Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox "C" (Blue)
The affordable, hand-held NOMAD Jukebox C lets you enjoy portable MP3 music at an irresistible price. You can listen to, store, and carry around your MP3 music in style with your choice of a classic silver or metallic blue. Approximately the size of a portable CD player, the NOMAD Jukebox C has 6GB capacity to store up to 100 hours of CD-quality MP3 music. That's like having a 150+ CD changer in the palm of your hand! The versatility, extensive connectivity, and complete accessory line available with your NOMAD Jukebox C make it the most versatile and affordable member of the Jukebox family. The NOMAD Jukebox supports standard MP3, WMA, and WAV formats and it is geared for access to future audio formats. Upgradeable technology allows new features and enhancements to be downloaded to it when available. With the NOMAD Jukebox, you can keep up with the ever-evolving world of digital music and be on the cutting edge of digital audio technology. EAX audio technology delivers an unsurpassed listening experience by adding customizable effects to NOMAD Jukebox. With a whole range of EAX effects and applications, you can create a completely personalized listening experience.
One of our biggest frustrations with MP3 players has been their limited storage capacity. You'll typically get 64 MB via internal memory or memory cards, which provides just a little over an hour of near CD-quality MP3 audio. So when we heard that Creative was releasing a 6 GB player that can hold over 100 hours of music, it sounded perfect. Soon, we'd be rifling through a massive catalog of tunes on our little player, from Elvis Costello to LL Cool J to Miles Davis, whenever the whim struck. The Nomad Jukebox is essentially a portable hard drive with software that will play MP3 audio. Since hard drives include spinning and moving parts, this player is not ideal for active MP3 users such as joggers and snowboarders. We cracked open the box, inserted the rechargeable batteries, plugged in the AC adapter, and waited the recommended 12 hours for them to charge initially. This is a very important step. This was our second set of batteries--we didn't bother to heed Creative's initial charging directions when we first got the product, and our first set of batteries soon lost the capacity to be recharged. After installing the included software (we tested the Jukebox on a Macintosh G4 using SoundJam MP; for PCs, Creative includes PlayCenter 2) and connecting the USB cable, we quickly deleted 2 GB of starter MP3 and audiobook files and started loading our own music. We started with about 500 songs, but noticed after the load had finished that not all the songs made it onto the Jukebox. Also, the SoundJam software didn't like us doing any other work on our Mac G4, stalling out the load whenever we switched to another program. We found it was best to load in smaller numbers and to keep SoundJam up as the active application (unfortunately, not the most efficient use of computer time). The transfer rate is about six minutes per 100 MB, which translates to about 25 songs. (So far, we've loaded 861 songs and we still have 2.3 GB left of storage.) Once music has been transferred to the Jukebox, you need to create an active playing list by navigating one of three lists--artists, albums, and genres--then adding songs to the queue. (This points out the need for creating thorough ID3 tags, an electronic label that can include song title, track number, year, and more. ID3 tags can be created via the PlayCenter and SoundJam software manually, or they can be imported from the online CDDB database. For more information about tagging, see the Amazon.com Making MP3s Guide.) Playlists can be saved in the Jukebox, though it can be a bit tedious (there's no keyboard), and you can't add songs to an existing playlist. The Jukebox also sports some nice additions. It has a line-in recording capability (using an external microphone) that records WAV files that can be adjusted for optimal (or low-end) sound quality, and it can play audiobooks. The biggest downside to the Nomad Jukebox is its portability. As noted, it does run on rechargeable batteries, but they'll last far less than the advertised two hours. Also, this isn't the device to take jogging; its internal hard drive, though somewhat resistant to shock and motion, just won't take that kind of activity. It's really made for stationary play using its included AC adapter. It also has a few playback glitches, the biggest being that you can't fast- forward or rewind within a song. Also, there's no bookmark feature for audiobook listening--a necessity for long files. Ultimately, the Creative Nomad Jukebox isn't perfect and isn't suited for everyone's MP3 needs. But it has become a staple of our gadget life--it travels with us daily to the office and hooks in nicely into stereo systems, both at home and at friends' houses. Someday, we'll all wonder what we did without an MP3 jukebox. --Agen G.N. Schmitz Pros:
- 6 GB of storage is massive--over 1,000 songs
- Several methods for selecting playlist songs (artist, album, and genre)
- Line-out for connecting to stereo systems, and line-in for recording
Cons:
- Battery power is sucked up quickly
- Prone to skipping/stalling when used in heavy activity
The Creative Nomad Jukebox C is a portable, multiformat, compressed audio player with intuitive navigation for easy categorizing and classifying of content. You'll be able to bring up to the equivalent of 150 CDs with you anywhere--in your car, to your office, or to a party! About the size of a portable CD player and weighing only 14 ounces, this EAX-certified digital audio player features 6 GB of storage capacity. With far more memory than most portable digital audio players have, it stores approximately 100 hours of CD-quality audio or up to 2,600 hours of spoken-word content. Unlike other hard drive-based solutions, the Nomad Jukebox C offers an onboard, real-time digital signal processor for superior audio playback and customization. The Nomad Jukebox C is SDMI-capable and supports file formats such as MP3, WMA, and WAV. Other highlights of this player include special-effects algorithms that alter the way your music sounds, making it seem as if you are listening in a concert hall, in a stone room, or in a forest. You also have the flexibility to adjust the treble, bass, and middle tones to your liking. You can slow and speed up the playback of files, an especially helpful feature if you are running through the minutes of a meeting you just recorded or are listening to other spoken-word content. The Nomad Jukebox C offers USB interface for lightning-fast data transfer between your Nomad Jukebox C and your PC or Macintosh. It includes four rechargeable NiMH AA batteries. Note that the Nomad Jukebox C does not include a carrying pouch or headphones.
Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox "C" (Blue) Accessories
Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox "C" (Blue) Reviews
Dual outputs to allow hookup to various devices. I bought a used 6G for a great price, filled it with motivation CDs and audiobooks, along with some music. The label warns about this but I had not bothered to read it. This review is for a product that is no longer made but is still readily available through used channels. Even at that, this is still one of the best of its kind.
Only then will I move on to the newer, but in my opinion inferior units. I will continue to use these until I can no longer find a unit available. I then found a second used one with 6G and swapped out my fully loaded 20G drive from the burned out unit.and presto.back in business. I originally bought a 20G model in 2001 that worked flawlessly for 5-1/2 years until I changed batteries with mismatched ma ratings.I fried the power circuitry.
As for a bookmark for longer recordings.the newer firmware.verson 4.01 specifically will do bookmarks for the beginning of the current song or will actually take up with the exact note you left off on. Just have to go into the menu and set it up.the default is off.have to set it to bookmark play (to start with the beginning of the song) or bookmark pause/play which will pick up the exact spot you paused at.
Not to mention being able to record live shows/concerts.just hook the mike up.can record for hours and hours with CD quality. Works great.
Hope this helps. As for fast forward and reverse in a song.just press and hold the forward or reverse buttons.will take care of you.
The newer IPod type units just lack the class of this jewel, much less the EAX capability among others. Sure these are larger than the IPod or the Zen Micro.but they are attractive, easy to manuveur around in, and offer hosts of features the newer units don't.
Plus the specs are home audio quality.greater than 98 db signal to noise ratio, 20-20,000 response with less than.1% distortion.the list goes on and on. I then started searching for a replacement.
People are right about it [using]up the batteries, but with an AC charger and a DC charger it makes it possible to charge and run anywhere. It has its misshaps with some songs, which happens in the same place (it skips), but deleting and then putting the song back on solved the problem. It is a little bulky, about the size of a CD player, for an active person (hard to run with) but works great in a car or anyother place that isn't too wild. It is a great device.
The "Playcenter" software that ships with the unit installed easily when I was running Windows 98. I couldn't tell you what I did and hope that I never have to do it again. Apparently this is a common problem. Overall, I'm happy with it.
The updated drivers at the Creative site were more confusing than anything else. It's reliable and eliminates the need for a cd player. Eventually I ended up following directions from a site dedicated to Nomad users, and after two days of hell I got it to work. So, I've had the Jukebox for just under a year now and here's what I think: It does everything that they say it does.
When I moved to an XP machine, it was a different story. However, a word of warning. Now that it's done, everything is great and I love my Jukebox.
IF YOU WANT A GREAT MP3 PLAYER THAT DOES EVERYTHING IT SAYS IT WILL DO AND MORE, IS EASY TO USE, IS GREAT QULITY AND IS FROM A GRAT COMPANY THAT STANDS BEHIND ITS PRODUCTS 100% THIS IS FOR YOU. THRUST ME I KNOW I HAVE A NOMAD AND 5 OTHER PRODUCTS FROM CREATIVE INCLUDING WEB CAM ANS SOUND BLASTER EDUGY etc. GREAT JOB CREATIVE I WILL ALWAYS RESPECT YOU AS THE #1 ELECTRONICS COMPANY. I HAVE BEEN VERY EXITED AND OVERSATISFIED WITH EVERY CREATIVE PRUDUCT I EVER OWNED.
- Easy to get tunes on and off (when it wasn't malfunctioning). Apparently, he neglected to read the two page letter I had included that said that I had already done that and even re-formatted.I sent it back, with a disc full of MP3s of various sizes and shapes and asked them to load the disc on in it's entirety. Unfortunately, it always defaulted to v2, even though I prefer v1, and then this Lyrics thing which I had a hard time finding a program to strip out. It had to rescan every MP3 or something. - It tried to be robust by using ID3v2 and v1 info AND this weird thing called Lyricsv3, which nobody's ever heard of.
Wasted time. It failed.They couldn't figure out what to do, so they sent me a new one. - Solid feel. I liked my Jukebox, I really did, but it flaked out after 6 months and died after a year.
Nice button response. No thanks.It had it's good qualities:. It played anything from 32 to 320 kbps as well. - It had playlists which you could upload, but I hated that. It would have been nice to force it to use ID3v1. Plus, it slowed it down while booting up.
Sometimes even after 2 songs. When I read why, it was a totally stupid reason too. Look around in the newsgroups, you'll see plenty of people with similar problems. In doing further reading after that, MANY people had similar skipping/freezing problems.
Basically, the player would freeze, returning an error, which meant that you had to run the equivalent of a "scan disk" to patch it up. What I used was the track numbers built into the tags of the MP3s. And now, after some monkey business with the support team, it's dead and I'm done.The short story:It worked great for a while. I think that exacerbated what otherwise might have been a dormant or relatively harmless problem. No, there was something really wrong.I sent it to their help desk and for [dollar amount] they took a look at it (because it was a month out of warranty). Watch those warrantees people.Anyway, this one worked for a while, but still froze up when I was loading too close to the "full" mark. Twice.
And not just for me. Finally, it choked all together and now I have a nice handy [dollar amount] paperweight.I could send it back I guess, but I'm not interested in paying [dollar amount] bucks for a new machine that will only last another 4 months. - Nice organization of stuff on the machine, by artist, album, genre and playlists. - Needed a "Queue everything" selection. I loaded it up and swapped songs nearly every day.I think the first downfall was when I updated to the newest firmware. - It broke. I hope they read this and try to fix it.
It used that to order them.Criticisms:. This happened with greater and greater frequency until I basically had to do it every 100 Meg of songs or so. Did I mention that.I'd certainly think twice before buying one of these, or their higher-priced, larger HD cousins, as they use the same firmware.Peter - It broke.
I had to leave 50 meg free, then 75 meg, then 100 meg free. 6 Gig IS a lot of music, even when I ripped at highest quality VBR. I liked the weight of it. With 6 gig, you can guess I didn't want to babysit my player as it loaded songs.Part of this might have been because I was deleting and adding 300 meg of new songs almost every day. But it still should have handled it.Eventually, it stopped playing songs all the way through. - Took forever (30secs+) to boot up.
They reported nothing really wrong and the guy ran the clean-up process and returned it. Honestly, being in IT, I have a bit of a knack for debugging problems, and I think this was probably some sort of problem with their delete function. Normally this would have cost me [dollar amount] out of pocket, but since their last fix was warranteed for 30 days, I got lucky. And that wasn't because of the tune because you could reboot the thing and it would play that tune just fine the next time. - Played any MP3 I fed it, random, repeat. Guess what.
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