Customer Reviews

Creative Labs Nomad 64 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I shopped long and hard. I believe this product to be the best pocket-sized player that is presently on the market, but it is not perfect. You may wish to note that many of my minor complaints, such as the lack of USB support, lack of future proofing, and playback of only MP3 files, will be addressed by the now overdue Nomad II.

Here is the good:

I am somewhat of an audiophile. Although the cost of my home stereo did not exceed the cost of my car, it came closer than I'll ever admit. The Nomad's sound for playing music is excellent, and the included ear buds are quite good. For several months Amazon has been incorrectly identifing the product as being encased in plastic. It is a rugged little magnesium case that fits in my shirt pocket, leaving hardly a crease. Needless to say, it is light as well. I was especially interested in the voice recording capability, which I find to be adequate. For me, this made the Nomad a better value than the Rio. (Others may appreciate the FM radio and reach the same conclusion for this reason, as well as for the smaller size). The manufacterer has already addressed one frequent complaint by including not only its own rather unwieldy software, but also software from MusicMatch that is familiar to many. This solves problems with convieniently categorizing, storing, and transferring MP3 files that some past reviewers complained of. With this software, I can view my entire music library or instead quickly find and transfer music files by whatever criteria suits my immediate need: artist, album, genre, mood, tempo, situation, ect... I also like the display and controls, the basics of which I was able to figure out without having to resort to the manual. It first displays the DOS name of the file, which allows for quick scrolling among files, then, once you have lingered on a selection long enough for the song to begin, scrolls the entire name of the artist and song in accordance with how you have "tagged" these matters with MusicMatch. It has long battery life because, unlike some players, it has space for two AAA sized batteries. Included are two rechargeables, which are not the built-in type that cannot be replaced when they wear out. Finally, although it plays only MP3 files, it can store any type of file, so if you find yourself without a Zip or CDR drive and you have a file larger than a 3.5" disc can hold, this little gem can be used to move files of up to 32 MB from one computer to another.

Here is the bad:

(1) A built in equalizer would be nice as the four preset options for playback may not suit whatever it is that you find weak or overemphasized in a recording. (2) I am annoyed that a recording cannot use the end of the 32 MB built in memory then continue seamlessly onto the 32 MB flash card. This wastes space at the end of the drive, causes me interuption in recording witnesses, and requires planning when loading songs onto the player. In fairness, I am not aware that any player offers either capacity.

(3) I am otherwise fully satisfied when listening to jazz or classical, but when I workout, I blast rock and roll at high volume. The amplification is just beefy enough to be adequate. (4) The player lacks support for certain platforms, such as Windows NT. (5) Without USB support, tranferring files is somewhat slow and, if you have only one parallel port that is located on the back of your computer, there may be inconvenience associated with this as well. (6) The display really should be back lit for use at night, or for when your wife drags you to a dimly lit symphony hall to hear modern classical music. (7) This player will only play MP3 files, not emerging formats such as Liquid Audio and Windows Media, and is not "future proofed" in that support for new formats cannot be programmed-in years down the road. (8) Finally, on two occaisons, the included 32 MB flashcard has gone berserk by indicating I have dozens of files of enermous size on it. Only reformatting the card has cured this problem, which causes concern that I might loose irreplacable voice recordings or find myself knee deep in an isolated trout stream without a good Miles Davis recording. END

This mp3 player is "wireless streaming local content enabled"- it can convert "electromagnetic frequency modulation transmissions" in to high quality stereo audio. There is an abundance of wireless content in locales throughout the World, transmitting in the range of 87.5 to 108 Megahertz. To put this in to layman's terms, it has an FM radio built in. In this MP3 induced euphoria, one sometimes forgets about the value of FM, and how the 64 MB hand-picked selection of music sometimes just isn't what you want to hear. Thats a big fat plus for the Nomad, a quality few of its competitors possess. And I must say that the nomad FM reciever is high quality sound, and it holds ten presets, the perfect ammount.

The interface software is absolute crap compared to the RIO's (pmp300) simple easy use and mannage software. I'm serious, trust me, the software that comes with the nomad is crap and you are stuck with it. Hello creativelabs, just because your modem instalation software works, what are you thinking? mp3 download software is supposed to be quick easy painless, etc.. the opposite of your software (c'mon, when you drag a file into the nomad memory, only its msdos name shows up, like an ancient language). And it is so sloooow with its parallel port connection. I don't have time for this, you probably don't either. I want an Mp3 player whose smartmedia cards can be read on a flashpath disk or usb reader, and I am yet to find one. (Note: The rio and nomad both use propietary disk formats, forcing you to use their software, and not support external smartmedia readers.)

The voice recorder works well- no external mike input, but adequate to record someone or something funny and have it on digital one time.

The nomad had good volume, but doesn't pump quite loud enough when the rare occasion calls. my rough tests show that that the Rio pmp300 gives a slightly higher volume output.

Good set of headphones for mp3 players = sony mdr-v300 (sold here on amazonia).

The nomad looks really stylee, and the readout is clear (though not backlit). The base charger is a little excessive in size without reason, and doesn't have a printer pass-through for your parallel port (which the Rio pmp300 does).

I really like how small, cool looking and feature rich this thing is, but it's a pain using their software. It stacks up well regardless.

It seems that the nomad 2 is a big improvement.(not out yet, but you can check it at creativelabs.com).

Come on amazon, why don't you give your customers a discount on this product- how can you charge retail for this- you dont charge retail for anything else?

I just got my MP3 player today and let me tell you, this is the best MP3 player you can get for a great price. I've seen and heard the Rio 500 MP3 player before but comparing the two, the Nomad is way better. First of all, the Nomad is a lot cheaper. The Nomad is very compact, even smaller than the Rio 500, (to my memory) and has better abilities than Rio like a FM tuner and Voice Recording Mode. The MP3 player comes with rechargeble batteries and a charger thing that you put your MP3 player on to charge the batteries and import MP3's from your computer. The MP3 player also comes with a flashcard that holds 32 MB. The things that come with this MP3 player is 32 MB Flash Card, Docking Station, Cord to connect to Computer, Cord to plug in electrical outlet, headphones(not so good in my opinion), Content CD, Installation CD, Leather Carrying Case, and instructions. The only disadvantage this MP3 player has from a Rio 500 is the LCD display. Unlike other MP3 players, the Nomad doesn't have the backlight for the LCD display. This is the only disadvantage that I found. In this MP3 player, there are 3 modes. MP3 mode, FM tuner mode, and Voice Recording Mode. The FM tuner can hold 10 preset stations and is very good quality. Some of my friends said,"CD's are better, just get a decent burner." Now that I got the Nomad, I am glad that I didn't listen to him. My friend said CD's are better quality but in my opinion, I can't tell the difference between a CD and an MP3 file. I don't think my friend was lying and he was probably right but what's the point if you can't even tell the difference. The Software is very user friendly. I didn't even read the instructions once and had my MP3's onto my MP3 player in minutes. Great program for a great MP3 player. *Responding to other Reviews*

"tried it on my home PC and 4 different IBM Thinkpads. It worked in none of the above with different parallel port settings and infinite hours with Creative and IBM................. It ended up sitting on my drawer and now it would not even turn on. I trashed it. What a waste of a few hundred dollars"

Maybe your computer just didn't work, cuz it works on my Dell PC just fine.

"If you are rich as hell, go ahead and buy it. But for the price your paying for this, you could get a great Mini Disk player, and even plenty of discs for over 6,000 minutes of recording time with the same sound quality!"

Don't know what your talking about dude. This MP3 player is almost cheaper than all of the MD players available at Amazon. Plus MD players have the expenses of MD's and MD players are way bigger than the Nomad MP3 player.

Take my Word, if your buying a MP3 player, buy this one.

I am not a big fan of MP3 players yet. I don't think they are a good value compared to a $50-100 cd player, or even a $300 CD burner. But if you really want an MP3 player, as my son did, this seems like good overall offering at the present time. We purchased the unit, and are satisfied with it.

It is really tiny and light (about 2oz), and includes a decent FM radio, and ear buds. The internal rechargable battery will save a lot of money over time.

The 64 meg comes from an internal 32m memory chip, and a removable 32meg card that is about 1 inch square. Each hold only about 30 minutes of music, unless you are willing to use smaller, low quality sound files. The removable chip is expensive, and looks easily damaged or lost. Handle it with care.

The instruction manual was inadequate. Don't try to use the device at all until the battery charges in the base unit for at least an hour. At one point it seemed that the unit was broken, until I realized that I had accidently moved a sliding "button" (there is no indication that this slides) that is intended to manually lock up the controls to prevent accidental changes.

The unit would have been better off with a USB interface instead of the clunky parallel connection, but the software and base unit installed without problems. Our printer connects to the PC with a USB connection, so I don't know what problems I would have had if I needed that parallel port for the printer, zip, or tape drive.

The software is easy to use once you figure out how to switch between storing mp3 files in either the internal or external memory.

Once we figured out how to use it, the unit worked well. The voice memo recording feature sounds like a potentially nice feature.

I hate to disagree with my fellow reviewers, but I must jump to the support of my Nomad. I have frankly been extremely happy with it. The radio reception is tricky, but the quality is high. The software may be a bit annoying to work with, but I've found that Real Jukebox is a perfectly viable alternative for transferring songs. The voice recorder is a definite perk, the magnesium casing is very durable, and the LCD display is very nice, to say the least. The size is nothing to complain about either, as it is small and fits perfectly into even the smallest pockets. I do have some complaints, though. First of all, the headphones it comes with are very poor. And I must agree, the software is just plain user unfriendly, and the parallel port connection is a bit sluggish. But I would definitely not write this off as a poor player. I would truly reccomend this player to anyone that asked.

I returned my nomad 64 and bought the nomad II. The nomad II is an improvement on every flaw of the Nomad 64.

It has fast usb support, More FM presets, a big bitmapped screen with backlighting that shows the mp3 file info, easy to use design/interface/buttons... Best of all the file format is sdmi compliant, which means that you can use an external [usb, serial, or flashpath floppy adapter] to transfer files onto the smartmedia, and you dont have to reformat the card for it to work in a sdmi compliant digital camera.

Every other mp3 player on the market right now (including the Nomad 64) uses a propreitary format forcing you to connect use the actual player to transfer files on to smartmedia.) An external usb smartmedia reader is the way to go- it tranfers the average song in under 5 seconds. (also, the nomad II software doesn't allow you to transfer files located throughout a Local Area Netwrok- only local files can be tranfered- unless you use an external reader.)

The nomad II also comes with winamp plugin software, allowing you to avoid Creativelabs quirky interaface. (there is a winamp plug-in for the nomad 64 as well).

(check out nomadworld . com)

The Radio reception is decent but not consistent since it uses the headphone or earphone wire as the antenna, so you have to be somewhat still to get a consistent reception.

I like the Rio's Random feature better as it does seem random and can remember the order so it doesn't repeat songs. This is not true with the Nomad. One thing I don't like about the player is that the shuffle feature isn't exactly random and repeats the same patterns. It also always starts on the first song after being Powered down, which make you get tired of the first few songs quickly. The song search buttons don't allow you to go through the random order like the Rio(so that you could skip the songs you don't want to hear), The Nomad instead goes through the songs in order on all settings(shuffle or not). Another problem is that sometimes the songs get corrupted and it hangs and shuts off. The manual suggests reformatting the flashcards, which does solve the problem, but I never had to do that with the Rio.

Everything else about it is fairly decent. The connection is parallel so don't expect it to be lightening quick. The Interface is decent, esp. with the new upgrades and patches that allow you to download into the player straight from Win. Explorer or Winamp.

Overall it is slightly better than the Rio players with its radio, voice recording features, rechargable batteries, and sturdier design(my rio 300 player began to fall apart after about half a year of use), but it could improve a lot with the features offered on the Rio players.

I have spent about 2 weeks researching all MP3 players on the market, and I have come to the conclusion that this one is the best for the price at this time. It is made by an extremely reliable company, and comes with a flury of features.

Total included memory: 64 MB Approximate playback time: 60 minutes Onboard memory: 32 MB Included memory cards: 1 32 MB SmartMedia Compatible memory type: SmartMedia Number of expansion slots: 1 MP3 playback: Yes WMA playback: Yes LCD Display FM tuner Voice recording Battery status display Random play Repeat: One track, all tracks Forward/reverse: Yes Hold: Yes Preset EQ curves: Normal, classic, jazz, and rock Bass boost: Yes AC adapter: Yes Car adapter: No Carrying case: Included Batteries: 2 AAA (rechargeable NiMH, included) Headphones: Yes Bundled software: Creative Nomad Manager, MusicMatch Interface: Parallel (supporting ECP mode) Battery life: 9 hours Weight: 2.26 ounces

At this price who can pass it up!

I got my nomad yesterday and it kicks ass. I love this thing. It got about 7 songs on 32 mb and 64 is enough for me, I dont need 96. The nomad LCD is a little small and doesnt have a backlit but its fine for me. No backlit is really the only problem. People who say it doesnt have loud enough volume...TOTAL C**P. Its loud enough at 3 for me and I got pretty bad hearing. The head phones are ok but they hurt after a while. As for the parallel port its fine it doesnt take 1/2 an hour, a few minutes at most. Usally takes me 30-40 seconds to transfer from computer to docking station. The FM tuner on the nomad works fine, you just might have to move it around until the reception gets better. You can set upto ten presets of whatever stations between 88-108. The vioce recording works pretty good although I havent tried it from very long distances, it seems to work from around 15 feet away. The rechargeable batteries work for at least three hours, think max is around 4-5. The docking station is a little bigger than an mini disc player. Installation and downloading is very simple(if you know what a printer port is). Software wise the player is very simple. If your not too good just download all music to one place so it doesnt get confusing(nothing to do with the player).

The Creative Nomad looks good and feels good. The sleek design, 2x32 MB memory and the FM tuner - the added useful feature - made me go for it. Back home, where I run Windows 95, I'll be able to regularly refresh the Nomad with all of the wonderful music I legally ripped from my own CD's. While travelling, I am confined to a laptop running on NT. Hence, FM tuning is all I get on the Nomad until I get home (I do not really like listening to my own voice). It's not that Creative led me on to believe it worked under NT, but, well, Winamp and all the other run-of-the-mill MP3 players work just fine with NT. As I can rip my favourite songs from my CD's, I just thought I could make my Nomad work. This begs the question whether I should have bought the Rio and have had the benefit of Elena's RioShell....? But that is no credit to Rio. Anybody out there developed a Shell that makes the Nomad work under WinNT?