- Portable digital audio player with 6 GB of built-in storage (over 100 hours of CD-quality music)
- Plays MP3 files; upgradable to support other formats (such as WMA) and is SDMI compliant
- USB interface for fast digital transfer; compatible with Windows and Mac
- Weighs only 14 ounces and measures the size of a portable CD player
- Comes with headphones, rechargeable batteries, AC adapter, and carrying pouch; "<b>In the Media:</b> ""Creative Lab's Nomad Jukebox is a monster product for the serious digital music freak."" --<i>Pen Computing</i>"
This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.
Technical Details
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
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.
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
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
- 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