Creative Labs NOMAD Jukebox 3 20 GB MP3 Player
By: Creative Labs Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 110
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 On: 2006-10-26
I just took out my Nomad jukebox 3 from retirement. Started using it again and let me just say I still love it. The sound quality is just so much better over the Ipod. It truly is audiophile quality. This sucker is just built tough. I am not so easy on my electronics and this thing can take a beating and keep on ticking. I still like the OS better then the Ipod. Its just easier to maneuver around in my opinion (and my wifes) If you have a chance to get one (available on EBay) I really love how you can record to it. I have recorded some of my old albums (yes albums remember those!?) to the Jukebox and it comes out great. In the era of needing everything smaller you loose allot of features in the process.
 On: 2005-01-18
So, I got a Jukebox 3 for Christmas two years ago. Since then, I took it with me backpacking for six months around the world, use it daily at work, take it with me whenever I travel, use it as my home stereo, and generally beat the hell out of it. Ive dropped it multiple times on hard surfaces, and exposed it to heat, cold, and almost anything you can think of. I am so impressed with this product and its durability.
Sure, there are some drawbacks to the Jukebox 3. It does not have the stylish look of the Jukebox Zen or an iPod. It is bigger and bulkier than either of these devices. However, in some ways I think that actually works in the Jukebox 3s favor: I feel totally comfortable leaving it sitting around at work, because it basically looks like a cheap CD player. I think of it like inadvertant theft-prevention.
Here are a couple things I dislike. The power button has a stick to it, so I need to wiggle it to make it pop back out again. Not a very well-designed button, but its a pretty easy thing to deal with. The syncing software freezes up when I try to back up my whole music library. I havnt really figured this one out yet. Those are the only two things keeping me from giving it five stars.
So, I would highly recommend buying this product. For less money than an iPod I feel that I got much more. I have a friend who has an iPod, and the one-way nature of it plus the fact that it does not record drives him absolutely nuts. He is actually jealous of my player!
On: 2004-09-19
I have read a lot of negative reviews on this system and would just like to add my own Imput. I bought my NJ3 in SEP 02. I took it with me to Afghanistan for 7 months. Afghanistan happens to be the worse place for Electronics in the worlds. Dust and filth... Just Awful. I dropped my player quite a few times. Took it with me on missions. Used it every single day. After 2 years my player still works perfectly. Its worn beyond belief but still works fine. Just letting all of you know these units are as tough as them make them....
On: 2004-09-18
I have read a lot of negative reviews on this system and would just like to add my own Imput. I bought my NJ3 in SEP 02. I took it with me to Afghanistan for 7 months. Afghanistan happens to be the worse place for Electronics in the worlds. Dust and filth... Just Awful. I dropped my player quite a few times. Took it with me on missions. Used it every single day. After 2 years my player still works perfectly. Its worn beyond belief but still works fine. Just letting all of you know these units are as tough as them make them....
On: 2004-06-11
Ive owned my Nomad Jukebox for about 2 years now, and it has served me very well. Whereas the Jukebox 2.0 version was unstable, this unit has caused me no problems whatsoever. The sound quality is good, the interface is intuitive, and the thing just keeps working without a hitch. The battery life is pretty good, as well, which is always a point of contention with portables. Overall, Id really recommend this unit.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-04-13
Having had my jukebox for 5 months until it absoutely died, leaving me with a large space in my pocket and the loss of music Id spent hours transferring, I have to say that the fragility of this player absolutely negates any enjoyment you might have while it works. My player was very gently used, it now only boots in Rescue Mode and gives me a hard disk problem message for all functions on that menu. Creative technical support insists that the player must have been dropped (which is apparently enough to completely destroy the hundred-dollar hard drive) and the warranty does not apply - you have to pay for all repair - over two months after the date of purchase. In a case like mine this probably means paying about half the original cost of the jukebox to replace the hard drive with a new one under a similarly scanty warranty. For the investment value of an mp3 player, my jukebox leads me to believe that youd be better off with an I-Pod. Dont buy it.
On: 2004-04-10
Bought this product one night before a trip that was to last me 2 weeks. I stayed up until 1:40am in the morning trying to figure out how this product worked, only to end up getting an error message on the player that dont me the hardware was not working. I cannot belive that i wasted an entire friday night trying to figure out this piece of junk. ON a plus side the software that it comes with was excellent at making MP3s.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-03-25
I wish no stars were an option becuase giving it one star is a stretch. I have had problems since the moment I bought it and foolishly didnt retunr it before the warranty was up because I thought their customer support team could help. They didnt...in fact they once made the problem worse and then had no more suggestions except to send it in..of course at a high charge. I have had problems loading music, faulty batteries, faulty AC adapter, faulty firmware, etc...and the problems continue to arise. I almost want to cry when I think of how much money I spent on this thing. So whatever you do DO NOT buy this product and after my experience with this Nomad Jukebox, I am going to avoid Creative products in general. They are a complete and total waste of money.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-03-17
I bought this product because of the many features it has. I particularly like the fact that you can record from other players onto it. You can take a line in off of your computer and record streaming audio to listen to later. The USB 1 is reasonble,although USB 2 would be nice. It only takes about 1-2 seconds per song to load. The button layout takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it becomes intuitive. The line out feature is realy great because it pumps a nice strong signal out for you receiver. Another nice thing is the smart volume control. Like when you are on a train and you have turned up the volume to hear a really soft part of a song, and then you get to a loud part, it wnt blow out your ears (and believe me, it can over good headphones). My only gripes are that it is a bit on the big side. But if you have problems wih this, imagine how big a CD player and 200 some odd CDs will be. This is a really great product and I love it. While the product is nice, the software is only mediocre. The Creative audio transfer is good, but I cant get the other files transfer program to work. But as I dont use this program a lot, it doesnt hurt its rating. However, if you were going to buy it for document transfer, get third party software. The reviews about it breaking to easily are not true. Ive dropped mine numerous times and its been fine. One of those times was down a flight of stairs. I would not do this yourself though as it might void your warranty. Over all a really great product. Nice work Creative!!!!
 On: 2004-03-15
Where to find the microphone for recording using the NOMAD Jukebox 3?
by: Anonymous On: 2004-03-11
This unit never performed as advertised. Their tech line kept leading me on that firmware updates would fix it, but never did. My primary use of the MP3 was during travel, on the airplane or cruise ship. It ALWAYS let me down. It finally died and would not respond to any command. Sent it back to Creative for a $20 test. They called and told me what I already knew, it died. They wanted $180 to fix, I said forget it. Next step will be to return it to their President...he can keep it, he needs it more than I do. He needs to fix their quality problems. I have now purchased a Gateway unit and just love it....flawless operation and much more user friendly.
On: 2004-01-18
I dont use this for playing music back. I use it to record original content: interviews, sporting events, choral music. There seem to be a limited number of products like this that make good recordings. Nomad Jukebox 3 makes excellent line in (high level) recordings. The VU meters dont seem precise enough to rely on much, but there is so little noise that you dont need to set levels very high. Ill record, transfer to the computer, normalize the levels where I like them, and its still a clean recording after that extra amplification (for nomalizing the levels). Once you are familiar with the several steps required to start the first recording you make, its not a big deal... but you cant pull it out and just hit record. Works nicely with external mic preamp, but not for direct mic in. I dont believe I get the battery life specified. I have two rechargable batteries in the unit, which is supposed to give it maybe 20 hours. Maybe its because I use it to record and to do file transfers, instead of playing music. I have recorded an entire stage play with it (several hours), and have a pretty low battery indication. Im not taking any chances. More than a couple of hours, Im using the power line adapter.
The "Creative File Manager" program works ok, but it would be nicer if you could use Windows Explorer instead. With the Firewire port, transfers are really quick. USB1.1, really slow.
It records as good as you put in. Good mics & preamps in; pro quality recordings out. If you get careless and hit it with too hot a level, its fairly forgiving.. Some peak distortion, but not that awful digital popping Ive heard on some equipment.
Its sturdy, but its an entertainment device. I carry it generously wrapped in padding. Its not meant for parachute drops.
 On: 2004-01-17
Ive owned this player for just under a year. Two months ago, an internal part failed, requiring I send my unit to Creative for repairs. They charge $20 just to look at the unit. They said their turn-around time is 10 days. It took them nearly 3 weeks to get to my unit. They tell me Ill have to pay $87 (in addition to the initial $20) to fix the problem. Its clear that the problem is an internal part failing, NOT damage due to customer abuse. If the player came with a 12-month warranty, Id be covered. But, all Creative MP3 players come with only a 3-month warranty, so Im screwed. But you dont have to be. If you buy a Creative MP3 player, buy the optional extended warranty to protect yourself from what many of us Creative customers have experienced. Or better yet, buy a player from another company. Its really a shame that Creative jukebox players have such a high failure rate over the long run. Otherwise, they are good players with lots of useful features, and they have probably the best sound quality of any MP3 players on the market.
On: 2003-12-31
I purchased the Nomad 20GB Jukebox about a year ago and have been very pleased with the results. I can store all of my LEGALLY downloaded music in absoultely no time on either the Firewire or the USB cable. Inaddition you can store large documents on the player that would normally not fit onto a floppu disk. Ive used it to store 100s of pictures for slideshows.However there are some things I wish were different about the player.
1. Kinda big. Sure its the same size as an Normal CD player, but come on, you want to buy an MP3 player so you dont have to worry about CDs.
2. Software. You can upload data files to your player, but you have to have the software with you, if the data transfer file program isnt on the computer your transfering to. Why doesnt it just show up as an external hard drive like other large memory disks.
3. Assocesories. To really get the full potienial out of your player, you need to invest upwards of $100 on add-ons. Items such as carrying case, extra battery, and the wired remote make the Nomad Jukebox really worth it. Inaddition, the headphones that come with it are good, but after a year, mine have fallen apart. I am now looking at getting some good Bose headphones to go with the player so that the sound of my music is not just good but great.
Other than those three things, this is an excellent choice if your not commited to spending $400 for an ipod.
On: 2003-12-09
Aside from being big and bulky, I was somewhat happy with this jukebox. After a brief 9 and a half months, it stopped working. I was getting an error message saying firmware problem and unable to listen to anything because the machine would not boot up. Customer service then mislead me into sending back the unit to be fixed or repaired. This was not the case- they wanted $200 to fix a 10 month old unit. I am thoroughly disgusted with this company and their support. I would recommend every person buying any MP3 player stay away from CREATIVE and their NOMAD & JUKEBOX products.
On: 2003-11-30
Ive never reviewed an item before, but Ive never had a product like this. Please check the readers reviews at ZDNET ; I did, but somehow thought it wouldnt happen to me.
It did.
I cant judge the performance because it has never worked. Customer support is nil. I wasted hours of my life trying to get it to work (it kept saying "player not connected"). Finally, they sent me a replacement. Guess what "PLAYER NOT CONNECTED !!!" I have never been this frustrated in my life. If you read any review on this product, let it be this one. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. STAY AWAY, FAR FAR AWAY. I would hesitate to even look at the "player" too long.
It can happen to you. Trust me.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-11-09
I have had NJ3 for exactly a year now and I decided to share my thoughts with you. I only had one problem,which is known to owners of NJ3 as "Erratic scroll" control. I upgraded to firmeware "1.20.06. and that solved it completely. I am giving it a 5 stars, because I am comparing it to what was and is available out there and I can see that NJ3 stands out in features. The Line-out alone feature which lets you connect to a home stereo at a "pre-amp" level was not shared by any other unit untill recently by the"Karma,Iriver IHP-120" is just great.
I travell overseas a lot and I have two battaries in the unit which increases the play time to 18 hours "although Creative claims 22 hours. Still plenty of time for overseas trips, and those battaries are user replacable unlike Ipoders,,, oops,I meant others.
I never had a problem with the software and I am running Windows XP. I like my NJ3 a lot and it is still one of the most compatitive units out there. If I wanted to buy a new hard drive based unit today, Ill also be looking at the Iriver unit too. I have their flash based IFP-390 which I use for the gym and it is a very good player, and the IHP-120 has been getting good reviews but rather on the expenisve side.
Line in recording and DSP are also good features worth mentioning Good luck
by: Anonymous On: 2003-11-03
This jukebox gets worse with time. The software simply does not work or something is wrong with the sites downloads. Very complicated. Cannot transfer music.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-11-03
From the very popular and well known manufacturers of the Sound Blaster PC sound card; Creative made this awsome mp3 player. This 20gig unit while a little bulky has excellent sterio definition and easy to use operation. Not only can you have all your favorite tunes, but also all the quirky ones you sometimes listen to. From Rocky Horror to Bing Crosby, from Metallica to Frank Sinatra you have plenty of room for every thing. Set up play lists based on genre, artist or even a type of mood (ie: pick-me-up or a mellow out melody.) This unit is great! Its sturdy and durible. A fabulous investment!
On: 2003-10-16
I agree with most of the praises for this device, so Ill limit my review to my misgivings about it:
1. I had to send it back for repairs twice in a year - after a couple of months it just died.
2. several times I had to perform the "clean up" operation from its "rescue mode" menu - which is only documented on the web site, not in any of the accompanying manuals (paper or digital). I also had to reformat the whole disk, and reload the firmware, which is very counter-intuitive to do, and very time-consuming.
3. size: its a bit bulky - I wish I had bought the Zen.
4. my favorite pet-peeve: if you transfer an album, the songs will be sorted alphabetically on the Jukebox, instead of by track number. i.e., the Jukebox (or the Creative PlayCenter software, I dont know which) does not read the "track number" metadata in the .wma or .mp3 file. The only workaround I could find to this issue is to rip your CDs with the setting to include the track number in the song name, e.g. "01 First Song", "02 some other song", etc.One big praise to Creative, somewhat unrelated to the Jukebox: included with the software is the "Audio Stream Recorder", which I absolutely love for recording radio shows (e.g. Alternative Radio, which otherwise you would have to pay to get CDs of).
On: 2003-10-02
Creative MP3 jukeboxes sound like a great idea but they come with laughably brief warranties. Creative offers a three month warranty, but considering the high cost, that is unacceptable. Keep in mind that an MP3 jukebox is nothing more than a laptop hard drive in a flimsy plastic case. Creative is inflexible about the warranty, as I found out, and considering that my Nomad has failed three times I can only warn that it is a very poor investment. Also, a Nomad is as heavy as a small brick so forget about carrying it around with you unless you want to walk with a limp. In the real world, the battery life in nothing like what is advertised. Have a bulk pack of extra batteries on hand. A Nomad is too big to fit in your pocket--literally!--so you need a carrying case and the LCD display is so small it is worthless unless your song titles are written in shorthand. As to fit and finish, Ive used my Nomad lightly (as I said, its too big to carry around, so it just sat on my desk at work). Despite that, the markings on all the button are of cheap paint and wore off after just a few months which meant I had to remember what function each button performed. If you buy one, make sure to have spare copies of your MP3 files. Nomads have a habit of losing their hard drive formatting. This means you have to reformat the Nomad and reinstall everything. That can take several evenings. On the plus side, the only plus I can think of, the Creative PlayCenter software that comes with a Nomad is excellent.
On: 2003-09-26
None of the others have "line-out" and this has two line-outs and an optical out let alone usb and firewire trnsfer modes. Why on earth would you get one the others that only have a headphone jack which is a lousy signal compared to line-out. If you want to have the option for this to be the center of your sound system in addition to headphones...ya better have line-out!!!!! Neither I-Pod nor Zen have line-out!!!!!
On: 2003-08-05
I shopped alot before buying this player, and finally decided to get it over the Nomad Zen and the iPod due to the fact that it had a removable lithium ion battery and was very feature-rich. Since the Zen and iPod have an internal battery, once the charge capacity lessens over the course of 2 to 3 years, youre basically left with a near-useless player...Im pretty satisfied with this player, it has great sound quality and the battery lasts for at least 8 hours of continuous play. It also has EAX, which is basically Smart Volume... Creative makes too big a deal over it, but its a nifty feature for sound control. There are several negative aspects to this player. The one that immediately comes to mind is size. Its pretty huge. Imagine a CD player, but half an inch thicker (Its actually a bit smaller than a CD player). Its possible to carry it around in your pocket and all, but its not a very confortable endeavor. The menus are also a bit cumbersome, with too many menus withins menus with scroll down lists. The menu system is downright prehistoric compared to what Apple came up with for the iPod. The release of the Creative Zen NX has made this player a bit obsolete, since the Zen NX with the same amount of storage space goes for the same price, and the 30 GB one goes for [$$$] more [$$$]. The new Zen NX also has a removable lithium-ion battery, which means no more burnt-out irreplaceable battery after 2-3 yrs of use... So basically the Zen NX is a better player for the same price (smaller). However, its only USB 2.0 compatible, no Firewire. I advise anyone planning on purchasing this player to also buy the protective leather cover for it [$$$].
by: Anonymous On: 2003-08-03
Well, back in the day, I used to own the original Nomad. Granted the battery life was horrid, but the thing had more than decent sound. I had that for about a year and half (no lie) but I finally filled it up and had to upgrade. Two days ago, after drooling over it for an eternity, I got my Nomad Jukebox 3. Lets start with sound quality. This things headphone amp is the most powerful Ive ever heard. It can drive any pair of headphones to ear shattering levels, and I listen to a lot of hardcore metal (among other things). The sound quality itself is phenomenal. Theres no distortion at high volume, and thats a huge plus for me. Of course, by the unwritten law of bundled headphones, the ones that come with this MP3 player [are not good]. I bought new ones the next day. Now, the software. The bundled software was what I was used to using for the first Nomad. The software isnt buggy for me, even though my computer is ancient. To tell you the truth, I love Creative Playcenter. Its very easy to use and its organized. Windows Media Player will work too, but I dont like it, its fast but you cant organize anything with it. I have to use USB 1.1 because my OS (Windows 98) is too old to use FireWire. The CD encoding goes slow too, but I have a slow computer. I installed all the software on my Grandmas computer as well (who has Windows XP). I experienced no problems with Windows XP, and the CD encoding went insanely fast. The transfer was still slow because she doesnt have FireWire, but other than that its very nice. Basically it all depends on your style whether or not you want to use the bundled software. Back to the player itself. Its very easy to use. Its icon driven and the menu is set up nicely, but one word of advice. DOWNLOAD FIRMWARE AHEAD OF TIME. I didnt even bother trying to use it until my firmware was up to date. If you scan through the rest of these reviews you will see why. The blue backlight is pretty, and you can change it to green too! The display size is nice, it works for me at least. The EAX is nice too, but mainly for the EQ. The OS boots up quite fast, especially compared to the first Nomad. Granted I dont have all my CDs on there yet, but there is a more than noticeable difference. The thing also loads songs really fast, and there is almost no noticeable gap when the songs switch. The scroller thing was something I was a little worried about, I thought it would be excruciatingly annoying to use. Surprisingly, its not. As long as you arent trying to browse through a playlist of 5000 songs, the thing works great. Again, download firmware first. For accessories, I bought the extra battery and leather case (also ahead of time) and I strongly recommend both. Also, if your computer can support it (which it probably can), get a FireWire adapter, it will make it so much better. Now I know that some peoples NJB3s apparently died on them after a month or so, but I think if you take care of it, it will last you forever like my original Nomad did (which people also claimed to die after a month). I say if you have the money, BUY THIS! It really is great. I love it so much; I consider it my child. "You need look no further", this is the god of MP3 players. Remember though, buy headphones, the extra battery, and the case; and get the firmware ahead of time. If you are thinking of the iPod, its way too over-rated. The five GB iPod is the same price as the NJB3, and it has a quarter of the space. The Archos isnt any better, in fact, its worse. The sound is horrible on the Archos. The iPod has sound ALMOST as good as the NJB3, but not quite as good. So...buy the Nomad Jukebox 3!
On: 2003-07-29
I had been researching mp3 players for months and months, and finally put the crowbar in my wallet and bought the Nomad Jukebox 3 in February. Why didnt I buy the Zen? Because, experience has taught me that the most spanking brand new gadget may not always be the best choice. The Nomad 3 had been around for a while, and I had read that the newer, smaller players like the Zen and the Apple iPod had a very limited battery life, and the battery could never be replaced once it had run out of charge capability! That meant, with average use, the player would be a heap of parts in about 2-3 years. If I was about to invest the kind of money it took to purchase a high-capacity player, I dont want it to die in 2 years! The Nomad Jukebox 3 plays just fine, but I will agree that the headphones that come with it are really bad! They are the kind that loop around the bottom of your head and go around your ears, and they dont fit right, and the sound quality is really poor. I bought nicer headphones, and they were worth the extra money! My main complaint about the Nomad Jukebox 3 is that it is too large. It does not fit in a pocket, and that really limits its portability. I almost wish I would have bought the Zen and sacrificed the battery life for increased portability. I have stored lots of songs (I dont think I will EVER fill it up!), and it has nice effects you can use to enhance your listening experience. The software that comes with it is fine for me, and I suggest getting a FireWire card; the songs just zip into the player!!!! So, if portability is important to you, think twice about this hulk of a player, but for the price, it is worth it!
On: 2003-07-20
The Nomad advertises 16 hours battery life. IT IS ONLY 3 HOURS!! I talked to one of their techs and he admitted its only about 3 hours on a full charge. This is so bad because you cant even pop in AAs. WOULD NOT BUY THIS BECAUSE OF THE POOR BATTERY LIFE!
On: 2003-07-15
Sound Quality is mediocre.Headphones are uncomfortable to wear. Scroll Select Wheel is a pain to use for a prolonged period of time. Its
just not comfortable to use or big enough. I like the Rio Riot so much more because it is better in every aspect I mentioned above.
On: 2003-07-08
I bought this player after deliberating about 3 weeks. The Nomad Zen caught my eye with its USB 2.0, styling and size, but it didnt have all the features I wanted, in particular the ability to record lectures at college. With this player I found the best sound quality, as well as a decent amount of space with all the extra features I needed. The scrolling control is handy for quickly moving through menus, and the backlit screen is easy to see. The remote that retails extra should have come included with the jukebox because its basically already configured for it. The software isnt terribly bad, transferring is good and ripping is easy, editing tags is also quick. The actual layout of the program on the screen is annoying because you cant see a whole lot with all the borders and stuff on it. It isnt recognized as an external drive, but apparently Notmad Explorer will fix this. The included headphones are decent but of course, not audiophile quality. My main gripe: the player is just too big. I look at it sometimes and wish it could be smaller, because it seems that the rectangular drive in the back takes up the most space and that the curved part in the front is "decorative"? Ive gotten it stuck in my pockets before and not been able to remove it for a few minutes. The weight isnt too much of a problem, just dont jog with it or youll knock yourself out. I fall asleep with it, or plug it into speakers as my entire CD collection digitized. So, if youre willing to accept the extra volume in return for the extras, get this. But if you want a sleek player minus recording, an extra line out and firewire (BUT USB 2.0!!! YES!!)with tons of space, get the Zen USB 2.0.
On: 2003-06-22
I had the Original Nomad Jukebox (6GB) since it first came out in 2000 and I used it so much that all the markings on the buttons were worn off! But it got to the point where I was having to delete some of my music to add new songs, so Ive opted to go to the 20gb Nomad3. I barely considered any other player, Ive been so satisfied with the Nomad product. I use it at work, at home, on my computer and with my stereo, and for hiking and working out. You never have to go anywhere without your music.Things I love about the Nomad besides the huge storage capacity is the sound quality, the ease of use, and the playlists. I almost always play music from more than a dozen playlists Ive created. The software has always been easy to use and to transfer music onto the Nomad and back on to the computer is a breeze. The new Nomad3 has definitely improved over the original with a longer battery life. That was a drawback on the old model. However you are stuck using the Lithium batteries, which are very specific for the unit. If your batteries run out and you cant plug it in somewhere, its not like you can run into a quiki-mart and pick up some AAs to get you through another hour or two. The Nomad3 is also smaller and lighter, thanks no doubt to having eliminated those standard sized batteries. The button functions on the Nomad3 are less intuitive than the original. The scroll wheel is "ok", Im not thrilled with it. I miss having the lock button on the side, you have to lock the buttons by going through the menu comand. They changed things around with the button functions, so I guess that Ill like it better once I get used to where things are. You also dont get much of a print manual with it - its only a quick start guide. You have to use the software for instructions. Thats a drag when you just want to look something up quick. Some of the little additions, like a custom "picture" for your start-up menu are sort of useless little techno perks. Theres lots of music already loaded onto the unit, some of it is trash, but theres a couple pieces that you might be inclined to keep. At least until I have to delete some tracks to add more of my own music. With 20gb of space, Im looking forward to not having to do that for quite awhile. All in all, this is a great product, well worth the price!
On: 2003-06-07
I wasnt sure about buying the Nomad Jukebox 3 because of the mixed reviews but now that I got mine and loaded it with around 4,500 songs I can say that its a fine piece of hardware (the bundled software is useless, get Notmad instead). The sound is great and the 2 line outs are definitely the selling point over the Jukebox Zen, Its great to be able to connect the player to your home stereo or multimedia speakers. The Optical Line In is also a plus, specially if you own a lot of tapes and want to ripem or just want to record voice anything through a microphone.
Its important to get the latest firmware and drivers so that you dont encounter the problems others have.Pros:
- Great sound
- 2 Line Outs
- Optical Line In
- 20 GB Cons:
- No USB 2.0
- Lousy bundled software Other:
- It HAS random play (shuffle)
- Ive dropped my player twice and Its still working, so far so good..
by: Anonymous On: 2003-06-06
Excellent Product.Sound Quality: better than expected
Easy to use: Programming the Play List is a real challenge.
Size: Not bad, but could be smaller
Software: Just Great. Firmware update is available at creative.com in case if you have the old one
Sound controls: Excellent
Glidges: will not turn on after charging the battery overnight. You have to remove the battery and put it again to make it work. Just download the new software (free at creative.com) and the problem goes away. Manual: Useless.
Display: Very logic and easy to read
Song download time: Really fast with the 1394.
Bottom line: Fantastic product. I have thousands of sounds in my machine and theres still room for more. Great buy.
Thanks creative labs!!!
On: 2003-05-28
Stop searching and I mean it. Believe me when I say that because Ive already done the searching for you. For nearly a month before making a final decision on a Jukebox, I researched every brand and model out there and narrowed it down to this one. Five months later, I couldnt be more happy with that decision. Its my favorite toy and I recommend it to all my friends. I am in the military and because of the high op tempo, deploy often. It goes absolutely everywhere with me, and beats the bulky CD booklets I used to carry. Its durable, and since downloading the update, havent had a single issue with it yet. All those complaints about the software and system crashing are simple fixes if you just read the manual and follow update instructions. Ive gotten around 9 hours of play per charge, and the sound quality is excellent. The only problem is that I cant run with it, but for you military guys...if you pad it and put it in your ruck, it works fine. So stop looking and get this jukebox. It will become your favorite toy also.
On: 2003-05-23
Okay, maybe thats a little much, but Ive had the Nomad for almost three months and LOVE IT! Im a huge music fan who loves to take tunes everywhere. Ive loaded 5,500 songs (500 more than the manual claims) in 128 bit rate into the player. To give you an idea of how many songs that is, it would take almost two weeks to play all the songs before repeating! Imagine. Your entire music collection in the palm of your hand. No more CDs strewn all over the frontseat of your car. Plus, if you use the "random" function, its like having your own radio station of your favorite songs. Transferring files is easy with the Playcenter software. Just insert an audio CD. It recognizes it and fills in all the artist and title information for you. It also converts CDs to MP3s and sends them to the player in one easy step. The Playcenter software allows you to copy it to a floppy and take it with you. So, you can go to a buddys house, install the software, plug your jukebox into his computer and share any files you have or copy some of his to your player. The player allows you to organize songs by album, artist, title, and genre. The real fun is creating playlists (Ive created many, like driving tunes and songs for a rainy day). For those looking for more flexibility, this player will accept wave files, and can store other file types, like movies and pictures. It can also record just like a tape deck. Some of the bells and whistles are a little silly, especially the EAX effects. But, if you want to know what your favorite band would sound like playing in your bathtub, those effects are there. The only one thats crucial is the "smart volume" which evens out the level of all your MP3s. Beware though, those extra effects drain the battery quicker. So, I recommend buying a second battery for longer listenings between chargings. The only problem Ive had with the player is with the scroll wheel. Sometimes its a little erratic, scrolling up when I want to scroll down. Also, you cannot jog with this player (constant jarring will scratch the hard drive). Hopefully, thats an innovation thats coming soon. Other than that, I couldnt be happier. This player has helped cut down on the wear and tear of my CDs and rendered radio obsolete. With over 5,000 songs going wherever I go, Ive always got good music.
On: 2003-05-22
I had the original Jukebox (30GB), sold it, bought this Jukebox3 almost a year ago and have been very pleased since then. Without question, the biggest complaint is the firmware as editing/organizing tracks can be time consuming and confusing. And scrolling through 20GB of tracks could be easier, but these are relatively minor complaints in my eyes. I use it mostly in my car, and the sound is excellent. When I travel with it, Ive been using small earbud headphones, which work fine, but I may consider those noise cancelling headphones Ive read about. You wont be able to jog with this unit, but walking around town, I havent found it to skip at all. If youre looking for something to use at the gym, Id suggest the Samsung Yepp. If you purchase this unit, Id strongly suggest you buy an optional second battery and the wired FM remote. Nomad claims with 2 batteries you can use it for 22 hours. Ive never used it that long without charging it, but I can say 15 hours isnt a problem. I use USB 2.0 for transferring, and believe me, having used both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1, youll want to spend the [money] on a USB 2.0 card if you dont already have that capability. Im sure future models will only get better, but in the meantime, this is a great unit that will store songs without clogging up your hard drive, and it offers excellent portability for a car or travel.
On: 2003-05-04
I bought this instead of the iPod because it was so much cheaper. Unfortunately I wonder if I got what I paid for. The user interface is clumsy, especially while driving, which is my primary use. The unit occasionally locks up and must be reset, even though I stay current with firmware and driver upgrades. The size and shape is awkward, and I dont care for the design. However, it does work, and I have packed it full of about 150 CDs recorded at 192k. With my [$$$] ears compressed audio is fine for the car, but it still doesnt cut it for home listening.
On: 2003-04-22
I am a DJ, music lover who will not be caught dead without music somewhere on my person. I bought the Jukebox over the Ipod for many reasons. The Jukebox can record. I plug my jukebox into a friends portable CD player and record the CD, in 192 mp3 or a number of other quality choises. I can listed to it right there or wait till I take it home where the software finds the album on CDDB and names the album and tracks. I use the MP3 player as a recording device to replace my DAT machine at Gigs. I can plug a pre amp mic into the Jukebox and record my voice. I can slow down my music in the juke box with time scaling. I can replace the hard drive if need be in the future. I can use it as a portable hard drive when I need to save an essay (floppy? nah!) I can plug it into a four speaker sound system with the front and rear channels seperated, Quadrophonnic sound!! I get 22 hours of battery because they give you two battery slots built in. The software gets updated all the time on their site. I have learned to really trust creative products and would not hesitate to recommend this product to the serious music lover. Less serious music lovers should look to the Zen another great product with a few less features in a compact body. I would recommend buying one of those portable to Tapedeck converters so you can plug into boom boxes where ever you go.
On: 2003-03-31
Well, it plays, and transfers files. But why on earth could it not also be a USB hard drive? I dont really mind the clumsy file transfer mechanism, but it appears you cant store a folder tree in there, only individual files all in the same folder, whats the use in that? And why is the FM wired remote out of stock for the past half a year, at least (sold on eBay for twice the retail price)?
It would also be only reasonable that you could store *songs* in folders as well, and navigate by folder *as well as* by ID tags.
So an OK player, did not die on me yet, but needs work.
On: 2003-03-24
This is a great MP3 player. Im ecstatic about it. Only reason why it didnt get 5 stars is because Firewire is flaky, but since I dont copy and remove songs from the player like crazy, USB works good enough for me. A must buy for anyone who has a lot of MP3s and wants one player to hold them all.
On: 2003-03-23
I bought this player two weeks ago, and thanks to Amazon, got a fabulous discount, and it arrived two days after I ordered it. I could not wait to try it out. I read so many reviews about the product on cnet, zdnet, amazon, and consumer reports and decided that the negative reviews stemmed mostly from persons who either got a bum player or just could not figure out how to use it. The itself player is fabulous! I had no trouble figuring out how it works, I went throught the interactive tutorial and I was actually ripping cds and transferring music to the player after only two hours of having the product. My only beef is with the software, it kept crashing! This is not the fault of the software, but the fault of my computer, turns out I did not have enough memory to run it. But, once I cured that problem and got the new firmware and downloads from nomadworld.com, the software proved to be pretty decent to help me rip cds, and transfer music to my player, as well as create playlist and arrange the order of my songs and albums. I would recommend that if buying the player you do go to nomadworld.com to get the latest firmware and downloads, otherwise, you will have a hard time using and navigating the software. I had such a hard time with the software, but once I downloaded the necessary updates, the gliches were all ironed out. If the player itself ever freezes, then there is a reset button, which if you ever have to use it, does not cause you to lose any of your songs. It holds 5,000 MP3s or 8,000 songs in WMA format--I dont even own that many songs! It even holds data files. Every song from every cd that I own (quite a lot) is on this player and I still have room left for thousands more. If you download music from the net, the software allows you to transfer all of the songs from that program, or any other program, including Windows Media Player directly onto the player. You can even create your own PC Music Library from all of the songs on your player, and play the songs on your computer. I just couldnt believe the Jukebox 3 could hold so much music, and be so easy to navigate, yet costs so little. There is no way in the world I would pay $...for an iPod, this player is just as good and from the review at consumer reports, its better! You simply cannot ignore an MP3 player at this price, with this much space, ease of use, and convenience. The player itself is fabulous to carry around with me, wherever I go. Yes, its bigger than the iPod, but bulky, certainly not. I just put in the earphones, and slip it in my carryall, and Im good to go. I carry it everywhere. I did have to get new headphones, the ones that came with it just were not my style. But, the sound on the player is incredible! You have so many different options for sound formatting, creating playlists, arranging tracks, etc. You can search on the player by artist, album, track, however you want. Enter the list of songs you want in the "Play Now" menu, and it plays these songs for you. If you select to play a particular artist, it will play all the songs from that artist, or if you select a particular playlist, it will play all the songs from that playlist and you can use the software to rearrange the tracks. It came with firewire and USB cables, I immediately went out and bought a firewire adapter for my notebook computer and found that the difference between the firewire and the USB is only a few seconds, but, in the long run, if you want to transfer more than a dozen songs at once, firewire is the way to go.
Yes, Ive already dropped it--and guess what, it didnt matter, it kept working. It has an automatic idle shutoff which is great for preserving battery power (about 11 hours on one battery) the battery life is great, and you can even add a second battery to extend the battery life. It takes a relatively short time to charge, if you come home at night and all the battery power is drained, simply plug it in and when you wake up in the morning, it will be good to go. You can still listen to music while its charging, you can attach speakers to the player, which I have done, and listen to music that way, or buy a car kit, which I also did, and listen to it while driving around. This player gives me so many choices for its use that there is no way I could have ever chosen another player. I love it!
by: Anonymous On: 2003-03-17
The wide disparity in reviews illustrates that this is a great product -- if it works. Unfortunately, it quit working for me after the short 90-day warranty expired, as it apparently has for a number of others. The player would hang after a few minutes of playing. Creative tech support was worthless -- did little more than read the support faqs and put me through hours of clean-ups, reinstalling firmware, reformatting -- and finally advising me that the problem must be my MP3s. If youre lucky, like many of the reviewers, this unit is outstanding. If youre not, youll end up spending many frustrating hours fiddling with this thing and ultimately youll have an expensive paperweight. Like many other computer products, the Nomad Jukebox III isnt reliable enough for a consumer product.
On: 2003-03-16
Im thrilled with the Nomad Jukebox III. My only criticism is with the software. I had almost 1400 tracks stored on my computer, most of which had artist, album, genre, etc. and somehow in the transfer, one artist was substituted on about half of the transfers. Then when I did the audiosync after making endless corrections, I ended up with two copies of the song, one with the correct artist, one with the wrong one. Also, the Audio sync DOES NOT syncronize the Jukebox with your computer files. If you make a change, say change the artist, on the jukebox and then do Auto sync,or vice versa it doesnt just change the artist on your computer, it writes a whole new track with the new info, and leaves the old, incorrect info on another track. You end up with hundreds of duplicates after a whle, half correct, half wrong, grrrrrrrr. They should use the same type of syncronization as my palm pilot, theres no problem there. I agree, find some new software. But now, after many many hours of correcting files, I have huge playlists and lots of choices, including shuffle or random play, and repeat certain tracks. We go RVing and drive a lot. Now I can start a playlist and it will last all day. No more hunting for CDs while I drive!! Oh, one more thing, 20 Gigs may seem endless, but I filled 8 gigs the first day, so dont skimp and get a smaller one, youll regret it.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-03-16
Very unhappy. Requires lots of re-sets. always carry a paper clip to reset (I do!).The upgraded firmware seems to help, but does not solve completely. Creative still has some problems to figure out. Works fine between crashes.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-03-07
I spend a year compiling info on mp3 hard drive players. Magazines, cnet, reviews......ect. I have had the Nomad for 2 weeks now. I can happy say it was a good choice. The software is easy, especially when it comes to rip cds. I am still playing with the many options. So far nothing to complain about.
On: 2003-03-07
Well I got my Nomad JB3 yesterday. I havent received my FireWire card yet, so I was stuck with USB 1.1 speeds. After opening the box, which had that stupid sealed plastic. BTW, I think that stuff is dangerous & very sharp. Well I got the Nomad out & hooked up in minutes. I then played around for a few minutes and it worked well. Then I went to nomadworld.com & got all the latest drivers and firmware upgrades. I knew some of the issues people reported were fixed in these, so I went right there. I plopped about 10 CDs in the Nomad with no problem. I have some issues with the software, but then again I havent followed the tutorial completely. I just wanted to start. And it seems very easy. Definitely worth the price & time you will put into it! And as for the USB speeds, it really isnt that slow, because I was only doing 1 CD at a time. But that wont matter once I get the FireWire adapter.
On: 2003-02-26
A HONEST REVIEW PROS AND CONSI partly bought this player because my cd draw broke on my house stereo, and the though of having to just plug this into it to get all my songs was a good idea. This player does work on my stereo but while using the AUX (analoge) lead it only plays thu one speaker...there is a digital option but my stereo doesnt allow that...seein as the MP3s are in stereo format certain instuments, backing vocals, drum beats which would of come from the other speaker arent heard at all. So check your stereo will work with this player before you buy. WHICH IS WHAT I SHOULD OF DONE! But now iv got it and cant take it back so heres a review of the product. First off iv only had this product a week...alot of the negitive reviews have been because the player has completly died. SO I WRITE THIS AS MINE (still) WORKS. OTHER negative comments have been about the lack of features such as no random play or bass boost. This player DOES have random play(as well as repeat, play all play one...)Its selectable from "play mode" options when your songs have been added to the current playlist. Although you would think the "play mode" options would be available when just clickin play on any album. SO IGNORE ALL BAD REVEIWS THAT BLAME NO REPEAT FUNCTIONS, IT IS THERE. One thing that does slighty bother me is the EAX this is the sound feature that lets u listen to ur music in the style of Disco, Jazz, Pop, Arthouse... aswell as from your Lounge, Bathroom, Thearte, Small room... and many more BS places. This IS a con each settin adds a slighty different echo to your music.
And having names such as the ones above as well as car, plane, bus it isnt very helpful if you are looking to make the bass guitars louder basically all these options are usless. A bass boost button is all that was needed (and most probably wanted by customers) This is all very well you can simply turn EAX off but the lack of a simple 3 level BASS BUTTON lets the player down.
The headphones are big and as they go on via your neck if u lean back or rest ur head on anything like a seat head rest or pillow the headphones WILL come off. All leads to connect to stereos have to be bought seprately and the headphones dont have a controller on them. You do get a remote control that allows you to play stop skip tracks that are on you current playlist when hooked up to the house stereo this is a good feature. The size of the disk drive is ridiculasly large 8000 songs the box claims and by the amount of songs to space used by me 8000 doesnt seem like an exaduration. overall a first class personnal stereo but if you are buyin it to use in home then make sure its fully compatable.
On: 2003-02-21
I have had this player for quite a while now and I love it! I have had only a few problems with it, but nothing that a good firmware update or software patch couldnt fix. So many of the features in the JB3 are truely unriveled(outside of the Creative Company), such as the EAX, the optical/line-in, and so many others that Im forgetting about. I really dont know whats up with all of these people having so many problems with the player and the software. I guess my take on the whole thing is that if youre not a complete electronics retard (like my mom, who couldnt operate a household stereo if her life depended on it) then you should be just fine. The player comes with decent firmware, but new and awesome firmware is available with no cost, just go to www.....com and download new firmware or software patches that fix just about any problem that you might have with the player or software. Also, I guess, (by reading all of the reviews), that it wounldnt hurt to have a decently new computer too. I love my player and I have no regrets, and I totally got my moneys worth.
--Thanks,
Tommy Taylor
by: Anonymous On: 2003-02-19
Pros:
1.The battery charges fast and lasts long (90 min charge/9 hour use with one batt. in the player, it holds two but I havent bought the extra one yet)
2. You can shake the hell out of it and it wont skip.
3. IT HOLDS A LOT OF MUSIC. I have 2900+ songs on it, many of them 20+ minute long live jams, all ripped at cd quality, and I still have 8GB free on the player.
4. Firewire transfer is superfast! I sent 250 songs to the player in about 3 minutes.
5. Ability to make playlists on the fly is great. You can throw together a mix with as many songs as you want in no time. Plus it DOES allow random play of albums, playlists or the whole player no matter what other reviewers say (I have it playing on random as I write this).Cons:
1. Size. Though it is smaller than any CD player ever made, it is also larger than most other 20GB MP3 players. My friend who has an Ipod makes fun of the size of this player but in return I make fun of the size of his wallet since he paid almost twice as much as me for a player with fewer features.
2. The software which is good when it works, DOES NOT WORK AT ALL on my desktop (Windows ME). It worked fine for about a week and then just crashed one day. Now the program freezes everytime I start it; even after I uninstalled it and put it back on it wont start. To be fair I havent called Creative about the problem yet as the program works just fine on my laptop (Windows XP).
3. The warranty is short (90 Days). ... All in all, I love this player and highly recommend it...
On: 2003-02-18
Ive had the Nomad Jukebox III for 5 months now. I love it. No problems with it. It installed and ran easily - I was using it within minutes. Lots of storage, interface took some getting used to, sound quality is great, battery life is good...(the additional battery pack is extremely helpful - I find I only charge every 10-14 days) Its quite durable - In fact, several months ago, I tripped on a sidewalk and my precious Jukebox crashed and went skidding (face down) across the road! I thought for sure this would be the end of it. There were a couple of ugly scratches on it, but it started right up and there hasnt been any side effects. I do have one complaint: you cant search for a song in a playlist while its playing. Hitting the search button brings you back to the main "music library" search. This is a great MP3 player if youre looking for lots of storage. I cant recommend it enough. This was my first MP3 player, and its been a great experience.
On: 2003-02-18
First and foremost,
People, please take some time with this item before you
review what it has and what it doesnt! It has shuffle/
random play, and if you download the current firmware
1.32.02, it has a users EQ under advanced EAX. Curiously
though, if you use random play it frequently freezes up
if you press forward >>) which is not good. There is a
clearly marked hole for the user to put a paper clip through
to reset the unit. Its not hard or unreachable! No need to
take out the battery. The nomad is bulky but not necessarily
heavier than carrying a cd player. I have ripped about 12 gig
using the creative play center and have had no problem but I
also have notmad explorer and will experiment with it soon.
All in all I may buy another 40 gig nomad soon. I would prefer
a unit with no gliches but life has GLICHES!
On: 2003-02-17
The player is great. Ive had it for 2 months. I use it with my Dell laptop and both of them are having no problem swapping songs. I use Windows Media and Music Match to put songs on the Dell first then swap. I feel this is the fastest way. With USB cable, songs are placed on the player in seconds. I think the headphones work great. People around me can hear exactly what song Im listening too. The EAX does allow you to make your own bass and treble level when you select the Custom EQ selection. It would be great if they had a preset for extra bass or something else but you cant have everything. It does have a shuffle setting and a shuffle repeat setting so you can listen to your list over and over. This is a great player if you read the instructions on how to use it.
On: 2003-02-16
1st and foremost: Creatives tech support .... After 6 times contacting them, I received the same response and did exactly what they told me to do. Im rather computer literate and have never had a problem with any computers/software/periphals like this .... Im sure it will be nice if I ever get it to work, but after spending nearly 5 hours uninstalling and reinstalling, downloading and installing updates, the stupid thing still doesnt work right. Be on the lookout, Ill be selling it on Ebay, NR.
On: 2003-02-11
Dont even look to hard at this thing or it will break. And creative labs doesnt care.... they only have a 3 month warrentee.
On: 2003-02-08
On the good side, it does sound good. I havent put enough into it to flex its capacity, but time will tell.On the Bad side (this is why I wrote the review): 1. They DESPERATELY need a shuffle or random play feature. I am getting tired of hear tunes in the same order. 2. I could not get the CDDB to work with the Playcenter software. I click on it and nothing happens. I spent several weeks trading e-mails with Creative Labs. They ignored my information and sent me canned responses that had nothing to do with my symptoms. They finally won the battle of wills and I am typing in all my track info. I am a manager of an IT support staff and I would advise Creative Labs to review their procedures and trim the problem managers or face a severe loss of market share. Be warned if you try to use their support. It is way below what I expect of a company like this.
On: 2003-02-08
Ive had this mp3 player for over three months and I still cant find anything bad about it! For those who dont know, 20 Gigabytes is an endless amount of space, if you can fill it up Im quite impressed. The players software is incredibly easy to use and can be mastered in under ten minutes, and the optional Firewire transfers are lightning fast. I usually transfers two songs per second when using Firewire, and one song every two seconds with the USB. Ive heard people say that its too big and heavy, but who can complain about something thats two-thirds the size of a CD-Player and will hold your entire music collection? The rechargeable batteries are great, at eleven hours each, I highly recommend buying the extra battery for a total of 22 hours of usage, they charge up reasonably fast as well. If youre thinking of buying an mp3 player, why spend a hundred dollars more for an iPod that holds half the music? Get a Nomad 3!!
by: Anonymous On: 2003-02-07
The software stinks. The player hangs all the time. The reset is buried so deep you need a three foot long needle to get to it, and you do need to get to it all the time. I must say even with a real positive attitude and a willingness to stick it out and try new firmware upgrades, cleanups, reloads of firmware, reformatting and reloading music, what a huge waste of time.
On: 2003-02-04
This My first MP3 player and I have had nothing BUT a great time with it. Super fast with the firewire connection (Also took it to a friends and used the USB and was very fast also). VERY easy to use software (If You know anything about media player this is a snap). I was a little leary at first because of some of the negitive reviews. Some of the things complained about was buggy software slowing down their system (I have an older system and it has been a breeze). The player locking up during transfer (Not a single problem here). The headphones ARE NOT top notch but are not horriable. There also is custom EQ setting in the EAX menu (I notice alot of people having a problem with that). There is one at the bottom of the list. It DOES have random, repeat, etc...I dont know how people missed these things. Another thing is the hard drive crashing. My advice is if you are going to shell out 300 bucks shell out a little extra and get the extended warenty. All in all for the price and features and great sound You cant beat it! There are lemons with everything... But dont let the bad reviews scare You off. GREAT PRODUCT!!
On: 2003-02-02
I purchased this item for my teenaged son for the holidays. He used it for exactly two months, and since it was his most prized possession he was very careful with it. By yesterday, January 31st, the power button (to turn it off and on) broke and will no longer do anything but shakily move up and down when you press it. Unfortunately, I ordered it well in advance of Christmas so the warrenty (90 days only) expired a month ago. I should have known better than to purchase an expensive electronics item that only came with a 3 month warranty. While it worked it was great. But it has cost me $150.00 a month for my son to listen to music and now it is useless. I suggest you wait until Creative offers a better warranty and stands behind its products before purchasing this. Everyone who has been shafted should complain to Creative. Maybe eventually they will listen. Shame on Creative for not caring more about its customers.
On: 2003-02-01
I decided on the Creative for the features it offered. More than any other I looked at, and for a better price. I was drawn to its ability to speed up or slow down tracks without distorting the pitch of the song. I play drums and keyboard, and its a great feature to be able to slow things down to see how "they" actually played it. Very cool !I also like that you can record live from a microphone or other sources. But the best and the worst part of the thing is that you can organize and customize your music CDs in many ways. You are able to rename song titles, album names, artists and genres to suit your needs. The major problem I found with this was a software/firmware flaw that took me THREE very long conversations with the Creative Tech Support folks... both via email and by long distance phone calls. The bug was that if you changed the name of the album (CD) it changed the play order so your CDs would play in reverse order. Talk about stupid. Now after hours and hours of removing and reloading my CDs into the player, it works as it said it would. So...be warned, if you buy this product: Before you rip your entire colection of CDs (which I ran out of CDs long before the unit was even HALF filled) try a couple... play with the CD names and tracks and genre... Organize a few CDs and make sure they are playing how theyre supposed to... THEN you can rip the rest. To be sure.. check the website and make sure you have the most current driver and firmware installed. THIS is what solved the problem. Overall, I would highly recommend it. I can take my entire collection of music with me anywhere and play anything I want at any time. Now my CD collection has become very organized and archived... i.e. I never touch them!
On: 2003-01-17
Yes..dont get me wrong, I was so excited to get my first MP3 player. When I finally did I spent all my free time compiling albums upon album.. Only thing is, 2 gigs out of 20 later and after two week and only a few hours a day my Nomad decided to just keel over and die like it had sudden infant death syndrome. I barely got 2 gigs into it and listened to it about 4 times. This seems to be a common problem and Creative could care less. Most people find these problems a little after 3 months...and oh what a surprise...whats is creative warrenty for there Nomad? 90 days? well... you put two and two together, then think twice about buying anything from a company like this... Personally, when I get mine fixed and sell it, Ill do the smart thing, Ill wait for Phillips or Sony to come out with one. If that one breaks, at least Ill have a billion customer support lines and people to complain to if something happens to it. I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER CREATIVE so called PRODUCT again! ...
On: 2003-01-14
This is my third nomad product. I bought the original nomad, and the original jukebox shortly after it came out with its then astonishing 6 gig drive. I gave the original jukebox 5 stars for easily being the best on the market. (It has proven reliable too, as I still have and use it with a hard drive upgraded to 30 gigs). I like the new jukebox III and, in the version I have, its 40 gig hard drive, but it no longer is clearly head and shoulders above the competition and has some minor difficulties, so I now give it four and one half stars, which, in light of some of the partisan one star reviews, I rounded up.The decreased size and weight of the new player is a definite plus because I can now easily slip the player into a coat pocket, although there now are even smaller hard drive players on the market (including the Zen player that is also made by Creative Labs). I have a large CD collection and numerous audiobooks, so I do need more than 20 gigs, and that is not an option with other hard drive players. Still, I was tempted to wait for a smaller player with a larger drive. The sound quality is excellent. Until DVD audio becomes compact and portable en masse, this is it. I do not think anything else on the market meets it. Using high bit rate recordings, I can plug the player in to a quality stereo without being overly distracted by the drop in quality from my much more expensive CD player. (A jack is needed and not supplied). I have not used it yet, and may never, but the player has the ability to record directly from the optical line output of other audio equipment such as a CD player. The player produces significantly more volume than the original jukebox. Others complain of the lack of high volume, as I did with the original, but with a good pair of headphones I can absolutely drown out all noise I have encountered thus far. I wonder whether the complaints are made by those who have not yet learned how to use the EAX software, which has settings for various levels of environmental noise. Perhaps this is also more of an issue for those who listen to more rock than I do. Fast transfers with the firewire and the excellent battery life of a lithium ion battery are the other major upgrades. (USB and firewire cables are included). With the supplied battery plus an after market battery, the player is good for an entire day or, even most of a weekend. As others have noted, Creative ships the player with a stylish but inadequate set of headphones, and this time no case is supplied, though such accessories as cases, adapters to car stereos, and an extra battery are available online. The software has some drawbacks, which hopefully Creative will fix. (The player is upgradeable). I became quite proficient using the latest releases of software for the old jukebox. I knew how to find songs and navigate the player database with speed and ease. However, the latest software is much slower for two reasons. One is the inability to see all albums by an artist. I must have a dozen versions of some jazz songs by various artists, and even have numerous versions of the same song by the same artist, so the former software allowed me to select the right song by going to the artist and viewing all the CDs by that artist. Now, I am limited to looking for the song title from among all songs or all songs by an artist without division into the CDs they originate from. This is also slow because, for example, I have nearly two hundred Miles Davis songs to sort through. The player does have a useful alphabetical search function, but it is certainly not quicker than navigating on my old player, and it does not address all the sources of slowness such as the problem of multiple versions of a song by the same artist. Tag carefully. You will need to. The other software slow down is the inability to add songs, remove songs, and perform other functions with single pressings of a button. Now, one must press a button and select from a menu. It is helpful that the menu defaults to the last item chosen from the menu, such as "add song to playlist", but even this is two button pushes and Im sometimes both adding and deleting things at the same times, as well as checking versions of songs. However, there are also some noteworthy software improvements, such as the ability to delete songs from the database without erasing the current playlist. The player boots up much more rapidly, and above all, the handy feature of all features is the ability to synchronize the content of the player to a computer, a computer to a player, or selected directories to the player. Also, in my opinion, the older EAX environmental effects software was cheesy. The new EAX software includes the same ability to imitate various sounds like concert halls, jazz clubs, and living rooms, but also has some much more meaningful capacities as well as equalization capacities. As for the software that resides on the computer, I still use MusicMatch because I believe it rips better mp3s. However, the Creative software is fine for such management functions as renaming albums and songs on either the player or the computer.
On: 2003-01-02
Ive been wanting one of these for a long and I finaly got one on x-mas. Since then Ive put about 40 cds on it and i still have about 17,000 MB of storage left. Plus It doesnt take batteries. It comes with 1 lion battery and if you want another its $. I have put some aftermarket things on it like a leather case and a new faceplate. which you can get off Creativelabs.com. I highly dought that I will ever get this thig packed full of MP3s. It has a realy easy to use menu with hella options and the grapgic equelizer rocks. you can hook it up in your car and get crystal clear sound anywhere. The headphones that came with it are great I thought they would be cheap but they rock. You can get a nice 11 hours of playtime and it only takes 4 hours to charge. If your thinking about buying this DO IT it is so worth itif you have $ layin around. I cant see how i can live without it i never have to carry around CDs anymore and this thing is a high quality durable custimizeable machine thats on a Godly level.
On: 2003-01-02
over all this nomad is a great little toy. how ever there are some let downs. 1) for this amount of money you would think there would be a case for it. 2) its more than three easy steps to get started as the intro states, more like 6 but we wont get picky. 3) it is made for XP windows but there are a few bugs that need to be worked out after installing the software.
real nice toy, good sound, lots of fun, but creative should give up the assories that should get for the price.
On: 2002-12-30
This thing is supposed to sound great. Well, first of all, it comes with what I consider pieces of junk for headphones. Try out the Radio Shack Titanium magnet portable headphones (the best portable headphones I have ever heard) and youll see what I mean. Also, this unit has NO volume. It is adequate for in the home, but if you were on a plane or a bus, it could easily be overpowered. I have owned the Iomega Hip Zip player which blows this one out of the water. The Iomega is so loud, it rivals a home stereo. The only advantage is storage space for the Creative Jukebox. I returned it in 24 hours. It is great for a music junkie, but if you want the best sounding unit out there, shop around. Ill stick with my Iomega player.
by: gadgester On: 2002-12-26
What I like about this product:-- Excellent, top-notch sound output, both through a good set of headphones and through the two analog output jacks in the back of the unit -- Can play WMA format in addition to MP3 -- Firewire interface included -- Good battery life: I get about 9 hours, less than the 11 claimed by Creative, but still good -- Ability to add a 2nd battery -- Optical/analog input jack for recordings -- 20GB at an attractive price What I dont like: -- Still too big and too heavy, esp. compared to the 20GB Apple iPod. The iPod uses Toshibas PC card hard disk, which is much smaller and quieter than the Fujitsu 2.5-inch disk used by Jukebox 3 -- Uninspiring styling -- Lacks driver to allow Windows to recognize the device as an external drive. Archos gets A+ for getting this right: all Archos MP3 players can be used as an external drive, plug-n-go. Jukebox 3, in contrast, only comes with a clumsy file transfer tool, unless you buy the commerical third-party software Nomad Explorer Conclusion: A very good value considering it has 20GB of space which allows up to 8000 songs and can be used as external storage (if you can live with the awkward file transfer program). Still too big for the pocket, though.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-12-17
this is a great player easy to use and the sound is good
i have the 150 dollar bose head phones to go with it.
the only thing i dont like about the player is it doesnt support usb 2.0i have so many porno from my friends and i load divx movies on it and bring it back to my own computer, much better than asking my friends to burn me cds
On: 2002-12-14
It is nice to have 20 GB of music and 22 hours of battery life (with an optional 2nd battery). But I couldnt get the jukebox to work with MusicMatch Jukebox and therefore was forced to used Creatives extremely painful software. More painful was losing the AC adaptor. It is a 5V adaptor with a non-standard connector. So you cant go into Radio Shack and get a replacement.
On: 2002-12-12
If you love music on the go and/or for keepsake purposes, editing etc..but especially for partying..this contraption is great!! With headphones or a great set of computer speakers, sounds great and VERY user friendly!!
by: Anonymous On: 2002-12-10
I got one of these last Spring, and it died just as the warranty expired. Even when it was running, it was not that impressive. It frequently froze up and needed resetting, skipped bits of songs, and I wont even begin with the problems I had with the software. It was a total waste of money, and if I ever get one again, Im saving for an ipod, now that they are windows friendly.
On: 2002-12-06
After three months of use, I can report that the Nomad Jukebox 3 is a dream come true for my particular needs.My passion is listening to opera and classical music on a quiet lake aboard my solar-powered, all-electric pontoon boat, effortlessly controlled from a cocktail swing at the bow, with a removable instrument panel in front of the navigator. I constructed a cradle for the Nomad unit using 5/16" aluminum tubing, attached below the panel and including an external light for reading the display at night. The Nomad output plays through a JVC Kaboom box located beneath the swing, with volume and bass controls easily accessed. (I admit a picture would be very helpful, but the system wont let me paste it)
The quality of the sound from this setup is just phenomenal under the open sky, with mood-matching choice of music enabled by the superb selection system of the Nomad Jukebox 3---a monumental improvement over fiddling with individual CDs in the dark, even if mounted in a multi-CD player. The jog-wheel control is SO convenient and intuitive, and the huge storage capacity will easily accommodatte your entire CD library. The physical construction of the unit seems quite adequate, especially since it survived a couple of accidental drops onto my thinly carpeted floor. The Creative Labs PC music library software is also first-rate and bulletproof. Ripping tracks onto your PC in MP3 format from CDs or other sources is childs play, and I was especially pleased to find that I could rip soundtracks from rental DVD films and precisely monitor the process, by feeding the DVD audio output from my PC via a Y connector into the Nomad unit and having it ripped there, while controlling everything from the Jukebox view on my PC screen. Another great feature is the report function, which generates a list of your music inventory that is easily edited and compressed by a word processor into a two-column format for viewing by others. Could the system be improved? As an opera fan, a larger display, perhaps the width of the unit, plus appropriate software and a faster CPU could permit whole lyrical phrases to be shown in any language in time with the music---a kind of karaoke feature without graphics. Brighter, extended illumination would be nice also, perhaps with an auxiliary 12v DC battery input. Sure, I could accomplish these results with a laptop computer, but it wouldnt be nearly as compact nor elegant and would cost more besides. Call me a sybarite, but I can think of no finer enjoyment than floating into the sunset and twilight on my boat swing, martini in hand, watching the moon or stars or clouds overhead amidst natures verdure and listening to my momentary choice of music, enabled so wonderfully by the Nomad Jukebox 3!
On: 2002-12-04
I initially bought an Archos Jukebox 20 GB. Really liked it. Compact design, easy PC interface. I plugged it in a USB port of my win2000 PC and it worked right away without additional driver installation. File transfer using window file manager was as convenient as can be. But the only problem was that it doesnt come with any line-out port. Sound quality with a headphone was OK although not great. When I play music with my Bose speakers, it was a bummer. Since I knew my Bose was good, I could only conclude that Archos need to improve its sound quality. Unfortunately sound quality is my #1 priority. I reluctantly returned the unit back to the store.Now I got a Nomad 3. The sound quality thru either headphone or speakers is nearly as good as CD players. I dont like the bulky design and software. But afterall, its the music that I want. I think I will stay with it.
On: 2002-12-03
Being a few years older than the average MP3 buyer gave me an advantage when I began researching these products. I wasnt embarassed to ask pointed consumer questions and not afraid to comparison shop. I asked hard questions many of which the store people could not answer. I wanted to know if I could edit my playlists from the computer and I wanted to know if I needed a degree in engineering to make it do the things I was looking for.Well...the Nomad does everything I wanted and more. If you can use Word or any windows program it is a cinch to get this thing running. Just put a CD in your computer and in two clicks you are "ripping" the entire CD to the Nomad. I had to learn a few new terms but in about an hour I was telling my teenagers a few things they didnt know. The on CD manual is a bit awkward to navigate but not impossible. Make sure you go into settings and turn on the CDDB. That way [if you have an internet connection, DSL preferred] even the track titles automatically are entered. You can rip an entire CD in about 2 minutes [Pentium 4]. One bit of advice, load everything into playlists or albums or youll end up with a lot of stray tracks. Sort of like saving a whole bunch of Word documents not in a file folder. The sound is great and the battery charge lasts for hours. Im sure I could put 4000 songs on this thing. I will never fill it up. Interesting after only a few days I was getting sick of certain songs and deleting some. But you dont have to there is so much space on the 20 GB drive. Well worth the money.
On: 2002-11-30
Creative Labs always used to put out really lousy jukeboxes, like the previous versions of Nomad. The Nomad 2 was good, but the battery life was still horrible. Now, with the Nomad III, its finally a green light to buy a Creative player with no exceptions! The IPOD is better, however, but this is much easier to get support on for PC users, because the PC support for the IPOD is virtually non-existent. PC users will enjoy the VERY GOOD included headphones (which is rare on most audio devices), lightning fast FireWire connection, and, if you have a gigantic music collection, the WMA format. It is roughly the size of a Sony CD Walkman, and weighs in at about 14 oz. The 20 GB memory is enough for most music lovers to fit their collections on, and it has a very large LCD screen.Pros:
- Creative Labs FIRST truly good MP3 jukebox
- WMA compatible
- a LOT of memory
- big, bright-lit LCD screen
- the included headphones are surprisingly good
- about the size of a Sony CD Walkman (a little wider the width of a CD itself)
- also has USB port, for those without a IEEE1394 port
- long battery life (22 hours, a HUGE improvement over Creatives past jukeboxes, which got only about 4 hours) Cons:
- no random play
- many jukeboxes around are significantly smaller than this one
- not as loud as it could have been I think that it is safe to say that this is a good alternative to the IPOD for the 20 GB size, though it isnt very good with Mac computers. The IPOD is better, believe me, but if you dont want to spend almost twice as much, get this one and it wont disappoint.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-26
I bought the Nomad 3 because I thought a lot of people had positive things to say about it, even though there are also many problems reported with hardware and software. I got mine and found the sound quality to be very good and the software much better than reported (on my PC with XP). However, I had the same problem another person reported - when I leave it to charge the unit dies and can only be re-started by removing and then replacing the battery while depressing the stop key. This is an emergency procedure according to the Creative web site. Creative technical support told me to return the unit, and I will. I have enough problems without investing in defective hardware. I think this is a shame, because I would have enjoyed using the Nomad, but I have lost confidence in the quality of this product, and I believe that I would be inviting headaches by purchasing another. Buyer beware - this is a good idea that could be a great product, but the manufacturer falls down in the execution.
On: 2002-11-21
After looking at every portable jukebox as well as home audio servers, I found that Creative Nomad 3 is the best product today.I initiallly ordered one player. Then I went back and ordered 4 more. Two of them will be used as audio servers in 2 different rooms of my house - other 2 as gifts. -- Setting it up
I downloaded and upgraded to the latest firmware release v1.20.06. To do that I had to first upgrade to the 2 previous releases. I found the software that comes with this player, Creative Playcenter to be useless for ripping and organizing music. I downloaded Media Jukebox 8.0 based on on-line reviews. Music Jukebox is a promising music manager program - although I havent found one that I really like so far. I ripped all my CDs at 192Kbps - about 15GB worth so far. I then diligently got the Genre, Artist, Album and Track information right - a lot of it initially filled in from the on-line CDDB database. What I found that even though this organization is becoming the standard in the industry, it is a lot of hard work to get it right, and doesnt reconcile with my usage. I then resorted to a straightforward playlist organization. For uploading to Nomad Jukebox, I used the Firewire connection - USB 1.1 is simply too slow. I had to go and buy a Firewire card for my PC - about $50. Then I found that the upload plug-in that comes with Music Jukebox doesnt upload Playlists, only tracks. What a bummer!!! I then bought Notmad software ($20) - and it does upload Playlists. As a side note, Notmads license enforcement mechanism is bizzare and cumbersome. -- Using It
After all this hard work, the payback was huge. The sound from this device is excellent. EAX capabilities are great - try them all out. The user interface is easy, the button layout is intuitive. The features are plentiful, yet not in the way. I do think they should increase the size of the LCD display. I use it as a portable player. It is a little bulky, but with the buttons locked (get the latest firmware), I can shove it in my jacket or jeans pockets. I use the headphones that come with it, and they are pretty good. I use it as a car player, although the only way to hook it up to my expensive car stereo is through an audio tape - with great loss of sound quality. What a bummer. So I sometimes used headphones in the car. Luckily I am about to buy a new car - and its car stereo system must have front audio input. Mostly, I use it as a player at home. I have speakers set up in 4 different rooms and I just take it with me and hook it up to the speakers. I have used it in 2 and 4 speaker settings. I use a wire to hook it up my home stereo. Now I have ordered 2 more so that I dont have to lug it around. It has transformed my music experience. Ive become an avid listener. It has expanded my range of music. Im now looking to buy a lot more CDs to fill gaps in my collection and to experiment new types of music. Positives:
- Great sound
- Great feature set
- Great transfer speed - using Firewire
- Good user interface
- Good music organization - I primarily use Playlists.
- Ability to drive 2 or 4 speakers.
- Decent headphones
- Remote control with the optional home kit
- Long battery life - with the optional battery
- Voice recording capability - with the optional accessory. I havent tried it yet
- You can use it as hard drive storage
- Excellent value compared to iPod Negatives
- Size is a little bulky
- Creative Playcenter software that comes with it is useless - but you dont need it - download something else
- LCD display is too small I highly recommend it. As a portable, I would also consider Creative Nomad Zen.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-20
Here are my first impressions after one week: the unit is light and feels on the fragile side with its all-plastic construction. Im afraid that if I drop it, itll be history. The buttons are not intuitive and somewhat confusing at first; for example, you have to hit the fast forward button twice to skip to the next tune on your playlist. A good users manual would have been very helpful instead of providing merely a bare-bones quick-start guide; so be prepared to learn by hitting buttons and experimenting. The sound quality didnt blow me away as I was expecting. In fact, Ive yet to reproduce the quality I enjoy from the same tunes played through my Creative Extigy USB module. I would describe the sound as flat, with tinny treble and no bottom. The headphones sound muddy, and the wrap-around design pushes them off my ears when I put my head against a pillow or back onto a plane seat. The unit doesnt have enough gain for me to compare my [$] pair of AKGs. My unit sounds best with the much-hyped EAX feature turned OFF. No great loss since you can only use one of these features at a time; for example, you cant use EQ and room ambience at the same time. And no amount of EQ tweaking would give me a nice crisp sound with punchy bass. In fact, the EQ introduced horrendous distortion. After a full nights charging, the unit was dead when I tried to use it the next morning on an airplane. Pulling out the battery and putting it back finally brought the unit back to life. Whats up with that!? The Creative Player PC software is friendly and powerful, which is critical since editing on the devise is borderline impossible. Using the devise as a 20 gig hard drive for data files worked fine and is the units strength. The firewire connection is fast, but nowhere near 400mbs/sec. The units hard drive access time seems sluggish. Is the Jukebox 3 worth [the money]? Not really. You can buy a 20 gig firewire hard drive for less than half the price. But compared to the competition, I suppose the Jukebox 3 represents one of the better games in town. A wise shopper would also check out the much more reasonable Jukebox and Jukebox 2. Youll get the same music experience without the premium price.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-17
when i first got the NOMAD Jukebox 3 for my birthday i though that this is the best thing ever and it is exept one "error" is that somethimes when you are viewing all the songs then somethimes it displays the same song twice. another one of these "errors" is that the included headphones are uncomfertable. These are the only two errors that i have found yet...
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-15
Do not buy Creative lab products. After contacting customer service multiple times about a warranty item, I talked to one of their techs, who said that they estimate 10% product failure on their products. My options were to pay to have it fixed, with another 10% chance that the repair could fail, or get the broken part back. They do not stand up behind their products. Dont throw your money away.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-14
I purchased a Nomad Jukebox for my husband less than a year ago. About six months later, it would not play off the battery. We returned it and Creative Labs said that the mother board was defective and that we must pay $75 to have it replaced since its warranty is only three months long. As far as the world of consumer electronics is concerned, a defective mother board is a manufacturers defect, not the consumers problem. Reality check....Apple is out there with better products, better design, and better customer service. Too bad that Creative Labs wont even stand behind its own products.....you are better off going with an IPOD.
On: 2002-11-10
After living with my Jukebox 3 for about nine months, Im just now beginning to appreciate its full capabilities. In addition to listening through headphones, I also purchased the accessory Home Kit which allows me to play through speakers using a remote control, as well as the Car Kit which comes with a cassette adapter and power cord for playing the Jukebox 3 in my car.Ive loaded every piece of music I own -- as well as my own custom playlists -- into the Jukebox 3 -- so I can now enjoy all of these everywhere I go. No more CDs to catalog or change. No more stations (in my car) to tune. The Jukebox 3 has even begun to replace my home stereo -- as my music player of choice around the house. To make sure that ambient noise isnt a problem, I also purchased a set of Sennheiser HDC 451 Noise Canceling headphones which work great, both indoors and out. (Other brands incidentally are junk.) There almost isnt a place where I cant listen to my Jukebox 3 -- except maybe, of course, underwater. The Creative software is very intuitive. It will load both WMA (Window Media) and MP3 files with ease. Transferring songs utilizing the Firewire connection (which I use) is seemingly instantaneous. And the EAX (music equalizer) settings offer a variety of modes that increase the highs, lows, stereo separation and reverb (echo) to match the type of music, the quality of the speakers, or the acoustics of the room (or car) in which Ill be listening. Before I acquired the Jukebox 3, enjoying my entire music list was often times a challenge. Today, since any song in my collection is now easily accessible -- my desire for new music has become almost insatiable. And with its 20 Gb hard drive, so too (it seems) is my Jukebox 3. To utilize my Jukebox 3 more, Ive begun to scatter stereo PC speakers around my home and office. And Ive also purchased a set of Sony portable units for use on business trips (in my hotel room). When I originally obtained the Jukebox 3, I never imagined that it would revolutionize the way I listen to music. I went from a casual listener -- to a super heavy music lover. I now listen to music everywhere I go -- just the songs I like -- because its now so easy! I love it! Other jukeboxes (hard drive MP3 players) will probably sound just as good through headphones. But when it comes to listening to my tunes at home (through speakers) or in my car -- the Jukebox 3s EAX equalizer settings and the Home Kits remote control -- make my music sound better and easier to control -- than would be possible with other jukebox brands. I dont mean to sound cornier than I already have, but when it comes to music -- and my Jukebox 3 -- I literally wont leave home without it! Enjoy.
On: 2002-11-07
Ok, I havent even bought this paripheral yet, but Ive been doing research on MP3 players for the past year, hoping to by one very soon. First of all, I am a PC person, like many as opposed to mac people. The creative Nomad Jukebox 3 looks like a Cd player, can last 22 hours with another battery, can have over 5000 songs (if you really listen to that many at once) and has an easy interface. IF there would be any problem with this, it would be that it is a bit too big, although it does have a PLAYLIST like no other. On the IPOD, not only is there only Firewire (very uncompatible with many) but there is no way of seperating the songs, except alphabetically. Good luck finding your songs. This is a good buy, and so far, nothing has changed my mind from deciding to buy this.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-10-18
Like the title says I think this is a great product, and totally worth it. The price was an initial drawback for me, but once I looked around this is the best Windows MP3 player for the bucks. I havnt used an IPOD so I cant comment on it.
On: 2002-10-13
This thing is awesome. It has the best sound out of all the MP3 players. It looks much like its predecessor the CD player. With the EAX settings it allows you to alter the sound by changing it into different sounding environments. You can also speed up or slow down the tempo of the songs. The EAX feature has an Equilizer feature on it. This makes your listening as loud or as soft as you would like. It has a Late Night listening feature on it. This MP3 player can house 2 rechargable lithium 11 hour batteries. You can recharge the batteries by using the included ac adapter. You just plug it into the wall and it will automatically turn on the player . After that it will start recharging the lithium batteries. Which will reduce the loudness to a reasonable level for listening at night. They give you one Creative lithium buycomcheap battery to start with and if you need the other one you buy it separately. This MP3 Player also has a 20 Gigabyte Laptop hardrive so you can just swap another larger laptop hard drive if you need to at a later date. If the scale for products went to ten stars I would give this MP3 player a 10 star rating because it is honestly the best MP3 player I have seen. I am not alone in my belief because Ive read other peoples reviews and they all bragged about how great it is.
On: 2002-10-09
I had the first Nomad Jukebox, the I-Pod, the Archos Jukebox and the Rio Riot. And finally I turned back to the Nomad Jukebox (3), even the size was bigger than all the others. The sound and the way you handle the unit is outstanding - its just a joy to listen and work with this thing. None of the other devices could satisfy me. But the final reason why I came back to the player was, that it is the ONLY unit who can handle playlists WITHOUT any computer in a very comfortable way. Even if the Jukebox plays the playlist you can add, change or delete tracks from that playlist! And the interface is really good - I felt, that Creative Labs learnd a lot from their previous Jukeboxes and improved the software a lot. And still the first Jukebox is better to handle then all the current mp3 Players on the market. Also there is the possibility to add a second battery which enhances the totally playtime of the Jukebox to 22 hours! I guess thats enough - and the unit is still light and not heavy!The only bad point (if you see it as bad...) is the size - its bigger than the I-Pod, Archos Jukebox and RioRiot but smaller than the first Jukebox and smaller (!) than every portable CD-Player. For me to say, its a very compact mp3-player with lots of disk space and more than enough playtime at all. If size is the only argument you consider, buying a mp3 Player you might choose other devices. But if you dont want to have the smallest unit, than this mp3 Player is the best you can get at the moment! Maybe the Jukebox Zen (also from Creative Labs) matches this player, because its smaller...
On: 2002-10-06
This device is great. I had it for about 6 months now. I have uploaded a total of 654 songs, and its still 91% EMPTY. This very well, might last me forever. Its very easy to learn how to use, and so is the software. The rechargable batteries last for about 4 hours. It isnt that bad, but I wish they would last longer. You are able to buy a better battery, but you have to visit the companys website. Its very easy to categorize and find your music. The sound quality is great and it suports many file types. This is something I have enjoyed, and I think you will too.
On: 2002-10-01
I have had my Jukebox for 3 or 4 months. At first I was happy with it, but have had many problems. Downloading the firmware updates and software updates has not helped. It crashes the software in the midst of transfer constantly, and even the rescue procedures such as clean up and reboot dont solve the problem. Ive reformatted twice losing nearly 3000 tracks, reloaded the operating sytem, reset, et al and it still is crashing the software and generating error messages. Currently just connecting it to the computer crashes the Playcenter software which comes with the player. I have sent it back for repair (at my expense) and it was returned with none of the problems solved. Support staff respond fairly promptly but seem to ignore the symptoms and information you give them and send you canned recommendations which do not solve the problems.
It is difficult to get other than email support, although there is telephone help if you are patient enough. The unit has a very short warranty. I have switched to an Ipod.
On: 2002-08-30
I have had the same good and bad experiences mentioned by most of the previous reviewers. Overall, this machine is very good altho I too think the EAX settings [are bad]. As for the "extra battery", I had absolutely no luck finding where to buy it on the Creative website until I called the company information desk and they walked me thru the very non-intuitive screen menues. It was there and available all the time--just hidden under layers and layers of junk. The battery is basically 50 bucks and took only two days to receive--but almost impossible to find unless you have on-line help. Very dumb of Creative.
On: 2002-08-24
I bought this a few months ago, Iat first, i think it was a perfect device, but later on, i found that the battery life is much shorter than the manufacturer claims, 11 hours, but mine runs only about 3 hours non-nonstop playback. Also everytime I charge the unit, the power button is malfunctioned, also the battery is still empty or not full after charging. Its also big and heavy, also you cant rely on its battery, you need electricity from your house.
On: 2002-08-24
...in a hurry to hit the market they slipped on something that they believed the prospective customers will not find out. The unit is a living room show piece as the accessories which are supposed to give it mobility are just not available yet. Even the simplest of the things like a leather pouch with a clip is not available, nor is the wired FM remote, nor the lovely changeable color snap-ons. Their multimedia demo on their website talks about these accessories without once mentioning that they are not available. This is a marketing and launch goof up on one hand, but it is also an unethical business practice. Lastly, the pricing including the shipping charges for these accessories, will chill your spine. Another weak point is the volume. Even at maximum volume, you will wish there was much more.Having said all this, let me come back to the start of my write up. This is a wonderful product. My entire family is hooked on to it. If you add a wireless headphone, you will be amazed by the music access that you have on your hands. Ripping is easy and very fast esp if you have USB 2 port. I rip CDs at maximum quality (8-10 MB per song), and still my entire CD is done within 2-3 minutes. The controls are a cakewalk and even a 8 year old learns how to search and play a song. Even with the delay in accessories, would I still buy this if I had to choose all over again? YES! But if Creative knows the market well, it would bring in those accessories fast and lower the price, as windows compatible iPOD is hitting the maket in less than a month. Creative guys, your time is running out...bring out the accessories fast!
On: 2002-08-04
Ignore all the reviews by people who dont even OWN this product - theyre clearly unable to give you a comprehensive overview. As an owner of both the original 6GB Nomad Jukebox, and now the 20GB Nomad Jukebox III, Ill try to give a fair opinion.First, lets start with the specs. It costs the same as the 10GB iPod, and offers BOTH FireWire and USB, although USB2 would have been nice - its faster than FireWire. Unlike the iPod, which has one version for Windows and one for Mac, the Jukebox can connect to either, for $100 less. The battery lasts 11 hours on a ~3 hour charge, and you can add another battery to it for a total of 22 hours. Its a bit bulkier than the iPod, but more compact than an average portable CD player. This player is ages ahead of the original Nomad. A scroll wheel akin to recent Sony Vaio notebooks lets you quickly whiz through your playlist - a plus for those of us who like to add 3000 songs at a time. The backlight is also brighter and makes the track info easier to read. There is an "Add All" option if you just want to heave the whole of your collection into a playlist. Playlist management is much improved - albums are sorted in a hierarchy with their tracks under them, in proper order. The sound output is just incredible, and the standard headphones are of notably better quality than the previous Jukebox. On the downside, currently it cannot play Ogg Vorbis files. This is fine, since it doesnt claim to, but it would be a nice addition.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-07-27
After putting a few albums in this infernal machine, playlists started disappearing, songs started disappearing, everything started saying "Error!" Creative needs to actually BE creative when it comes to making an MP3 player, because they STILL have not gotten the firmware or software right on this contraption! I notified technical support of their faulty machine and they responded with the infamous "uninstall and reinstall the software." Ok, and when it still messes up, what then, Creative? What then? Well, if you paid 400 dollars for it, then using it as a hockey puck would be stupid (unless you are related to Bill Gates or something). No, you just have to "play" with it and re-re-rearrange your songs and playlists (did I mention that they disappear?) again and again and again, hoping that when you actually try putting songs into the machine they will go. You almost have to talk to the machine and tell it nice things to make it work for you. But then the software is a waste of time because I am eternally receiving "Microsoft Error Reporting" messages because the playcenter um... is garbage. I am thinking about using RealOne player and see if I see any difference. Oh, did I mention that your songs and playslists disappear? Oh yes, I did. Well, I suppose I am mentioning it again and again because they continually disappear and you have to re-re-rearrange the music and playlists. Oh, and dont you just love when you are transferring the music and after it transfers a few songs the ever so popular error message "Nomad is no longer connected" appears? I think it should say "Nomad is no longer connected because we at Creative cannot make a software that goes with our hardware. We should just stick to soundcards only because they are the only thing we are good at. Oh, you might want to check your Nomad because I think we deleted your playlists, mixed up your music, and caused your player to become useless yet again. Yes, you have to do it all over again. But hey, thanks for the 400 dollars... sucker!" Well, that is my take on the Nomad Jukebox 3, which in reality is no better than the Nomad Jukebox 1 or 2 or any Nomad whatsoever. I owned the 6 GB one and it was junk too. Before you buy this machine, get a written statement of promise from Creative that it will not mess up or delete your music or playlists... Ill guarantee right now that they will refuse. Creative, maybe try making the software compatible with XP, ME, 2000, NT, etc., for a change and maybe you will actually NOT Create another lemon. I began by giving the player 2 stars, but after coming to my senses, I gave it 1. Would have gave it zero, but we cant do that yet.
On: 2002-07-26
This is for the Nomad 6gig Jukebox, but I wanted everyone buying a Creative Nomad product to know my story, in case these things use the same firmware:I liked my Jukebox, I really did, but it flaked out after 6 months and died after a year. And now, after some monkey business with the support team, its dead and Im done. The short story: It worked great for a while. 6 Gig IS a lot of music, even when I ripped at highest quality VBR. It played anything from 32 to 320 kbps as well. I loaded it up and swapped songs nearly every day. I think the first downfall was when I updated to the newest firmware. 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. This happened with greater and greater frequency until I basically had to do it every 100 Meg of songs or so. Sometimes even after 2 songs! With 6 gig, you can guess I didnt 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. I think that exacerbated what otherwise might have been a dormant or relatively harmless problem. But it still should have handled it. Eventually, it stopped playing songs all the way through. And that wasnt because of the tune because you could reboot the thing and it would play that tune just fine the next time. No, there was something really wrong. I sent it to their help desk and for [a few bucks] they took a look at it (because it was a month out of warranty!). They reported nothing really wrong and the guy ran the clean-up process and returned it. 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 its entirety. Guess what! It failed! They couldnt figure out what to do, so they sent me a new one. Normally this would have cost me [serious cashola] out of pocket, but since their last fix was warranteed for 30 days, I got lucky. 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. I had to leave 50 meg free, then 75 meg, then 100 meg free. Finally, it choked all together and now I have a nice handy [mucho dinero] paperweight. I could send it back I guess, but Im not interested in paying [wads of dough] for a new machine that will only last another 4 months. No thanks. It had its good qualities:
- Played any MP3 I fed it, random, repeat.
- Nice organization of stuff on the machine, by artist, album, genre and playlists.
- Easy to get tunes on and off (when it wasnt malfunctioning)
- Solid feel. Nice button response. I liked the weight of it.
- It had playlists which you could upload, but I hated that. Plus, it slowed it down while booting up. What I used was the track numbers built into the tags of the MP3s. It used that to order them. Criticisms:
- It broke. And not just for me. Look around in the newsgroups, youll see plenty of people with similar problems. 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. I hope they read this and try to fix it.
- It tried to be robust by using ID3v2 and v1 info AND this weird thing called Lyricsv3, which nobodys ever heard of. 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 would have been nice to force it to use ID3v1.
- Needed a "Queue everything" selection
- Took forever (30secs+) to boot up. When I read why, it was a totally stupid reason too. It had to rescan every MP3 or something. Wasted time.
- It broke. Twice. Did I mention that? Id certainly think twice before buying one of these, or their higher-priced, larger HD cousins, as they use the same firmware. ...
On: 2002-07-24
Last week I was just reading reviews of other peoples experiences for the MP3 players and myself I was trying to figure out which spacious mp3 player to buy! It was either Ipod, Nomad or Archos player. I looked at Ipod, but decided not to buy it because: 1st was too fragile, glass faceplate(but they come with protector kits anyway) 2nd the most was |
