Customer Reviews

Creative Labs NOMAD Jukebox 10 GB MP3 Player

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I know some folks had trouble using this thing, but in my opinion a dunken monkey could hook it up. I have a Mac and a PC; it worked flawlessly with both. On the Mac it even appears in iTunes, so you simply drag files to it.

I have owned and used a HipDisk, RAM MP3 players (2), and MP3 CD Players (2). The sound quality on this thing is better than any of them (I am a professional audio engineer and picky). I think the CODEC is simply better (with free firmware updates it'll always improve). There's even a parametric EQ which lets you tailor Bass/Midrange/Treble to your tastes, but it actually sounds good flat. There's 2 line outs and a line in so you can record to the unit. As a musician, I have recorded song ideas, etc. with ease.

I have over 1,600 songs in it at 192 kbs, which the flexible and intuitive interface makes easy to pick and choose from. Besides using playlists, you can listen to a certain genre, album or artist.

At work I was using my Mac to play MP3s, but that slowed it down a little. Now I just plug the Jukebox into my PC, control it with the onscreen interface and rock out.

At the gym with it on random play I have a "radio station" with over 1,600 of my favorite tunes.

It's bulkier than the iPod, but has twice the drive space, costs $150.00 less and works with Mac/PC. The new Jukebox III looks even better (with 20 GB and firewire), but they were out of stock and I am leaving to India for a month and needed tunes (I would have had to take a gazillion CDs!).

Bottom line: I would buy another in a second!

p.s. I have never bothered to review anything except this and TiVo. Two of the greatest inventions ever.

I've been telling everybody about my new Nomad Jukebox. It's the most fun I've had with a new gadget in a long time! I can't remember the last time I've been so pleased with everything a product does. Every time I use it, I discover something else about it. Do a web search on the Nomad JB and you'll find several websites run by other fans telling you how to get the most out of it. You can even upgrade the hard drive, up to 40GB! (Strictly third-party of course...Creative doesn't support this).

Criticisms: no belt clip (buy a CD player pouch); somewhat awkward file management (search the web for third-party software to fix that); wimpy max volume (no good for lawn-mowing, plane-riding, or other noisy backgrounds). Also, the batteries drop to an indicated 75% or so charge level just a short time after unplugging the power supply, although having said that, they seem to play for hours and hours just the same. Finally, the documentation isn't much, but really, the Nomad is so easy to use, you don't need a lot of instructions.

All of this is offset by knowing that you can carry your entire music collection in the palm of your hand, with space to spare, and you may never have to buy a CD player ever again. If Creative can just improve the file management interface and the software, it'll have a perfect product.

I have used this for less than a year and I think I threw my money away. Batteries last 45 minutes tops right now. It has locked on me countless times, so while driving, I have to manage to remove the batteries, place them again and wait for the library to show up (this can take as long as 3 minutes!). File transfer is slow (no surprise, its USB) and lately I have been transferring 200 songs only to have it display 32, and there is nothing wrong with these songs. I am very dissatisfied with this product, hopefully this review will help someone in not buying this overpriced worthless mp3 player from here.

I've had the creative nomad jukebox for about 3-4 months now and all that I can say is that it totally rocks! I've always been into electronics so when my old cd walkman gave out, I looked into buying an mp3 player. Now I searched up a ton of mp3 players and this one, by far, is the BEST. With 10GB of storage capacity, you can store so much on here. You can customize playlists for every possible occasion and you also have many other options of not only adjusting the bass/treble but it also can play your songs for you in various different settings that they provide - auditorium, concert, living room, etc. It is so amazing because you can download mp3's and then play them as you would hear it in a concert setting. It's so brilliant. The software is easy to use. You can make mp3's from your own cd's and then download them to your jukebox or you can just download songs from the internet and then download them to your jukebox. I have heard complaints that the volume [is not good]. That is simply not true. The volume is clear and it has excellent sound quality. Another thing i was worried about was the weight of the jukebox because I love working out with music and I wanted to take it with me wherever I went. Although it is heavier than other mp3 players, it's still about the size of a cd-man and the weight is not that significant. I run with my jukebox and I don't have any problems. Oh, and that's another thing. It DOESN'T SKIP. For someone who runs, that's really important and there is no cd-man that doesn't skip. It has a 5 minute anti-skip. 5 MINUTES! That's amazing. Basically, you will have no problems. I take it with me everywhere...and I even play it in my car. Overall, i think this player is well worth the money. If you want to buy an outstanding mp3 player, then this is the one for you. The only cons that I can think of are that it's heavy and it doesn't have that long of a battery life. (By the way, I don't use the Creative rechargable batteries that come with the player. I bought some Energizer and Sony ones and they are way better. You can play music for about 5 hours non stop).

Overall, I give it a 2 thumbs up!

I purchased the 6 GB version of this product over a year ago. I was looking for a reasonably priced way to put high quality "on hold" music on our company's telephone system. I've only ripped 440 songs onto it so far. Which is only taking up about 1.5 GB or 25% of my available memory! Using the A/C adapter, I plugged it into our phone system and selected Random play. It has been playing NON-STOP, 24 hours a day, EVERY day for the past 13 months! Folks, that's over 9,000 hours of CONTINUOUS play without a glitch! And it shows no signs whatsoever of stopping! To say that I'm happy with my purchase is a huge understatement! I can't imagine what more could be asked of this product. It has proven to be incredibly durable and reliable. The computer interface is extremely easy and intuitive to use. Much easier than the Rio products I have used before. You can make multiple play lists, which has been very helpful for our application. (For instance, we have a seperate play list of Christmas music that we play only during the holiday season.) The sound quality is exceptional. We have received many compliments on the sound of our hold music from our customers. Obviously, this things is built to last. If it holds up this well to 24/7 commercial use, just imagine how long it would last under normal use!! If you want a reliable machine that holds an incredible amount of music, look no further!

Ever since my license got suspended, I've been riding public transportation on a daily basis. I got tired of lugging my giant "portable" CD walkman around so I decided to do some shopping for something a little smaller. MP3 players came to mind, especially since I've already got a handful of strictly MP3 gigs on my PC.

32Mb players run a little over [price]. Extremely small and lightweight, but WTF am I gonna do with 32megs??? Listen to the same 5 songs over and over again? Rewrite a new tracklist every night? Garbage.

64Mb players go for about [price]. See 32Mb description above x 2.

128Mb players can easily creep up to the [price] mark. Still not nearly enough space for my tough-to-please mentality. That's not even 1/4 of a CD's worth.

and then it appeared...

Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox - under [price].

10 gigs of music. Wow. 10 gigs?!?! And I'm here shopping around for 128megs?!?! *.WMA, *.WAV, and *.MP3 format with upgradable firmware?! Sold.

I finally got my new toy this past Monday and I already LOVE IT. The only thing that [stinks] is that it's the same size as my old CD walkman, which sorta defeats the purpose of why I wanted something new in the first place. Oh well. If you're all up on the whole digital music thing, this item is a MUST HAVE.

*Fast transfers via USB ports - each track only takes a few seconds to upload/download.

*100% Customizable. Playlists along with tracks categorized by artist, album, and genre.

CONS:

*Comes loaded with some garbage samples and tracks. Not a big deal though, go ahead and delete 'em.

*I had no problem installing the included software on my Win98 SE PC at home, but couldn't do it on my Win2000 box at work. When I launch the Creative PlayCenter 2, it generates errors and shuts down even after reinstalling it.

Overall: 9 out of 10.

I bought the 6 gig version of this product right when it came out, which I think was a little over a year ago. I was amazed that it could hold 6 gigs... why would any one ever buy 128 or even 32 meg ones!!!????? It seemed too good to be true... turns out, it was!
When I first started using it, it worked Ok... It has always had excellent sound quality, and with my head phones, it sounded awesome. If you play with the 'Parametric EQ', and turn up the 'Mid Frequency', then you can get it to play REALLY REALLY LOUD!!!!! I really don't understand the reviews that say it can't go up loud, this is the loudest portable Mp3 or CD player I have ever used!!! That was a definite plus for me... It the beginning the only drawbacks were that the batteries only lasted 3-4 hours, (It takes about 4 times longer then my laptop to charge, too!) that it would periodically shut off for no apparent reason, about one in every 10 songs I put on it wouldn't work properly, and it's reaaaaallyyyyyyy sllloooooowwwww!!!!!
Then it kept getting worse.... the batteries started dying faster and faster, it started shutting off all the time - it always dies when going over rough spots in a car, and now the majority of the time it wont turn on at all, and when it does it won't work on any batteries, it only sometimes works when plugged into the wall. - Which is completely useless, because I might as well just use my laptop, which isn't nearly as annoying.
Overall I wish I never would have bought this product for any amount of money had I of known the aggravation this nasty machine would cause me... I recommend looking into one of the other 10 gig mp3 players (Don't settle for an 128 Mb, it's useless!)
(Don't shy away from other 'Creative' products though, my Creative speakers, sound card and CD burner work great!!!!!!!)

This is the best MP3 player you'll ever get. Not only does it [holds alot] of music, but the interface is better than any other on the market. I got one for my girlfriend during X-mas. You can browse and add music to a queue while it's playing. The shuffling function let's you shuffle the whole jukebox, specific records, or just the queue. I just bought a second one for myself last week. In any size (6GB, 10GB, 20GB) this is the best player on the market & built to last. (And the hard drives are upgradeable

I have the 6 GB version which looks the same on the outside just has a 6 GB (laptop hard drive) instead of the 10 GB drive. It came with two sets of 4 AA NiCad rechargeable batteries...good. But the thing only runs less than an hour before needing recharge. Audio output is not very strong. I used full volume with the supplied headphones most of the time. I think most of that battery power is lost in heat as this unit gets quite warm. I didn't use mine too much. But when I did use it all day one day while plugged into AC power, it burned up. It was just out of warranty. I sent an email to Creative Labs asking for help but got no response. So I opened up the unit and found one circuit board component burned to a crisp! Lucky it didn't catch fire and burn down my house. It got so hot it melted one of the buttons which caved into the case. I did recover the scorched Fujitsu hard drive from the unit and put it in a laptop computer...the hard drive still works fine!

I only bought this jukebox a few days ago on October 13, 2002. At first, I was very excited to have this jukebox. I was so excited I didn't read the manual or directions. Unfortunately, I charged the batteries the wrong way and only gave it a 5 minute capacity. Luckily, I got it replaced and charged the batteries correctly. I am trying to stress the point: "Read the directions carefully!!" It says to charge it 12 hours straight with no interruption. Listen to this!! Its important to follow. Just put the batteries in and plug it into the AC power adapter. There will be no icon indicating that its charging, but it is. Remeber, 12 hours, do not exceed charging it for more than 15 hours. You dont want yours to mess up like mine. Dont be surprised if you charge it right and the battery drops quickly. Once you turn it off and on again, it will bounce back.

Also, if you are a lazy person and have no common sense, dont bother with this product. Being able to navigate through the Creative PlayCenter 2 (Nomad Transfer Software) is quite hard and people who are a bit lazy (no offense) will find it hard. I had no problem at all and I dont see why other people keep saying bad comments about the software. Its fine with me.

The volume?? Hahahaha! People also complain about the low volume with the headphones it came with. I am very very surprised. The headphones are very loud at max volume: (20). Its actually louder than my Sony Discman I had previously. I can hear it very clearly on the bus. If your a person who would like to use it when you travel or on a bus, then this is the perfect item for you....and you may not even need another music product after this one.... But if you read my review and follow the directions I said, then you should be fine!