Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra Digital Audio Player, MP3, 40GB
1 I *heart* my Creative Labs Nomad Zen Xtra
I LOVE my 40GB mp3 player. It rocks my world. And it helps keep my sanity. I plug it into my car, I listen to it when I walk, when I'm at home, and in some of my classes that let me. I have a huge music collection and I don't even have a quarter downloaded to it. My only problem is that it got stolen from my backpack while in school. So now my sanity is leaving. I am so upset. So now I have to look for a new one, with my limited student income and I am going off to college in August.
P.S. I hate iPods ;)
2 Overall great MP3 player
I bought this to play in my car and listen to while I go on my walks. \
I have had it for 5 months now with absolutely no problems. It has frozen up a couple of times, but the reset button takes care of it and does not effect the memory.
It has superb sound quality and is very user friendly. I don't think I will ever fit all of my music on it. It transfers songs super fast.
My only issue is the size. It is bulky to take on walks or to exercise with. But for the price and the storage capacity, I can't complain too much.
I like the creative labs products so much, I am buying a smaller MP3 player (MuVo2 512MB off of eBay stores creative.labs at a great price!!!) for exercising with.
3 Great Player for the price, works well, but the PC Software.
This is an exceptional MP3 player for the price, without the limited usability that IPOD implements in order to stop piracy... they're only losing customers who have more than one PC and buy their music like me.
Let me see... $200 for a 40GB MP3 player from Creative, or $599 for an Ipod... not a difficult choice.
I found setup to be very difficult indeed, and I am an advanced PC user. The driver on this disc wouldn't install, so I had to manually download and install the device driver from the Creative website. (This is why it gets 4 stars and not 5). Also, the installation instructions are pretty poor. It will say things like, "In the content menu select your music, and hit the send to device button" Unfortunately for us, it doesn't give pictoral represtentations of what or where these buttons are, and the in screen buttons don't have a pop up label when you hover your cursor over it. Very frustrating, but, eventually you'll figure it out... unless the driver doesn't install on your PC either, then you're left to either manually install it or contact Tech support on how to do this.
I've read a lot of complaints about not being able to arrange by folders... but you can arrange by playlist. Either manually, which will take forever, or hook it up to your PC, and use the Nomad Explorer program to open your Nomad files on your PC and manipulate the player at your PC's keyboard (much faster). You can sort, arrange, and do almost anything with this. Arranging the files by playlist is virtually the same thing as arranging them by folder, and you can store all of a certain type or band to a playlist for easy access. Though, you can not create sub-playlists, which would be conveinant if you wanted to sort a band with several albums. It would be more conveniant to sort each album to a playlist.
So, though the initial instalation was a little tedious, the device program for filing information really isn't as bad as everyone is making it sound, and its easy to 'Playlist' a group of songs from your PC.
It has Superb music quality and volume.
I would recommend this product based upon Price, quality of sound, and volume.
But be prepared for a slightly challenging instal. Still, worth the $300 I saved!!!
4 The Manly MP3 Player
When I decided to rid myself of hauling my CD's around, scratching them up, then wasting money replacing them, I knew an MP3 player was the way to go. I already had a small 128kb Pen Drive/Player, and it was okay for the gym or walking between classes, but I really just wasn't happy with the amount of space. I decided that I needed something with the capacity to store all the music I could concievably own within the next 5 or 10 years. This meant a 30 or 40 gig player, which realistically left me with 3 choices: an iPod, and iRiver, and a Zen Xtra.
Not one to drop 200+ dollars on just anything, I researched them all. The iRiver just didn't have many features that appealed to me, and I'm not very familiar with the brand, so I didn't really know if they had a reliable reputation. Apple's top-selling iPod would have been tempting, if I didn't hate the look, interface, and price tag. Not to rag on Apple, they make great products, but they just always seem so alien to me, and a little girly. So I looked at the Zen Xtra, which seemed to have it all for me.
Let me start with how it looks. This is the sort of player no man would be ashamed of, with it's slick aluminum skin, large, bright screen, and extremely sweet and durable black leather case. It's got some weight to it, which is good, because I like to know there's some guts in my toys. I don't feel like I'm going to break this thing with ordinary use, it is very solid. I like that it has actual buttons, and the scroll wheel is simple and intuitive to use. After my first charge (which takes about an hour or so), I decided to go ahead download all 2,276 songs from my CD collection to it (which I had previously ripped to my computer). This took about 15 minutes, which blew me away. The provided software makes it relatively easy to select and organize your music, which is all I really need it to do. Playback on the Zen Xtra is clean and punchy, though I will reccomend replacing the included headphones right away (they're decent, I just don't like earbuds). Finding songs and artists is relatively easy assuming you have your tracks tagged correctly. There are a ton of EAX features like equalizers, ambience, and such. The best one by far, though, is the match volume setting. This is something the iPod doesn't have that it should, and was one of the bigger selling points for me. Not having to reach up and adjust the volume between every song should be a must for any MP3 player.
Other than that, I don't really know what else there is to say about this player. it does everything I want it to, I take it everywhere with me. If I did have any gripes about it, it would be that I wish it were easier to skip to a certain song without leaving my current playlist. I suppose the battery life could be a little better (gets around 12 hours normal playing, 8 with eax settings on), but I charge it every night when I go to bed so that's kind of not an issue for me.
I would highly reccomend this player to anyone looking for a good, solid MP3 player with an insane amount of storage space.
5 Great Product for the Price
First, I have to disagree with a few previous reviews. The software is very easy to install. However you will find all you need are the drivers for Nomad. Because the Nomad DOES work with Windows Media Player. In fact, my son's Dell DJ was much more difficult to install on a Dell pc than the Nomad.
I give this product a 4 star rating for two reasons. It is not a great looking item. Its very simple. The buttons are not lit like some other players. I would also not recommend this item for a younger child or teen. Its made of very light weight material. Perfect for me, but I am not so sure it would be suitable for my teen.
The facts are, you get tons of storage space for much less money. So I think the average person can overlook the lack of beauty from this item. The battery life is very satisfying. It will last you the 14 hours.Some have complained about the earbuds that come with the item. Is that really a big deal?I don't think so. The protective case that comes with the Nomad is nice as well. Transfers are quick and easy. I loaded over 600 hundred songs in no time.When shopping for an MP3 player, I definitely think the Nomad should be considered.
6 Even if you have a mac, it's great.
I'm a mac user but I decided to go for the 40GB Nomad and I don't regret it, with only a plug in for the itunes I can load the music into the nomad with no problem, I have twice space with 40GB for almost 65 bucks less, It works great, never skips and the battery life is outstanding for all the things it does. It also comes with the pouch and the ipod doesn't, the only thing I don't like, the earphones, too poor for the type of product, they should put headphones like in past nomad models, this are pretty cheap. But above all it's a great product for a decent price, there's no need for ipod. If this product would come with mac support it would kill ipod sales. Thanks
7 What a piece of junk
I purchased this unit thinking the Creative name meant quality, well that might be the case but let me tell you My computer (which is a dell 8400 tricked out) could not pick up the player using the provided software, the player does not work with Windows Media Player, There is no excuse for any company to not have their player be compatible with Windows Media Player, If Creative wants to be a stand alone then merge with Apple, and the Tech support, Boy What a bunch of air heads, no help, all tech support would do was refer me to the problem section of the creative web site and tell me to call back if the issue was not corrected, after 5 times of of that insanity and going no where I returned the player and bought a Rio Karma,and with the Rio I am a happy camper again. The Creative Nomad is only a paper weight and the Tech Support should be fired.
8 Great item, the best purchase I made this year!
I love this MP3 player. The controls are easy to use, the battery lasts a long time before needing to be recharged, and the software works fast for transferring. It did take me a couple of evenings to figure out the software, but after that, no problems. One of the reviewers mentioned the lack of car power adapter, but Bed Bath Beyond & Radio Shak both sell universal car adapters so that you can plug small appliances with household plugs into a car(handy for lots of things). I've had no problems with the player, it works great, and I've been using it about 2 months. I put 220+ albums of my collection on it, with plenty of room for more. I've been using an adapter to play it thru my cassette deck on my car plus my home stereo system. I've never used the earplug headset that came with it, since I had better headphones already.
9 easy to install software-WHAT A JOKE!!
After doing lots of research on MP3 players I finally decided on purchasing the Creative Zen Jukebox. Imgaine my surprise when I tried to install the software that came with it. I had nothing but a nitemare trying to install it. I got ndada. I installed it just the way the manual said to and it just sits there. So I tried calling Creative Tech Support, which by the way you can only get through the web site, and just my luck I was unable to contact them due to a so called holiday. So I did the next best thing I emailed them- Well as of 6 days I have had no response at all. So I had to take it back where I purchased it and now im back to having no Mp3 player.. What a Joke!!!!!!!
10 Buy it and get the extended Warranty!
Just get the extended Warranty, but if you want to know why read on. I bought my creative Jukebox 40GB right around the New Year. I have placed over 400 CDs on it and plan to continue. I wanted to wait to write a review, these reviews really helped my decision. I did a ton a research and this is what I found: Ipods are much more aesthetically pleasing and have a slightly better operating system (more user-friendly) just like all their products. But like all their products they overcharge compared to the competition for basically a "hot lookin" item. I paid about $150 less than the Ipod but then bought the $40 2 year extended warranty from Best Buy. Ok extended warranties are like lottery tickets but if you plan on using your player the battery will die, and there is your $40 investment right there. Best Buy (I'm sure other stores have these, CC etc.) will give you a new battery. Plus if the dreaded headphone jack fails then your covered and paid $100 less. One of the best features that the Ipod doesn't have is that you can add a song to a play list, meaning that if a song is playing you can select another one to play after, and so on. DJ style. The battery life definitely out shines the Ipod. I have had multiple 8 hr road trips. The headphones that are supplied are poor so don't be fooled at the initial sound quality it is definitally equal to the Ipod and plays wma format. Selecting songs can be a hassle especially having over 10,000 because of their weird slide wheel. There is an alpha search so if an artist starts with a `T' you can quickly get to the T's. You can use it as a USB drive for transferring files although I don't use that option often. You can have multiple sites of download for Mp3s, so if you keep some of your music on another computer... The software it comes with isn't anything special but it gets the job done could improve. Recap: With everything comparable (size sound quality etc.) the price and making mixes on the go are the reasons I purchased this guy. I bought about $100 worth of music in the last couple months, saw a show, and bought new strings - rock on.
11 Great player, internet-ready, but lousy warranty
I'll concentrate on areas that others haven't covered:
Good: You can (and should) get the third party (inexpensive but not free) notmad explorer from redchairsoftware. It's a lot nicer (IMO) than the Creative musicmanager and also provides a way to use the mp3 player to do audio streaming over the internet. So, you can leave it at home and listen to it at work, for example.
Bad: The manufacturer's warranty is only 90 days! I wouldn't spend hundreds of Dollars for a portable device with tiny moving parts with a 90 day warranty. Suggestion: Check out vikingwarranty for an inexpensive after-market extended warranty.
12 It seems we are reviewing an old model and a new
I cant speak to the old model. The model I have is the newer one apparently.
I dont jog or ski with it on. SKI??? Anyway if you are a jogger perhaps you should get one of the small cheaper ones made just for sports use. This is more of a big one for holding TONS of music and transporting/listening to it say from home to work and in the car inbetween.
It seems sturdy, good software, nice features good price compared to the Ipod which is 100 more right now.
I havnt had it long enough to say if it will last but I will come back and edit this if I have problems.
13 Numerous hard drive and physical problems make this product
This product is the most worthless piece of junk I have ever purchased in my life. Not only are there obvious physical problems (which I thought would not bother me), but there have been numerous - and I mean numerous - problems with the hard drive since I purchased it a mere seven and one half months ago.
First of all, the plus side is that the player has an attractive appearance, the music is well-organized on the player, and music is quick to upload on the player. However, music can only be uploaded if Creative's software is installed on the computer. So if you think you can easily transfer music from a friend's computer onto this player (like with an I-Pod), think again. Oh, and there is no radio on this player.
The physical problems are as follows: the player itself is way too big and bulky, it weighs a good deal, and its carrying case will not stay hooked onto your article of clothing. Also, with the addition of the carrying case, the player now has even more bulk. But I have found the carrying case is always necessary, because the player is too flimsy to withstand bumping, jostling, or dropping.
Now to the more important problems. Approximately one month after I received the player, an error message started popping up every 7 or 8 songs, obscuring the scene. It did not affect the music too much, although it was a huge nuisance (still has not gone away). About three weeks after I started using the headphones, one of the pads fell off; thus, they are now useless as they will not remain in my ear. About four months after I purchased the player, I could only hear music out of one ear. Despite numerous emails to Creative's customer service (who are unsympathetic), the problem still remains unresolved. Now, I can only hear music in both ears if I have the jack in a certain position; otherwise I can only hear in one ear. Now, seven and a half months after my purchase, the player has stopped functioning completely. I tried cleaning it, rebooting it, and replacing the firmware, but there is a "Harddisk Problem," and I cannot play any music. Again, despite emails to Creative (whose solutions have been either to send it with a forty dollar repair fee not including various other costs or reinstall the firmware), nothing has been resolved.
Now these may seem like isolated problems and you might think they will not happen to you. But I have always kept the player in the carrying case and I don't throw it around or anything, so I suspect these problems are not mine alone. Plus, why deal with the hassle of all these problems when you can find a player that is a much better value?
I have spoken with multiple people, all of whom have I-Pods (surprise), and although I was initially against the idea of the I-Pod, now I fully recommend you buy it instead. I have yet to find someone who has experienced problems with their I-Pod, while mine is completely dead. Good luck!
14 Good for desktop-car use
As far as working out with or doing any type of physiical activity- spend your money on flash. I took my 40gb snowboarding 1 time and it failed and all data was lost. To make things worse, customer support said if I want a new hard drive its gonna cost me $150. Overall, the customer service people were anything but helpful and really, I don't know why they're even there.
It does have really good sound quality though. I'm just frustrated because I read through all the packaging and warranties and they didn't say anything about making sure it stays motionless. The customer service guy said you shouldn't even walk around with it. If that's the case what's the point?! I could've bought a car stereo that played mp3s for much cheaper than this stupid thing and just played the rest on my computer for free. Overall I'm pretty frustrated with it right now, although had I been asked before it broke I would've had nothing but great things to say about it, the interface is awesome and the software is simple. It just sucks you're not supposed to do anything with it besides set it on your desk
15 I FREAKIN' Love it!
I've had my Zen about two months now. When I first got it, I wasn't too sure about it. It's operation was very different than my old Archos MP3 player. After a few days, I got the hang of it. Navigation it easy and the search function cuts down on the time it would normally take to find songs. I have my entire 200+ CD collection on it with almost half of the drive space still empty. It's light weight and small size make it very portable. I take it everywhere with me. The included software is ok, not as great as it could be, but still it works well enough. Throw away the crappy headphones it comes with and get some good ones.
16 It's just that good!
I've had my nomad for almost a month now and I don't know how I ever lived without it. I was a little nervous about what the software was going to be like after reading several customer reviews but it was extremely simple to install and just as easy to use. I'm fairly computer illiterate, too, so it really says something that I find it easy to use. I had been wanting an ipod for a long time but, being a starving college student, I could not even come close to affording one. When I heard about the nomad, and specifically how much less expensive than the ipod it is, I thought it sounded too good to be true. But it isn't! Buy one, trust me, you will not regret it. A couple of weeks after I got mine my roommate went out and bought one, it's just that good.
17 Very good player
Not the slimmest or lightest, but very very good storage capacity and playback quality. The synch software it's easy to use and keeps my PC and jukebox collections synchronized. I am very happy with this player.
18 Good value - lower cost per gigabyte traded for larger size
Creative Nomad Zen Xtra appears to be the most consumer-budget-friendly hard disk based mp3 player on the market. Creative built this player using a standard, 2.5" wide and 9.5 mm thick hard disk used in laptop computers. These hard drives are bigger and heavier than the whole iPod; however, since they made in huge quantities, they are rather inexpensive. This allowed Creative to offer a 40 GB player at a price close to half of that of iPod and iRiver with the same disk size. Additional built-in savings feature (which apparently added another millimeter or two to Zen's thickness) is user-replaceable lithium-ion battery. One can find a spare battery from twenty dollars, keep a charged spare at hand when going on a long trip, and replace it faster than it takes to change AA batteries in a portable CD player. All other comparable mp3 players must be disassembled to replace the battery (which usually loses its capacity after 250-400 charging cycles), which costs roughly twenty-thirty dollars for the battery and approximately fifty to seventy dollars for a five minute installation job.
Yes, Zen Xtra is bulky - it is 0.3'' taller, 0.6" wider, and 0.3" thicker than iPod, and 2.3 oz heavier. This seem to be not a lot on the paper, but when you hold an iPod in one hand and Zen Xtra in the other, it does seem BIG. It does not look that bulky after you get used to it (or have no iPods nearby), but it is still feels heavy if you put it into your shirt pocket on in your fanny pack.
Out of the box, it comes with a partially charged battery and about 60 pre-loaded pieces of popular classical music (not a stellar performance, but good melodies). The earbuds are comfortable and have surprisingly clear distortion-free sound. However, thier bass is not very strong, and trembles could be somewhat more transparent. The sound quality of the player is very good (<0.1% harmonic distortions, 98 dB signal-to-noise ratio), it support mp3 up to 320 kbps as well as WAV and WMA. In fact, the general opinion seems to be that its sound quality is the best of all mp3 players in its class.
The unit comes with a 12-month warranty. The information on Creative's web site (as at the end of February 2005) was contradictory, but I got confirmation from their customer support that their new policy is 12 month and no longer 90 days.
Zen Xtra supports USB 2 and USB 1.1 (although does not support charging through the USB port) but does not work with firewire. Its software (required to copy sound tracks and data files back and forth between the player and your PC) can be installed on any version of Windows, including 98. Mac is not supported. The first application uses Windows Explorer interface; the second one is more elaborate, provides more sophisticated user interface, and supports ripping of music into mp3 format.
I read many negative reports on Creative Media Source, but I personally find this piece of software very convenient and efficient. It indeed takes some time to figure how it works and why it works this way, but once you figured it out, it works great.
All tracks are saved in the root folder on the player's hard drive (data files can be saved with folders), and looking through an endless list of files in Nomad Explorer could be very intimidating. This is where the Media Source comes into play - its multi-window structure allows you very quickly display tracks which match certain standard selection criteria, such as genre, artist, or album. This is in a way similar to instant arrangement of tracks into folders, as one would do it on a computer.
The player comes with a decent quality leather case, a charger, and a USB cable.
To summarize, Zen Xtra is not as cute and tiny as the iPod, and does not have the iRiver's endless set of capabilities. But if offers you 40 GB for $150+ less, and saves you another $50+ each time you need a new battery. It is bulky, but it plays very well, has long battery life, solid feel, and a quite convenient user interface. It is the player to buy if its size and weight are not major factors, but the price is. Six stars for the value, four stars for the size and weight, five in average.
19 Reliable little player
I bought this player back in August, and it has served me well since buying it, but it has it's cons.
+ durability- I often go jogging, and at first I was a little apprehensive about bringing it with me, especially after hearing the horror stories from other buyers. There were no problems with it at all, even when I tripped.
- Battery- When I purchased the player, I would routinely get around 16 hours to a charge, now, six months later, i'm lucky to get 10 hours. The problem is mitigated by the choice of buying
an additional battery, but that would be another $40 bucks, not something I look for in a value player.
+ Features- While the random feature is hidden in a menu, the speed up/down function, environment simulator, and customizable equalizer settings are very well-made and fun to play around with.
- Buttons- After six months of essentially living in my pocket, the buttons are starting to lose their sensitivity. The scroll wheel on the side especially feels like it's losing it's springiness, and the fast-forward button is losing it's shine. However, I don't need them much anymore, as I just set it on random and leave it alone.
All things considered, I would most certainly encourage you to buy one of these, and if (not when)I need to replace it, I'll buy from Creative Labs again.
20 good unit, two months of use
I got this player just before christmas and have been using is every day. I have not had any of the problems that people list here: my cover has never come off and have had NO problems witih the software.
This is my first mp3 player: I used windows media to rip a lot of my cds. I have 357 on there so far, I have a stack of 50 or so more to go. I had no problem losing artist, track, song information. I have MANY different versions of the same song by the dead and phish.
The player keeps them well organized.
Playlists are not easy to create on the fly on the player. They're easy enough to create using the jukebox software.
You can set the back light time and auto off feature - which is usefull so I don't run the battery down.
My only complaint is the scroll wheel. It is a little hard to highlight and select items from the menus - it does take a little practice and I am getting better at it.
21 Not bad, but not great
I had gone to Best Buy with the intention of buying a 20GB iPod, but then ran across the Nomad Zen Xtra. Weighing the pros and cons of the features, I just couldn't bring myself to purchase the iPod when I could get twice the amount of hard drive space, a removeable lithium ion battery, a free case, and sound normalizing via EAX for $50 less. I used the extra $50 to purchase the 2-year replacement warranty, which I'm really glad I did.
Here are my gripes about the unit:
1. Never owning a hard-drive based MP3 player before, the first thing I noticed (much to my disappointment) was after I transferred all 5000 of my MP3s that I had neatly organized by artist-labeled folders, all the songs were dumped into one directory. Since I had previously stripped all my ID tags (since it would have taken forever to uniform them all,) I couldn't sort my songs by artist unless I either 1) recreated 5000 ID tags, or 2) created playlists by artist. I chose option 2. Luckily, I found a nifty little program that scans your directory structure and creates playlists by folder name within seconds. Then I just used the windows find feature to locate all the .m3u playlist files. Then I drag and dropped them to the player. Problem solved. Again, this annoyance isn't exclusive to the Nomad. The iPod "organizes" files the same way. My preference would be to have the OS recognize the unit as an additional drive, where I could just drag and drop my folders to it, but that doesn't seem to be the way these things operate (for whatever reason.)
2. The next flaw I noticed with this player (and exclusively with this player) is that the front cover pops off WAY too easily. Since the battery isn't locked into place, it pops out when the cover comes off. If this happens in the middle of playing a song, it causes the data to become corrupted. When you restart your player, it has to go through an annoying recovery routine. After it was done "recovering," my playlists had become corrupted, which meant I had to drag and drop them again. But, even after dragging and dropping them, I noticed that some songs were missing from the playlists. I could not fix this any other way (because of the limitation with the included software,) without deleting everything and starting over. Everything was great for another day, until the exact thing happened again. At this point, I'm getting very annoyed with the fact the front cover keeps popping off. Why Creative Labs made it so easy to remove a lithium ion battery that will only need to be accessed for replacement every 2 years is beyond me. It should be secured with user-removeable screws...but that's just my two cents. So, now I had three options. 1) keep it in the protective cover to prevent the front from popping off. I opted not to go with this option because it adds to the bulkiness of the unit. 2) Take it back to Best Buy and get a refund so I can purchase the 20GB iPod, or 3) use electrical tape to secure the front cover. I chose option 3, and it's worked very well (albeit, it makes it look like a homemade bomb.)
3. I have to be perfectly honest here. The software that comes with this unit is absolutely PATHETIC. I read through the usenet groups about the notmad software, so I decided to save myself a lot of headaches and just pay $25 to get what I should have gotten in the first place...user-friendly software.
4. The next thing that annoyed me about this unit is that it doesn't power off the USB cable. You have to keep it plugged into AC whenever you are transferring files to it, or you will suck the power out of it in no time. I have an external hard drive that works just fine being powered off the USB cable, so I know it's possible for them to design the unit that way. Why they opted not to is beyond me.
5. Lastly, I don't like the fact that I have to carry around the CD with me so I can install the driver for this on other PCs.
Now for the positive things:
1. Although everyone else seems to hate them, I really think the earbuds are pretty good. Of course, I'm comparing them to other "cheap" earbuds I've owned in the past. But the sounds quality is above average in my opinion.
2. The battery life is outstanding (as long as you're not transferring files.) I play it nearly all day long, and charge it at night while I'm sleeping.
3. Lastly, I like the fact that if the battery no longer holds a charge, I can just go out to ebay and pay $16 for a brand new one. It's one of the few hard-drive based MP3 players that gives you this option. Again, it's WAY to easy to remove the battery.
Overall, it's not a bad unit. I think if they made the case a little more durable, improved their software, secured the front cover with user-removeable screws, allowed it to power off the USB cable, and allowed you to drag and drop folders through Windows Explorer and have the player KEEP them in the folders (viewable through the player's menu,) the unit would be much better than an iPod.
22 A great MP3 player !!!
I read all of the reviews that I could lay my hands on, and I must say I was a bit nervous. Until I got the product. It was easy to set up the software, I copied about 10 cd's,(with more to come), onto the jukebox and I even installed and downloaded a program called audible.com so I could listen to books on the jukebox. Other than having to go onto Creative's website to get the firmware upgrade to listen to the books, which was very easy as well, using this product has been much easier than I anticipated and I HIGHLY recommend it. I take it running on the treadmill at my gym, listen to it in bed, and I have had absolutely no problems with it. I agree with another reviewer, I don't drop mine, or I have not yet, but it is a hard drive, so some care must be taken?? Anyway, it is awesome and I am so sorry I doubted it at first!!
It is so worth the price....
23 The Product Was Great, The Software Was The Problem
I purchased this product as a replacement for my 20 gig ipod which was too small for my music collection. I wanted 40 gigs, but was intrigued by Creative's alternative to the ipod. After reading the reviews, I decided to get one. And the player itself was great. But the software was one problem after another. First I tried using Windows Media Player, because it said it was compatible, but there were two problems. First, the player would not accept any playlists from WMP, no matter what I tried. Second, it would not accept songs with the same name. If I already had one song titled "Breathe" loaded, it wouldn't take any other song by that name. So I tried the software that came with the Zen Xtra, Creative Media Source. And it was worse. Not only was it difficult to maneuver, it actually made my computer shut itself down, more than once. It turns out there's some kind of glitch, and the best you can do is upgrade the driver, but that didn't work for me. There's no actual way to fix this. So after losing several important items on my computer, I returned it and got an ipod. As for the player itself, I had no problem with it. In fact, I really liked it. My problem was the software. It would be a fanatastic player, as long as you can get the software to work.
24 best mp3 player for your $$$
I've been shopping for a good mp3 player. The apple ipod is too expensive for its size. You get 40 GB for half the price. The layout is basic and satisfying. Sound quality is good. This is for the ulitimate music collector. The 2.0 USB is excellent in uploading mp3 files to the player. I only wish that it had a car input jack to hook up to the car's audio player.
25 Wish battery life was longer... but overall, solid
I recieved this mp3 player as a Christmas gift. I asked for an Ipod, but did some research, and found out this was a better deal and creative makes good products (best sound cards). First some things I like about the mp3 player:
Comes with case
Nice bright screen
Sleek (but a tad too big, especially with case on)
THE OVERALL SOUND QUALITY
The case doesn't "pop off" as easily as some say, I haven't had any problems with it. The player organizes the songs pretty well and has a decent layout. It is somewhat durable, since I've dropped it a few times and it still works. Lastly, the space. I've got over 1000 songs and 33 MBs left.
The problems I had with it was the battery life. This thing gets 5 hours tops, and this is why I want to get Zen Touch (15 hours +). The software that comes with it isn't great (but can download better software), but it does the job. The jog dial seems flimsy sometimes. The button layout isn't spectacular.
I wish I could give it a 3.5 because there's something I really like about this player. The bads outweigh the goods, but if you can look past a few minor details and look at what it's made to do, play music, it's a great mp3 player. If you want to sacrifice space for quality though, go for the Zen Touch.
26 Many Problems even with newer model
This player is awesome, till you own it for about 5 months. Interface, sound, all that is excellent. Yet the headphone jack is just not secure. You will start to lose sound in either the left or right headphone, then both. Also, instead of reinforcing it with a brace, they have it completely soldered into the board for support so when it comes up it rips the board. I've checked all over the internet and this happens with everyones player. so be careful, all their other models look excellent and do not have this problem, buy a different model. Oh, this one starts freezing really bad if you load over 20gigs of songs onto the hard drive
27 So Good So Far
I have had my Nomad for about a month, got it a week after Christmas (all those pesky best buy gift cards you know), and I am glad to say I am very happy with my Nomad. It downloads songs fast, and you don't need to put the music on your computer, then from the computer to the Nomad. You can go directly from the CD, which, for me, makes things much easier.
Some flaws, well not many but I haven't had it for that long. It has frozen on me once or twice, but it is easily fixed with a thumb tack. I also don't like the carry case that it comes with, doesn't seem very sturdy. Other than that... no real big problems.
The softwear that comes with it is good. It gets the job done. Pretty easy to learn how to use. Now, I have never owned an ipod, but I think the Nomad kicks its butt. The Nomad has easy to use buttons, unlike the ipod with that stupid wheel thing. The Nomad is a bit bigger than the ipod, the ipod is skinnier. But the great thing about the Nomad is you get the same thing, 40GB, for about $100 less.
I am very pleased with my Nomad so far. This is only a short term review, and I haven't really taken it anywhere accept on a car ride to Disneyland. So, very good, great deal.
28 Great!
I ordered this product but dont have it yet and looking at the reviews I have noticed that all the reviews that are bad are either written a while ago or they say that they bought it a while ago. So that means they must have made a newer model that seems to be a lot better!
29 Best for money
I purchased this 10 days ago. It's been wonderful so far.
I already transfered more than 2000 mp3s from my collection in to 20 play lists. It's playing just fine. Sound quality is quite good. The software that came with this is very good and user friendly. I ripped all the original CDs I had and converted them in to mp3s. It's been fun playing with this toy. I highly recommend this.
30 An amazing player if you can live with the interface
The Creative Nomad Zen Xtra MP3 Jukebox is actually an amazing MP3 player, if you can forgive its relatively large size (when compared to the iPod) and clunky user interface (again, when compared to the iPod). Not only does it have SUPERB sound quality, unmatched by iPod or Rio or iRiver, but it sports some features you won't find elsewhere:
- volume leveling, so all your tracks have the same volume
- time scaling, so you can adjust the playback speed fast or slow, a boon for people who have audiobooks in the MP3 format (the iPod can only adjust the speed of special Audible files)
- sleep timer
- alarm clock (!!!)
- profile settings that remember your preferences, great for sharing with other family members
- pretty decent playlist management
- works as an external drive in Windows
- removable LiIon battery
These features are all the more amazing because all recent Creative products (Zen Micro, Zen Touch, ...) do NOT have these features. It's sad to me that Creative has taken a step or two back in all these convenience features, which would have made their products compete better against iPod and others. Just sad.
In short, if size and jog dial don't turn you off, the Zen Xtra is the best hard drive-based MP3 player.
31 GREAT PRODUCT
I did a lot of research for an MP3 player for my 12 year old. This product is GREAT:) The whole family uses it. My 12 year old can use it with now problem. I purchased this for under $200.00. 40 GB for less than 200. That is AWESOMW!! I did not want to spend 300.00 for a 12 year old, so I went with this product after researching and talking to people. We are all VERY satisfied. It stored everyones music collection (even my 4 & 5 year olds). I recommend this product for anyone who just wants to listen to music.
32 ZEN XTRA FREEZES UP AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT EAX
Mine worked good for three months(90 day warr.)then it "FROZE UP" nothing would work,tried reset on side,removed battery,called creative lab,"Oh send it in for repair"(100 days old!) I got an extended warrenty from Jrs. Electronics(repairmaster)for 4yrs.Repairmaster solution was take it in (walk in product)but we'll probably just give you another one,since it was under $300 dollars!But then they said:"you know this will now "void" your warrenty!What kind of, you know what,is that.I paid $40 bucks for the warr.plus the Mp3,shipping total$289,now when this"new"one fails I got a new paperweight?No warrenty now,unless I purchase another $40 one,BALONEY!Well got that out of the way.First if all fails, remove battery,reset.Nothing,now here's what I did,you need both hands,hold the play/pause button and push the reset in(paper clip)keep holding the play/pause and it should go into a "rescue" mode.Clean disk and it rebuilds and saves your library,make sure you don't do the mode that destroys your library.Their is about five choices pick clean disk.The only help was the internet searched and reviewed horror stories,creative sucks,they should have helped me tech. support,but my 90 days was up so why should they help me,easy fix,not a toll free number,repairmaster easy way out.I bet circuit city,best buy would honor my 4yr.warr.by repairing and or replacing it,not getting another one and now your warr. is null and void. next time buy at circuit city or best buy thru Amazon and get full warr.GOOD LUCK AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU,Emilio........................
33 the coolest ever
I was so worried when I bought this because I thought Oh my god what if it doesn't work and the reviews didn't help much either! I just got done charging it and now have put all my songs (1000) in in just 20 minutes. It was easy though getting it installed was hard because it said windows would bring it up and it didn't but one phone call ended that. The sound on it is wonderfull and I am so happy I never have to buy another pack of CD-R's.
Worth every penny-including the extra warranty you can get at best buy...I leave no room for error!
34 Works perfect for this novice
This is my first MP3 player. I did a lot of research before the purchase. I finally found the perfect player for the perfect price on Amazon. I paid $165 (no tax or shipping) for the $40gig player with coupons and discounts offered by Amazon. Not a cheaper price anywhere for this player, and the player is great.
I have this newer model without the bugs of "last year's model." Read the reviews for model #s to figure out how to get the new model.
I have had none of the problems others mention - face plate popping off, headphone jack breaking, harddrive crashing after too many downloads, etc. It's built solid and has acted reliablly over a week of straight use. I loaded over 3000 songs and have used about 1/4 of the HD space. That's about 400 complete CDs.
Don't be discouraged by MP3 snobs: it's not too big or heavy - it's the size of a tape walkman and no heavier. Yes, you have to install the driver on each computer, but you can put the drivers on a flash stick or carry the CD. The headphones sound great, but the earplug type just stink in general, so yes, you might want to buy new ones (or use what you have already). The battery will run all day in play mode. It takes a few hours to charge. The software will do you fine ripping CDs, storing them on your computer and/or the player and it syncs the two so only new songs or changes are transfered. The online CD info database found every one of the CDs I have, and I have some obscure bootlegs.
Flaws: I really only dislike the battery life transferring music. Synching drains the battery quickly (about 500-800 songs) per. So, for that first big sync, plug it in - it runs off the battery or cord. I have USB 1 on the computer and it is slow to transfer (5-10 seconds/song). USB 2 must be much faster. Finally, I cannot find a car charger to work with the player. Any CD to tape player will work, but the MP3 player requires a 5V car charger, and it's just not available anywhere (Radio Shack, Circuit City, or on Creative site). Creative needs to offer more accessories like this to make it completely useful.
Bottom line, best quality, storage, bang for the buck without a doubt. Ipod is much more expensive and has its limitations with sharing music on different Ipods/computers. This will synch to any computer or Nomad.
35 Tip for new Zen Xtra owners...UPDATED!
Ironically, the day I originally wrote this review, I had my player out of its case, bumped into it and it fell to the hardwood floor. I reset the player and it booted into "recovery mode" with a "Hard Disk Failure" error message.
Creative told me I had no choice but to send it in and pay for another hard disk. I could not believe that a 2 or 3 foot fall could completely trash the player, especially the day after I started using it. It was like an ACME gadget from a bad Road Runner episode. Taking the advice of a message board poster, I tapped it gently but firmly on my desk, and it started working again.
A friend also got a Creative player, and started using it without really reading the manual. When it locked up on her, she called Creative and they told her - guess - to send it in and they would replace the hard disk! Luckily, she figured out how to use the reset button, which was all that was needed.
You could just chalk both incidents up to user error, but shame on Creative for providing such sloppy customer service. Because of that, I am revising my stars down to 3 - the player itself works fine now, and all the good things about it are still there. But Creative's customer support stinks - I don't feel that I'm exaggerating by saying negligent and unethical - and the whole time I was trying to revive my player, the phrase "you get what you pay for" was repeating in my head. If I was to choose now, I'd go with an iPod and fork out the extra money for a better built product and helpful customer support. Boo, Creative support!
[...]
Anyone who has a problem with software or errors such as "player busy or disconnected" - go to the Creative site, find the tech support page, look for the Zen Xtra update download area and download the newest drivers and firmware. I experienced problems until doing so and now it works like a charm.
In my mind, it comes down to price and name brand preference. Really, size is not a big deal. The Zen Xtra is smaller than a CD walkman and weighs just about the same. So many people like the iPod because it's prettier (do you really want to be a slave to advertising?), or their friends have it, or they're already Mac people so they would never consider something not Mac, that they are willing to pay (...) and upwards more for an iPod. It may be that Creative's customer service is bad, but I'm not willing to fork out that much more money to get the nice friendly Mac people on the phone. I'd rather take my chances and get oodles more storage.
36 CRAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Hey I'm not usually one to write something like this, but this needs to be said. I got this last year around christmas time, and I loved it. It worked great, 40 gigs for the price of a 10 gig ipod, even had a changeable battery. Great sound quality, the interface, well ok no one ever beats apples interface, but it worked. After about 10 months, all of a sudden the sound stopped coming out of hte headphones. Its not like I was throwing it around, it either A sat on my car seat, B sat on my desk @ work, or C sat on my desk @ home. I took it apart because Creative's wonderful customer service led me through so many hoops only to find out that I would have to basically pay for a new one to get it fixed, so being a junior at an engineering college with experience in electronics, figured it wouldnt hurt to even look at it. I took it apart, and the headphone jack had broken off of the board in 2 places. In one place it was a simple soldering job to fix, but on the other side, it actually tore the tab and induction coil off of the board. I repaired the left side and can get sound out of the left but no chance at sound out of the right because instead of breaking the solder or the contact, it tore the board. Now I'm stuck with the do I pay for a whole new player (I could actually go buy a 10gig one and put the 40 gig drive in and then see if i could put the 10gig drive in my laptop)- but after how creative treated me even though they new this was a recurring problem and obviously a defective design, I would rather pay more for the ipod. I would not recommend buying this unless creative changes their practices-or you want something this expensive for a year or less.
37 2 broken ipods = should have gone with nomad
Ah, Apple. Why so highly lauded? Maybe because their supporters are very computer illiterate? Been a PC person all my life. Finally gave in and got the ipod. hard drive failed. the second one's okay, but the headphones are literally falling apart. my wife's ipod mini has a noisy (i.e. static click/pop in the headphones?!) but is out of warranty. also consider the ipod must be returned to apple to replace the battery every 3 years, are you kidding??! no. i think for the price, these are crap. go with the nomad. same functions and features for 20% less, and you can replace the battery yourself. ;)
38 Problems with battery failure
The first couple of months we loved this player and loaded our whole CD collection onto it. In month eight, the player battery would no longer charge with an AC or car adapter. We drained the first battery and bought a new battery. While trying the various suggestions from the Creative Help Lab, the second battery also failed to charge. I haven't found the help lab all that "helpful," either...mainly an overall lack of understanding the problem we stated and the troubleshooting measures we had already taken.
39 This is the best! Trust me, I shopped around.
I spent a couple of weeks agonizing over which hard-drive player to buy. But eventually, the same arguments that have kept me from buying other Apple products have surfaced here. Apple users may claim it is unfair living in a PC world, but Apple is just as much to blame for failing to be compatible. To my knowledge, the iPod is the only player that does not support the Windows Media file format, which is slightly superior to MP3. The Zen Extra does. You might not think that the difference in compression is much, but with a hard drive this big, it translates into being able to hold a lot more songs with the Zen Extra. Score 1. The 40 gig iPod is $400, and suspiciously there is no variation in this price no matter where you look. I got the 40 gig Zen Extra on NewEgg for $230, and it's about the same on Amazon, and yes the price varies, so you can believe that actual competition is working in the consumers advantage. Strictly controlling what retailers sell your product for is very, very bad, Apple. Score 2. As near as I can figure, at least $100 of the price difference is style points; that's 25% of the total price, which is always the problem with Apple products. The Zen Extra looks just as nice, but maybe is slightly less cool. Well, so am I, so score 3.
The Zen Extra also has an easily removeable battery, which is not a standard feature on other players. Score 4.
I don't know about faulty headphone jacks because, in electronics years, that is ancient history. No such problem exists now. My player has also survived a fall from 5 feet already with no damage.
There are a very few problems that I am willing to put up with for the price. The dial/scroll nob/thinga-ma-jingy is a bit clumsy because you have to push it in to make your selection, and if you are like me, you can often scroll right off of where you need to be b/c you lack the motor coordination to push it straight in (think of a 3-button mouse with a middle scroll wheel that doubles as a button--I am horrible at using that, too.)
The players software is decent, but not great. I am sure they will continue to upgrade it. The PC software you use for ripping and transferring the music from CDs is also decent. Actually, none of the ripping software out there is acceptable in my opinion, but this will do. (Ironically, I have better ripping software that came with my Creative Labs CD burner).
The Zen's software uses the Gracenote database for automatically identifying CDs and tracks, and while Gracenote is an utter piece of garbage, it is unfortunately the best thing out there.
The support for non-Latin alphabets is terrible--it is almost 2005, this should be a requirement by now--but it theoretically is there for some of them, although I cannot get Cyrillic, or what they simply call "Russian", to work at all. There are a few other little quirks, like that the program that lets you view the Zen's hardrive from your PC does not actually refresh; you have to back out and go back in. But no deal breakers. And it is so easy to use, that you really don't need instructions for any of it, which is fortunate, because they really don't give you any.
The ear buds that come with it are terrible, but generally the headphones that come with audio toy are going to be junk.
Best of all, I know these are in stock for he holidays!
40 A lot of bang for the buck!
Okay, here's my take on the 40GB Zen Nomad. I tried them all. None of them are perfect. There are little annoyances in every MP3 player. But as far as size, ease of use, storage, durability, compatability, the Zen Nomad is the best hands down. It does everything well, stores upwards of 700-800 CDs (I have a few thousand in my collection), has great battery life. I read about folks having trouble with the scroller. Well, every MP3 player I've ever used has a difficult scroller. But the problem isn't the scroller, it's us! We want to scroll at a gazillion miles an hour! So in order to get it to scroll that fast, it's going to be a little unruly to manuever. That's the physics with speed. Like with cars. The faster you go, the harder it is to control. So, that being said, it's a great unit, and I tested them all. My only complaint is that I would like more volume. But powered headphones help with that. Oh, and one other thing. The headphones or earbuds that come with every player suck. You have to buy new ones no matter which player you buy. So you can't judge the player by the headphones or earbuds. So once again the Zen Nomad comes out on top. If you want an MP3 player that meets every one of your criteria perfectly, build your own. If you accept that every player will have some minor feature not to your liking, then get the Zen Nomad. No other player can touch it as far as features, quality and price.
41 So far, an A+ player
I decided on this player for a few reasons. The first was the size of the hard drive- I know a lot of people say "40 gigs is just too much. You'll never use it all." I have literally thousands of CDs, and I like to encode at higher bitrates (usually 160kbps). The second was the price- at the time I bought it, it was only 200 bucks with the rebate and everything here. That beats the stuffing out of anybody. Apple has nothing on this product- not only that, I'm much less likely to get myself punked or mugged wearing this product. Now, you may be looking at the reviews below this one thinking that you might not want to take the chance of a broken headphone jack or whatever- this is, as others have said, the newer model. It has the window and is not affected by the headphone jack problem.
My only gripe with this thing is the little scroller thing- it really isn't that easy to use. You'll get used to it; it's just that it could have been implemented better in the first place. It's also kind of hard to use this thing in one hand, which is why I just stick it in my pocket.
After receiving it, I noticed it's also quite light- it's a bit larger than the Dell DJ or the iPod, but it is lighter than the Dell.
42 Before reading other reviews...
Keep this in mind!
There are two different versions of this, one released in September of 2003, and one released in June of 2004. The newer version has fixed many of the problems described in reviews, so make sure the reviews that you're reading really pertain to that player! The largest fix, among many, is the headphone jack. Though you will see a couple of negative reviews, they are for the OLD version, and those people posted on the wrong page :-)
Have a wonderful day
Andrew
43 Very Satisfied !!!
I had the first generation 20GB Nomad Jukebox for almost two years, then the headphone jack went out. Luckily, I purchased it at BestBuy and had the 2 year product replacement coverage.
(I had seen the reviews about this fault and poor customer support from Creative) I instantly, received a voucher for the replacement and got the Zen Xtra 40GB. It has worked fine.
The sound, ease of downloads, software, file management system all work good for me. The battery is good also , I usually get 10hrs playing time with a 3 hour charge. The car adapter kit works excellent, my moderate quality car audio system pumps a real nice sound with this model. Generally very satisfied.
44 unlike the IPOD, the Nomad has a replaceable battery
I was afraid to get the Nomad because of many bad reviews,
but I learned many of the negative reviews are because of the old version,
which had problems with the headphone jack, etc.
As long as you get the model with item#70PD055000032, you will be fine.
The Creative Nomad has a MAJOR advantage over the IPOD.
(a USER replaceable battery).
Over time all rechargeble batteries fail and can no longer be recharged. (usually takes a year or two)
The IPOD battery is NOT user replaceable, and the ENTIRE IPOD has to be sent back to Apple and you pay a fee. ($108 with shipping)
If you read Apple's fine print, they state that for the sake of quick turnaround time, they give you someone's elses IPOD.
>>>and because of this, they ERASE the harddrive and you have to redo all your songs, etc
>>>who knows how your "used" replacement IPOD was treated or if it was ever dropped.
I don't need all this agravation just to replace a simple rechargeable battery.
(just read the fine print on Apple's website on IPOD battery replacement).
This is why I went with the Creative Nomad instead of the IPOD, and after four months of ownership, i have no regrets with the purchase.
45 This is NOT the old 40Gig Nomad....
I think that several reviewers are confusing this player with the last generation 40 Gig player. One reviewer pointed out the differences in the packaging and the protective case between the two earlier, and that reviewer was right on the money.
This model is shipped as described by the previous reviewer, and has the latest firmware installed. Mine is too new to give a long term report on, but it seems to be a top quality unit so far. The USB 2.0 port is awesome fast. I dowmloaded 1700 MP3 and WMV files to my Nomad this evening without a hitch, and each batch was completed before I could select the next batch. Very fast compared to the old USB standard.
The controls and layout are great. I don't know if there is a difference between new and old, but even the selector wheel has a good feel to it, and I have not had a misfire when selecting a menu item with it. I do agree that it would be nice to have an audio tone to go along with button movement, but it isn't a showstopper.
The included carry case is very well made. It will probably protect the unit from shock well enough to allow it to survive a fall. Some complained about the plastic structure, but it is built to be as light as is possible, while still maintaining a solid feel. I like it.
The software isn't the greatest by any stretch, but it does work, and I was able to transfer music and data without resorting to the manual. There are other packages available for Windows that do the job in a more intuitive manner for only a few bucks. There are also a number of free packages available online that allow you to use your Nomad on a linux system (for those of you who have grown tired of the Windows nightmare). Also keep in mind that the entire OS (firmware) of the Nomad is writable, and there are people working on their own enhanced versions as we speak.
One more note. The ipod has a problem with connecting with more than one computer. I suspect that is a built in hurdle to prevent people from sharing music, but it doesn't help those who use several computers during their work/play week. I was able to transfer song files between multiple computers with the Nomad without any problems. The latest version of the firmware (as shipped) also correctly displays track information for Russian tunes in cyrillic font. It's a small matter, but it can be important to those who enjoy Russian music.
To sum it up, the newest version of the 40Gig Nomad is light, has a great control layout, solid construction, and the headphone jack seems to be as good as any I have used. I think it's a great player, and for the price, it can't be beat. The earbuds that come with it seem to please many reviewers, but I think ALL earbuds are awfull. I have a collection of them now, and they are all junk. Even the ones offered by name brand audio companies. Buy a good set of Sony or other ear hugging phones for $20, and enjoy music in more quantity and quality than you have ever heard before.
Did I mention that the Nomad comes with Creative EAX as standard? Those of you who have an Audigy sound card in your computer know what I'm talking about. It can be used in selective fashion, and sounds just as good as the PC version. There is more than meets the eye with the Nomad. It might take awhile to master all of it's features, but you will be enjoying fine music from the very first battery charge (lots of classical music and EAX demos built in).
This is an amazing player. Even with a total of 2000 songs loaded, I can still rip a DVD movie to an ISO image at a friends house using a free prgram lke "DVD Shrink", download it to a data folder on my Nomad, and burn the disk on my PC when I get home. For that matter, the Nomad can hold several DVD ISO images at any one time.
Someone mentioned that they didn't like the fact that it wasn't weather proof. Neither is the ipod. Then again, with a one quart Zip Lock plastic bag, and a drop of glue, you can make both players beach proof in a few minutes. Just puncture the plastic bag enough to allow three inches of the plug end of your headphones inside. Seal the puncture with a drop of glue, put your Nomad or ipod in the bag, plug in the headphone jack, zip the bag, and let it rain all day.
A good set of light headphones only costs $20. A Zip Lock bag is about 10 cents. Use your imagination here. You can walk in the surf without placing your Nomad in danger.
Aside from the minor complaints about the software, the only other thing that bothers me is that the max volume should be higher. It's not bad, mind you, but it doesn't allow the head banging levels that other MP3 players deliver. This is a minor complaint, and can probably be fixed at the firmware level in the future. Meanwhile, I am happy to report that using a generic cassette adapter, or an "aux" input port on the latest car audio systems will geive you enough CD quality music to make a trip from one coast to the other and back withought being forced to listen to the same tune twice.
That's it for now. If my opinion changes because of problems with the Nomad, I will update this post in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, it gets 5 stars without hesitation...
46 Very good value
I've had mine since February 2004. I chose it after a lot of research and based the decision on price/value and sound quality. I held off reviewing it since I heard they were fragile and I wanted to see if it would hold up.
It has, with no problems. (I broke the belt clip, but Creative sent me a replacement for $10.) It's probably not something you want to take jogging with you, or drop onto a hard floor, but if you're reasonably careful it's not going to just disintegrate in your hands.
It works great and sounds great (with decent headphones, not the buds they give you with the player), and nearly my entire music collection fits in half the available drive space. The battery life estimate is a little high for me, probably since I have a lot of higher bit rate files (160 Mb/S wmv's and 192 Mb/S mp3's). But it's still fairly realistic.
My only complaints are: 1) the horrible PC software that comes with it - if you buy this player, buy Notmad Explorer from Red Chair Software and use it instead; and 2) the black plastic rocker switch thing that you use to scroll through lists and make selections feels flimsy and cheap.
Overall, I like it and would recommend it unless you know you're going to be rough with it. The user interface is said to be inferior to the iPod's, but this player costs about $150 less than the 40 GB iPod. ($125 less if you take my advice and buy Notmad Explorer.) I'd rather buy the Zen Xtra and use the savings to buy more music.
47 Don't waste your money!!!
I wasted $240 on this piece of junk. Stopped working after the pitiful 3 month warranty ran out (of course). Freezes up and crashes 90% of the time, have to remove the cover, then remove the battery to even restart the thing. I will NEVER buy a Creative Labs product again! Stay away from this thing!!!
48 Great product. Have stored all my music on this
Bought this (as compared to Apple Ipod) because of removable battery. 40 GB hard disk is useful for storing my work related stuff as well. I use it with a tape adapter in my car. The fm transmitter (from belkin) does not work well in bay area. Too many radio stations that interfere.
49 DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT
Creative's Nomad Jukebox's are garbage. I've had my player for less than a year and it just stopped being functional for the second time. The thing is not built to last more than a few months. I don't like apple but better to buy an ipod than throw money away on this.
50 Must have for muscians
Having your music library on hand at gigs & practice gives you the edge. Time scaling slows the music (not the tone) so you can easily learn new cover tunes. You can also add bookmarks for fast access to specific spots within a song.
Bones Verticalsmileband McKay
51 Nice upgrades from 3 months ago
I bought a 40GB Zen Jukebox only 3 months ago after filling my 20GB and giving it to a friend. Unfortunately, I recently lost it on a bus and felt lost, disconnected without my constant music library.
When I researched my new purchase, I was pleased to see not only a lower price but also a couple of upgrades from just a few months ago. Notably, two of my problems about my last Zen were fixed:
1. Headphone jack was loose, causing sound problems with certain speakers/headphones. Seems to me the included headphones sound better than the last ones, even though I prefer to use higher quality headphones.
2. the case now has with a view window, like the 20GB did (why they built the last 40GB version without a view window is beyond me). This enhancement sounds minor, but it makes the difference between using the protective case or not. With the pop-off front casing, the case is a requirement -- but without the view window, you have to take the case off to see what you're doing.
If you already have a unit without the view window, I'd recommend contacting Nomad to either purchase the new case or hopefully get it for free.
I LOVE this product. Reloading my entire 5000 song library was a snap, running the process overnight and waking up with the entire library restored! I love that I can use my WMA, MP3 and WAV format files and transfer between work and home computers. Back to happy!
52 worried about the headphone jack problem?
According to nomadness.net, Creative Labs fixed the problem (that being, of course, the faulty headphone jack) -- shipments of new, corrected Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra players have been in stores for a little over a month now.
There are two ways to tell if you have the fixed Zen version.
#1. If the package you bought it in was heat-sealed, then you have the correct version. Heat-sealed means that it takes a lot of manpower plus knives/scissors to open up the package. The plastic is literally sealed together, not just glued together like with the old version. (You may want to pick this up at a real store instead of amazon.com, because you'll be able to see the package for yourself before buying. That is unless Amazon can confirm details about the package.)
#2. If the carry case for the Zen has a hole for the display. The older faulty version does not have this case, as you can tell from some negative reviews. So, if you put the case on the Zen and can see the display, there's a good chance you have the fixed version.
Hope this helps some of you.
53 Great Product; Better price
I got my Zen about 9 months ago. I figured I'd wait until I tested it thoroughly before writing a review. I've also had experience with IPods. Here's a list of things I liked about the Zen.
-The controls. I like the cd player syle controls where everything is not controlled by one wheel. For me it makes everything easier if my play and skip, volume, and menu controls are not all connected to the same button.
-Battery Life. I dont' know about the claimed battery life. They usually give you the max time under ideal conditions with any product. Mine has never died on me unless I used it for a week (not continuously, but frequently) with out charging. I don't know how many hours that is, but it lasted two 8 hour train rides.
-Computer interface. Media source is great for downloading cd's onto your computer and transferring them is simple. Very Important: IPods can only interface with one computer so it can't transfer files from one computer to another. So if you load the programs onto your computer, you won't be able to connect it to your friends. My Zen can connect with all of my computers.
-Battery access. Should something go wrong with your battery (A friend spilled coke on his IPod. it happens, I fixed it.) It's easily accessible unlike the ipod. hit one switch and the face plat pops up and there's the battery. Also, should you spill something on it, you can get it open to clean it with electrical cleaners with a screwdriver. The IPod Required hours of prying with a screwdriver to get in to clean it and replace the battery.
-Freezing problem and headphone jack. I've heard complaints about both. Never had mine freeze, but every product line has a few that are bad. No one is perfect. As for the headphone jack. I broke mine once b/c I dropped it and the headphones were plugged in and broke the fall. Unfortunately they also snapped the headphone jack inside. It was my fault not theirs. A similar thing happened to my $1500 bass guitar amplifier.
-WMA format. I've come to understand that IPods do not support WMA files. Nearly all of my files are WMA and it seems to be more common elsewhere. WMA's are also smaller files than MP3's.
For my money, the zen is more comfortable to use and cheaper. You miss out on accessories, but I don't really need them. The zen is also heavier, but that doesn't matter unless you exercise with it. Even then I don't think it's that big of a difference. Check out Popular Science October 2004 for info on battery life on cell phones, mp3 players, etc.
54 Excellent product, excellent support
I bought this 7 months ago, and love it (first jukebox, but 3rd MP3 player). I had also tested the RCA Jukebox, and it didn't have nearly the same capabilities, but that's not the reason I decided to write a review.
In the past month, I experienced problems with the headphone jack (hey, it can happen to any device that you use EVERY day, take on many business trips, and use during workouts!).. the store I purchased the unit from was less than helpful.
I contacted Creative (the product still under warranty) via their website. I received an immediate response, and specific insructions on how to ship the unit back (no insulting questions, or making me feel like I had damaged the unit, unike the store!). Within 1 week, I received an email that a replacement unit is being sent via UPS.
I will always support Creative now, and wanted to share my experience with anyone thinking of purchasing this kind of unit.
55 good but not great
i bought the 4o gb xtra 1 year ago. i thought it was great till i realized it wasn't amzing.don't get me wrong its just that it does hte job but not well enough. i took perfect care of it. but afer 8 months it started freezing. then it went out completely. it wouldn't play at all. then i called creative and they told me it would cost 150 bucks to repair. they think it is a loose headphone jack. im MAD do ureself a favor get an i river or an ipod
56 Great MP3 Player - 4.5 stars
I looked around quite a bit at HD MP3 players, and finally decided on this one. It'll hold a HUGE number of songs - I have nearly 400 albums on it so far - and the USB 2.0 transfer is pretty quick. Sounds pretty good, and I don't mess with the EAX software. While it's size is larger than most on the market, it does come a carrying case which now DOES have a viewing window in it. But if I wanted really tiny I would have opted for a solid state player or a 4Gb one, but I didn't want to go small. Having all my CDs on it is really neat feeling, and I'm listening to CDs I haven't heard in years.
I only give it a 4.5 for a couple of reasons: like most, the earbuds that come with it are not very good (I could hardly even get them in my ears, let alone wear them for any period of time!) and the software is kinda okay. I highly recommend getting the redchairsoftware.com called Notmad. It will enhance your player immensely.
57 battery failed too
I would have given the MP3 a 4 stars because overall it works really well. We've got more than 700 CDs and put most of them on the machine with ease. But after 7 months of usage the battery completely died on us. One day it was working fine and the next it wouldn't take any charge. It was as if there were no battery at all. We're going to try to buy a new one. We'll see how that goes considering Creative's consumer service reputation. Since I haven't tried anything else, I can't recommend another model.
58 playback errors
This unit gives playback error messages when attempting to play some mp3 files, files that play perfectly fine on other mp3 players. No explanation has been given by Creative and there is no way to predict which files will produce playback errors.
59 Great player for great value
Before I purchased a portable jukebox, I did my reasearch in which was the best. I saw the Nomad and the features impressed me and so did the value. I was going for lots of hard drive for little money and the Nomad clearly beats the ipod in that catergory so I got it. I have been very happy with it and can take my whole music collection in my pocket. I haven't had any problems with it and I'd recomend it over the ipod anyday.
60 Lithium battery failed after 6 months
I was enjoying listening to this MP3 player, but after only six months, the special lithium battery will not take a charge. I hope I'll be able to find a replacement. I'm waiting to hear back from Creative Labs technical support.
61 Xtra Expensive POS
I bought a Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 60GB player in December 2003. The headphone jack immediately failed within the 1st month, even though I took extra care in handling this unit, always had it in its protective case, and never dropped it. I received a replacement unit from Creative and wouldn't you know it, the headphone jack once again failed. Thanks for a previous review from "seleniumdream". I will be doing my own maintenance on the headphone jack since it is now out of warranty. Bummer that I didn't stumble across these reviews on this unit earlier. Now I only wonder if the hard drive is going to fail like so many other reviewers have experienced. The only good thing that could come from buying this unit is that hopefully it malfunctions within the 90 day warranty. If you want a good MP3 player buy any other unit except this one.
62 Hard Drive Failed - no warranty
I bought this player 6 months ago. The hard drive failed and I sent it back for service. Creative quoted $180 to repair the unit and refused to perform the work under warranty. They admitted the failure was not due to our abuse. The only warranty you get is 3 months, after that - tough. This company does not stand behind their products.
63 Very expensive paperweight
I have had this for less than a month, and I am far from satisfied.
This Jukebox was purchased to replace my Apple Ipod. I had but one complaint about the Ipod: Its short battery life. It lasted less than 5 hours; not enough to get me through a workday. So, I bought the Jukebox.
What a mistake. I had heard some horror stories, but I figured, "Oh, those people just don't take care of it." That wasn't the problem with mine, as I just used it in an office.
Nomad customer support is useless. They just gave me suggestions on things I have already tried, and nothing will revive this hunk of metal. It is stuck on the "Rescue Mode" and will not budge.
In addition to its current dead mode, I had numerous problems with it even when it was, more or less, functional. I got the "Playback error" numerous times. The bundled software refused to load some songs, saying I didn't have permission to load them. Wrong: they were purchased legitimately. For some reason, some of the songs from the same suppliers (Rhapsody and Napster) *did* work, and some didn't.
Skip this player and get the Ipod, short battery life or not.
64 A lot of potential wasted
It breaks my hear to have to give this player such a low rating but whoever manufactured this player for Creative has really dropped the ball. I have always been a big fan of Creative and have had other Creative MP3 players and numerous sound cards so I bought this item on faith despite all the negative things I had heard about the player.
First, all the things you have heard about a faulty headphone jack is 100% correct, I have had this player less than a month and the headphone jack is already going out on me. I had read other reviews stating this before I bought the player but decided to take the risk and now I am paying for it. The software you get with the player is adequate but not great, Creative could have done much better. Another annoying thing is that the player has problems with its software and hard drive fairly often, it will lock up and the only way I can turn it off is too take out the battery. Also it seems that just about every other time I turn the thing on it says it has to "rebuild the library" for no apparent reason and it take about 5-10 minutes to do this.
I am going to bite the bullet and buy an iPod, I should have done that in the first place but I am not a big fan of Apple but nonetheless they seem to rule the MP3 player field now. Besides the iPod has the best and most add ons so if you want a nice player that will last you a long time get the iPod.
65 Risky....
I bought the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox about a month and half ago. In that time I have spent probably the equivalent of 4 entire days burning all of my own and my freind's music onto it. This is to be expected, but after reading some of the problems that others are having with this device, I'm a little worried. It does seem to make the CPU crash more often than it should, especially if you are listening to music from it's hard drive while uploading files. I would be one unhappy camper if it completley crashes and I lose all of the music I have spent so much time uploading.
On the bright side, I have put over 400 complete albums and other random songs on it, and it's not even half-way full yet. That is amazing. They say not to exersice with it, but I run and lift weights with it and have had no problems whatsoever.
If you have room on your hard-drive to keep all of the music that you upload as a backup, this is a good purschase. If not, you are taking a chance.
P.S. Although I do get around 10 hours of playback on a full charge, it's only about 2 hours if you are hooked into your computer through the USB.
66 Poor hardware, poorer software
I have had this player for just under 6 months. In that time I have had:
o the desktop software Creative supplied crash countless times;
o the player's hard drive become corrupted by simply loading an MP3 that was created using Creative's software, requiring the disk to be reformatted;
o the hard drive fail completely.
When the player has problems you have very limited options - I never saw the disk repair utility work. I ran experiments to verify that loading a particular MP3 would cause the player to die and that the disk repair utility would not repair the problem. "Reformatting" the disk - your one other choice - almost certainly does no such thing. I had 16GB of music on the player when I first tried loading the MP3 of death. When I finally bit the bullet and reformatted - after trying the disk repair utility at least a dozen times - the format returned in a few seconds. Throughout this process Creative's support was pretty much useless.
As someone that has been a professional software engineer for 25 years I am appalled at the quality of the product. Since the product only comes with a 90 day warranty the disk failure is basically fatal.
The result: I now have a fairly expensive paperweight sitting on my desk to remind me to think hard before buying another product from Creative.
67 Cheaper and More Versatile than iPod.
So you want to buy an MP3 player? Well if you don't have enough cash for an iPod and/or a general mistrust of Apple products, this player is for you. The Nomad has some definite advantages over the iPod that far outweigh its drawbacks.
First, it has a massive amount of storage at roughly half the cost of the comparable iPod. The 40GB version I have is capable of holding 40,000 minutes of music. Secondly, the Nomad can hold both music and Data files, so if you need to transport a few documents between home and work, this player can also do that job for you. Thirdly, music can be copied off of the Nomad as well as loaded to. The iPod only allows the user to load music onto the device (Apple's attempt to prevent indiscriminant copying). With the Nomad, you can effectively use your player as a backup for your music. Finally, the computer interface is very simple and familiar to the Windows user. The Nomad shows up like a hard drive in Windows Explorer, and you simply drag and drop music into the player.
The drawbacks of this device are few, but notable. First, the interface is nowhere near as nice as an iPod. They use a series of buttons and a clumsy wheel. It's not flashy and neat like the iPod, but I don't want to pay double just for a neat interface. If you simply must have that touchy-feely interface, Creative Labs is coming out with a Nomad Zen touch fairly soon. Secondly, the EAX sound features are utterly worthless. Unless you want to hear what your music will sound like in a church or a stadium, you wont use this feature. Finally, the organization of songs on the player could use a little tweaking. Everything is sorted by the ID tag of the MP3 file. iPod does the same thing, but I would expect something a little better from Creative labs, like being able to use folders to organize music.
So to recap:
PROS:
-Huge storage capacity at half the cost of an iPod
-Holds both data and music
-Can copy files to and from device (unlike iPod which is unidirectional)
-Simple explorer interface for moving music to/from device
CONS:
-Unimaginative control interface (will be solved when Nomad Zen Touch comes out)
-EAX audio features are useless
-File organization leaves a bit to be desired.
68 It's a nice paperweight...
I'll keep this short and sweet. I've had the Zen Xtra 40GB for about a month. I'm returning it tomorrow (hopefully) to get an iPod.
Pros:
- Plenty of space
- 1/2 the cost of a 40GB iPod
Cons:
- User interface is difficult to use; jog dial isn't very easy to manipulate
- Poorly designed software (buggy and doesn't work 50% of the time)
- EAX sound field manipulation is garbage - don't use it
- Can't use it as an external hard drive w/o extra drivers
- Bigger than shirt pocket
- Sync capability is practically useless and error-prone (200 of my files wouldn't sync thru Creative's driver)
The only redeeming thing about the Zen is a third-party shareware product called Notmad Explorer which is great - but unfortunately it uses the Creative driver and the Zen itself, so it's not much better.
69 Great product, great value
I had been putting off getting a digital music player in the hopes that prices would drop. I finally decided to get the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB, which was decidedly cheaper than comparable products from Apple, HP and iRiver.
Boy, this thing is the best! I used to have to lug around all my CDs, but this thing stores my entire music library (THOUSANDS of CDs!). Navigation is easy; you can search by artist, album or genre, as well as create your own playlists. It has something called EAX which is supposed to be some sort of advanced sound technology, but I don't see much value in it. Supports both USB 1.1 and 2.0; I have 1.1 and it took about 48 hours to put about 8,000 songs on it from my computer. If you listen to it about 4 hours per day, you'll need to recharge the batteries about once every 5 days (do the math if you listen more or less than that).
In summary, I LOVE this thing! It has all the functionality that I need, and it is BY FAR the best value. There's no other product that can store 40GB of music for less than $300. P.S. I listen to it while programming at work, and I've found that jazz boosts my lines of code per hour and cuts down on the number of bugs! ;-)
70 gotta get a few more!
This is the answer to a few of my problems with music. As a DJ I have been carrying 2500 CDs to gigs, and it is pretty heavy to say the least, as well as taking up lots of space. This little drive has replaced a few cases easy, I have put in over 120 CD, and still have room to go. I am loading up with entire LP of deep cuts, as well as a few greatest hits type releases. A few more of these and I won't need a roady! The wheel button is pretty funky, but everything else is working fine.
71 Great product!
After using my Nomad Xtra for a week I can say that is all I wanted and more.
The sound is amazing, the unit's capacity is endless, it CANNOT be any easier to use. No manual is needed.
The Nomad Explorer is very efficient, you can drag files from your computer to the Nomad and viceversa, no copyright sillyness on this unit like the Ipod. Using my USB 1.0 it was fast enough.
The battery last a good ten hours. If you wanna plug it into your car's stereo, I don't recommend those radio FM transmitters cause there is always some interferince.
You can't go wrong with this thing, It cost a lot less that the Ipod but it's a LOT better. The only thing that lacks is in size, the Ipod is smaller but the Nomad is smal enough to fit my pocket.
This unit is so efficient that I took my 10GB of MP3 out of my PC into the Nomad and then erased all the MP3 from my computer, if I wanna burn a CD I know that I can transfer the files back to my PC with NO HASSLE. Try that with the IPOD.
72 Great Music
I purchased the Zen Xtra last month and am very happy with this player. Took a trip to Florida and turned it on and didn't have to listen to all the other sounds on the airplane. The only complaint I have are the ear buds....I pruchased the Shure E3c ear buds instead and made alot of difference.
