Creative Labs NOMAD 6 GB MP3 Player Silver

Other products by Creative Labs

Product Details

Product Manual [8.13mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 5 x 5 inches ; 14.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004XO1V
• Item model number: 5000001209
• Batteries: 4 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,600 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

One of our biggest frustrations with MP3 players has been their limited storage capacity. You'll typically get 64 MB via internal memory or memory cards, which provides just a little over an hour of near CD-quality MP3 audio. So when we heard that Creative was releasing a 6 GB player that can hold over 100 hours of music, it sounded perfect. Soon we'd be rifling through a massive catalog of tunes on our little player, from Elvis Costello to LL Cool J to Miles Davis, whenever the whim struck.

The Nomad Jukebox is essentially a portable hard drive with software that will play MP3 audio. Since hard drives include spinning and moving parts, this player is not ideal for active MP3 users from joggers to snowboarders.

We cracked open the box, inserted the rechargeable batteries (two sets of four AAs are included), plugged in the AC adapter, and waited the recommended 12 hours for them to charge initially. This is a very important step. This was our second set of batteries--we didn't bother to heed Creative's initial charging directions when we first got the product, and our first set of batteries soon lost the capacity to be recharged.

After installing the included software (we tested the Jukebox on a Macintosh G4 using SoundJam MP; for PCs, Creative includes PlayCenter 2) and connecting the USB cable, we quickly deleted 2 GB of starter MP3 and audiobook files and started loading our own music. We started with about 500 songs, but noticed after the load had finished that not all the songs made it onto the Jukebox. Also, the SoundJam software didn't like us doing any other work on our Mac G4, stalling out the load whenever we switched to another program.

We found it was best to load in smaller numbers and to keep SoundJam up as the active application (unfortunately, not the most efficient use of computer time). The transfer rate is about 6 minutes per 100 MB, which translates to around 25 songs. (So far, we've loaded 861 songs and we still have over 2.3 GB left of storage.)

Once music has been transferred to the Jukebox, you need to create an active playing list by navigating one of three lists--artists, albums, and genres--then adding songs to the queue. (This points out the need for creating thorough ID3 tags, an electronic label that can include song title, track number, year, and more. ID3 tags can be created via the PlayCenter and SoundJam software manually or be imported from the online CDDB database. For more information about tagging, see the Amazon.com Making MP3s Guide.) Playlists can be saved in the Jukebox, though it can be a bit tedious (there's no keyboard), and you can't add songs to an existing playlist.

The Jukebox also sports some nice additions. It has a line-in recording capability (using an external microphone) that records WAV files that can be adjusted for optimal (or low-end) sound quality, and it can play audiobooks.

The biggest downside to the Nomad Jukebox is its portability. As noted, it does run on rechargeable batteries, but they'll last far less than the advertised two hours. Also, this isn't the device to take jogging; its internal hard drive, though somewhat shock and motion resistant, just won't take that kind of activity. It's really made for stationary play using its included AC adapter.

It also has a few playback glitches, the biggest being that you can't fast- forward or rewind within a song. Also, there's no bookmark feature for audiobook listening--a necessity for long files.

Ultimately, the Creative Nomad Jukebox isn't perfect and isn't suited for everyone's MP3 needs. But it has become a staple of our gadget life--it travels with us daily to the office and hooks in nicely into stereo systems, both at home and at friends' houses. Someday, we'll all wonder what we did without an MP3 jukebox. --Agen G.N. Schmitz

Pros:

• 6 GB of storage is massive--over 1,000 songs
• Several methods for selecting playlist songs (artist, album, and genre)
• Line-out for connecting to stereo systems, and line-in for recording

Cons:

• Battery power is sucked up quickly
• Prone to skipping/stalling when used in heavy activity

Product Description

Merge your entire collection of MP3s and CDs in one compact device, and you'll never run out of your favorite tunes. With its 6GB storage capacity, NOMAD Jukebox allows you to store an amazingly large collection - over 150 CDs of digital music! All from a compact, portable design.NOMAD Jukebox features EAX audio technologies to enhance your audio experience. Enjoy surround sound with the FourPointSurround speaker support, or change the Headphones Spatialization Settings for realistic music environments, anywhere! EAX's adjustable playback speed lets you adjust the playback of your MP3 music and voice files without compromising audibility. Ideal for picking up tips from digital audio books and for running through the details of that meeting you just had. The NOMAD Jukebox supports advanced recording features via the line-in jack. You can record from external devices - even replacing a DAT with dual band recording up to 48 kHz. Your recordings can then be ported back to the PC with the bundled Creative PlayCenter 2 software, for editing and encoding using your favorite music or audio production tools. NOMAD Jukebox offers support for MP3 and WAV formats. Its firmware is designed to support additional digital audio formats and software extensions. Hardware-ready, NOMAD Jukebox is geared for access to future releases of SDMI compliant content too. Finally, you can turn your PC into an entertainment powerhouse. Creative, the leader in PC audio and digital entertainment now offers fully integrated Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) Solutions. PDE leverages the power of the PC to create enhanced audio and video entertainment experiences.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

165 of 165 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NJB User Review: One Month Later, October 21, 2000

By	Derek Link (New York City) - See all my reviews

I got my Nomad Jukebox (NJB) just over three weeks ago. I am a committed MP3 fan, and I have owned both the Rio 300 and Rio 500 players. The NJB is, far and away, the best player on the market in terms of durability (Rios don't last in my experience), price/capacity ratio, playback options, and recording. If you have gotten this far, you probably already know all the specs. Here are the glitches I have found, and some solutions I recommend.

1. In my opinion, the battery life is the biggest limitation of this product. This device is a portable harddrive, and it eats power. As a result, Creative provides two sets of four 1600mAH rechargeable AA batteries. They look like normal Duracells, but a standard disposable battery contains about 750 mAh. This is milli-amps, a measure of the storage capacity of the battery. Four Duracells would probably last about 10 minutes in this thing. In short, you need super-batteries to run the NJB properly and the company gives you only two sets. Each set, when fully charged, get **optimal** play life of four hours. Plan on less. If you travel a lot, like me, and want the NJB for longer trips, you need to buy extra batteries and an external charger. (It comes with a cigarette-lighter adapter for the car)

To optimize you batteries with the NJB, buy extra sets of 1600mAH batteries, and an external charger. Get a charger with a conditioning feature that fully drains the battery before recharging. You can run the Jukebox with no batteries inside, just connected to the AC. I always run my NJB on AC when available, and only charge my batteries in an external charger.

2. There are some annoying problems with the NJB that the company plans to fix soon. A few a really important for DJs who might want to use this for dance mixing. There is no A-B looping feature within a track, and the NJB places a pause between tracks that you cannot eliminate. These will be fixed, appartently in future firmware upgrades. My advice to people looking to use the NJB for DJing -- hold off the flurry to buy now, because the features you want are still a few months away.

3. There is another annoying problem that really irks me. The NJB can only recognize one song title, even if the album and artist are different. So if you want to put Ella Fitgerald's and Billie Holiday's version of "All of Me" on your NJB, you have to rename one of the tracks, e.g. "All of Me 1" and "All of Me 2" This is annoying, especially for classical music and jazz fans.

4. The cool headphones are not very loud. Many NJB users I know have purchased headphone amps to increase the sound. I am not much bothered by this, but you if like LOUD headphones, you need to buy another gagdet to get the most out of this.

5. Perhaps the biggest design flaw is that the reformatting function for the NJB is triggered by pressing "play" and "stop" together. Since they are the two largest buttons on the player, this was a mistake. It hasn't happened to me (you have to respond Y or N to "reformat?" ...I'm not that brave..) but this seems like a stupid mistake.

6. Plan on several weekends of CD ripping. I still have 2GBs to fill after intensive copying sessions.

7. You can not upload files with the .mp3 extension from the NJB back to your computer. But you can upload files with the .wav extension from NJB to computer, and you can simply add the .wav to any file on the NJB with the enclosed software.

8. As for the enclosed software, PlayCenter 2, its an adequate CD ripper/Mp3 encoder. Creative didn't spend a lot of time on the software. If you have a favorite encoding software, don't chuck it until you check out Playcenter. Its really weak, especially with multiple file transfers.

9. You need a pre-amped mike to record on the NJB. Basically this means a mike with a battery in it. I have one, and have made one recording. The recording is awesome, and very simple to do.

All in all, the NJB is GREAT. I love it, I use it everyday. but there are some glitches that will be fixed in future upgrades, or at least you should be aware of.

120 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is my coolest gadget!, September 15, 2000

By	D. Chen "Mudpie" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I actually *have* one of these units, which was released nationwide on Sep 10th! I've used it a few days and overall, I LOVE IT! Obviously, the good point about it is you can store most or all of your audio collection in this lightweight, tiny unit. The software is easy to use. Downloading is fast 15Mb/minute... (about 15x realtime). Unit is easy to use, and it seems pretty rugged. Display shows lots of info and is nicely backlit. Let me re-iterate: This thing is GREAT! You've done your research and know why you want it, so it may be more useful for me to nitpick the downsides:

>claimed battery life (I haven't tested it): 4 hours is ridiculously short, and you can't use regular alkalines as backup. Conventional DC adapters won't work either --not enough juice.

>no song scan: Despite it saying on the box that you can scan thru a song, you cannot. This makes it painful to listen to audio books with hour-long chapters --if you stop, you have to go back to the beginning of a chapter! I suspect they can and will add this feature in their next downloadable firmware update.

>no reordering: you can't reorder songs on the active playlist...not a big deal...

>uncomfortable headphones: they sound fine, but clamp my head way too tightly! They should fold for portability too.

>a bit pricey: have to worry about it getting stolen...shop for a good price ;)

>accessories not available yet: would love the remote control that they're hinting at offering in the future. A protective case where you can actually *use* the unit while it is in the case would be great. Patience...

tip: turn off 'Novice Mode' or menu navigation will be SLOW.

These are all small nitpicks! Buy one and you'll have fun!

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value with Some Flaws, October 1, 2000

By A Customer

All in all, this imperfect player is the clearly the best MP3 player on the market in terms of both value and functional convenience, and for that it deserves 5 stars.

Upgradeable firmware in a volatile technology is a comfort that is not matched by the two 100 MB plus competitors that I am aware of. It is about the size and shape of a portable CD player, but with it one carries the equivalent of an entire CD collection. At its present price, it is not that much more than a top of the line Rio or Nomad, yet it has more features and a spectacular storage capacity that does not require expensive flash cards. I've owned mine since the day it was released for sale in the U.S.A., and here are my observations regarding its other strengths and where it has room for improvement.

File transfer is a huge improvement over the parallel port apparatus of my Nomad I. USB is much quicker, and I have experienced none of the buggy transfers that sometimes plagued use of my Nomad I. Also, I would rather wreck a thing than use a manual. (I'm not lost, the road signs are all wrong). I have made recourse to the manual only once to use a feature of either the player or the PC software. This speaks well of a very thoughtful, intuitively lain out design. Finding and playing tracks is easy. One can browse a library of tracks by album, artist, title, or playlist. I find the ability to save and play lists of songs especially convenient as I like different styles for work or for working out, and I do not have to spend any thought or time at matching a situation or mood because I can simply load a list of songs. The player has many extras. I like the battery power meter, which reads in terms of percentage remaining, as well as the ability to turn-off the backlit display entirely or after a specified delay. Spatialization (the ability to make the sound seem wider or narrower in source) and effects that can make a track sound as though it were a live performance in a club, arena, opera house, or out of doors are schmaltzier items I neither use nor like. I do welcome the addition of a three band equalizer, which can be adjusted to set the midpoint of the frequency range. This can go a long way toward overcoming the weaknesses of a particular track or a particular set of headphones.

Adequate volume remains a minor issue, but the devise seems to play slightly louder than my Nomad I, and with ear buds it is fine for me on the street. Although the overall sound quality does not quite match the quality of my expensive, near audiophile quality home CD player, it is still quite good with high bit rate recordings, and I do plug it into my home stereo. I would never dream of doing this with the noisy output from most computer equipment. In fact, except when I sit down just to listen to music, this ultra convenient devise has become the primary player even on my home stereo. The supplied headphones are cool daddy-o "backphones" with one wire in to the left earpiece, so there is no dangling "Y" of wire hanging in the way. The phones fit behind one's ears like a pair of glasses and are connected by an unobtrusive strut that runs behind one's head, they are not in the way when removing hats and bike helmets, and they are comfortable (once you learn to put the strut behind your ears), but the sound is mediocre. Sennheisers from my home stereo make them sound absolutely sick, but of course there is a several hundred dollar difference in price. You may want to budget-in a set of your preferred headphones, or ear buds for loud environments.

Also, like the smaller Nomads, this player can be used to store any kind of file, so you can transfer files of nearly 6 GB to and from work or school with it, but like its smaller nephews, it will not allow you to transfer MP3 files from the player to another computer. I did not notice this probable nod to the music industry with my Nomad I until a reviewer noted it, but I imagine it could be quite irritating if you had a need for transferring MP3 files. Also, like the feature that convinced me to buy the Nomad I, this player has the capacity for voice recording (and, obviously, a much better capacity for long discussions or proceedings). However, with the Jukebox, a preamplified microphone is needed but not built-in or supplied.

Finally, the Jukebox's weakest point is that it does come with two sets of four rechargeable metal hydride batteries that recharge while the player is plugged into a wall socket, but you may need all eight batteries if you make a lot of house calls. It is a power pig. If I load a list then leave the player alone, I can get about 4 hours per set of batteries, but using schmaltz features, frequent fiddling with the controls, or especially rebooting will cut into this time significantly. Personally, I can comfortably live with the limitations, but the failure to use a lithium ion battery and the inability to use standard, alkaline batteries with the player irk me. Normal batteries drain in about one hour. The player comes with a carrying case that would be adequate except that there is no hole to plug in headphones while the player is encased. I would prefer a belt clip of some sort.