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Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra 40 GB MP3 Player
By: Creative Labs Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 130
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 On: 2007-12-16
I am very very disappointed with this mp3 player my husband paid over $200 for it 3 years ago and twice it has just stopped working. The 1st time we had to update the firmware which would not have been such an issue if almost 4,000 songs were not deleted in the process. I reloaded them once it was fixed and a year later it just stops syncing in the middle of a transfer. Then my computer that had the right software loaded on it will not recognize it. I have put the software on the other 3 computers in the house and none will pick it up. CREATIVE LABS WEBSITE NO LONGER HAS ANY SOFTWARE OR UPDATE MATERIAL ON THE WEBSITE. THEY SPECIFY IT IN DIFFERENT WORDING BUT THE SAME MEANING AS TOO OLD. I DONT KNOW ABOUT ANYONE ELSE BUT $200+ IS A LOT OF MONEY FOR THIS TYPE OF ITEM AND I EXPECT THAT IT SHOULD LAST LONGER. It will play but wont sync and every time I start it it has to spend 10+ minutes rebuilding the library. this year we bought from another company, paid less and the mp3 player also will play video. LOOK AROUND YOU CAN GET MUCH MORE FOR LESS MONEY FROM A LOT OF OTHER COMPANIES.
On: 2007-11-10
I purchased the Zen Touch 40 GB MP3 player a year and a half ago. When it was working, it was relatively easy to use although the touch pad took some getting used to. The problem started when I decided to upgrade the firmware from their website a few weeks ago. As soon as the firmware upgrade was completed, my player died and I have been unable to revive it. When I e-mailed technical support I was told that since it was out of warranty, they could not help me either on the phone or even by e-mail unless I paid $19.00 an hour. When I explained that the problem did not start until I loaded THEIR FIRMWARE FROM THEIR WEBSITE, and that they should bear some responsibility and help me, they continued to insist that since the player was out of warranty, they could not provide technical support unless I pay.
My advice is if you buy Creatives products, sign up for a warranty, or never ever ever upgrade the firmware. Personally, I will never ever ever buy any Creative product again.
On: 2007-06-01
Please Dont buy this product unless you plan on working pro bono as a tech for yourself on behalf of creative. The Player will eventually freeze up and attempts to fix officially using creative updated "play for sure" firmware software will "destroy your player for sure". Simple. I just wish i had read a little about this before attempting to upgrade the software and i might have salvaged what little was left of the player. The good reviews are simply from people who just havent heard trouble with their products, Its not a question of if but when. Youve been warned.
 On: 2007-05-29
My wife & I bought two of these for Christmas in 2005 and loved them (our first MP3 players). Mine died 5-28-07 (5 mos out of warranty) and Creatives attitude is "so sorry, too bad, pay us for service, including online support or just fix it yourself." Read the postings on the Creative forum before you buy ANY of their products - CAVEAT EMPTOR. They have posted a firmware "upgrade" that frequently destroys the player. Woe be to the owner who hasnt backed up his ripped files. I have, and am shopping for another player, but it wont be made by Creative, I guarantee. We still own 2 Zen MicroPhotos (8 GB) and her Zen Xtra still works, who knows for how long? BTW, Creatives software is junk; you would be much better served to buy Notmad Explorer.
 On: 2007-02-10
To begin with, I really do not recommend that anyone buy this product now (unless you can get it really cheap) because there have been so many advances since this came out. I have had mine for almost two years with absolutely no problems. I love this player. Around the time I bought it I could get the most memory for it for the lowest price. Yeah it was bigger and not as sleek, but it was definitely the right decision. In general I feel that Creative as a company is superior. All their products are well priced and of high quality. So if you are going to buy an MP3 player go with Creative over Apple. The Zen Vision M is cheaper and better overall. Just go to c/net to look at the reviews. While the 5th gen iPod scored slightly higher (.3 of a point)on the site review, the user satisfactory rating for the Zen Vision M was nearly 2 points higher. Take your advice from the owners. Creative does not disappoint. And while Apple may be the giant, I feel that unless you want to conform to society go ahead, but Creative provides unique and better choices.
On: 2007-01-24
i bought this along time ago and had it a good while, but one day it fell in the toilet yes i know, it was in my pocket and fell out and boom short circut but it was awsome lol.
On: 2006-12-28
Its that simple. The newest firmware upgrade for this player halts mid-install, not completely installing. The player will not start, Windows will recognize the player, but because there is not a complete set of firmware on the player, Creatives own software will not recognize it (thus not allowing me to run another firmware upgrade on the player). Do not buy this product.
By the way, Im not alone with my complaint. The creative forums are plagued with complaints of this.
On: 2006-12-21
Im just trying to be concise and objective, because I cant believe i got screwed twice with Creative.
Bottomline is:
- their product are priced lower than competition (price/ Mb is attractive), they seem decent with no shiny options, like the kind of equipment you want for your buck.
- their product are fragile and faulty. And its not this particular one (with movable hard disk parts), I own another Creative Muvo c100, and they are reboot with no reason, or freeze.
- their software is so painful to master, with little tricks to make it work if you spend litterally hours on it...
- and the worse is... their after sales service. People, trust me on this, your Creative piece of equipment will break, other 3 guys (out of 3)in the Office had issues with their Creative: battery, software incompatibility with other softs, movable pieces, cheap buttons, plastic box, screen... Their equipment looks cheap because it is cheap. No other reason.
They could compensate this drawback with a good customer service, but I guess they dont have the bucks to serve the US market correctly. The Reps I talked to are decent guys, but they have no policy, no means to do anything. It looks like you talk to a Postal service chief in the 1950s eastearn Europe.
in my case, after giving 15bucks for premier postal service, $25 bucks for Creative to look at my Jukebox, they requested 118-143 bucks (depending on the rep i talk to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to repair their faulty stuff. In order to get that information, it took 20 days, around 30 emails, 3 phone calls over one hour. This is pathetic.
Think twice before you want to spare some 50 bucks over an Iriver or other decent mp3 players.
On: 2006-12-09
Bought it for the raved-over sound ("better than iPod"), but came to regret it...
Owned a 20 Gb Zen. Customer service will not even accept your call without a credit card number up front, after 90 days. Their website suggests firmware updates for any/all funky behavior. But this locks up the unit permanently. Can play it; just never again can add songs to it, or alter existing playlists. Creative knows this problem and will not fix it.
Foolishly, I then bought their 60 Gb (same model as the 40 Gb here; just more memory). Worked a couple months, then froze up unrecoverably. Several weeks of wading through an amazingly unavailable, incompetent and utterly unconcerned "customer service", I got the same player back, utterly untouched; totally dead. Several more weeks slogging through the same hours on automated call centers, waiting to talk to a human who doesnt even listen to you describe your need, and is aggresively incompetent, then weeks waiting for them to repair and resend a refurb, ... and it is a totally nonworking and dented refurb. More weeks and the same exacted dented refurb is sent to me again, utterly unworking. MANY more weeks and I finally receive a refurb that works. Total time wrestling with this utter incompetence: 7 months ! ! !
Though this all started within the initial paltry 90-day warrantee, this quickly dragged on beyond it, and I had to buy the rather expensive 1-year extended warrantee early in that fiasco just to be able to get them to accept my phone calls at all.
Now I have a player that gives that great Zen sound (true enough), but cant take even the slightest justling. They arent kidding when they say "dont wear it even walking." It resets nearly every step. That is utterly no exaggeration. I found wearing it in a just the right "fanny pack" allows me to wear it lifting weights, provided I make no sudden moves. But clip in to my shorts waist band, and it reset every 10-30 seconds. Not fun.
Many reviewer gush over the "awesome" software. Its o-kay. But it lacks some obvious capabilities. Like their own file manager cannot move files between folders without Zen losing track of them: they still show in your library, but clicking on them finds nothing and so Zen goes at random to another song. You have to re-"import" every song moved this way. A major pain in the but, if you move a large library to an external hard drive.
Also, you cant sort your on-screen display in a playlist by any of the columns (like song title, album, artist, year, style, rating. etc.). Makes for a lot of manual searching. Slow and boring.
Also, there is no way at all to keep track of which playlists you have added a song to, except to manually scroll through every playlist and manually look for each track among all the tracks in that list. Would it be so hard to have a feature that shows what playlists any given track has been added to?
What I am holding out for, is a flash memory player with at least 16 Gb. Sony recently came out with an 8 Gb. These are extremely robust versus jostling. But I need at least 16 Gb, if not 30-60, for my library. And I didnt buy a high end MP3 player to compress all that CD quality sound down to some crappy little file size. When one of the big boys finally make a real player, I will pay whatever they want for it.
On: 2006-11-18
Creative products is by all means the best ive ever experienced. I could be a spokesman for them if given the chance, lol. The Nomad is very easy to navigate at your thuumbs disgresion. I love the fact that its compatable with all media programs. WMP, MusicMatch. But the best to organize and sinc music is real player. If you dont want to spend a lot of money and want quality over looks then this is the product for you. the only bad thing about this wonderful gadget is the charger port. I coulnt stress this enough; you have to be very careful in handeling the charger. because of the type of por it is after prolonged use of continued charging the port will come loose. It doesnt have a docking station which would help eliminate charging it through the little port. If you are going to invest in this product I would try getting an extended warrantee with it. Other than this, everything about it is awsome especially the ease of creating a playlist. I no longer have it because again the port broke off after a while. I bought a crative vision m for my wife. I only have 3 words for it. Ipod killa, ok thats 2 words but i made my point, lol.
On: 2006-11-12
I have one of these, and i am on my 3rd time trying to get it fixed. the hard drive has issues. first one locked up completely no warning. the replacement, stopped playing, then the replacement for the replacement right out of the box from creative wouldnt even power up and i cant even get them to send me a replacement for the one that was bad that they sent to me.
on a good note. i can say that once u figure out how the software works it is a very good player to have. lots of songs held, but when it crashes better have backups cause u r going to lose everything.
On: 2006-09-21
I have had the pleasure of this 40G Zen Jukebox as my companion for some time now and I will tell you that I have been, and still am, extremely pleased by its performance. I travel often to Europe and have listened to it (with noise cancelling headphones on planes & ear buds while on the ground) and have yet to experience any problems or difficulties with it.
Downloading is a cinch with the accompanying software, maneuvering through the selections is easy, battery life still is great, ease of use is simple. The learning curve is quick.
The only problem I can mention is that I had also paid for the 3 year extended warranty and have yet to use it. Not a serious problem, eh?
I have turned many of my friends and family onto the Creative line and they, like me, are extremely pleased that they stayed away from Ipods (several friends have I-Pods and 4 out of the 5 of them are not pleased, are jealous somewhat of us Creative owners).
Since then, I have purchased a Creative Zen Vision:M (6 months), also extremely satisfied. I have also just ordered a Creative Vision:W 30G for my video downloads and am expecting a similar level of satisfaction. I will be using on my next flight to Europe in October, will let you know how satisfied I am with the "W".
Hopefully this will be helpful to you.
On: 2006-08-24
The creative labs Zen Xtra 40gb, 30gb and 60gb have a known issue with their latest version of firmware. During the download of the firmware your PC will freeze. You will need to reboot. Once you reboot, your Zen Xtra will never come back on again. The support staff at creative can not or will not fix this issue. Posts on their support forums go back over 1 yr. No official statement has been released and no work around has been issued. The customer support tells you to mail the device bak to them with a $27 fee foe evaluating the issue. Eventually, usually at least 1 month, you will be sent a refurbished device with the exact same issue. After several attempts you will probably find one that works, just be sure not to do any more firmware. I have not been so lucky. I now have a 40gb paper weight!!
 On: 2006-08-15
I have had this mp3 player for less than a year and twice I have had to send it back for "hardware problems". Creative is great about sending back a completely new one in record time, so that is definitely a plus, but I would rather have an mp3 player that doesnt break down on me every few months. When it is working, it works great and the storage capacity is awesome (especially for the price!). I would recommend this mp3 player for those who dont mind having to send it back every few months for repairs.
On: 2006-06-21
I bought this 40GB Creative player in October 2004. The player itself has worked flawlessly. It survived Iraq without a single issue. As other reviews have stated, the software bundle is not the best. However, I do like that Nomad explorer works hand in hand with Windows explorer (to drag and drop files). Compared to an ipod it is a bit "bulky", but remember this particular player has been around over 2 years and is considerably cheaper. This is an excellent player that I definately recommend.
On: 2006-06-13
I bought this used, and it has served me well. It has an excellent battery life, and is pretty durable. It is not waterproof, however. Bios isnt much to brag about, but it gets the job done. Transferring music to the player will take a long time, but probably as fast as USB 2.0 will go. Took almost an hour to transfer 15-ish gigs. Comes with a leather case and charger. The headphones that come with it arent much to brag about. You can get better ones for $10 easy. Also speeds up and slows down your music too. Definitely worth the money for it. Ipods are nothing compared to this.
On: 2006-06-09
My mother surprised me with the zen xtra for my birthday about six months ago. Surprised because while I knew I was going to get an mp3 player, I didnt think she would pick out one so bulky and inelegant as the zen xtra.
(She purchased it from wal-marts online store for reasons I cannot fathom)
The large size was the first thing I noticed. Previously I was using the slim elegance of a CD player that was the iRiver slimx (which is a wonderful cd player by all means). The second thing I noticed was a spot on the display. It was there out of the box, and remains there to this day, six months later.
The first thing I noticed when trying to plug the player in to charge is that when you have the casing on it, y ou cannot charge it.
I dont know whose dumb idea that was, but the dc-in hole is right under the cover strap.
The first thing I notice right now with it in front of me is that the front cover is loose at the bottom.
The charger-cord looks more like it would be fitting for a laptop, not a hand held music player.
Dont get me wrong, the thing works fine as far as playing music goes, but it has had me in tears more than once.
Everyone talks about how wonderful usb2.0 is, but when you dont have that, file transfers take literally for ever. Its nice when youre using the [awful] provided file manager Nomad Explorer, you cant drag and drop files to it at certain times, like when theres files on it already. And because it refuses to allow you to use it as an external drive, you cant make a send to link in your context menu to use from your folder view.
It is supported in winamp5s portable devices section, but theres little you can do. trying to play a file from it got me a device does not support remote playback error. Trying to transfer files with the same was just about as futile.
I took this monstrosity with me to Europe about three months ago. The battery life was fine. (I charged it one day after I found someone with a power converter that didnt end up blowing anything up (the girls had a lot of broken straightening irons that week) about halfway through the week and that was good enough to get home with, and home is a long ways away)
Its just as well that making playlists with this thing is so irritatingly slow. It might be more appropriate for the 256 or 512 mb players which can only have a couple of hundred songs. Choosing them by hand one at a time is fine in that case. But when you have a couple of thousands of songs, well lets do math. Adding a song manually to a playlist probably takes forty seconds. Thirty seconds to scroll far enough to find the song, and ten seconds to add it. forty x 2000 is 80000. divide by sixty, 133 minutes, over two hours.
And thats assuming you know exactly which songs youre going to put on in order.
I dont know about everyone else, but I have a playlist. Ive been working on it for four years, adding things chronologically to it. It consists of every file with sound that is playable in winamp I have ever had.
Why cant I use it? I still dont know. My boyfriend has told me that its a technical limitation of the players, but I remember the iRiver slimx that I loved so well had no inhibitions about playing my playlists from data cds. When I realized I wouldnt be able or perhaps not allowed to use my playlist of four years, a good friend by now, on this monstrous thing which contained far more space than I ever dreamed of using for music, I broke down in furious helpless tears of frustration.
Its a fine player, but dont invest in it if youre not willing to completely change the way you view playing music.
(I dunno, maybe it doesnt play so well. Ive barely used it in the six months Ive had it. I could probably count the number of times Ive used it for more than five minutes on two hands and a foots worth of phalanges)
 On: 2006-01-25
I bought mine over a year ago and I have been using it in dance parties. So far, no problems. I read several reviews complaining about the operational system. What most people do not know is that manufactures usually release several upgrades for OSs and firmware and we need to apply them. I applied all upgrades and it has been working very well.
Pros: Cost per gigabyte is away better then ipod. Sound quality is good. Fast to upload/download songs. Several options to organize the songs. Battery last long and can be hooked up straight to a power supply.
Cons: The navigation button is awkward and cheap. There are several software/firmware upgrades (dont bother to install what came on the CD, download the latest one from internet). Nomad Explorer has issues with Windows XP.
On: 2006-01-19
I have been very pleased with this product. It comes as "advertised" with cables, instructions, ear-buds, case, charger. The sound is excellent (with earbuds or connected to a speaker). Operation is easy and the instructions are very helpful. Downloading music, other mp3 audio files (books) and audio books from Audible.com work easily. Battery life is excellent (once you charge completely two or 3 times). It is small, easy to carry around and, tho I have been a bit paranoid about carrying it around since it is a hard drive device, it seems very sturdy. The "scroll select" wheel works fine as do all the other buttons.
The only issue I have is with technical support. I had some problems getting Audible Manager to recognize the device so that I could download audio books (initially-these problem has been fixed by working with the tech support from Audible.com! They were very friendly and helpful and we got it to work).
All in all, I am very pleased with the device and glad I purchased it.
On: 2006-01-15
I am very pleased with this product. The software is simple and light. Besides, the USB conection is hight. I can tranfer files easily and quickly. The interface is simple too... and the quality of the sound is simply Creative!
by: Anonymous On: 2005-12-26
I dont know what most people will say "Good Quality" is, but this is the best for the price. Sure the earphones arent that great, but if you buy something like this you should expect that. That is why you buy the Koss Porta pro or Sennheiser px100s which make the experience much better.
I think the software gets 4 stars
Also this is best used playing mp3s at 320 kbps which is much better than what you get off of Itunes or free music sites.
Overall this is a good quality player with a right set of he
On: 2005-12-19
I purchased and received my NOMAD JBZX 40GB in early November. Since then I have had absolutely no problems, however I am aware that a lot of reviewers state that problems started after having it for 4 months or more. I will keep an eye out for that. As for the operation of the unit, I could not be happier. No problems, downloading music, or with playback. I even took it to the Dominican Republic and bounced it around quite a bit. Still no problems. (Note: I purchased one of those FM transmitters that allow you to play you MP3 player through a stereo by setting the radio to a particular frequency. Well, I was wondering if this would work outside of the US. Happy to report that it does). Software is adequate. I love being able to edit track information for a group of songs at once. If for some reason the Artist, etc info is not correct, I can change it. I can also assign a custom genre, if I so choose for playing music by genre. Im very happy with the unit; so far.
On: 2005-12-09
Yes, there have been faults with my player, but with technical support and a little patience Ive managed to keep this little treasure working. I now have more than 600 albums to choose from, in great sound quality, and I wonder how I ever did without it. I believe its important to remember these are quite fragile, sophisticated electronic devices and more likely to malfunction than your average toy. Even with careful handling Ive dropped it a number of times, and it would certainly have broken without the protective leather case - ALWAYS use the case! Using the software is dead easy, loading files and navigating with the scroll wheel simple and straightforward, and after 18 months the replaceable battery is still going (fairly) strong. In short, a great buy thats brought an immense amount of pleasure!
On: 2005-12-05
We bought a 60 gig in Feb of this year. Within 4 months we got an error where the device would not boot. There was no misuse of this product. Just simple wear of 4 months. This is with 6,000 songs on a hard drive that should carry over 15k! We called the lovely customer service there at Creative and got the instructions to send it in and that our music was lost! The warranty with creative had of course already expired at 3 months. So they wanted us to pay shipping, send it in to see what is wrong, and then they would charge us how ever much to fix it.
On a side note, we have noticed that the wonderful case that is provided with the mp3 player has a hard clip in the back, witch seems to dent the casing rather easily. By just putting it in your pocket!
My husband got another 40 gigs Creative Zen Jukebox Ultra, for his birthday in June. Luckily with a wonderful warranty from Circuit City.
It is Dec 4, and today our 40 gig died. It displayed the same problems everyone here described. It is not worth $200 + to buy a MP3 player that will only last you 4 months at a time. All the extras that this device has, is completely outweighed by its software issues!
Today we are going to Circuit City and looking for a different brand. ƒ¼
by: Anonymous On: 2005-11-29
i bought this mp3 player back in August and it was working perfectly fine and the music uploaded very fast
except that some of the albums i uploaded werent in the correct order and i hated the fact that there was a little skip/pause in between songs (which ruined listening to Frances The Mute)
after a month or two, it started to freeze for some times. now, it doesnt even work. i had only dropped it once and that was a while before it had stopped working. there are major hard disk problems and it wont let me clean in out.
youd be better off with one of those new, spiffy iPods.
On: 2005-11-23
It was very easy to download all our cds onto this. I just wish when we use it in our car with a cassette adapter that it would stop playing when the car is turned off. But that may be due to the adapter. Also, when we put it on the setting to randomly pick songs from all the music it seems to choose songs from some of the same albums. It just seems that since we have almost 300 albums on there the odds would be that you wouldnt hear the same album within 20 songs from each other. Overall, we are VERY happy with this!!!!!
On: 2005-11-23
when i first got this, it seemed to work ok, but some files would not transfer to the player, kept getting message the player has stopped responding or it osnt plugged in. went into explorer to xfer files to player instead. creatives software just doesnt work, their sut support staff keeps sending me the same e-mails to reload the software which hasnt worked. the player freezes very often and the sound cuts off and on a lot. dont waste your money, mine is already a month old. freinds bought i-pod and have had zero probs. spend the extra money!!!!
On: 2005-11-18
Approximately 2 weeks after taking my 40gb Nomad out of its packaging, the hard drive froze up. This erased hours of downloading time spent.
After contacting CREATIVE they had me send the mp3 player to Oklahoma City to have it repaired. When they were done (approximately 1 month later) they mailed it back to an incorrect address. When I contacted customer service it took them another 2 weeks to respond. I ended up having to contact the address it was delivered to and make arrangements to pick up product myself. Overall, when the product works, this is a good mp3 player. It has lots of space and is easy to use. However, the CREATIVE company provideds THE WORST customer service I have ever dealt with.
On: 2005-11-17
Approximately 2 weeks after taking my 40gb Nomad out of its packaging, the hard drive froze up. This erased hours of downloading time spent.
After contacting CREATIVE they had me send the mp3 player to Oklahoma City to have it repaired. When they were done (approximately 1 month later) they mailed it back to an incorrect address. When I contacted customer service it took them another 2 weeks to respond. I ended up having to contact the address it was delivered to and make arrangements to pick up product myself. Overall, when the product works, this is a good mp3 player. It has lots of space and is easy to use. However, the CREATIVE company provideds THE WORST customer service I have ever dealt with.
On: 2005-11-03
I had the previous version of this MP3 player but it broke when it flew off my dashboard when I hit an uneven railroad crossing doing 70 in a huge van. I almost broke my neck so I wasnt really surprised when the Zen Jukebox MP3 player broke. I had dropped it several times before (biking, running, dancing, etc) and it had a lot of good falls and I was amazed that it didnt break earlier. I had had the previous version of the Zen jukebox about a year and a half when I finally killed it. I almost cried. I had my entire cd collection on it. My husband took pity on me and bought me the new Zen Jukebox for my birthday and I love it even more. The carrying case is diffrent because it now has a window to see what you are selecting (definite plus, cudos to the Zen Jukebox guys) and the sound quality, as before, is excellent. The software is a breeze to use too. Oh, and even with virtually distroying my previous Zen Jukebox, I was able to salvage about 80% of the music I had on it and transfer it to my new one, so that was pretty good considering the amount of damage it has sustained when I broke it(when I say it flew, I ment it FLEW. Lots of air time and a sickening stop at the end).
Im a music nut, and I love to excersize, but I dont like to workout without my music, and with this baby you can jump, fly, fall and the music wont skip a beat (as long as it doesnt fly off whatever you attached it too). If only Creative labs could comeout with a water proof case, a wireless fm transmitter, and an arm or waist band that could secure it (better than a clip that is), it would be PERFECT. Then you could sky dive, scuba dive and kyak with it. If they came out with accessories, I dont think the Zen Jukebox would ever leave my side. Ive never had an Ipod, so I cant really compare, but you get your bang for your buck with the Zen Jukebox. It is extremely affordable. And DO buy the car adapter (to charge it), the fm transmitter is a must (its GREAT to have one of those, considering most cars dont have cassette cases now a days) and the stereo adapter thingy is awesome too, especially if you are always on the move and dont have a few hours to spare charging the thing up. I really like the stereo adapter so I dont have to take out my cds and get them scratched (always happens).
With the easy menu options on this MP3 player you can create your own playlists too. For example I name my playlists name like Mellow Yelllow- easy jams to mellow out to, suicide tracks-sad, depressing love songs we all love,workout jams-self expanitory, chick songs- my girl power, guy hating emsenble (we all have them days), etc, you get the drift, and you can set it so you can listen to whatever suits your fancy without mess around with your stereo every time you want a diffrent song, or you can set it to random, or by artist, cd, genre, you name it. You can even pick and choose what songs in what order come out, or what songs you want and then set it to shuffle if you like to be surprised.
I read in a previous review about the volume can be problematic on this MP3 player, but I dont have problems with it. I listen to it when I ride my motorcycle to work (yes I know its illegal, but thats besides the point here), and I have cobra pipes on my bike which are REALLY lound (you can hear my bike about 3 to 5 miles away) and I can hear the music just fine. It goes from 1 to 25 and with my bike roaring I have it on about 18 and works just dandy. Im sorry I couldnt provide you with any technical stuff here, Im not very savvy on such things so I wont pretend. Its been a good product so far, and I have dropped my new one already about 5 times (the clip doesn hold up good when youre bouncing on a trampoline,or when you fly off a mountain bike) but I guess thats to be expected. It still works great and I LANDED on it when I flew off my bike. So I give it a thumbs up for taking everything Ive dished out. I even got caught in a rainstorm while I was on my bike and it got pretty wet. Still works like a charm, but I wouldnt recommend for anyone to hose down their Zen Jukebox on purpose. I hope my review was helpful.
On: 2005-11-02
your average everyday 20 gb mp3 player is 200 dollars, but for 20 bucks more you can double your memory... woah, this is much better offer, and it is very liight, the only disadvantage is that it is UGLY looking compared to ipod or even the dell DJ. but buy this for the price and value, if thats all you care about, (not looks) then this is for you
Creative is a very trustworthy brand, ive had my creative speakers ofr my computer for over 5 years now, and they work as good as new :)
On: 2005-11-02
Having given 4 of these players as gifts, it is disheartning to have all of them to require service within 6-8 months. Total lack of quality and reliablity, plus customer service that really suks. Wish I had looked else where for players.
On: 2005-10-25
Ive never owned any other MP3 players, so I cant fairly do any direct comparisons, but I researched this one fairly extensively before buying. I opted to skip the iPod because theyre way overpriced, in my opinion, and you cant replace the batteries, and Im not the least bit concerned about managing my music through iTunes or showcasing my iPod trendiness. Im also not much interested in viewing video or photos on it. I bought this for one reason only: to play my MP3s.
The Creative Nomad Zen Xtra is a great value for the capacity (40 GB) and Ive been happy with the quality of the sound. I use it in my car now instead of my CD player, and with the right EAX custom EQ settings on the player in tandem with a car cassette adapter, its indistinguishable from CD. (My guess is that a radio transmitter might not sound quite as good as a cassette adapter.) The included ear buds are junk, naturally, but Ive never, ever met a pair of ear buds that Ive liked. Use real closed-ear headphones for best results.
The Nomads custom EQ is a terrific feature that allows you to balance for your specific headphones or operating environment, although Ive found that high EQ settings combined with high MP3 recording levels can result in some nasty overmodulation/distortion on the peak bass levels (my one mild gripe with the player), so in such cases you might have to back off the EQ levels a bit ... but thats usually only at high recording levels.
The built-in music library feature detects all your ID3 tags and organizes your music extremely easily (by album, artists, genre, etc.), so if your MP3s are already tagged you wont have to do much of any organization at all. Id seen a lot of concerns/complaints about the software that comes with the Nomad, but I found it perfectly adequate and was able to load all 24 GB of my music onto my player in 90 minutes (fast USB 2.0) while watching football in another room. Honestly, to rip and organize your MP3s, first just use Windows Media Player. Then use the Nomad software to copy the files over; its a snap.
Ive found that battery life does not seem to come close to the "up to" 14-hour claim that Creative mentions, but I always use EAX settings and wasnt really expecting 14-hour battery life anyway, so take that for whatever its worth. Overall, highly recommended.
On: 2005-10-22
Before you buy, check out the blogs about Creatives customer service. There IS none! Most of us who spent a lot of money last year to buy a Creative Zen Nomad Xtra were disappointed to find out that this mp3 player does NOT support any of the Janus subscription services (like Rhapsody to Go, Napster to Go, Yahoos to go service). That is bad enough, but any attempt to get a straight answer from the company about firmware updates (so that we CAN use these very cool services) is met with either no response, or a canned "This device does not support these services at this time." No one has been able to find out when or even IF they ever will. I suspect not.
The other problem is that both my Nomad and my sons have a serious freeze-up problem, one to the point of not being able to be used.
I would highly recommend another mp3 player if you are considering the Nomad and certainly dont buy from Creative, they pretty much dont care at all about their customers once you buy from them.
On: 2005-10-17
I purchased the MP3 player for my sons 17th birthday. He is extremely happy with it. Just this morning he pointed out an ad in an electronic store for a comparably priced product with significantly less memory.. He actually siad "great deal"
On: 2005-10-12
Well, after I sat down and read all of the peoples comments, about the difference between Ipods, Zen, Ryos and Sonys I ended up choosing the Creative.
It came in a pretty fancy box, and yup, the player in fact is pretty small. A bit bigger than the ipod, but it still can fit in to a shirt pocket. Heavy? naa, you can feel a bit the weight but is nothing compared to a walkman or to a CD player.
I open the box where all the cables and stuff were and it was a big surpise that it has its own cover. Ipod comes naked and if you want a case, the cheapest and therefore the not very nice one its worth like US$25.00.
Now, let me issue the Ups and Downs of this product.
UPs
-Its rather small and its light
-The screen is easy to use
-Eventhough many say that the scroll its not easy to use, I say they are wrong, its very usefull and against dummies.
-Blue screen is more than enough for the purpose of the player
-It comes with a case to protect the player!
-You can save in it all kind of data
-What you get for the prize you pay is much more that what you can gain with the ipod.
DOWNs
-The software...yup, the software is a major trouble. Eventhough I am a Helpdesk supervisor, this software is pretty unfriendly. And what is worst, I come to a find that in a stranger PC I plug the USB and YEAH, the XP dont recognize the player, so I had to download the driver. Then I wanted to take some movies with me and again, it was not recognize easily by the windows, so I had to download the NOMAD explorer. This means I will always have to carry the software CD and the USB cable besides the player.
-I began to pass to the player a 4 GB file of different .avi movies and when it was in 50% the battery died, eventhough it was fully charged...
-The ear phones are too big for the ears, I dont get it...what model did they use to make those sizes for the ear phones?!
So in conclusion, this player is design for people who look for a MP3 player with good quality of sound and BIG hard disk where you can carry a LOT of things...is not as fancy as the ipod (and not as "in fashion") but who gives a **** right?
On: 2005-10-12
this is an excellent mp3 player, although it is already a bit outdated. i have owned it for over a year and have absolutely no problems. yes, it is a bit bulky, does not have a color screen but it is well worth the money. the butttons are extremely easy to get used to. i recently retired mine thanks to the new creative vision, which, although i havent gotten it yet, looks amazing. if you are looking for a quality buy, definitely save the $100 dollars and go with this or the zen sleek.
On: 2005-10-12
I read the terrific reviews and decided to purchase Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra 40 GB MP3 Player for myself, thinking I was getting an excellent deal. Yes, the storage capacity was great- but thats about all. When I first purchased it, it worked like a charm. But after the first couple months, it no longer was recognized on my computer. It said that the device was not plugged in, although it was. I tried restarting, charging the battery all the way, trying different USB ports and cables, and just about any other thing that I could think of. It plays the files that are currently stored on it fine, but now I cant add any new ones, defeating the purpose of my buying it in the first place.
On: 2005-09-23
...but thats really the only problem ive had with my Zen. the people docking it multiple stars for that reason alone are ridiculous.
first of all, those who are saying you have to use Creatives proprietary software are idiots. Im not sure about Macs, but you can definitely transfer files through Windows Explorer just by dragging and dropping. Its not exactly ideal, but it does work.
secondly, if you really find the software that cumbersome and dont want to transfer through Windows, Red Chair Software has an excellent product called Notmad Explorer that is available for fairly cheap (it was only $20 when i purchased it about a year ago) from their website. much more intuitive and solid than Creatives program.
On: 2005-09-19
I won an iPod photo from a raffle and used it for a few months. I was happy with the features, but found that people were paying huge amounts of money for them, even when they were used. I decided to sell it (and got 370 on eBay). I then bought this unit for just 200 dollars, and found that it is just as good, if not better.
The unit itself is pretty light. I always found that my iPod was a bit too heavy because of that metal plate in the back. I also didnt like how your finger prints always got on the plate, and it was tough to keep clean.
The battery life is great. I think the best I have gotten out of it has been about 15 hours. I like the fact that the unit has a detachable front plate, so that you can change out the battery. I bought another one so that when I travel, I can play music for upwards of 30 hours without charging. I bought an iRiver transmitter so I could play the unit in my car, so I really only have to take it out of my car and plug it in about once every two weeks.
The display is a cool blue color, and it allows you to customize backlight time. You can control other features too, such as the screen saver. It can show time and date information, which is great for someone like me who doesnt carry a watch.
The player is light, and the carry case it comes with feels like it can protect the unit very well. I throw it into my backpack and do not worry about anything breaking.
The only things that I have found so far that I am not crazy about is the included software and the scroll button. I still use iTunes for playing music when I am at my computer becuase it is easier to organize, more user friendly, and easier on the eyes. As for syncronizing music to the player, it is just as fast as the iPod. Adding tracks is simple, but the software does make it a bit more frustrating to create playlists. When you click on a track to move into a playlist, the window scrolls all the way back up to the top of your music list. Thus, it takes a long time to find where you were, and it makes list making a cumbersome task. As for the scroll button, I guess I got a little to used to using the scroll circle on my iPod. The Creative player has a little tab on the side that you push up or down to scroll with. I think it can be a bitter more difficult to land on a song because the scroller accelerates on its own, so you have to get used to stopping short of the artist or song you are looking for, then slowly selecting it.
Other than my dislike for software, I love this unit. I think that anyone shopping for a player should start here, both for the price and the functionality. I do think some of the features should not factor into your decision, such as the EAX audio functions (which I guarantee you, you wont use).
Pros:
The unit is pretty light, despite being slightly larger than iPods.
It has awesome battery life, (better than the iPods from my experience).
Looks great, and feels pretty durable.
Cons:
Software could be improved.
The scroll button is tough to use if you are used to the scroll pad of iPods.
On: 2005-09-18
I love my Nomad player. I listen to Books on Cd and load the Cds on the player. I cant tell you the last time I listened to the radio. I use the wireless FM transmitter and enjoy the ride to work.
On: 2005-09-06
I have had this unit for about 9 months, and love it... use it a lot, dropped it, still flawlessly playing music... controls are easy to manipulate, interface is dead simple, computer connection and software are smooth and fluid... I strongly recommend this player.
On: 2005-08-27
Removable face plate bent upon initial battery instillation. Very thin metal. Player sounds hollow and tin-like when tapped...like the first Honda Civic did when you shut the door.
Plastic hinge pulled off of face plate (one drop of glue held it on), had to glue it back on.
Bulkier than competitors.
Controls are clumsy. Player is too bulky to easily manipulate controls on both sides of player with one hand(no controls on front of unit). Why do I have to go to the menu to lock the player? Why not a dedicated button?
It took me 2 years to beat my Dell to death on my outdoor adventures. This player will not last very long.
If you baby your gear and only care about getting the most storage for the buck, this player may be for you. If you tend to push your gear to the limits, you may want to look at a different player.
On: 2005-08-27
It is a little big, but its worht it when you experience all that it has to offer. It works great, never stalls or freezes. I REALLY love my Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra 40 GB MP3 Player!!!
On: 2005-08-26
Well, I really dont need to add more praises. Kudos to the Creative guys for this player. Its great, cheap and real user friendly. The menu options, buttons, browsing are very good. It does hang, but very rarely (twice in 3 months now) The sound quality is great, and so is the battery life. The only fault I felt was that the hold option was digital, instead of a button. The leather case provided is an added bonus. The universal USB cord to be used is also an useful feature.
Compared to the iPod, I think this is way better in many respects. Go for it !!!
On: 2005-08-25
Ive had this player for a little over a year now and love it. Ive never had any problems at all. It sounds great, especially if you replace the ear buds with better quality phones.
Having read about the Ipods battery woes Im really glad I bought this player with its replacable battery. After a year my battery works fine, but its nice to know I can replace it myself if I must.
Highly reccomended.
On: 2005-08-24
I have had this mp3 player for almost 2 months now. ... no problems.
On: 2005-08-24
Updated August 2007 (Originally purchased June 2005):
I used this product for two years and its always worked great. Compared to my wifes iPod the storage space was much higher for the dollar.
The only reasons I didnt originally give it five stars are these:
1. Sometimes if you hit two different controls a little too quickly, the unit just locks up and you have to reboot it. This was fixed by a later firmware upgrade.
2. The AC power jack is under the strap that closes the protective leather-like case, so you cant secure the case if youre charging.
3. Usually, the thing will shut itself down if idle for a short period of time. However, I found that when you plug in the USB cable to sync with a computer and disconnect the AC power, it doesnt automatically shut off all the time, and the next day your batterys dead. This can also prevent audio book bookmarks from being saved.
4. If you jostle the player, the battery tends to come loose, causing the player to reboot. If youre listening to an audio book at that time, youre starting over.
With those things in mind, the Zen Xtra 40 GB worked great for me. Until July 2007 when I bought a new Zen V Plus to get a lighter unit with a radio. First the software failed to install, then it wouldnt uninstall. Then I found that the software for my Zen Xtra wouldnt work anymore either. Creatives support is non-existent. I returned the V Plus and got my money back.
To fix the problem with the Zen Xtra software I tried to upgrade the software, which required an upgrade the firmware (which I had done twice in the past without problems). The firmware upgrade froze at about 3%, and left the player unusable. I later found out that this has been a problem for many Creative customers for several years and Creative does nothing about it. Ive tried the "fixes" - rolling back to Windows Media Player 10, trying again - but I refuse to re-install a clean boot of Windows just to fix a problem created by the vendor.
Do not buy anything from Creative! They dont support their products, they sabotage their own products and they dont care about the consequences. If an auto dealership did this to a car theyd have to fix it or buy you a new car, but electronics manufacturers dont give a damn.
On: 2005-08-24
Ive been using this product for about two months now and its great. Ive also used my wifes iPod and the main thing that makes the Zen better is storage space for your dollar. Ive used it while walking, working, in the car (with a cassette adapter), with music and Audible.com books. I like the fact that I can bookmark places in an audio book. Plus, if you turn off the player while a song or book is playing, it will continue from the same spot when you start it up again.
The only reasons I dont give it five stars are these:
1. Sometimes if you hit two different controls a little too quickly, the unit just locks up and you have to reboot it.
2. The AC power jack is under the strap that closes the protective leather-like case, so you cant secure the case if youre charging.
3. Usually, the thing will shut itself down if idle for a short period of time. However, I found that when you plug in the USB cable to sync with a computer and disconnect the AC power, it doesnt automatically shut off all the time, and the next day your batterys dead.
With those things in mind, the Zen Xtra 40 GB works great for me.
On: 2005-08-18
For the price this MP3 player is unbeatable. The software is easy to use, you can even edit the track tags from the software when its already uploaded on the player. It holds a ton of music and it is easy to access from the music library. I love the EAX Audio, you can really change the sound to fit what youre playing and the time and place youre playing it. I really dont have any complaints about this player. If you love to bring all of your music with you it is the easiest and cheapest way to do it!
On: 2005-07-28
I bought my player after perusing various reviews of MP3 players here on Amazon. Although Im fairly computer savvy, Im relatively new to the whole digital music deal. This seemed like the best, the most storage space for my money and the option of using it to store data.
My player arrived in good condition. I transfered all of my CDs (including all 6 of my Harry potter audio book CD sets) to the player and was pleased that I still had a good deal of space left to store data files.
The EAX audio is a wonderful feature, I love adjusting the sound configurations for the varied genres on my player. Transfering files was a snap, and creating playlists with the NomadExplorer program was a breeze.
I became semi-addicted to my player over the course of one week. Then, after a month, the music stopped. For no reason, my player kept displaying a "Harddisk error" message. I was heartbroken, and a bit angry at first. I feared I had spent over $200 on something which I could not have repaired or replaced.
But theres a very happy ending - I contacted Creative, and their customer service people could not have been nicer. In 24 hrs they issued a return merchandise agreement for me. I sent the player off, and within two days they diagnosed the problem, fixed it, and sent it back to me. The process was SO easy, and I could follow every step of their problem analysis on the web.
For producing a wonderful product and providing stellar customer service to support it, I give this five stars.
On: 2005-07-27
This MP3 player/ Digital JukeBox is an incredible product. It holds twice as many songs as the I-POd 20 GB and is 100$ Less.
It is very easy to set up and use. You can use any program to download music and ont need to use I-Tunes.
I suggest getting this Player
On: 2005-07-22
Ive only had this player for two days, and so far I like it. It seems pretty durable, Ive already dropped it a few times and it was fine. It sounds really good, but I would definetly recommend using the equalizer to customize the settings, otherwise theres no bass. I didnt think the software was confusing at all. As long as you follow the directions its pretty easy.
On: 2005-07-20
I hate this player with all my heart the storage capacity no longer amazes me it is not cool, problem #1 is the fact that if I dont wear a belt with most of my clothes it is so clunky that it kind of pulls my pants down(I realize it is my own fault if I dont wear a belt) #2 I only had it for three months and blips of other songs started cutting into songs I was currently playing. #3 A week after the blippy thing started I was in the middle of a study hall at school and my player just stopped. I shook it because it sounded like there was something clicking inside and the player burst back to life and scared the living crap out of me then turned off again until I got it back from sending it to Creative, and it still doesnt work right. #4 Customer service sucks #5 I dropped it once and it wasnt a significant height but the player just stopped playing again. I could go on for a little longer but I figure I have done enough complaining.
On: 2005-07-13
This is the best portable music device that I ever purchased. I have been listening to music for many years and always had some sort of portable device to bring with me. I am cautious when a new device comes on the market because Ive seen them come and go.
My son went out and bought this device and showed me how it worked and its storage capacity. After listening to the Nomad I was impressed how great it sounded. I went out and purchaed my own and have to tell you that I am very pleased with this device.
I find the Nomad very easy to use and todate I have 617 cds loaded on this device. (I still have over 6,000 MB of space left.)If you are a music fanatic like I am this is the device for you.
I take this device with me to work, in the car and on airplanes and find this is the perfect device for all my needs. It is larger than an ipod, but I dont care since it is more convenient than caring around a cd player, 20 or 30 cds and portable speakers.
I have dropped this device in its case a number of times and it keeps going without any problems.
Keep on rockin.
On: 2005-07-08
Be careful...this is a great MP3 player for the money but the firmware does not support subscription mp3 services like Rhapsody and Yahoo. They need to provide a new release and its anybodys guess when they will do it. So, dont plan on using it to download subscription music.
On: 2005-07-05
This player will give you the most music for your money hands down. It is only slightly larger then an Ipod, but the ability to buy an extra battery far outweighs the size diffrence. Another nice feature is the power supply is dual volatge so if you travel overseas all you need is a plug addaptor and you can recharge in any country.
Ive had mine for about four months now, I bought it just prior to deploying to Iraq with the national guard. I picked up the Nomad so I could bring my music collection with me and not be stuck dragging around cases of CDs, and it was one of the best purchases I have ever made.
A quick response to another reviewers comments about repeating an album or playing any song at random: You can do both of these with the Nomad, under music library if you pick "play any track" it will play your whole library in a random order, and if you wanted to repeat an album, just put that album on the playlist and change the play mode to repeat all.
All in all this player has all the function of the Ipod, but at a much smaller price.
On: 2005-07-03
Ive had this player for a few months now. Overall, I am pleased with it. The software has a few bugs in it but, you figure them out pretty quickly and figure out how to work around them. The player itself has only one problem Ive found. Sometimes if youre playing a song and decide to switch to another song from your library it wont play it. You just have to press play one more time and it will work. Really not a big deal at all. Also, it transfers songs very quickly. It is definately bigger than an ipod but, the price isnt. I figure it is still very small compared to the books of 600 CDs I used to carry around. It is definately a good buy any way you look at it.
On: 2005-06-28
Ive had this player for just over six months now. As I had heard that some of these have problems after a few months, I felt that it was best to wait before posting anything on it. Now, having incorporated it into my daily routine, and having used it almost every day since receiving it at Christmas, Im very comfortable with it, and have no greivances.
There are a few things about it that might be considered drawbacks, however. First off, it is larger than an ipod, and its a bit awkward to just shove into your pants pocket. Its playback options arent the best. For instance, you cant select shuffle for the whole harddrive, and if you have several albums on your selected music list, you cant repeat just that album. Sometimes when its playing the player itself will make a whirring sound, which I guess must be the hard drive doing its thing. Ive also been a little annoyed that the output from the headphone jack isnt very good. When using the player in conjunction with a cassette adapter in the car, or just with an adapter to RCA to plug into my stereo, Ive noticed that the volume is quite low, enough that to be listenable, my stereo has to be turned to nearly full volume, and of course, the volume on the player has to at or near full. To remedy this, Ive had to invest in a small headphone amplifier. Ive not been able to play through my computer directly from the player. Rather, I have to transfer files from the player onto my PC and then play (though that might be my computer or the software rather than the player itself). Also, though it says 40 GB, its really more like 30-35, which is a bit annoying given that you pay for capacity, but figure that youre still well above the so-called 30 GB player which is probably only in the upper twenties. I should also say that once the thing did freeze on me, and I had to reset it with a paperclip, after which it was fine. And the headphones that come with the player are crap.
Apart from these small issues, I have very much enjoyed having and using my mp3 player. The sound quality is fairly good, it never skips, and Im still filling it. Ive found that Im listening to more of my music collection, and that its much more organized now that Im not searching for CDs all the time, and that my music experience is must more customizable. Even with a five CD changer, and a stereo that can be programmed to skip around, my previous set-up didnt allow for me to control what I listen to and in what order to nearly the degree that I do now. Ive also used it on multiple occasions as an external hard drive. When I had to wipe my PC, I put a lot of my files onto it because it was easier than burning a bunch of CDs. The software is very stable, and transfering between you hard drive, your "library" and your player is very quick, although if you have a library of significant size, when you first move everything over it will take a while to transfer it all. But adding my latest acquired albums takes only a few seconds. Everything about this MP3 player is quick and easy, and I confidently recommend this as a good player at a better price than the competition.
On: 2005-06-20
The pros and cons of this product are well described in the other reivews youll find here. The Creative product line is so much cheaper than the equivalent iPods, that Im now on my fourth Jukebox Zen. And therein lies the rub: Im on my fourth machine. I went through two of the earlier 20Gb Zens, Creative replacing the first on warranty. When the second gave up the ghost, I upgraded to the 40Gb Zen Xtra and spent the extra $30 on an extended warranty. Good thing, too, because after about a year it died as well. It took Creative TWO MONTHS to decide they couldnt repair it and send me a new one. So its a great product in terms of sound quality, ease of use, etc., and though its a bit bulkier than the iPod, the price point keeps me coming back. But in my experience the Jukebox Zen does not hold up well over time and Creatives customer service department is difficulty to deal with, glacially slow, and frustratingly inefficient.
On: 2005-06-14
I will try to give the best explanation of why this device should be chosen over every other player out there. I am 19 years old (using my moms Amazon S/N to write this review for you all) and in college so I need something I can commute with and listen to all my CDs. I have had an mp3 player ever since the first Nomad came out from the CreativeLabs. I use to care about the size of the unit, but after the experience I have had, I much rather sacrafice size for quality. I started with a Nomad Jukebox 3 which was not only the heaviest and largest mp3 player out there (but back then only 1 of 3 players on the market), but it was one of the BEST SOUNDING mp3 players I ever witnessed. Not only was the quality superb, but the features were so much more than others had to offer. I am teched out in my room from PDAs to mp3s so I love to search for the best and let everyone else know how good a product is. I went from the nomad jukebox 3, to the rio karma, to the ipod, then iriver H300, then iriver H320(color screen), Creative touch, and finally the Creative Zen Xtra 40gb.
I will now compare all of these and show the true differences:
Jukebox 3: Pros: 98dB noise cancelling ratio, fm radio and remote control option, 2 Line outs, Optical Line in, firewire, USB 1.1, and an assortment of features like: find a song, EAX advanced, green and blue backlight, 4 channel speaker, profile. You can have up to 2 batteries. Cons: Huge, heavy, bulky, and small battery unless u add another. Small display.
RioKarma: Pros: Smaller, very easy to use, Rio DJ, clock, scroll wheel, Left hand and Right hand inversion settings. Cons: quality is above par, but not spectacular like the jukebox 3. Other than that, very well made machine. Battery could be better and it is not replaceable.
ipod: Pros: scroll wheel (heaven), games, design. Honestly...the only two good things. Cons: Battery life is a two thumbs down, quality is not impressive, interface is whack, software is evil, scratches like no other, and other things that I will discuss a little later. No replaceable battery or firmware updates as well.
iriver H300 & H320: Both are identical except the H320 is colored screen. Pros: Gorgeous color display. That alone was super tempting. Built in voice recorder, built in FM radio, size, nice interface, very easy to transfer songs, Sound quality is ok. Cons: Sound quality-lacks bass and treble settings (even with EAX) that help produce that kick in your stereo and headphones. No replaceable battery.
Creative Zen Touch: Pros: Nice size display, great battery life *similar* features to the xtra and jukebox 3 BUT not the same, nice case. Cons: quality was not what I expected from a Creative product (just under par from the jukebox 3 but still sounded better than the iriver), the touch pad is SO SO SO annoying...trying to go down by one selection is tough, the EAX is half done....the jukebox 3 was loaded, and no replaceable battery.
***The Nomad Zen Xtra*** Pros: THE SAME AS THE JUKEBOX 3 with a smaller, sleeker more attractive design. Cons: under par battery life, but is replaceable so you can purchase another one for $50 and swap it out when the other dies out to give you up to 28 hrs of battery life.
Now I will give you history to show how I arrived to this conclusion:
I started with the Jukebox 3 that I considered it to be SO AMAZING that I couldnt believe the quality and storage this device could produce. Up to this day it goes down in history as the best player made on the market and I sware by it. I truly wished for something smaller since the bulky, heavy machine would be difficult to travel with. I couldnt put it in my pocket so that was annoying for carrying around. I decided to pick up the Rio Karma. This player is much smaller, little fat, but overall solid and a good choice. Unfortunately, this player no longer exists so dont rush out to buy one just yet. I liked it for what it was, but the quality could not compete with the mighty Jukebox 3. If you dont believe the quality of the jukebox 3, go try to find one. The machine will convince you that it is the best....the music sounds better than the CD! Then I purchased the ipod...I will start a new paragraph to make this stand out.
IPOD: By far the worse machine I have purchased. Where to begin....first of all, the device will get a scratch with the slightest touch. Secondly, the software is decent until you learn the evil behind it. So many people buy it from the hype and sleek style, but they lack the hidden knowledge that ipod brilliantly hides. When you connect the ipod to your computer, consider that computer to ipod a one way street. When you send a song over to the ipod, it is not coming back. Ipod strictly protects each and every song from ever returning to that computer....even if it is your own. Another problem is the firmware....it doesnt exist. You have 1 firmware and you are trapped. If a new firmware release comes out, you will need to spend $300 to buy yourself a new player because that is the only way you will have it. The next issue is the battery. Contents in box stink....no case or docking station to cut back the cost. I cant believe how fast it just drained. It sucks the life out of it before you get the chance to say "The battery is dead." Playlists, song deletion, and organization all must be done on the computer. You CANNOT delete a song or create a playlist on an ipod from the device itself. Utterly annoying to say the least. Dont be fooled by the style and glitter. It is a device that puts pain and mental anguish in you that isnt needed from an mp3 player.
Iriver H300 and H320: These were the next two players I invested in. I bought the H320 just because of the color screen since all of the other features were the same from the H300. The device is solid. You get a ton of bang for your buck. I see they have have brand new H10 20gb version which is much smaller that you could take a look at. The H320 has a very powerful voice recorder which is worth the purchase if you need a digital recorder, it has a drag and drop capability, and FM radio. If you want to compare software with the other players, then youre out of luck.....there is none. You just open the Hard Drive folder, open the folder of music you want, and drag it to the Hard Drive folder. That is it. The battery is 16 hrs which is good. With all of this, cant you see why I bought it. It even comes with carrying case and remote control. The problem with the iriver is the quality. It sounds as good as the rio karma, but I sware you can notice a gigantic difference between a creative product and this iriver. If you plug your player into an external source, the iriver has poor bass and treble. Your car sound system or home stereo system will not sound too thrilling. You will think that you paid good money for that Bose sound system and end up wanting to take it back. Trust me...it is the player. I tested the Jukebox 3 with the iriver on the same sound system and the sound quality difference was night and day...completely different. The Creative blew my mind with the power and clarity compared to the iriver.
Now I tried the brand new creative touch. This player supposedly is *97dB* compared to the jukebox 3 *98db* noise cancelling ratio. Believe me...I now know the difference. It sounded better than the iriver, but still worse than the jukebox 3. The touch pad was about as annoying to work with as it gets. It was an attempt to copy ipod and obviously failed. It is hard to navigate without going past your selection. The play button and the others are flimsy and felt like they could fall off. The player as a whole felt VERY solid...like a rock. I felt there was no hope in sight of ever coming close to the Nomad Jukebox 3 and I was dissapointed until I researched this player: The Nomad Zen Xtra.
The Nomad Zen Xtra is not only the best player up to date, but it mimics the success and fantastic quality of the Jukebox 3. Up to now you heard me rave about the Jukebox 3 which had nothing to do with the Zen Xtra until now. Take the name "jukebox 3" and place "Zen Xtra" everywhere in this review. The Zen Xtra not only sounds so great, but it is smaller, sleeker, stylish, and feature packed like the Jukebox 3. However, it cannot play FM radio or voice record and it cannot use a remote control, but that is the smallest price to pay to acheive a dream machine. If you want superb audio quality, a wonderful device, and have your external sound systems sounding like what they were purchased for....then you have just wisely invested in this product. Of all the players I have witnessed and thoroughly tested, this is by far as good as it gets. The bass and treble are fabulous, the device is smaller (not the smallest but u sacrafice quality for size), the buttons are very sturdy, the screen is very big with a nicely sapphire lit screen, jam packed with features without sacraficing others, and a nice interface to work with.
If you ask "What makes this different from any other device?" or "Is it hard to use?", then let me break it down for you. I dont understand what kind of rap this machine has been getting for the software because I found it to be very intuitive and easy to operate. You are given not 1....but 2 different programs to make the process easy to operate. One is an organizer and one is a drag and drop which simply puts the songs on to your device just like I explained with the iriver. The interface on the device is so advanced and loaded with features that up to now beat out all other mp3 players in my opinion. You can find any song by using the A-Z finder. You can choose from MANY Equalizers like the Jukebox 3 offers. The Zen Touch DOES NOT HAVE ALL THESE EQUALIZER SETTINGS....it is a rip off....they skimmed the surface in my opinion. The load up on this player is absolutely shocking......you turn the player on and there is no wait time....it is automatically ready to go. You have a built in playlist where you can set it up extremely easily with any CD or particular song you want. I absolutely love that feature and I sware you cant find anything easier. Just takes getting use to if you are a first timer to the wonderful world of Creative. The profile setting allows you to customize the interface to your liking which is a nice feature. The scroll is very nice. It slightly takes a little getting use to because it speeds up, but trust me...I have seen it all....you will like it once you have this scroll. Another benefit that you dont realize until you have experienced these other players is the fact that when you use that scroll and highlight your selection....you can push in the scroll and it enters your selection. It doesnt sound like much, but you will whip along much faster without using two hands just with that feature. There is a button lock and switch to remove the external battery. That is another fantastic feature that other players lack. The ability to change the battery if it goes bad or you just want to double your life capacity is so worth the money. Other players you are stuck with the battery built inside which is not replaceable. Another interesting fact that you might not consider is that if the player locks up (like the ipod did to me one time), you can just remove the battery and reset it that way.
I think I have said enough. I honestly think this is the best investment money can buy. YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED. I have tried the rest, and now I am sticking with the best. This player is solid and the best out there. The irony is that it is MUCH cheaper than other players out there. Amazon is selling it for $224 which is the best I have seen online and it is TRULY amazing that for $224, you can get ***40gb*** of storage. All $300 players out there offer 20gb which is half the size and arent even good anyway. Creative is trying to pull the demand with a high quality product for an amazing price. You cant beat a deal like that....especially when you see those small 4,5,6gb players for $200.....this is $24 bucks more for 10X the size.
I believe in this product so much that you can e-mail me at pharmachesst@netscape.net for any reason whether with questions or concerns. If you need help with the software, I have been through it all lol so I know how to get it working. In no way am I a representative for Creative....I just love this product so much and when I stand by my technology....I mean it...I just dont say it to waste my breathe and time. Just an avg. man trying to go through college like everyone else....but why go through what I did....when I know this is the choice! You will love the player. I promise :).
~Eddie
FYI: All songs downloaded on the mp3 players were at a good quality of 192kbps MP3 format and all were tested with the same $29.99 Sony MDR-A35 headphones and Bose sound system in my car. I have 18gbs of music on this player which is equivalent to about 190 CDs and I have 15gb of storage left. The Mp3 player only gives you 38.1GB of storage which should not be suprising since all mp3 players are like that because they require HD space for the interface. I hope this review helps you a lot!
On: 2005-05-16
In shopping for a digital music player, I wasnt interested in style, or impressing people with my hip new electronic toy. I was interested in storage space, sound quality, battery life, and price. The 40 GB Nomad Zen Xtra more than delivered on all of these.
I take this player to work and it gives me 8-10 hours every day, with battery life to spare. Then when Im at home I can plug it into its charger and still listen to it while the battery charges back up.
The software was easy to install for me, and I enjoy the relative ease at which I can rip and transfer songs from any source, be it Napster,itunes, Yahoo, P2P, or my own CDs. The Creative Mediasource software gives you the freedom to create your own playlists, an sort your music library in virtually whatever way you choose.
This player is also durable. Ive dropped it several times and its kept on ticking. As long as you keep it in its sturdy carry case and dont go skateboarding with it, it should work fine. Treat it like a piece of electronics and not a cheap walkman.
On the negative side, the earbuds that are included with the Zen Xtra are trash. Anyone who cares anything about sound quality will need to invest at least another 40-50 dollars in a decent set of earphones/buds. This applies to just about all digital music players as well. I also have an issue to where I get static/snow in my right earphone from time to time. This is a noted problem with this series of Nomads and it happens very infrequently to me, not enough to take away from my overall satisfaction with the product.
I enjoy this player so much I listen to it more than my stereo at home due to the fact that it gives me the freedom to listen to my collection of 3500+ songs at virtually the touch of a button, and the 40 GB drive means I havent even used up half of the memory on this thing, leaving me a large ceiling to expand my collection and fit it all on here.
And the absurd thing is that I got this 40GB Nomad at about the same price I would have paid for a 4 gb ipod mini. 10 times the space for about the same price? So Im not hip, Ill take the extra 36 GBs and like the trade just fine.
On: 2005-04-20
I LOVE my 40GB mp3 player. It rocks my world. And it helps keep my sanity. I plug it into my car, I listen to it when I walk, when Im at home, and in some of my classes that let me. I have a huge music collection and I dont even have a quarter downloaded to it. My only problem is that it got stolen from my backpack while in school. So now my sanity is leaving. I am so upset. So now I have to look for a new one, with my limited student income and I am going off to college in August.
P.S. I hate iPods ;)
On: 2005-04-17
I bought this to play in my car and listen to while I go on my walks. \\
I have had it for 5 months now with absolutely no problems. It has frozen up a couple of times, but the reset button takes care of it and does not effect the memory.
It has superb sound quality and is very user friendly. I dont think I will ever fit all of my music on it. It transfers songs super fast.
My only issue is the size. It is bulky to take on walks or to exercise with. But for the price and the storage capacity, I cant complain too much.
I like the creative labs products so much, I am buying a smaller MP3 player (MuVo2 512MB off of eBay stores creative.labs at a great price!!!) for exercising with.
On: 2005-04-15
This is an exceptional MP3 player for the price, without the limited usability that IPOD implements in order to stop piracy... theyre only losing customers who have more than one PC and buy their music like me.
Let me see... $200 for a 40GB MP3 player from Creative, or $599 for an Ipod... not a difficult choice.
I found setup to be very difficult indeed, and I am an advanced PC user. The driver on this disc wouldnt install, so I had to manually download and install the device driver from the Creative website. (This is why it gets 4 stars and not 5). Also, the installation instructions are pretty poor. It will say things like, "In the content menu select your music, and hit the send to device button" Unfortunately for us, it doesnt give pictoral represtentations of what or where these buttons are, and the in screen buttons dont have a pop up label when you hover your cursor over it. Very frustrating, but, eventually youll figure it out... unless the driver doesnt install on your PC either, then youre left to either manually install it or contact Tech support on how to do this.
Ive read a lot of complaints about not being able to arrange by folders... but you can arrange by playlist. Either manually, which will take forever, or hook it up to your PC, and use the Nomad Explorer program to open your Nomad files on your PC and manipulate the player at your PCs keyboard (much faster). You can sort, arrange, and do almost anything with this. Arranging the files by playlist is virtually the same thing as arranging them by folder, and you can store all of a certain type or band to a playlist for easy access. Though, you can not create sub-playlists, which would be conveinant if you wanted to sort a band with several albums. It would be more conveniant to sort each album to a playlist.
So, though the initial instalation was a little tedious, the device program for filing information really isnt as bad as everyone is making it sound, and its easy to Playlist a group of songs from your PC.
It has Superb music quality and volume.
I would recommend this product based upon Price, quality of sound, and volume.
But be prepared for a slightly challenging instal. Still, worth the $300 I saved!!!
On: 2005-04-10
When I decided to rid myself of hauling my CDs around, scratching them up, then wasting money replacing them, I knew an MP3 player was the way to go. I already had a small 128kb Pen Drive/Player, and it was okay for the gym or walking between classes, but I really just wasnt happy with the amount of space. I decided that I needed something with the capacity to store all the music I could concievably own within the next 5 or 10 years. This meant a 30 or 40 gig player, which realistically left me with 3 choices: an iPod, and iRiver, and a Zen Xtra.
Not one to drop 200+ dollars on just anything, I researched them all. The iRiver just didnt have many features that appealed to me, and Im not very familiar with the brand, so I didnt really know if they had a reliable reputation. Apples top-selling iPod would have been tempting, if I didnt hate the look, interface, and price tag. Not to rag on Apple, they make great products, but they just always seem so alien to me, and a little girly. So I looked at the Zen Xtra, which seemed to have it all for me.
Let me start with how it looks. This is the sort of player no man would be ashamed of, with its slick aluminum skin, large, bright screen, and extremely sweet and durable black leather case. Its got some weight to it, which is good, because I like to know theres some guts in my toys. I dont feel like Im going to break this thing with ordinary use, it is very solid. I like that it has actual buttons, and the scroll wheel is simple and intuitive to use. After my first charge (which takes about an hour or so), I decided to go ahead download all 2,276 songs from my CD collection to it (which I had previously ripped to my computer). This took about 15 minutes, which blew me away. The provided software makes it relatively easy to select and organize your music, which is all I really need it to do. Playback on the Zen Xtra is clean and punchy, though I will reccomend replacing the included headphones right away (theyre decent, I just dont like earbuds). Finding songs and artists is relatively easy assuming you have your tracks tagged correctly. There are a ton of EAX features like equalizers, ambience, and such. The best one by far, though, is the match volume setting. This is something the iPod doesnt have that it should, and was one of the bigger selling points for me. Not having to reach up and adjust the volume between every song should be a must for any MP3 player.
Other than that, I dont really know what else there is to say about this player. it does everything I want it to, I take it everywhere with me. If I did have any gripes about it, it would be that I wish it were easier to skip to a certain song without leaving my current playlist. I suppose the battery life could be a little better (gets around 12 hours normal playing, 8 with eax settings on), but I charge it every night when I go to bed so thats kind of not an issue for me.
I would highly reccomend this player to anyone looking for a good, solid MP3 player with an insane amount of storage space.
On: 2005-04-03
First, I have to disagree with a few previous reviews. The software is very easy to install. However you will find all you need are the drivers for Nomad. Because the Nomad DOES work with Windows Media Player. In fact, my sons Dell DJ was much more difficult to install on a Dell pc than the Nomad.
I give this product a 4 star rating for two reasons. It is not a great looking item. Its very simple. The buttons are not lit like some other players. I would also not recommend this item for a younger child or teen. Its made of very light weight material. Perfect for me, but I am not so sure it would be suitable for my teen.
The facts are, you get tons of storage space for much less money. So I think the average person can overlook the lack of beauty from this item. The battery life is very satisfying. It will last you the 14 hours.Some have complained about the earbuds that come with the item. Is that really a big deal?I dont think so. The protective case that comes with the Nomad is nice as well. Transfers are quick and easy. I loaded over 600 hundred songs in no time.When shopping for an MP3 player, I definitely think the Nomad should be considered.
On: 2005-04-03
Im a mac user but I decided to go for the 40GB Nomad and I dont regret it, with only a plug in for the itunes I can load the music into the nomad with no problem, I have twice space with 40GB for almost 65 bucks less, It works great, never skips and the battery life is outstanding for all the things it does. It also comes with the pouch and the ipod doesnt, the only thing I dont like, the earphones, too poor for the type of product, they should put headphones like in past nomad models, this are pretty cheap. But above all its a great product for a decent price, theres no need for ipod. If this product would come with mac support it would kill ipod sales. Thanks
On: 2005-04-02
I purchased this unit thinking the Creative name meant quality, well that might be the case but let me tell you My computer (which is a dell 8400 tricked out) could not pick up the player using the provided software, the player does not work with Windows Media Player, There is no excuse for any company to not have their player be compatible with Windows Media Player, If Creative wants to be a stand alone then merge with Apple, and the Tech support, Boy What a bunch of air heads, no help, all tech support would do was refer me to the problem section of the creative web site and tell me to call back if the issue was not corrected, after 5 times of of that insanity and going no where I returned the player and bought a Rio Karma,and with the Rio I am a happy camper again. The Creative Nomad is only a paper weight and the Tech Support should be fired.
On: 2005-03-31
I love this MP3 player. The controls are easy to use, the battery lasts a long time before needing to be recharged, and the software works fast for transferring. It did take me a couple of evenings to figure out the software, but after that, no problems. One of the reviewers mentioned the lack of car power adapter, but Bed Bath Beyond & Radio Shak both sell universal car adapters so that you can plug small appliances with household plugs into a car(handy for lots of things). Ive had no problems with the player, it works great, and Ive been using it about 2 months. I put 220+ albums of my collection on it, with plenty of room for more. Ive been using an adapter to play it thru my cassette deck on my car plus my home stereo system. Ive never used the earplug headset that came with it, since I had better headphones already.
On: 2005-03-26
After doing lots of research on MP3 players I finally decided on purchasing the Creative Zen Jukebox. Imgaine my surprise when I tried to install the software that came with it. I had nothing but a nitemare trying to install it. I got ndada. I installed it just the way the manual said to and it just sits there. So I tried calling Creative Tech Support, which by the way you can only get through the web site, and just my luck I was unable to contact them due to a so called holiday. So I did the next best thing I emailed them- Well as of 6 days I have had no response at all. So I had to take it back where I purchased it and now im back to having no Mp3 player.. What a Joke!!!!!!!
On: 2005-03-25
Just get the extended Warranty, but if you want to know why read on. I bought my creative Jukebox 40GB right around the New Year. I have placed over 400 CDs on it and plan to continue. I wanted to wait to write a review, these reviews really helped my decision. I did a ton a research and this is what I found: Ipods are much more aesthetically pleasing and have a slightly better operating system (more user-friendly) just like all their products. But like all their products they overcharge compared to the competition for basically a "hot lookin" item. I paid about $150 less than the Ipod but then bought the $40 2 year extended warranty from Best Buy. Ok extended warranties are like lottery tickets but if you plan on using your player the battery will die, and there is your $40 investment right there. Best Buy (Im sure other stores have these, CC etc.) will give you a new battery. Plus if the dreaded headphone jack fails then your covered and paid $100 less. One of the best features that the Ipod doesnt have is that you can add a song to a play list, meaning that if a song is playing you can select another one to play after, and so on. DJ style. The battery life definitely out shines the Ipod. I have had multiple 8 hr road trips. The headphones that are supplied are poor so dont be fooled at the initial sound quality it is definitally equal to the Ipod and plays wma format. Selecting songs can be a hassle especially having over 10,000 because of their weird slide wheel. There is an alpha search so if an artist starts with a `T you can quickly get to the Ts. You can use it as a USB drive for transferring files although I dont use that option often. You can have multiple sites of download for Mp3s, so if you keep some of your music on another computer... The software it comes with isnt anything special but it gets the job done could improve. Recap: With everything comparable (size sound quality etc.) the price and making mixes on the go are the reasons I purchased this guy. I bought about $100 worth of music in the last couple months, saw a show, and bought new strings - rock on.
On: 2005-03-24
Ill concentrate on areas that others havent covered:
Good: You can (and should) get the third party (inexpensive but not free) notmad explorer from redchairsoftware. Its a lot nicer (IMO) than the Creative musicmanager and also provides a way to use the mp3 player to do audio streaming over the internet. So, you can leave it at home and listen to it at work, for example.
Bad: The manufacturers warranty is only 90 days! I wouldnt spend hundreds of Dollars for a portable device with tiny moving parts with a 90 day warranty. Suggestion: Check out vikingwarranty for an inexpensive after-market extended warranty.
On: 2005-03-23
This product is the most worthless piece of junk I have ever purchased in my life. Not only are there obvious physical problems (which I thought would not bother me), but there have been numerous - and I mean numerous - problems with the hard drive since I purchased it a mere seven and one half months ago.
First of all, the plus side is that the player has an attractive appearance, the music is well-organized on the player, and music is quick to upload on the player. However, music can only be uploaded if Creatives software is installed on the computer. So if you think you can easily transfer music from a friends computer onto this player (like with an I-Pod), think again. Oh, and there is no radio on this player.
The physical problems are as follows: the player itself is way too big and bulky, it weighs a good deal, and its carrying case will not stay hooked onto your article of clothing. Also, with the addition of the carrying case, the player now has even more bulk. But I have found the carrying case is always necessary, because the player is too flimsy to withstand bumping, jostling, or dropping.
Now to the more important problems. Approximately one month after I received the player, an error message started popping up every 7 or 8 songs, obscuring the scene. It did not affect the music too much, although it was a huge nuisance (still has not gone away). About three weeks after I started using the headphones, one of the pads fell off; thus, they are now useless as they will not remain in my ear. About four months after I purchased the player, I could only hear music out of one ear. Despite numerous emails to Creatives customer service (who are unsympathetic), the problem still remains unresolved. Now, I can only hear music in both ears if I have the jack in a certain position; otherwise I can only hear in one ear. Now, seven and a half months after my purchase, the player has stopped functioning completely. I tried cleaning it, rebooting it, and replacing the firmware, but there is a "Harddisk Problem," and I cannot play any music. Again, despite emails to Creative (whose solutions have been either to send it with a forty dollar repair fee not including various other costs or reinstall the firmware), nothing has been resolved.
Now these may seem like isolated problems and you might think they will not happen to you. But I have always kept the player in the carrying case and I dont throw it around or anything, so I suspect these problems are not mine alone. Plus, why deal with the hassle of all these problems when you can find a player that is a much better value?
I have spoken with multiple people, all of whom have I-Pods (surprise), and although I was initially against the idea of the I-Pod, now I fully recommend you buy it instead. I have yet to find someone who has experienced problems with their I-Pod, while mine is completely dead. Good luck!
On: 2005-03-23
I cant speak to the old model. The model I have is the newer one apparently.
I dont jog or ski with it on. SKI??? Anyway if you are a jogger perhaps you should get one of the small cheaper ones made just for sports use. This is more of a big one for holding TONS of music and transporting/listening to it say from home to work and in the car inbetween.
It seems sturdy, good software, nice features good price compared to the Ipod which is 100 more right now.
I havnt had it long enough to say if it will last but I will come back and edit this if I have problems.
On: 2005-03-16
As far as working out with or doing any type of physiical activity- spend your money on flash. I took my 40gb snowboarding 1 time and it failed and all data was lost. To make things worse, customer support said if I want a new hard drive its gonna cost me $150. Overall, the customer service people were anything but helpful and really, I dont know why theyre even there.
It does have really good sound quality though. Im just frustrated because I read through all the packaging and warranties and they didnt say anything about making sure it stays motionless. The customer service guy said you shouldnt even walk around with it. If thats the case whats the point?! I couldve bought a car stereo that played mp3s for much cheaper than this stupid thing and just played the rest on my computer for free. Overall Im pretty frustrated with it right now, although had I been asked before it broke I wouldve had nothing but great things to say about it, the interface is awesome and the software is simple. It just sucks youre not supposed to do anything with it besides set it on your desk
On: 2005-03-15
Ive had my Zen about two months now. When I first got it, I wasnt too sure about it. Its operation was very different than my old Archos MP3 player. After a few days, I got the hang of it. Navigation it easy and the search function cuts down on the time it would normally take to find songs. I have my entire 200+ CD collection on it with almost half of the drive space still empty. Its light weight and small size make it very portable. I take it everywhere with me. The included software is ok, not as great as it could be, but still it works well enough. Throw away the crappy headphones it comes with and get some good ones.
On: 2005-03-12
Ive had my nomad for almost a month now and I dont know how I ever lived without it. I was a little nervous about what the software was going to be like after reading several customer reviews but it was extremely simple to install and just as easy to use. Im fairly computer illiterate, too, so it really says something that I find it easy to use. I had been wanting an ipod for a long time but, being a starving college student, I could not even come close to affording one. When I heard about the nomad, and specifically how much less expensive than the ipod it is, I thought it sounded too good to be true. But it isnt! Buy one, trust me, you will not regret it. A couple of weeks after I got mine my roommate went out and bought one, its just that good.
On: 2005-03-11
Not the slimmest or lightest, but very very good storage capacity and playback quality. The synch software its easy to use and keeps my PC and jukebox collections synchronized. I am very happy with this player.
On: 2005-03-01
Creative Nomad Zen Xtra appears to be the most consumer-budget-friendly hard disk based mp3 player on the market. Creative built this player using a standard, 2.5" wide and 9.5 mm thick hard disk used in laptop computers. These hard drives are bigger and heavier than the whole iPod; however, since they made in huge quantities, they are rather inexpensive. This allowed Creative to offer a 40 GB player at a price close to half of that of iPod and iRiver with the same disk size. Additional built-in savings feature (which apparently added another millimeter or two to Zens thickness) is user-replaceable lithium-ion battery. One can find a spare battery from twenty dollars, keep a charged spare at hand when going on a long trip, and replace it faster than it takes to change AA batteries in a portable CD player. All other comparable mp3 players must be disassembled to replace the battery (which usually loses its capacity after 250-400 charging cycles), which costs roughly twenty-thirty dollars for the battery and approximately fifty to seventy dollars for a five minute installation job.
Yes, Zen Xtra is bulky - it is 0.3 taller, 0.6" wider, and 0.3" thicker than iPod, and 2.3 oz heavier. This seem to be not a lot on the paper, but when you hold an iPod in one hand and Zen Xtra in the other, it does seem BIG. It does not look that bulky after you get used to it (or have no iPods nearby), but it is still feels heavy if you put it into your shirt pocket on in your fanny pack.
Out of the box, it comes with a partially charged battery and about 60 pre-loaded pieces of popular classical music (not a stellar performance, but good melodies). The earbuds are comfortable and have surprisingly clear distortion-free sound. However, thier bass is not very strong, and trembles could be somewhat more transparent. The sound quality of the player is very good (<0.1% harmonic distortions, 98 dB signal-to-noise ratio), it support mp3 up to 320 kbps as well as WAV and WMA. In fact, the general opinion seems to be that its sound quality is the best of all mp3 players in its class.
The unit comes with a 12-month warranty. The information on Creatives web site (as at the end of February 2005) was contradictory, but I got confirmation from their customer support that their new policy is 12 month and no longer 90 days.
Zen Xtra supports USB 2 and USB 1.1 (although does not support charging through the USB port) but does not work with firewire. Its software (required to copy sound tracks and data files back and forth between the player and your PC) can be installed on any version of Windows, including 98. Mac is not supported. The first application uses Windows Explorer interface; the second one is more elaborate, provides more sophisticated user interface, and supports ripping of music into mp3 format.
I read many negative reports on Creative Media Source, but I personally find this piece of software very convenient and efficient. It indeed takes some time to figure how it works and why it works this way, but once you figured it out, it works great.
All tracks are saved in the root folder on the players hard drive (data files can be saved with folders), and looking through an endless list of files in Nomad Explorer could be very intimidating. This is where the Media Source comes into play - its multi-window structure allows you very quickly display tracks which match certain standard selection criteria, such as genre, artist, or album. This is in a way similar to instant arrangement of tracks into folders, as one would do it on a computer.
The player comes with a decent quality leather case, a charger, and a USB cable.
To summarize, Zen Xtra is not as cute and tiny as the iPod, and does not have the iRivers endless set of capabilities. But if offers you 40 GB for $150+ less, and saves you another $50+ each time you need a new battery. It is bulky, but it plays very well, has long battery life, solid feel, and a quite convenient user interface. It is the player to buy if its size and weight are not major factors, but the price is. Six stars for the value, four stars for the size and weight, five in average.
On: 2005-02-22
I bought this player back in August, and it has served me well since buying it, but it has its cons.
+ durability- I often go jogging, and at first I was a little apprehensive about bringing it with me, especially after hearing the horror stories from other buyers. There were no problems with it at all, even when I tripped.
- Battery- When I purchased the player, I would routinely get around 16 hours to a charge, now, six months later, im lucky to get 10 hours. The problem is mitigated by the choice of buying
an additional battery, but that would be another $40 bucks, not something I look for in a value player.
+ Features- While the random feature is hidden in a menu, the speed up/down function, environment simulator, and customizable equalizer settings are very well-made and fun to play around with.
- Buttons- After six months of essentially living in my pocket, the buttons are starting to lose their sensitivity. The scroll wheel on the side especially feels like its losing its springiness, and the fast-forward button is losing its shine. However, I dont need them much anymore, as I just set it on random and leave it alone.
All things considered, I would most certainly encourage you to buy one of these, and if (not when)I need to replace it, Ill buy from Creative Labs again.
On: 2005-02-18
I got this player just before christmas and have been using is every day. I have not had any of the problems that people list here: my cover has never come off and have had NO problems witih the software.
This is my first mp3 player: I used windows media to rip a lot of my cds. I have 357 on there so far, I have a stack of 50 or so more to go. I had no problem losing artist, track, song information. I have MANY different versions of the same song by the dead and phish.
The player keeps them well organized.
Playlists are not easy to create on the fly on the player. Theyre easy enough to create using the jukebox software.
You can set the back light time and auto off feature - which is usefull so I dont run the battery down.
My only complaint is the scroll wheel. It is a little hard to highlight and select items from the menus - it does take a little practice and I am getting better at it.
On: 2005-02-15
I had gone to Best Buy with the intention of buying a 20GB iPod, but then ran across the Nomad Zen Xtra. Weighing the pros and cons of the features, I just couldnt bring myself to purchase the iPod when I could get twice the amount of hard drive space, a removeable lithium ion battery, a free case, and sound normalizing via EAX for $50 less. I used the extra $50 to purchase the 2-year replacement warranty, which Im really glad I did.
Here are my gripes about the unit:
1. Never owning a hard-drive based MP3 player before, the first thing I noticed (much to my disappointment) was after I transferred all 5000 of my MP3s that I had neatly organized by artist-labeled folders, all the songs were dumped into one directory. Since I had previously stripped all my ID tags (since it would have taken forever to uniform them all,) I couldnt sort my songs by artist unless I either 1) recreated 5000 ID tags, or 2) created playlists by artist. I chose option 2. Luckily, I found a nifty little program that scans your directory structure and creates playlists by folder name within seconds. Then I just used the windows find feature to locate all the .m3u playlist files. Then I drag and dropped them to the player. Problem solved. Again, this annoyance isnt exclusive to the Nomad. The iPod "organizes" files the same way. My preference would be to have the OS recognize the unit as an additional drive, where I could just drag and drop my folders to it, but that doesnt seem to be the way these things operate (for whatever reason.)
2. The next flaw I noticed with this player (and exclusively with this player) is that the front cover pops off WAY too easily. Since the battery isnt locked into place, it pops out when the cover comes off. If this happens in the middle of playing a song, it causes the data to become corrupted. When you restart your player, it has to go through an annoying recovery routine. After it was done "recovering," my playlists had become corrupted, which meant I had to drag and drop them again. But, even after dragging and dropping them, I noticed that some songs were missing from the playlists. I could not fix this any other way (because of the limitation with the included software,) without deleting everything and starting over. Everything was great for another day, until the exact thing happened again. At this point, Im getting very annoyed with the fact the front cover keeps popping off. Why Creative Labs made it so easy to remove a lithium ion battery that will only need to be accessed for replacement every 2 years is beyond me. It should be secured with user-removeable screws...but thats just my two cents. So, now I had three options. 1) keep it in the protective cover to prevent the front from popping off. I opted not to go with this option because it adds to the bulkiness of the unit. 2) Take it back to Best Buy and get a refund so I can purchase the 20GB iPod, or 3) use electrical tape to secure the front cover. I chose option 3, and its worked very well (albeit, it makes it look like a homemade bomb.)
3. I have to be perfectly honest here. The software that comes with this unit is absolutely PATHETIC. I read through the usenet groups about the notmad software, so I decided to save myself a lot of headaches and just pay $25 to get what I should have gotten in the first place...user-friendly software.
4. The next thing that annoyed me about this unit is that it doesnt power off the USB cable. You have to keep it plugged into AC whenever you are transferring files to it, or you will suck the power out of it in no time. I have an external hard drive that works just fine being powered off the USB cable, so I know its possible for them to design the unit that way. Why they opted not to is beyond me.
5. Lastly, I dont like the fact that I have to carry around the CD with me so I can install the driver for this on other PCs.
Now for the positive things:
1. Although everyone else seems to hate them, I really think the earbuds are pretty good. Of course, Im comparing them to other "cheap" earbuds Ive owned in the past. But the sounds quality is above average in my opinion.
2. The battery life is outstanding (as long as youre not transferring files.) I play it nearly all day long, and charge it at night while Im sleeping.
3. Lastly, I like the fact that if the battery no longer holds a charge, I can just go out to ebay and pay $16 for a brand new one. Its one of the few hard-drive based MP3 players that gives you this option. Again, its WAY to easy to remove the battery.
Overall, its not a bad unit. I think if they made the case a little more durable, improved their software, secured the front cover with user-removeable screws, allowed it to power off the USB cable, and allowed you to drag and drop folders through Windows Explorer and have the player KEEP them in the folders (viewable through the players menu,) the unit would be much better than an iPod.
On: 2005-02-07
I read all of the reviews that I could lay my hands on, and I must say I was a bit nervous. Until I got the product. It was easy to set up the software, I copied about 10 cds,(with more to come), onto the jukebox and I even installed and downloaded a program called audible.com so I could listen to books on the jukebox. Other than having to go onto Creatives website to get the firmware upgrade to listen to the books, which was very easy as well, using this product has been much easier than I anticipated and I HIGHLY recommend it. I take it running on the treadmill at my gym, listen to it in bed, and I have had absolutely no problems with it. I agree with another reviewer, I dont drop mine, or I have not yet, but it is a hard drive, so some care must be taken?? Anyway, it is awesome and I am so sorry I doubted it at first!!
It is so worth the price....
On: 2005-01-31
I purchased this product as a replacement for my 20 gig ipod which was too small for my music collection. I wanted 40 gigs, but was intrigued by Creatives alternative to the ipod. After reading the reviews, I decided to get one. And the player itself was great. But the software was one problem after another. First I tried | | |
