Rating: 
Summary: Creative products and support need work
Review: WOW - things have certainly gotten worse since my original posting. I have had the same experience as many others here with Creative, saying my not dropped player is out of warranty, 20 bucks to look at it and who knows how much to fix. Fortunately Amazon has decided to replace (sure hope I have better luck) but sounds like the headphone jack goes out after about a month on a lot of these players. Given the amount of time Amazon has had to spend on this and Creative's very poor build quality and warranty track record I wonder if I would continue to partner with them. The cost to Amazon has to be getting high now. I simply cannot believe a 400 dollar unit has to be treated like it was porcelain (not acceptable).
Rating:
Summary: A Possible Discontinued Item?
Review: What's going on Creative Labs? Is it a coincidence that I no longer can get any of your Nomad Zen Xtras (worst name ever) at Best Buy and now the 60GB Nomad Xtra is "sold out" or more likely "discontinued" at the almighty Amazon.com? hmmmmm....
Rating: 
Summary: Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 40 GB
Review: Overall, a good buy for the price. Easy enough to navigate through, although I'd prefer a sturdier button besides the thumbwheel scroll/pushbutton. My biggest complaint is the battery life or lack there of. There is no way the battery supplied lasts 14 hours! At best, I've gotten 3 hours+. I've tried draining it until it won't turn on & recharging it overnight. No difference. If you're intrested in buying a spare battery It'll run you another $50, a little steep I thought. I've also had the Nomad Zen lock-up several times. The good news is if you can't get it to reset/reboot you can still pull the battery and reinstall it. That's a huge plus by itself compared to the infamous IPod and similar MP3 players where the battery is permanently installed & removing it voids the warranty. The Nomad Zen could use a little sturdier construction like the Archos Jukeboxes or some kind of shock resistant case. At the very least, a sturdier more protective carrying case would be nice. Pros: huge storage capacity for the price, easy to navigate, can modify existing playlists on the fly, has a removable battery Cons: Battery life is about 1/4 of that advertised, no operators manual available for any of the Nomad Zen players (on or off-line), occasional software lockups, replacement battery is expensive Note: about 2GB (5%) of the advertised 40GB of storage capacity is used for the operating software (Firmware). This is nothing new, every MP3 player, memory card, etc., used for digital media today has some kind of preloaded operating software on it.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the Trouble, Just buy an Ipod
Review: I received this as a gift for Christmas. My first impression was positive. After using it for a few weeks (the amount of time before the hard drive crashed) it revealed a few of its shortcommings.
First, the sound quality is okay, but (as at least one other reviewer has mentioned) the EAX can cause audio interference after about 30 minutes. At first I thought it was my headphones but it was not. It was just a problem with the player.
Second, the menu system and controls are poorly designed. The toggle button that is used to scroll is poorly designed and does not work well. The general button placement is not very user friendly. This would not be a great problem if you didn't have so much info to scroll through on a regular basis.
Third, the poor design continues with the case. The flap completely covers the screen because there is no window to see it. It also covers over the power jack when closed.
After the first one fatally crashed, the replacement did not work. I bought an Ipod and am very happy with it.
Rating: 
Summary: The best jukebox mp3 player, hands-down
Review: I bought the 30gb Zen Xtra from a well-known national electronics store as soon as I saw they were advertising it for $219.99. The combination of the price, storage size, and player features makes this player the best on the market.
The biggest drawback that people have about the Zen Xtra is the software. Fact is, it couldn't be easier to use. These models now ship with Creative's Mediasource program, which allows you to highlight the files on your computer that you want to add to your Zen Xtra, click a button, and transfer it straight to your player. Assuming you have filled in all the ID3 tags on your mp3s, you will not have any problem finding them on your Zen Xtra.
Sound quality on this is amazing, as with all Creative products. Even leaving it on the default setting (without the EAX enhancements) produces crystal clear playback.
The menu allows you to search for files by artist, genre, and album quite easily. The battery stays charged for a long time, and takes no more than 2 or 3 hours at most to fully recharge via the included AC adapter.
Connect the player to your computer (via USB), open up Mediasource, and you can listen to your stored mp3s as they stream directly from the Xtra! Get those mp3s off your hard drive, save space, and enjoy your massive music library. Awesome feature. USB 2.0 transfer is insanely fast.
Minor complaints: 1) Even though the music is sorted via ID3 tag on the player, the option to search for music contained in a folder is unavailable. That is, if a folder on your computer called "MP3" has Slayer (thrash metal), Stravinsky (classical), and Ice Cube (rap) in it, you will only be able to play the contents of that folder by searching for the artists or genres manually. The Zen Xtra will transfer the files to the player, but not the folder name. Not a big hassle as many would have you think.
2) Having unfilled ID3 tags will cause music to be potentially placed in a folder called "unknown." I would recommend against using ID3v2 tags, and stick with ID3v1 only. When the previous versions of the Zens were shipped with Musicmatch, people had this problem because Musicmatch creates both sets of tags, which seem to confuse the Zen Xtra. Take the time to fill in those tags!
3) With Mediasource being so easy, I found no use for the bundled Nomad Explorer software. In fact, it caused my system to hang more times than not, so I uninstalled it and stuck with Mediasource 100%.
So what are you waiting for? Get one now!
Rating:
Summary: Not durable enough for this road warrior
Review: I loved this product when I first got it - great sound, easy to use (even though I agree that the software wasn't the best) and held enough songs to suit any mood. I was willing to live with the larger size (inconvenient on the road) but the durability was a big zero. Always carried it in a case in by briefcase but one day the hard drive just zapped. Tech support couldn't figure it out and gave up. I am disappointed and looking elsewhere for something that can withstand the "rigor" of a business traveler.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I'd hoped
Review: I was prepared to love it. I've had this thing for less than a month, treated it quite well, never dropped it, and the headphone jack is all screwed up. Now I have to return it and rip all my music again. Good thing I got a replacement plan. Wish it included somebody to re-rip all the songs. Reading other reviews, I don't think the replacement one will be any better. I'm not looking forward to ripping my entire collection every month or two. Maybe I'll get lucky with the next one. Kind of bulky and the wheel is awkward, but I can deal with that. Software definitely sucks, hangs up my notebook about half the time, but I don't mind buying Notmad. I AM annoyed that the player's not automatically recognized as a hard drive. I don't want to install software and drivers on every computer I'm ever at. Makes me use it much less than I otherwise would. Looking at the glowing reviews from people that have had this for a week or two, I kind of wish people would wait until they've had a product a little while to review it. I loved it until it broke, but less than a month is not an acceptible period of time for something to work.
Rating: 
Summary: Those who don't like it are IPOD lovers and are in denial
Review: This thing does its job. I've compared and compared and compared. It was either the 40GB IPOD or this one. I felt better with this one since it had the shuffle feature and I'm not too keen on www.ipodsdirtysecret.com. The longest that I haven't charged it was maybe 3 days and that's turning it off every now and then. Replacement battery is $50 compared to IPOD's $150.
CONS: THe only thing I don't like about this is the cover does suck. I dropped it from the couch, landed on carpet and the cover AND battery flew out. It's kinda heavy, kinda like having a walkman. Headphones suck, I would invest in some cool ones since it has the EAX feature. The software sucks. It overrides songs so you have to go in there and put it your own titles especially if you have remixes. Also the feature to automatically put in the song information isn't always accurate. You discover this later when you're listening to a song and it's the wrong title, causing you to rename everything on your own.
Rating: 
Summary: Headphone jack
Review: I got the 40gb jukebox zen xtra for christmas. So, I've had it for a month, and the headphone jack went out. I called creative and they said to send it in and they would decide if it in warranty. It'll take 10-15 business days for them to decide form when they get it. Nothing but hassle with this company. What kind of product goes out within a month?
Rating:
Summary: Great value & great sound; Carry your entire collection!
Review: Pros:
1) Great sound (>98dB signal-to-noise ratio beats Ipod's "unspecified" ratio) and good power output allow the Zen Xtra to drive large head-phones as well as external speakers. With my Sennheiser 497 headphones, the volume is loud enough at 12 (max is 20). The player works well with my Sony SRS-A202 powered speakers. 2) The player user interface (UI) is intuitive to use, and allows easy navigation of a large or small collection. 3) The Nomad Explorer (WinXP style interface) works well to transfer files back and forth to use the Nomad as an external although the tech support web-site states that the primary intended purpose of the player is as a player. The Nomad Explorer provide most of the functionality offered by 3rd party programs like Notmad.
4) USB 2.0 means fast data transfers (1 song/sec!). 5) The cheap, user-replaceable battery ($50 from Creative) is a great advantage over the Ipod's battery which costs $100 to replace. 6) Excellent battery life - 14 hours beats Ipod's. 7) Chic look and good build - the player comes in a compact form with a metal face plate. I use it primarily in the provided protective case although I have dropped it about 3 feet from my desk (by accident) as well as have played it outdoors in -30 Fahrenheit weather (by design) and it has continued to work fine. 8) Creative Mediasource, although not as sleek looking as Windows Mediaplayer, is effective in organizing your collection and is linked to a good CDDB service (Gracenotes).
a. The CDDB downloads information for the CD that you insert such that you do not have to type in the track information such as album, artist, song title, etc. I don't always care for Gracenotes' genre listings but it allows easy editing of ID3 tags.
b. Fast Mediasource CD ripping - takes about 40 seconds for a CD on my Pentium 4 PC (2.4GHz with 1Gb RAM) with 52X drive.
c. I do love Audiosync which allows a one-click synchronization between the player and the music collection on the computer. 9) Wake-up feature that allows you to set up the player to wake up and play Selected Music at a specified time. I have it connected to speakers for a nice musical alarm in the morning. 10) Multiple play modes - tracks in order of album, shuffle, etc., is standard on all jukebox players but worth noting that the Zen Xtra is not deficient in this matter. 11) Minimal pause between songs - less than that on other devices - good achievement for a hard-drive based player 12) Big storage - my entire CD collection in one small device (5717 songs, 491 albums and counting)! Cons:
1) Player is not plug and play - need to install Nomad Explorer first and Mediasource to transfer files and I had to be patient as I was used to WinXP detecting the player and dragging and dropping the music files into it. 2) Music organization is based on ID3 (by genre, artist, album, etc.) and this can be a problem for older downloaded music files with missing or incorrect ID3 information. This was not a problem for me as most of my collection was ripped from my own CDs and I updated the ID3 tags on my downloaded music. 3) Folders cannot be created for the audio files. This is unnecessary with ID3 tags but people who like to organize their music in folders will not like the Zen as the audio files do not allow subfolders but rely on ID3 tags. The workaround is to update ID3 tags on your files (through Mediasource) but it can be a hassle if you have many such music files. 4) No FM or voice recording - these would have been nice extras. 5) Lack of good accessories - this is more of an oversight of Creative's marketing. Both Creative and third-party powered speakers work great, as do third-party wireless transmitters. A dock is unnecessary as the charger and USB cable do the necessary. 6) The Case occludes the display screen when it is closed. I would have liked to be able to see what is playing without having to open the case. 7) Some people have problems with the flip switch on the bottom that releases the player cover - has not been an issue for me and is immaterial if you use the case as the case covers the switch. Experience:
Once I got home with it I had to first install Creative Mediasource and figure out how it transferred files to the player. This required patience as I was used to WinXP detecting the player and dragging and dropping the music files into it (which I could do with my flash player). I did already have Mediasource installed due to owning the Creative Audigy 2 soundcard but I did need to re-install it from the supplied CD as the older version did not have the connector to the Zen. Also, I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade and software updates. Recommendations:
1) Buy an extended coverage if offered by the retailer as this device has moving parts and is essentially a portable hard-drive.
2) Buy a good pair of head-phones unless you already own one.
3) Use files with ID3 tags - not a problem if your CDs were ripped within the last year.
4) A set of speakers and a wireless transmitter are accessories that will add to your player's usability (the latter will allow you to play it on your car radio, home receiver, etc.)
5) Handle the player with care - it is not meant to be dropped. Resources: http://www.nomadworld.com, http://www.nomadness.net Pros summary:
Great sound; good interface; replaceable, powerful battery; good software; wake-up, sleep timers; multiple play modes Cons summary:
Not plug & play; relies on ID3; no FM or recording Bottom-line: Can't beat carrying 500-CD collection with me wherever I go. My favorite is to play "any track"- am rediscovering my music! Also love waking up to music with attached speakers.
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