Creative Labs NOMAD MuVoČ 4 GB MP3 Player

by Creative

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001BXCFS
• Item model number: MUVOSQ4GB
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,526 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

The Creative NOMAD® MuVo² combines cutting-edge 1" hard disk drive storage, high-speed USB 2.0 and superb sound quality in a remarkably compact, easy to use package. Grab it, load it, clip it on your belt and you're all set to go! Holds up to 128 hrs WMA / 64 hrs MP3 songs Huge hard drive capacity in a flash memory sized player allows you to carry all your music with you in a tiny digital music player. High fidelity 98dB SNR Crystal clear sound with full bass and exhilirating highs. Creative is the recognized leader in audio sound quality among portable MP3 and WMA players. Removable Li-ion battery - Charge through USB connection or with power adapter Up to 14 hrs continuous playback on a single charge. The removable battery allows you to carry a spare for unmatched playback time. Easy-to-Use – Drag and drop files True plug-and-play simplicity. The NOMAD MuVo² 4GB is automatically detected as a removable disk by Windows. Transfering files to and from the MuVo² is as simple as dragging and dropping files within Windows Explorer. Or use Creative's easy to use and comprehensive Mediasource™ software to rip your CDs to MP2 or WMA, create playlists and transfer them to your MuVo². Super fast USB 2.0 Transfer a song a second with super fast USB 2.0. Load your music collection in a matter of minutes. Compatible with USB 1.1. Music management software New to digital music? Creative's Medisource™ software (included) has everything you need to get started. Rip your CD's to MP3 or WMA with automatic ID3 tag labeling via free online CDDB (CD Data Base), add tracks downloaded from a variety of online music services, create playlists, transfer them to your MuVo² and you're ready to go.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

197 of 205 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product!, March 14, 2004

By 

E. Calimag "YodaBeesh" (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs NOMAD MuVoČ 4 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

I have had my Muvo 4GB player for 3 weeks now and have been extremely pleased with it. This player fit my very specific needs. I have a large number of files that are MP3 and WMA (the latter purchased online), so I felt it was best to NOT get an iPod.

My previous mp3 player was a MagicStar 256MB, but wanted to upgrade because I found my commute to be longer, spent a lot of time in the car or metro, and became bored with listening to only the same 60 some songs over and over again. Plus, I go to the gym, and specifically wanted something durable and not have to worry about a huge spinning hard-drive. I wanted a player that was light, small, unnoticeable, but could deliver big on functionality. The Muvo definitely hit the spot with its 4GB Toshiba Micro-drive (v compact, durable, and high capacity).

First, this thing is SMALL and LIGHT... it fits perfectly in the closed unused ashtray of my car, keeping it out of site from prying eyes. I compared side-by-side with the new iPod 4GB, and the muvo is SUBSTANTIALLY smaller, lighter and compact. It probably weighs as much as my Siemens C56 cellphone. I currently have 500 songs loaded on there with 3 different playlists, and have used less than 2GB so far.

On the metro and in the gym, I use the included belt holster. Its very well structured and shock-proof, but the only drawback is that the buttons are inaccessible. I can overlook that drawback since I tend to use playlists or continually shuffle my music.

The buttons are small, and people with large fingers may have some difficulty. I have not had any problems manipulating the directional button (vol up/down, prev/next track), nor accessing the menu (push button straight down). A slightly annoying factor is that you need to hold the PLAY/PAUSE button down for 5 seconds straight in order to power on/off.

The menu is small but readable, but I don't really read it all the time since I'm always on the go. The backlight is blue, and ID3 tags for the songs scroll across when playing. The menu includes tools, playlist, playmode (shuffle, repeat, etc), EQ, delete, radio, and microphone. You navigate using the directional button. For my basic needs, I use playlist and shuffle. I delete files using Windows Explorer.

I ditched the included earbuds and use my own Koss Plugs. I did use the included earbuds for the first couple of days and found it to be sub-standard in sound and uncomfortable.

The sound from this unit is great... many different equalizer settings, but I set mine to Rock and don't use the other ones. With the right set of earplugs, the bass is nice and heavy, and the sound is very crisp. I use a cassette adapter in the car with the Muvo, and it sounds just as good. I've noticed a little hissing or distortion, but that's either because of the cassette adapter, not having the player set at the proper volume, or your unit needs is almost out of juice. Just play around with the unit to find the right balance.

The unit comes with a rechargable lithium ion battery. I was spoiled before because my last player was able to recharge via USB port. This battery gets a full charge in about 3 hrs with the included AC-adapter. I haven't really pushed (nor paid attention) to the full claimed 10 hour charge. Let's just say, I recharge every 2-3 days of my everyday activities. I recommend plugging in your unit to the charger when doing large song transfers; those tend to eat a lot of juice. Oh, and the battery COMES OUT, meaning that you can replace or buy an extra one if needed. The iPod batteries are non-removeable.

I use MusicMatch and am able to do file/playlist transfers using the "import to portable" function in MMJB. It takes some getting used to... I initially would set up playlist folders on the Muvo using Windows Explorer, and import my playlists into each discrete folder with the proper m3u file. If I did not set up playlist folders with the m3u files, the unit would randomly read any existing mp3s in its memory regardless of playlist. I've toyed with the included Creative MediaSource software, and it is a little clumsy with too many frames and windows going on. Stick with what you're comfortable with because everything is drag and drop. You could just use Windows Explorer to drag and drop your files and m3u's directly to the Muvo, but if you do a straight drag-and-drop of your music files only, the player will play them alphabetically according to ID3 tag. File transfer by USB 2.0 is SUPER FAST. I was able to transfer my current 2GB of files on there in about 10 mins or so. I wasn't paying attention to exact duration because I was getting ready to leave and needed to do this on the fly before I left! It did the job superbly.

I ran a recovery once on the unit because it froze during a transfer and the drive became undetectable to my notebook. When in doubt, there is a small pinhole in the back of the unit that will reset your unit to original state.

I do recommend that you upgrade to the the firmware: http://www.nomadworld.com/downloads/firmware/
User manuals, support, etc are available on this website.

PROS:
- extremely small and light (moreso than the iPod)
- Great sound
- Huge capacity with a very durable and dependable microdrive (I've dropped this thing a few times with no probs at all)
- Long battery life
- Works with MMJB
- Inexpensive compared to other comparable players
- its not an iPod! Be different!

CONS:
- Small buttons take some getting used to
- Small screen
- does not support AAC files (for iTunes users out there)
- Playlist transfer (.m3u files) is not intuitive unless you play around with it and properly set up the folders just right
- Does not charge via USB (there aren't many out there that do that to begin with, and I was spoiled by my MagicStar)

I am extremely happy with this item and highly recommend it to people always on the go (commuters, gym, school, driving) and for people who are tough on their toys (toss in the bag, car, drop, etc). Great value. I only gave it 4 out of 5 stars for minor quirks.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Player, June 22, 2004

By 

"thewhippingboy" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Labs NOMAD MuVoČ 4 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

Recently I was in the market for an mp3 player, and was deciding between an iPod mini, or this muvo2. After much research, I decided on the muvo2 for a few reasons. Firstly, after hearing so many complaints about the iPod's lack of a removable battery, I liked the removable one on this player. Just ask anyone who has owned an iPod for more than a year how much their battery life has diminished. In addition, my friends have both of these players. After comparing the sound quality, I would definitely recommend the muvo2. However, it does not come with this out of the box, and you need to adjust the equalizer. After doing this, the muvo2 sounds far greater than the iPod mini. The only complaint I have, is that at first, its two line screen can make it hard to organize 4 gigabytes of music. Ease of organization is where the iPod excels. However, I've found that after downloading the beta version of Windows Media Player 10, it is much easier to organize music because of the new file system it creates on the player through the synchronization feature. It is still no iPod, but it is definitely adequate. I would suggest ditching the included Media Source software. The bundled earbuds aren't great, but they never are on any player. In all, I love my muvo2 and and am completely satisfied with my decision. And in the end, I especially love how it is about half the size of the iPod mini and comes with a belt clip.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling capacity outweighs fumbling and bundling., June 18, 2004

By 

Christopher Wanko "-C" (Nutley, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs NOMAD MuVoČ 4 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

The four stars are strictly for the following:
-4Gb hard drive, which alone is a $300 item in bulk;
-WMA and MP3 playback;
-nice LCD interface;
-USB 2.0 speeds for really fast xfer rates;
-instantaneous recognition by WinXP/2k machines.

Those features above make this an outstanding player, and should make this a 5-star item. However:
-the enclosed headphones are earbuds, I don't like 'em;
-it isn't armored enough for decent shock-resistance (would like to see it rubber-skinned like its cousin the Rio Cali);
-no belt-loop holster or anything like an armband, so exercising with it might be a little challenging;
-FM headphone function is extra (boo!);
-controls are dexterity-building exercises in themselves.

This thing has an LCD screen, so why not use a thumb-wheel with pushbutton ability to handle on/off and playback? Granted, it has a four-way pad and a separate button which should be sufficient, but my banana-sized fingers keep jumping selections to "Menu" instead of scrolling left or right through the playlist.

Here's why this is so critical: this player can hold 500-1000 songs, depending on how dense the encoding is. Navigating through a straight list of 500 or 1000 songs takes awhile. Folders become paramount to organizing songs or artists, just so you can find something you like inside of a minute.

But does it play well? Does it do what it should? Oh yes, most definitely. And having a Li-On battery in it that recharges off the USB port is *exactly* what every player should have (if it used my Nokia 3650's battery I'd have given it the fifth star for the serendipitous convergence).

"Would I buy it again?" Sure, if I could find another one.
"Is it better than the Rio Cali?"

Hmmm... the Cali is definitely nice, armored with an armband I really like, better UI (LCD presents info much faster, is square and shows more at a glance), has FM built-in. But 4Gb makes up a lot of ground on 256Mb, even 768Mb if you pony up some cash for a 512Mb SD Card. Nah, the Muvo2 isn't perfect, but it's capacious, and sometimes that's more important.

Fred