from competitors like Squeezebox. The remote makes it easy to select songs and control playback w/o having to sit in front of the unit [or set up a playlist beforehand].
Unfortunately, a key feature that would've given made life easier is missing: the ability to queue up songs [or create a dynamic playlist] from the remote control. Unless you create a playlist on your PC, you have to select songs one by one, after each song has played. Even worse, there's a noticeable gap in between songs selected from the remote. The ability to queue or add to a playlist would have been a killer feature and hopefully Creative will provide this it via a software upgrade.
The Media Sniffer feature, which detects new songs added to a directory, doesn't work consistently. Sometimes the SBWM unit loses the connection to the PC with the music.
Problems are few. If you're into setting up playlists, then you'll really like this unit. If you like to select tracks dynamically, you'll be a bit disappointed. But overall, SBWM does a good job.
12 DISASTER - BEWARE!
The concept is quite appealing: music anywhere in your house using your existing wi-fi set up. Imagine liberating 1000's of your mp3 files from your PC to your office or bedroom with a simple device. Who could resist? Unfortunately, I didn't. And I am living to regret it ever since.
The idea is a great one but my experience with it has been nothing but horrid. First is the complicated set-up. I am a rather tech-savvy individual and the hoops you must jump thru to get it to even *think* about working are amazing. Software installs, firmware upgrades and configuration of your wireless network are painful and time consuming. Once you have got it up and running, random drop outs are common. A song is playing, you're jamming and *silence*... Nothing like singing R-E-S-P-E-C-T at the top of your lungs and then the music goes dead... Oops...
Then there's the remote. It crashes constantly for starters. On the off chance it works, when you push a button, there is a 2-3 second pause before anything seems to happen. The system latency is even greater if you're using an external HD to store your music files, like I am. Believe me, it's not the HD speed as I've got one of the fastest external HD's in the land.
Then there are our friends at Tech Support. So many calls and the same standard answers from that stupid script. The tried to tell me it was my router (my router's fine, I did a site survey for signal strength) then they told me it must be a conflict with another program. 2 hours on the phone and still nothing.
Bottom line is nothing about this product works the way it should. It is extremely frustrating and you will waste way too much time trying to figure it out. My advice is wait for version 2.0 or until someone comes up with something better than this.
And if you're already bought it and it's working for you, count your lucky stars!!! And call me. Please!?
13 Stay away until a newer model comes out
For me, this device is absolute garbage. I was enthralled with the idea of playing music over my wireless connection, but the Sound Blaster Wireless Music is not the solution I thought it would be. Previous reviewers are correct when they state that the remote is extremely unresponsive right out of the box without the firmware update. The update does speed things up a little, but it didn't matter for me because the whole thing just stopped working. But the remote browsing was a lot faster, I'll give it that.
I am also perplexed at the fact that sometimes the receiver connects to my network and sometimes it doesn't. And the remote very frequently freezes for absolutely no reason.
It's a neat idea, but for whatever reason, it doesn't work very well for me. I wish I had just avoided it altogether.
14 BEWARE!
This product was an unpleasant ordeal from the beginning. The installation program crashed the first 3 or 4 times I tried to install it. Finally I got it installed by deselecting the options in the Media Source portion of the install.
At this point things seemed to be going well. The device connected and the remote worked and life was good. Until I noticed that both of my cd/dvd drives had stopped working. Somehow the installation had corrupted the cdrom drivers. After uninstalling the SB Wireless software and fixing the cd drivers I decided to risk trying it one more time. After reinstalling I could not make the device link up again. Also, the Media Source(the music management system from Creative) application had a corrupted library and removing the entire Creative directory and reinstalling did not help it.
Since it was Saturday and Creative Labs only offers support on Mon-Fri 9am to 6pm using a long distance number (This is a terrible support policy) there was no support available. I sent an email and got a reply 4 days later after I had already returned the product. I have owned MANY Creative Labs products over the years but this really soured me on them. It is unfortunate that the product was so error prone because for the few hours it worked it did exactly what I wanted.
I returned it and bought the Linksys Media Link which setup easily with only one minor problem (which turned out to be some corrupted mp3s on my system) and I was able to talk to tech support at 1:00 am on a toll free line. Much better policy than Creative Labs.
Final Word: BEWARE!
15 Not ready for distribution yet
I have tried to install (and un-install) this product four times now over the course of about 3 hours and am giving up. Technical support is M-F 9a.m. - 6 p.m. Central time, so no one is available to help me today -- Sunday. Initially, I thought it was because I hadn't disabled the software firewall that it did not install successfully. However, it just refuses to connect to my wireless network which is a Netgear 80211.b/802.11g with 128 bit WEP. After reading the reviews, I am going to wait for the next version which hopefully will support other media streams other than just MP3.
16 Very Disappointed
1. Product does not work with any firewall.
2. Windoes XP crashed.
3. Only 802.11b
4. No streaming audio at all.
This product is not ready for prime time.
I am returning it today!
17 Another fine product from Creative
Of the devices in this category, this one certainly looks the best! It has a sleek modern look, which goes along with its function. But, as in everything else in life, that physical beauty is only skin deep. The beauty in this device is in what it does!
I was not disappointed that it does dot play streaming audio from the internet, or my movies from my computer. Being in the Army and being faced with lengthy deployments to miserable places, I purchased a Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 40GB MP3 player so I could take all of my CD's with me to enjoy. And then I came across this bad daddy- what an awesome concept. A wireless receiver that will hook into my wireless network and play all of the MP3's in my computer! So I bought it.
Fortunately for me, it has not performed as the numerous reviews state. It has been fantastic. (1) Getting setup. Easy, but could have been easier. I had to manually configure the device to connect to my 802.11g WEP enabled network. Automatic would have been slick, but this also gave me the chance to be hands on, and learn about the wireless network which was also new to the house with this device. (2) Connectivity. No problems here. I live in a modern German apartment building- constructed of steel and concrete. There are two walls and a kitchen between the receiver and the network hub, and it has never lost its connection. Playback has been flawless. (3) Function. Hmm. Here's where it starts to lose a little ground. Why does it take 3-5 seconds to finds the next song when advancing the playlist with the remote? The manufacturer could probably improve this performance with a firmware update. I am not a programmer, but that seems to fix other MP3 products! But, the sound through my stereo is awesome, true to life and very dynamic. And, I have yet to suffer any electronic "glitches" during playback. (4) Features. I don't care that it doesn't play my pictures through the TV or streaming internet audio. I didn't buy it for that. It does what I bought it for and does it well. (5) Network connection. Yes this device is 802.11b and will slow down a "g" network. But Creative thoughtfully has given it an autooff feature, when you dont use it, it turns off and drops out of the network, ensuring that you will maintain the highest rates of through put for data at the other stations. And who cares if it is "b," when I am listening to music I am not surfing the net or playing networked games.
I would definitely recommend this product. But, be prepared to manually "connect" the device to your network and for long lags between songs when manually advancing the playlists. Other than that, enjoy this beautiful new addition your home A/V system!
18 NEEDS MORE WORK TO WORK!
The good things:
1) The product looks cool and is very compact.
2) It was VERY easy to install on my existing wireless network.
3) It works to some limited extent, but not what I was expecting.
The bad things:
1) The remote barely works in the same room, nevermind in a different room. And it locks up every now and then.
2) There seems to be no way to play all tracks on random without creating a "playlist." A pain.
3) After creating a playlist with about 7000 MP3s, there is no easy way (or any way) to add new songs to an existing playlist w/o creating a new playlist.
4) When starting my playlist and setting it at random, the first song is always the same, and takes literally five minutes to load and then start playing.
No great, not horrible. Three stars.
19 Lots of pros, but one con too many
Pros:
1) Don't need to point the remote at the base unit for it to work.
2) Does not require a TV, since all browsing is done on remote.
3) Fast browsing on remote even for large (10,000+ songs) collections (with firmware update).
4) Excellent software for both the remote and the PC. Users of Creative sound cards or portable mp3 players may already be familiar with Mediasource.
5) Great sound quality.
Cons:
1) My unit would occasionally lose the network connection, sometimes right in the middle of a song. This did not happen often, but it was enough that I returned it. I updated firmware for this and my Linksys router and access point. It may have been poor placement of the device (inside a stereo cabinet), but that is where I wanted to put it.
2) No capability for wired ethernet (it is wireless only). Since my home is wired for ethernet, I have a jack by my stereo. If the Creative device had a wired ethernet port, I may have not returned it.
3) RF Remote should be able to have better range. It will operate slightly farther away than standard infrared devices, and it does not require line-of-sight. However, an RF remote should work most anywhere in the house, in my opinion). Mine worked only in the room with the base, and in the adjacent room.
4) Creative's technical support is among the worst in the industry.
5) Although Mediasource is good software, it is required that you import your music into it. Some competing devices will simply ask you what folders contain your music, and you don't have to import anything.
6) Having good ID3v2 tags is critically important for the software, because you can't browse by folder and file name. I tried Ultra Tag Editor based on another review here, and found it extremely useful for getting my tags in order.
7) No support for pictures or video. Some competing devices support more than just music.
8) RF remote codes can not be programmed or learned by other remotes. But, you would need the LCD screen on the remote anyway. Competing products have standard infrared remotes and require a TV for music browsing instead of doing it on the remote.
9) Playlists must be setup in Mediasource. You can't use standard m3u format playlists in Mediasource, and you can't use Mediasource playlists with other software.
I ended up returning this and purchasing the Linksys WMA11B. The Linksys device is working perfectly for me because I can use a wired ethernet connection (wireless is optional). It also supports pictures(JPG, BMP, etc), and I can program the remote codes in my Philips Pronto (TSU-2000) remote. It does not require importing songs into any software, and you can browse by folder and file name. It will also play playlists in the standard m3u format.
One drawback to the Linksys is that you have to be in front of the TV to change or pause the music. The browsing interface is also better on the Creative device. It is far easier to assemble a custom playlist using the remote with the Creative device. The Linksys is pretty much limited to selecting all songs of a particular artist, album, genre, folder, etc. The creative will allow you to queue individual or groups of songs on the remote any way you want to.
Also if you browse artists on the Linksys, you have to scroll through all artists starting with the beginning of the alphabet. With my collection, you could be scrolling for a while. On the Creative, after browsing artists I am prompted with the letters A through Z for the first letter of the artist's name. So, I could scroll down to "R" and quickly get to the "Rolling Stones" without a lot of scrolling, for example. These browsing issues weren't as important to me, since I will probably setup playlists on my PC most of the time.
20 I'm reasonably tech savy, but not savy enough.
I thought the negative reviews came from a bunch of sticks-in-the-mud. Unfortunately, this device has turned me into just another muddy stick. I spent my entire Sunday trying to get the thing to become friends with my wireless network. Then, I got home from work today and have spent this entire evening on the phone with technicians attempting to get the device to cooperate.
I bought the package deal: the Microsoft wireless network router along with the wireless music device. I figured that because they came as a package deal they'd play well together. They have not.
After exhausting every configuration I can come up with, and all the configs the Microsoft people can come up with, I'm putting the thing in the post back to Amazon tomorrow. The folks at the Creative Help desk were poorly informed about their product and were unable to provide much beyond the advice posted on their web site.
I'd recommend this to people who are ultra computer savvy and who have lots of time to kill. For everyone else, I think we might be better off spending a little more money and getting a device that does what we hope.
If you buy this, I wish you the best of luck. Maybe it'll work for you. I wanted it to work, but I got what I paid for...actually, since it didn't work, I guess I got a little less than I paid for.
21 Great concept, flawed implementation
The idea of having access to my computer music collection anywhere in the house was very appealing. In my case, "anywhere" was the bedroom. With no LAN connection in the bedroom, wireless was perfect. Unfortunately, the Blaster must be connected to the computer acting as server by a usb cable (supplied). During configuration, the Blaster console software searches for wireless networks. This means the server must be in range of a wireless access point. In my case the bedroom has wireless access but the server's wireless access is marginal. (I don't normally need wireless access at the server - I have a wired connection there!) This is inconvenient, but temporarily moving the Access Point got the thing setup initially. Unfortunately, the Blaster managed to "forget" its configuration settings several times over the 5 weeks I used it, requiring moving the thing back to the server, moving the access point and reconfig. For what ever reason, I couldn't even reconfigure this last time. Now it may well be that my problem was compounded be weak wireless access in the bedroom (my wireless laptop reports weak access - but it does work). If the Blaster didn't work, I could understand it. I don't understand it forgetting its settings and the subsequent requirement to reconfigure.
I really wanted this to work. It almost did but in the end I returned it.
BTW, while the interface was not zippy, I found it adequate for the playlists I used (about 100 songs out of a 3000 song library, YMMV). I also found it very convenient to have the entire user interface on the remote's LCD. Bottom line: if you want this gadget, realize that you are an "early adopter" and you may have some problems. In the end, if it works for you - great; if not, you too may be returning a Great Concept with a flawed implementation.
22 If you're like me, you want it to work, but ...
After reading the other reviews, I felt obligated to add my two cents since I experienced problems that others have not reported.
I plugged the receiver into my wife's ten year old Sony stereo, and the soundblaster worked fine -- but with bad sound quality. The quality was fine when I plugged it into my powered computer speakers, but I needed it for a backyard system so I bought a new shelf stereo to hook it up to.
Unfortunately, it would not work with the RCA connection for the Panasonic SC PM19S. I took that stereo back and bought a Phillips MC500, but the soundblaster did not work with that one either. After taking that one back, I bought a third "boombox" type stereo, but the aux/rca connection did not work with that stereo either.
I asked customer service how I could know which stereo it would work with because I was tired of returning stereo systems. They simply replied:
"The unit should work fine with most stereos."
Right, except the three new ones I bought, and the old Sony. I strongly advise that anyone considering buying one of these hold off until they are more widely marketed and other products have been designed to be compatible. My next move is to buy an expensive receiver unit (I'm fairly certain this will work). I would not have purchased this product had I known it had these compatibility problems.
The soundblaster otherwise worked just the way I hoped. If you plan to use a high end stereo receiver, or powered speakers, this is a great product. Otherwise, hold off, let the price come down, and purchase the next generation when the compatability problems are smoothed out.
23 Early product but ready for prime time
I had a few hiccups trying to get the Creative Wireless Music to operate consistently with my wireless network. In the end, I adjusted my network to accomodate the Sound Blaster. My network was WEP encrypted and configuring the SB to fit in, it would often not communicate with the wireless router, a D-link DI-624 502.11g router. My laptop connection which was previously stable now started to flake out. I am not sure what the interactions were but after playing with a lot of settings, the whole network just worked a lot better without the WEP encryption. To protect my home network somewhat, I disabled SSID broadcast and also enabled MAC address filtering to allow only my wireless devices access to the network and no other. The SB Wireless Music receiver remote has the MAC address in the "info" section. All seems to work flawlessly. I should add though that I don't live in an urban setting where my wireless network needs pretty stiff protection.
My large MP3 collection doesn't have the best ID3 tags. This is really a big problem as it's hard to navigate without proper tags. I'm currently in the process of using Ultra Tag Editor to get my collection in order. I think the navigation on the SB Wireless Music is pretty great with a lot of different options to find just what you want.
Firmware 5/04, works great. The remote is a lot more responsive. What I don't like is that sometimes the remote freezes or doesn't do anything and their is no error message. In some cases, the location of my Mp3's changed or file names changed but it would be nice to know why the device is freezing up.
Sound is excellent. I use the optical SPDIF output to my digital decoder preamp.
I have been waiting for a product like this for quite some time. The SB has some quirks but is nonetheless more or less what the doctor ordered. Best of all, I got it for $160 at a major online retailer.
24 This Box Rocks
I felt a responsibility to share my experience with this unit since it differs considerably from other reviews. Many have complained of lag when calling up long play lists or when dealing with a large number of MP3 files. Apparently Creative Labs has been listening.
I got one today, and I couldn't be happier. No doubt this is due to the new firmware I downloaded from the product site. I have over 6000 MP3s, and I can browse and call them up without a hitch. There is a 2-3 second gap of silence after pressing play while the first file buffers, but it's no big deal.
I am a computer geek, and some network savvy is required to configure the unit if you're using WEP encryption. If your network is not encrypted, it's fairly plug-and-play, save for the firmware download which is straight forward.
Regarding the range of the unit, my 802.11b router is 3 floors above the Wireless Music receiver and I haven't heard a single dropped bit all night. I am also controlling the unit 1 floor above the receiver, so the RF remote is pulling its weight.
If you've been on the fence about this due to the lag issues, fear not. Download the firmware, and you'll be in heaven. This is truly great technology, and the sound quality is superb. For me, it was a crucial link in my home audio chain that I didn't even know was missing.
25 Great Sound
GET THE UPDATES BEFORE TRYING TO INSTALL
Thats the key to this product. Update the firmware and remote control.. And you have one GREAT sounding Network MP3 Server.
No TV needed all is on the Remote. The sound is truly VERY VERY good if not CD quailty. Got mine up and runng in less then an hour.
Buy it you will love it.
26 only for geeks
i am an early adopter.
But this unit has taught me new levels of pain.
It works, but sometimes it doesn't. So in the middle
Others have said, but here's the downside:
a) The remote control is buggy as hell; crashes regularly.
b) The unit has to be rebooted regularly also.
c) List display is slow and with a large collection I actually print out my list.
d) the software for the pc is just plain poor. It was probably bad and ugly in 1984, and it hasn't gotten better. I have wasted many many hours trying to get MP3's retagged (it blows them away), lists created. And it's so slow.
All in all, it's a first generation product. It's amazing when it works; and the concept is a winner.
So if you are a geek like me, then you can get value out of this. If you are not; wait for version 3. This is version 1.
27 You might be unlucky..........
Box certainly looks good, handheld is a nice interface (similar menus to that on ipod), PC software comprehensive also, and it all installed easily (it has to be said it did mangle all the ID3 tags that iTunes created, but it was fine with tags created by other rippers like MusicMatch so that might be iTune's problem, not Creative's).
The receiver happily connected to my wireless network and both receiver and PC reported that they were mutually connected. But according to the remote I had 0 mp3 files available, so I couldn't play music. Upgraded to latest software, and it did list the mp3s on my PC on the remote, so I was able to play music, and like others say here, the sound is great quality, the hardware is obviously good. That lasted 2 days, and then I powercycled my PC and now remote just tells me that I have 0 mp3s available, so I can't play any music. The software is obviously not good! So if you do get it working, don't switch anything off! :(
Its useless to me. (By the way, Creative support did try and help, but only with generic "how to config WEP" stuff which has made no difference. If somewhere at Creative knows more than general FAQ stuff they can get back to me on enquiry KMM2966288I24521L0KM).
I hope you are more lucky than me. I will stick to using my iPod with iTrip broadcasting FM to my stereo, which to be honest, works just aswell.
28 Warning!!!
I bought this thing about two weeks ago and still can't get it to work. Creative's customoer service line is not a toll free number. I waited 15 minutes before someone can talk to me. Remember they have no Toll Free number. You must pay for the long distance phone call.
When I finally spoke with their customer service, they told me that someone whould have to call me back while they researched for an answer. that was 4 days ago. They never called me back.
Final advice if you do not know much about network stuff, don't buy this product!
29 GREAT WIRELESS MUSIC DEVICE
Just got it and I love it!! I had originally purchased the LinkSys Wireless Media Adapter, but I didn't like it, and subsequently sold it. The Creative Labs Wireless Music device is AWESOME.
One of the reasons I like it better is that it's more intuitive. I also like the fact that you can navigate through your music with just the remote. Most of its competitors are controled through the television.
I also like the fact that it's powered by Creative Labs' "Creative MediaSource". MediaSource is the used by several of Creative's products, and that insures that they'll devote continued support to the application/platform/architecture. In fact, MediaSource has evolved from Creative PlayCenter to Creative MediaSource 1 to Creative MediaSource 2. It's something they've been working to perfection for a few years.
I definitely recommend this product if you're interested in playing your Digital Music over your wireless network.
30 an overall outstanding product
Okay. I bought this product after reading all the reviews people had left (and I understood that people can have WAY too high expectations with the stuff they review (or something), because I have read some horrible reviews on some wonderful products here before)...
I understood that this product had a couple little issues. After I brought it home, I immediatley put the newest firmware at the time on it (this version was 1.10.05 I believe) and it worked okay with that firmware.
My only real gripe was that when it went from one song in your playlist to the next song, it took about 3.5 to 4 seconds or so. This bothered me. But not so much that I wasn't still pleased with the unit in general.
The navigation in the remote only lags a touch after you scroll down for a while, and picks right up after again.
Oh, and I had to rename all my playlists for my songs so they'd show up in the order I wanted them to show up on the player. This took a little bit of time to do, due to my collection being 1,400 mp3 tracks or so, and mostly albums with playlists.
BUT! I just installed the newest Firmware update (1.20.05) and now there's less than a second's pause between each song! And it also has an added 'sleep mode' for when you're not using it to save your batteries.
All-in-all, I was OVERLY pleased with this unit, and it turned out to be more than I had hoped. If you have all your mp3's tagged and in order, especially along with your favorite playlists, then this unit is the one you've been looking/waiting for, and its a must have (if you can handle the pricetag).
Can't wait to see what the next Firmware release updates!
31 Slow performance
I credit Creative Labs with an innovative product. I like the display on the remote control. However, it was too slow to navigate through the songs when searching for a song to play.
32 Splash screen
The worst thing I ever bought. Still can't turn off their lousy splash screen and their support refuses to help. NEVER will I ever buy anything with their name on it.
33 What a DISAPPOINTMENT!!
I had very high hopes for this unit. Unfortunately, it has a MAJOR technical problem right now that technical support has submitted to their testing center. Note: I HAVE applied all *three* of the latest firmware/software updates.
Basically, after choosing to listen to a specific Genre on the remote, the unit plays ALL songs from your music library, regardless of Genre.
If you can live with that, for $250 big ones, it's a nice product. For me, it's worthless.
34 So far so good!
I was browsing through my local Fry's yesterday and came across the Creative Labs Soundblaster Wireless on the shelf. The vehicle registration rebate from Gov. Arnold was burning a hole in my pocket so i decided to take the plunge and give this thing a go.
The system is pretty complete. Good sized remote, even came with AA batteries. Power supply, USB cable, "streaming unit" about the size of a paperback book and connector cables that from RCA to headphone (for computer powered speakers I assume). Quickstart guide and comprehensive manual.
The software install was pretty routine. There is a music organizer with a very stylized UI. There is also a "music server" app that communicates with the remote box that is connected to a stereo/speakers. The music server app has a good console.
The box itself, once powered, will seek out a WiFi network that broadcasts an SSID. My SSID is not broadcast so i typed it in via the console once i hooked the box up with the supplied USB cable. I also took the opp to download new firmware for the box from the Creative site (doesn't everything need a SW upgrade these days?).
I have a library of approx 7000 songs so it took a LONG time to import those into the music organizer. You just click on where the files are and the indexes them. It will also keep an eye on that folder and automatically add new files as they get dumped there, which is helpful.
After all that I plugged the box in upstairs in the laundry room (where i keep the main sound system). The status light blinked for a bit and then glowed solid green , indicating it had "locked" into the network. i powered up the remote and browsed the library. The response was quite quick, much to my surprise. I selected a song and hit play - ta da!
The remote also has mute and volume, which i found odd. It seems to be adjusting the "line out" signal, which means it's more of a headphone out signal and therefore there must be some fidelity degradation. Then again, these are MP3 files for casual listening so I suppose that is OK.
I created a Kids playlist that has a few hundred songs and it's very easy to select and play it, with the songs in random order. The RF remote works around the main floor of the house but loses signal on other floors - the range is rated at 30ft or so.
So far, so good! I have 30 days to return it but I have a feeling this will do for a while.
35 VERY happy with this wireless music server
This first effort from Creative Labs in wireless music technology is not perfect, but it's pretty damn good.
Setup was easy, and I found the music ripping, storage and server software very easy and intuitive to use. You can't use uncompressed audio files, but I found WMA files (Windows Media) at 160Kb/s to be virtually indistinguishable from the original CD audio and FAR superior to MP3 - regardless of the data rate used.
In short:
- Sound quality: This was my biggest concern, since I was connecting the server to a very high-end audio system in my living room. Happy to say that the sound is simply outstanding. In fact, I did a test by comparing my (expensive) CD player - against the same track playing through the server/receiver via WIFI into my sound system. I synced the two up via trial and error and then had my son switch back and forth without telling me which was which. I was FULLY expecting to hear at least some difference between the two sources - especially since the server was using compressed audio and a wireless connection to the amplifier, but I was very happy to find that I simply could not tell which was which. At that point I knew I'd feel good about ripping my entire CD collection (over 1000 discs) onto the server.
- Operation: Once you're wired up and ready to go, using the remote control is extremely easy. Despite earlier reports about very sluggish response between the remote and the server, it seems that most if not all of those problems were addressed in the latest software/firmware update. There is a delay from the time you press PLAY to the time the track begins, but it's usually never more than four seconds (it appears that the server caches about one minutes worth of the track into memory before it begins to play - which would account for the delay. Obviously this is done in case the receiver loses contact with the server(PC) and gives it time to re-establish a connection).
I must say, even though my WIFI transmitter is on one side of my house - and the receiver is on the other (3000sq/ft home), the receiver has never once hiccupped or made any strange noises. This is a real plus, since I listen to my music very loud and I was concerned that any "thumps" or "pops" coming out of the receiver would blow my speakers.
- Shortcomings: The "RF" remote needs more range than the 20 or so feet I'm getting in my home. I may try to find a way to attach some kind of antenna to the receiver to help boost the range.
Fast forwarding and rewinding through a track is next to useless, since the audio is muted during such operations.
I wish there was a way to tell the server when certain tracks should be played up against each other with no delay between them. For example, a LIVE concert may have track markers, but it's really intended to play continuously without any breaks between the tracks. This is really annoying, though my ipod does exactly the same thing.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the system. I dedicated an older 1GHz PC running XP-Pro as my music server. Once I loaded all the CD's onto it, I programmed the BIOS to kick the PC "on" at 6AM every morning so I can grab the remote from my beside table and start playing music right away!
36 Exactly What I Was Looking For
I have a 6000+ song MP3 collection that is pretty well organized (I ripped 95% of it myself). I researched several MP3 wireless players and this one made the cut. Here were my criteria:
- No TV or computer screen required to menu through the selections.
- Fairly portable. I want to move this from the bedroom to poolside easily. Should be no harder than moving a boombox.
- I have no need for doing movies, nor pictures. I only wanted music (MP3's specifically)
I had not bought a device yet because all that I had found that fit the criteria required using a limited display while standing at the stereo.
This one uses the remote as the interface which is brilliant. Wake up in the morning, grab the remote, select the music you want and woo hoo.
The complaints of slow response when browsing large collections of MP3's seems to have been fixed by the latest software and firmware combination. Even browsing "all music" responds relatively well. It seems to load somewhere between 10-30 titles at a time. If you scroll past that point, it takes about ~1 sec to load the next batch of titles. Noticeable pause, but not frustrating at all.
Music start time after making a selection is 2-4 seconds on my wireless 801B network (which doesn't do much else except occassional wireless web browsing from my laptop) using a 500Mhz Windows XP server and a 120gbyte USB 1.0 external drive. So not the fastest server environment, but performance is great. Subsequent songs in a playlist or album start up immediately after the finish of the previous song.
The setup was a little unpleasent in a couple areas. 1) It didn't seem to recognize my network as easily as it should have. But plug-in the USB connection, run the network config software and boom, done. 2) The import of all of my tracks took much longer than it should have. I'm not sure why or what it was doing (if it did mess up my MP3 tags, I'll be upset - but it doesn't seem to have done that for the spot checks I made). In other software jukeboxes it takes about 2-4 minutes to index all the songs. It took well over 15 minutes for this application and I had to answer a couple questions in the middle of it (I wish it had asked me up front so I could just push "import" and come back later when it's done).
At $250 It's pricey given that you can buy a DVD player with wireless network MP3 playing, JPG slide shows and DiVx movies for about the same money. But then you also need a TV (and space for the TV) everywhere you want to use that type of player.
Now if they'd only make a plug in for J River's Media Center (my prefered MP3 software management and jukebox).
Highly recommended!
37 great idea, poor execution
the idea behind this device is fabulous- stream music off your PC and play it on your stereo. unfortunately, the execution falls flat- this device is very slow (often takes a minute to navigate to the CD you want to play), occasionally refuses to play songs, has a short controller to player range, and on rare occasions refuses to talk to your computer. the two things it's got going for it: it plays WMA files and it works over a wireless connection. overall, very unimpressed, wish i could return this thing and give it another year to bake.
38 Works just as advertised - and sounds great!
I have been looking for a wireless product to play my 10000+ MP3's for a few years. (I started converting my music to MP3's 5 years ago, with the hopes that future technology would bring forth a device to play my digital music through my home stereo.) And finally, Creative Labs have come thru with the Sound Blaster Wireless Music System. It is not the cheapest of options out there, but it is definitely the one system that has most of the features I have been looking for. To start with, I have a single PC running Windows XP which is located on the second floor of our house, and my Stereo/Entertainment center is located on the first floor, hence the wireless product. (Wired was not an option)
I first started with the Lola Wireless System by X-10. For $ 70 I couldn't pass it up. I had to try it, and now, I am sorry I wasted the money. It is analog and AT BEST, my music sounded like a scratchy record. But the idea was there. I was able to view my entire digital library including album cover art on my TV. I found that to be a plus over certain hard drive type components which only offered a very small LCD screen on the unit to display and browse my entire collection. I was against that from the start, since I did not want to be inconvenienced by having to get up, and kneel down and try to read the small screen to see what was playing, to browse or to select my music. So after being introduced to the Lola system, I realized that viewing my library was a huge feature to look for. But on the negative side, with Lola, you had to have your TV on and switched to AUX input to view all of your music, which I did not like, since that meant that every time I wanted to listen to my music, my TV had to be on, and unavailable for others to watch.
SoundBlaster's Wireless music came up with a very simple idea, have an LCD screen on the remote! Makes perfect sense, and works well. You can select either Artist/Playlist/Genre/Album. Then you are able to scroll through the Alphabet to select the letter that each one starts with, and then onto the specific selections. For such a huge music Library, I can't think of a better structured method of viewing it.
Let's start at the beginning. I bought the Wireless Music System online, and found a decent deal. I couldn't pass it up, so I jumped on it, and then realized that I didn't have an existing wireless-G (802.11g) network. This is a requirement for the system to work. Now, I AM NOT a computer savvy person, and I don't know that much about computers, so I had some headaches trying to ask around to see what the minimum and cheapest hardware I needed to buy in order to have a wireless network set up. I do not have a high speed internet connection (still chugging along with dial-up!) So I didn't think a wireless router was for me. But after researching and comparing prices, a wireless router and a wireless access point were the same cost, but the router provided future capabilities if I decided to get a high speed internet connection, or another computer to network together. So I bought a Linksys WRT54G wireless router for about $ 70. All I had to do was plug the router into my computer via the provided Ethernet cable, plug the router into an outlet for power, and that was it! My computer recognized the network right away! No setup required, since I was not connecting to the internet or another computer.
I then installed the software bundled with the Wireless Music System, which was very easy. My music is saved in a very structured way on my computer in many folders, and I have been very careful about entering the ID3 tag information for each track. (Artist, Track name, Album name, Track #, Genre, and Date.) All of my hard work in the past paid off. The software recognized it all, and in less than 5 minutes my entire music collection was available. However, if you don't have all the Tag information ahead of time, the Music Media organizer makes it very easy to enter.
Now came the moment of truth. I went downstairs, plugged the receiver into the wall, and then into the back of my stereo receiver with the RCA cables provided. I hit the power button on the remote and....Voila! It recognized the network, and I had all 10,000+ songs available at my fingertips instantly! I hit the play button, and the music was perfect digital quality. No static, pops, hisses at all. (Another good feature with the remote is that it is Radio Frequency, not infrared, so you can be in another room, and still select your music.) It took some playing around with the remote to get used to it. A great feature is it's 'smart' playlists. But it is just as simple to play a whole album, by simply selecting an album and hold the play button for 3 seconds and it plays the album in its entirety. (The same works for specific artists or genres)
That is it, as simple as that!! Almost in the time it took you to read this review, I had my system up and running. I have been waiting a very long time for this! Congratulations to Creative Labs for this product.
The ONLY thing you have to do once it's up and running, is to download from their website, the latest upgrades for the firmware and drivers. They have improved on a lot of features and performance, and as with previous Creative Lab products, I know that they will stay on top of this product and continue to offer support and upgrades as they are needed. Hopefully this review helps your decision.
39 AWESOME!!!
I recently got married and my wife has as many cd's as I do. We each have over 500 cd's. We have 3 400 disc cd changers. We have no idea what cd is where.
This "system" from Creative is EXACTLY what we needed. This thing is just so much fun and so easy to use it's unbelievable. I converted ALL of our cd's to the MP3 format using the included software. The included software is top notch and allows you to edit EVERYTHING before AND after you rip the cd's.
Installation was a snap...I downloaded the latest firmware and software via the Creative web site. Everything works perfectly and works quickly too...No lag here!!
The remote kicks butt!! It's perfect. Of course in the future a larger Color display with cd artwork would be nice, but for the first release this is just too cool!!
I have NEVER written any kind of review. I am so INCEREDIBLY happy with this item that I am submitting this review. BUY THIS!!! You will be so happy!!!!!!!!!
I know have 3 400 disc changers for sale!! Anyone interested??
40 Very slow; dangerous software!
As with other reviewers, I found the receiver to be unbearably slow to load large playlists, and the remote control was extremely sluggish. (One reason for loading a large playlist is when you want to, say, shuffle play all your music in a specific genre.) I didn't get a chance to try the newest firmware before I returned it, so I don't know whether all these issues were improved.
However, I also encountered a much worse problem: Creative's mp3 organizer application *corrupts* ID3 tags created by certain other applications (notably iTunes for Windows). When I imported my library into the Creative app, it actually deleted some of the ID3 tags on a large number of my files, forcing me to go through and retag the artist, album and genre info for about forty of my CDs. (I imported the files with the option to leave existing tags alone, but apparently it rewrites them anyway.)
I didn't want to risk having new mp3s I rip get corrupted in the same fashion, so I returned the SBWM. And I'll never let any software from Creative touch my mp3s again!
41 A Long Time Coming
This is a great device for people who meet the follwoing criteria:
1. Love music
2. Have mp3 files (any size collection)
3. Have a wireless network
This is a great product, complete with very user-friendly and intuitive software. I disagree with the reviewer that said it was only for people with small collections. I feel they were being unrealistic in loading a playlist of 1,000 songs. Playlists are designed for a mix of specific songs, not your whole collection. I have an extensive collection of well-organized, high quality mp3s (just to give you an idea...I have an external 200GB USB 2.0 drive dedicated just to mp3s), and it is quite easy to create playlists or browse your collection by artist, album, track or genre. I will stress, however, that in order for this device to be useful you must have an organized collection complete with proper tag information on the files. If not, you're in for a nightmare of a time sorting through the music.
All in all, a fantastic product that works as advertised!
42 Generally OK, but has quirks
Generally, the unit works as advertised IF you have a traditional network setup. My network involves a wireless 802.11g router plus a HomePlug bridge to get from the Wireless box to the XP box running the server software. Even playing 128kbps MP3 files skip one second for every 3-4 seconds of play. When I moved the XP server box in a test and hooked it directly to the router, the Creative box played fine. Unfortunately, I can't keep that server box there. However, my TiVo successfully plays 320kbps files over the full network with the bridge quite well and never skips.
Clearly Creative needs further work on either their server or on the network communication they're using to serve music data to the Wireless box.
43 Creative's entry into DAR market is mostly successful
You saw the pictures, you read the Creative's marketing spiel, your read "reviews" in ad-soaked magazines, so now here are an actual user's impressions (mine): the product does have a few shortcomings, but none of them are lethal, and all are outweighted by a really neat implementation of core features. The sound is great, the interface is nice, and the value is terrific.
The visual centerpiece of the package is the remote. It's big, substantially looking, and sports a large blue-backlit LCD screen which alleviates the need to use a TV for visual navigation. The menu structure is laid out well, the navigation buttons are laid out conveniently, and the fonts are crisp and easy-to-read Tahoma-like type. You can either navigate your collection by Artist/Album/Genre/etc, or use playlists created on your PC, or use "smart playlist" such as "newest added tracks" or "most often listened" and such. There are loop/shuffle controls, but no timed auto-shutoff, which would be handy in a bedroom. The remote's LCD is apparently capable of displaying different fonts and graphics, but alas doesn't use them for anything except the boot-up splash screen and volume control bars. Perhaps Creative could implement a spectrum alanyzer or use larger type for Now Playing track info. Also, I am puzzled why Creative didn't make the buttons backlit as well, having all the componentry for that already in design.
The receiver is a small and clean-looking black/silver brick in a slim paper-back NY Times bestseller format. It can either be propper upright on an included stand, or layed flat. It has green/red/amber leds that indicate whether the unit is powered up, searching for the network, and connected to your its server software running on your PC. Since the remote communicates to it using two-way radio, the most logical choice to position the receiver once its configured is simply to hide it somewhere out of sight altogether. The output options include RCA-style stereo jacks. Perhaps because of the size of the unit, there is no amplifier circuitry, hence you need to use powered speakers. Additionally, the unit has an optical ("Toslink") SPDIF output, for feeding sound to your audio receiver or straight to capable speakers such as those from Roland/Edirol. Optical cables can provide for a really stealth setup! Alas, even with SPDIF the output is stereo-only, meaning that you can't play multi-channel WMA files, or stream AC-3 sound or anything like that. But given scarcity of multi-channel tracks, that's not a big loss really. The sound that you do get is very clean, equally with 802.11b and 802.11g setup. Really nothing to complain about. Worth noting is that the unit works in Infrastructure mode only. No Ad-Hoc support. If you don't have a wireless router or access point, you'll need to buy one. I am successfully using NetGear 614. With that in place, the receiver will sniff out all available wireless networks, and on each will try a DHCP request, and to discover a Media Server to latch on to.
On the PC side, the package manifests itself in a number of applications. One, Media Server, runs in the background and serves up your MP3/WMA collection to the receiver. Another one, Media Organizer, is used for cataloguing of your collection based on ID3V tags, as well as creation of playlists. There's also a piece of software to rip the tracks from your CDs. A separate Sniffer app can sense addition of new files to your collection and will trigger a corresponding update of Wireless Music's internal catalogue. For the initial configuration of your receiver, there is a Network Setup wizard. You will only have to use it if you deploy more than one Wireless Music receiver in you house, and want to give each one a unique name, or if your network is WEP-protected and you need to supply a WEP key. It utilizes a USB connection (a cable is supplied). Finally, an upgrade utility is supplied for flashing of your unit (both receiver and remote) with new firmware, also over USB.
If you ever used any Creative Labs product at all, then perhaps you're aware of the notorious quality of their software and drivers. Previous reviewers highlighted the issue of slow loading of playlists and general sluggishness of the remote. However, new receiver and remote firmware downloads dated 11/18/2003 are available at us.creative.com. By all means, go ahead and install them. They greatly improve remote's response times, and also add some features. Some, however -- such as F.F. and Rewind skipping -- don't work as claimed. That's Creative Labs for you. Just be ready for it. Same thing with their product support. I recently emailed them with a bug report describing a loss of connection between the receiver and PC if the latter is rebooted, and their support responded with a canned battery of instructions asking me to upgrade my Windows XP to SP1, or reinstall the software, or to reformat the drive and to reinstall Windows XP altogether. Standard nonsense just to make you go away and stop bothering them.
So, in a nutshell, on to Pro's and Con's.
Pros:
Great sound quality
Great receiver auto-setup features; support for 802.11g.
Great backlit RF remote with large screen; no TV required
Clean, intuitive user interface
Upgradeable firmware
Unobstrusive design
Toslink SPDIF output available
Cons:
As usual, incompetent techical support from Creative
As usual, mediocre Creative software
Buttons on the remote are not backlit
No playlist manipulation using the remote
44 Disappointing. Great remote, unbelievably slow interface.
I have a Turtle Beach AudioTron, but wanted a device where I had more flexibility with the remote and the display. In that regard, the Wireless Music delivers; the remote is far easier to read than the AudioTron's display, and it's nice to be able to use the Wireless Music's RF remote places that are outside of line-of-sight but still within listening distance.
Problem is, the unit is unusably slow with a large MP3 collection. I'm not talking laggy, or a few-second wait for certain actions -- loading a large playlist (1000+ MP3s) or selecting a genre with a large number of MP3s to play randomly can easily take *5 minutes* to queue up. While the device would seem to work fine for people who only have a collection of a few hundred MP3s or only use small playlists, it's maddening with a large one. I spoke to Creative technical support, and they indicated that my experience was due to limitations of the device.
Close, but no cigar. Hopefully, the next generation will be more capable; I like the interface a lot.
45 Now I 'get it'
This is what I have been looking for for quite a while. MP3 players are nice to take your music outside, but what I have been looking for is a way to listen to all the tracks on my PC (10,000+) in my bedroom and dining room.
The SoundBlaster Wireless Music product does just that. All I needed to do was add a powered speaker to the wireless 'receiver' and I had a very high quality music system in my room.
The wireless system setup without a hitch ... installed the S/W CD, pointed the S/W at my MP3/WMA files and powered up the wireless receiver. The receiver automatically configured itself to my network and I saw all my music files on the remote. Just that simple!
The remote is a little slow, but really works just fine. It is great to have the display in my hands and not have to strain to read something on the TV. In my bedroom, I have setup one of the Favorite buttons to play 'rain & wave' nature tracks. My wife and I can just press the button when we are ready to sleep and before the track ends, we are fast asleep.
Well done Creative.
