Rating: Summary: Takes a beating keeps on playing Review: Ok I do not work for creative labs and have no ax to grind. I am a runner and needed some tunes for my radio would not reach the waves in MTS. Ok had this puppy for 8 months ran every other day and in the weight room to. Works good and can change tunes easy while running. Sound very good and battery life near 6-8 hrs at least that is what I got. Here is the kicker........I dropped this thing at least 20 times......bouncing off boulders on my trail run to sand and saltwater on my beach run. This thing takes a beating and keeps on playing. Hey I want it to work no matter what. The case is all beat up and sides worn down. Still works like the day I bought. I am buying another one for my wife......no reason any other when I could not break this one!! Me
Rating: Summary: better than most Review: buy it now! its ez to use and worth your money
Rating: Summary: better than most Review: good things: 1. ease of use 2. no skip 4. ez to use software w/ usb support for fast transfer between computer and player 5. ease of use bad things: 1.not enough space even w/ extended memory 2. when naming w/ artist, album and song they dont show all only 12 characters 3. when plyaing music you are unable to view clock 4. doesnt come with ac adater to recharge 5. have to buy carrying case!
Rating: Summary: Great Product, Bad Software... Review: This is not my first MP3 Player... In the last week, I bought the Rio One MP3 player... Big deception... So, I replaced it with: The Creative Labs Nomad IIc. And until now, I'm generaly impressed. ;) The reason why I purchased this MP3 player is because I travel a lot by motorcycle and, after 4 hours of riding, you start to grow tired of hearing wind and engine... It helps to have a distraction like... hmm.. your favorite music? ;) The problem, forget about my CDPlayer with 45 secs of memory. It starts skipping the moment I start riding... :( The product, I find it great: The menu is easy to navigate (from my personal point of view, though, if you check reviews for the 64MB, you'll find that some complain about the navigation). Music, Settings, Information (to know where you are at with the memory), Time (Yep, there is a little clock in it to know today's date and time) and recording (yes, you can record your voice) are all neetly seperated with Iconized menus. Features: 1. You can record your voice in 2 levels of fidelity: Hi and Low (the latter for when recording from a noisy environment). It's a bit complicated to start, but works just fine (have to go in voice and press the record button on the side quickly, otherwise, you'll have to do it again) and the output is nice. Usefull for those on the run notes... when you forgot your PDA... ;) And you know how much time each voice recording has... 2. It shows the name of the file (or some limited MP3 tag info) 3. You have an equalizer with 5 choices plus, you can set your own Treble and Bass settings) 4. It has Single repeat, section repeat, whole repeat and random options 5. The buttons are very easy to use and precise 6. flowing through the music can be a bit tedious if all your songs start with the same 12 characters... but it is quick and efficient. :) 7. has a backlight that is powerfull and settable (how long it will stay on). 8. It has a clock with date wich is a nice addition. 9. The music sounds real good with ordinary 25$ Canadian Panasonic ear buds 10. The plastic is of quality and Philippe Proof (things tend to break with me in a short notice time) 11. It has a sleep mode if you forgot to turn it off after stopping the music (settable) 12. You can even erase files (Songs or recordings) on the fly with the simple press oif a button on the side followed by the PLAY button for confirmation. That way, you eliminate those songs that you've put on and don't wanna hear quickly and painlessly The bads are: 1. The PlayCenter software that is a pain to use. With the Rio One, you plug it in and it appears as hard drives. So, you simply drag and drop the files and voila, the players recognizes them. But, with Nomad, they had to make the process complete. You NEED to install the Nomad USB drivers + the PlayCenter software, reboot and only then, through the software, can you transfer the files. :/ No chance of using it as a other format files transport device like Rio... 2. The slip in for the Smart Media card is under the cover... Nice protection compared to the Rio One, but it is hard to rech for extraction and you tend to bend the thing to get it out, which is usually not good. And, you have to open the Battery cover as this is through where you have to pull it out or put it in.. :( 3. The Memory Card is not Hotswapable (it tends to freeze the thing) 4. You cannot browse the menu while music is playing... It's one or the other 5. You cannot play music while connected to the USB port 6. There is no way (compared to Rio One) to know if there is an actual transfer going on by looking at the Nomad. On the Rio, the Connection Icon flashes during an actual file transfer / Format / Delete. 7. The fact that you are obligated to work with the software and cannot (as with the Rio One) just plug it in and transfer. It supports SSFDC FAT12 format and not the other standard: FAT16. 8. The fact that, when showing the listing of songs, you only see the first 12 Caracters. It is painfull for people like me who thends to name the MP3 files in the Author, Album, Song format... :( 9. It doesn't come with a Lithium Battery and a charger. You have to purchase the docking station to have charging capabilities and it supports only NiMH batteries. 10. There is no cover for it. A nice water proof one would be nice since I tend to hit rain on a regular basis on bike and like to have access to the device for live mods. I think I'll ask my mom to sow me a little wrist bag for it so that I could attach it on my right fore arm. ;) 11. The IIc has no radio. :( Sad. Sometimes it is nice to know what is the traffic situation ahead... but I'll live on that one. ;) Overall, I love the product. It works better then the Rio One, easier to navigate and the finish on it (the feel of the casing and buttons and the plastic used) is of better quality then the Rio One. The only drawbacks to this great product are the standards, software and cost (almost 2 the price of Rio One, but Rio One is 32 Megs and Nomad IIc that I kept is 128MG on board). So, if you have the dow, consider this little baby. It's worth it and the sound is great on it. Proof that Creative is still good with sound, and not just with PC Sound Cards... ;) Now, if they could just upgrade the OS of the device so that it supports FAT16 and would depart itself from that restrictive software... ;)
Rating: Summary: Great sound for a great price Review: Have owned the Nomad IIc for a month and haven't dropped it yet, so I can't attest to its durability. Top rating from Consumer Reports (for the 64MB version) influenced my buying decision. The "quick setup guide" is not much help, so if you need detailed setup instructions, install the PDF manual from the CD like other users have suggested. Don't bother downloading the manual from the Nomadworld site - it's exactly the same as the one on the CD, only with some annotations. Setup was easy after reading the aforementioned manual - install the software, plug in the player, transfer the files. Have used both the PlayCenter 2 software and the MusicMatch Jukebox Nomad plug-in to transfer files; since I rip CDs using MusicMatch, I prefer using that program, but the two perform identically in terms of letting you know how much memory is left, etc. Be sure to pick up a 128MB SmartMedia card to expand memory capacity (256MB total will hold 50-plus 128 kbps MP3 files). Written documentation for inserting and removing the card is nowhere to be found, but just look at the two little pictures on the back side of the player (where the battery cover is) and the instructions are right there. Actually putting in and taking the card out is a little tricky, especially if you have RSI like me - you may need to take the battery out first! Would give this product five stars if it didn't come with a stingy 90-day warranty and those extremely uncomfortable, ear-pinching "backphones". Use your favorite pair of headphones or earbuds instead. Either way, the sound is awesome for such a small device - after all, Creative is a leader in sound cards - and the player is easy to use once you've gone through the menus and controls a few times. Have it set on a pretty low volume (around 2 or 3) and it's quite loud enough with the Sony earphones I use. Overall, an excellent product. Just hope it doesn't conk out on the 91st day...
Rating: Summary: worth every cent Review: Very nice little machine for the money. The software is SOOOOO easy to use, not sure why some folks have a problem with it. And I don't even know that much about computers, so the software to me was A+. Mp3 player itself is easy to operate. Easy to read display. Held about 35 of my favorite songs. Oh yeah, I even dropped it... and it's still working GREAT. Only drawback, wasnt crazy about the headphones.
Rating: Summary: Works great for my workouts. Review: A nice MP3 player for the price. Sure, the design is a little long in the tooth now, but it still gets the job done. I use mine for listening to music for workouts -- works great. It seems to be durable too. I've bounced it off the floor several times without apparent harm. The software works okay for me under 98SE, though I don't change the music selection that often. Added a cheap smartmedia upgrade no problem. The display is clear and the menus make sense. I don't use the headphones that came with it, so I can't really comment on those. Volume is fine with the Radio Shack earbuds I use. I use rechargeable batteries, so I don't worry much about the battery life. It actually seems pretty reasonable anyway. If you can get this player for the right price and don't need a huge song capacity, you could do a lot worse.
Rating: Summary: Battery Killer Review: Great little MP3 player for the money.
The side jack rubber cover is extremely awkward to open.
Fresh AA battery will NOT last the entire play list of 32+ songs.
Tried every possible battery type, with minimal volume.
IF you buy it - get the 128 flash memory for it.
Otherwise, our next MP3 is going to be much more power efficient.
Rating: Summary: Good for a Beginner Review: Since I was just getting into digital music and my budget was somewhat limited, I went with the Nomad IIc about a month ago as opposed to a more technically-superior, but expensive iPod. So far I've had good results with the Nomad.
Sure the sound quality isn't the greatest, but then again the MP3s I'm ripping probably aren't at the best quality anyway. Sure 128MB isn't the 20GB or whatever the latest Apple is offering, but I've found it on average to be about 32 songs, which if you think about it is the better part of 3 CDs. Sure the Nomad doesn't have all sorts of nifty features like a radio, but that also keeps it simple for those just starting out like myself.
I thought the software was easy to use and the player works fine with my clunky old PIII desktop using Windows 98. I only have a USB 1.1 connection, but it was still very quick to transfer the files. I actually spend a lot more time deciding on and arranging what I want to upload than actually uploading the songs.
The drawbacks are that this thing sucks down the juice like nobody's business. I haven't timed it exactly, maybe 5 or 6 tops. I'd recommend investing in some rechargeable batteries and keeping some extra on hand if you're out on a run or anything. The other problem is that the LCD display should stay lit longer or I should be able to turn it on and keep it on for as long as I like.
But the bottom line is that the Nomad IIc is a decent little player, good for those new to MP3 players who don't have hundreds to spend on the latest and greatest. So far it's lasted a month and a few drops even, so it's worth what I paid on Amazon. It's too bad they aren't offering it here anymore.
Rating: Summary: Quite simply, perfect! Review: As I'm writing this review Amazon is showing this item as no longer stocked. I don't understand why unless it is just temporarily sold out due to popularity. I've had mine for about 3 months and I use it every single day. I use it in my car with a cassette adaptor for skip-free music on the way to and from work. I use it in the gym lifting weights, on the treadmill, and for running outdoors. It's so small and light I hardly notice it's there. The headphones are well designed and sound great. I purchased a Viking 128mb smart media card to go along with this so the memory is doubled. I'll probably get one more 128mb card soon for a quick change out. You can program your own bass/treble settings, you can set it to drive headphones or lineout, it even has a clock built in. It's got selectable repeat track, repeat all, random (shuffle) or no repeat. There is also an a>b repeat that allows you to select a starting & stopping point for your repeat. The voice recorder sounds fine although I haven't found a use for it personally. I also like how it runs on only one AA battery. As much as I use it I think I go through 3 batteries per month. I use this think a lot though. As for durability, I've dropped it a few times and it looks, sounds, and functions like new. Once I accidentally slammed a 35 pound weight into it. I thought for sure the LCD screen would be messed up if not cracked, but it wasn't! I shopped around before choosing this one, and I'm not disapointed in the least. It's a great value in my opinion. Get it.
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