Rating: 
Summary: An opera fan from Illinois
Review: After three months of use, I can report that the Nomad Jukebox 3 is a dream come true for my particular needs.My passion is listening to opera and classical music on a quiet lake aboard my solar-powered, all-electric pontoon boat, effortlessly controlled from a cocktail swing at the bow, with a removable instrument panel in front of the navigator. I constructed a cradle for the Nomad unit using 5/16" aluminum tubing, attached below the panel and including an external light for reading the display at night. The Nomad output plays through a JVC Kaboom box located beneath the swing, with volume and bass controls easily accessed. (I admit a picture would be very helpful, but the system won't let me paste it)
The quality of the sound from this setup is just phenomenal under the open sky, with mood-matching choice of music enabled by the superb selection system of the Nomad Jukebox 3---a monumental improvement over fiddling with individual CDs in the dark, even if mounted in a multi-CD player. The jog-wheel control is SO convenient and intuitive, and the huge storage capacity will easily accommodatte your entire CD library. The physical construction of the unit seems quite adequate, especially since it survived a couple of accidental drops onto my thinly carpeted floor. The Creative Labs PC music library software is also first-rate and bulletproof. Ripping tracks onto your PC in MP3 format from CDs or other sources is child's play, and I was especially pleased to find that I could rip soundtracks from rental DVD films and precisely monitor the process, by feeding the DVD audio output from my PC via a Y connector into the Nomad unit and having it ripped there, while controlling everything from the Jukebox view on my PC screen. Another great feature is the report function, which generates a list of your music inventory that is easily edited and compressed by a word processor into a two-column format for viewing by others. Could the system be improved? As an opera fan, a larger display, perhaps the width of the unit, plus appropriate software and a faster CPU could permit whole lyrical phrases to be shown in any language in time with the music---a kind of karaoke feature without graphics. Brighter, extended illumination would be nice also, perhaps with an auxiliary 12v DC battery input. Sure, I could accomplish these results with a laptop computer, but it wouldn't be nearly as compact nor elegant and would cost more besides. Call me a sybarite, but I can think of no finer enjoyment than floating into the sunset and twilight on my boat swing, martini in hand, watching the moon or stars or clouds overhead amidst nature's verdure and listening to my momentary choice of music, enabled so wonderfully by the Nomad Jukebox 3!
Rating: 
Summary: Good sound quality
Review: I initially bought an Archos Jukebox 20 GB. Really liked it. Compact design, easy PC interface. I plugged it in a USB port of my win2000 PC and it worked right away without additional driver installation. File transfer using window file manager was as convenient as can be. But the only problem was that it doesn't come with any line-out port. Sound quality with a headphone was OK although not great. When I play music with my Bose speakers, it was a bummer. Since I knew my Bose was good, I could only conclude that Archos need to improve its sound quality. Unfortunately sound quality is my #1 priority. I reluctantly returned the unit back to the store. Now I got a Nomad 3. The sound quality thru either headphone or speakers is nearly as good as CD players. I don't like the bulky design and software. But afterall, it's the music that I want. I think I will stay with it.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the best
Review: Being a few years older than the average MP3 buyer gave me an advantage when I began researching these products. I wasn't embarassed to ask pointed consumer questions and not afraid to comparison shop. I asked hard questions many of which the store people could not answer. I wanted to know if I could edit my playlists from the computer and I wanted to know if I needed a degree in engineering to make it do the things I was looking for. Well...the Nomad does everything I wanted and more. If you can use Word or any windows program it is a cinch to get this thing running. Just put a CD in your computer and in two clicks you are "ripping" the entire CD to the Nomad. I had to learn a few new terms but in about an hour I was telling my teenagers a few things they didn't know. The on CD manual is a bit awkward to navigate but not impossible. Make sure you go into settings and turn on the CDDB. That way [if you have an internet connection, DSL preferred] even the track titles automatically are entered. You can rip an entire CD in about 2 minutes [Pentium 4]. One bit of advice, load everything into playlists or albums or you'll end up with a lot of stray tracks. Sort of like saving a whole bunch of Word documents not in a file folder. The sound is great and the battery charge lasts for hours. I'm sure I could put 4000 songs on this thing. I will never fill it up. Interesting after only a few days I was getting sick of certain songs and deleting some. But you don't have to there is so much space on the 20 GB drive. Well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: HA! Creative FINALLY got it right!
Review: Creative Labs always used to put out really lousy jukeboxes, like the previous versions of Nomad. The Nomad 2 was good, but the battery life was still horrible. Now, with the Nomad III, it's finally a green light to buy a Creative player with no exceptions! The IPOD is better, however, but this is much easier to get support on for PC users, because the PC support for the IPOD is virtually non-existent. PC users will enjoy the VERY GOOD included headphones (which is rare on most audio devices), lightning fast FireWire connection, and, if you have a gigantic music collection, the WMA format. It is roughly the size of a Sony CD Walkman, and weighs in at about 14 oz. The 20 GB memory is enough for most music lovers to fit their collections on, and it has a very large LCD screen. Pros:
- Creative Lab's FIRST truly good MP3 jukebox
- WMA compatible
- a LOT of memory
- big, bright-lit LCD screen
- the included headphones are surprisingly good
- about the size of a Sony CD Walkman (a little wider the width of a CD itself)
- also has USB port, for those without a IEEE1394 port
- long battery life (22 hours, a HUGE improvement over Creative's past jukeboxes, which got only about 4 hours) Cons:
- no random play
- many jukeboxes around are significantly smaller than this one
- not as loud as it could have been I think that it is safe to say that this is a good alternative to the IPOD for the 20 GB size, though it isn't very good with Mac computers. The IPOD is better, believe me, but if you don't want to spend almost twice as much, get this one and it won't disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: Hardware problems
Review: I bought the Nomad 3 because I thought a lot of people had positive things to say about it, even though there are also many problems reported with hardware and software. I got mine and found the sound quality to be very good and the software much better than reported (on my PC with XP). However, I had the same problem another person reported - when I leave it to charge the unit dies and can only be re-started by removing and then replacing the battery while depressing the stop key. This is an emergency procedure according to the Creative web site. Creative technical support told me to return the unit, and I will. I have enough problems without investing in defective hardware. I think this is a shame, because I would have enjoyed using the Nomad, but I have lost confidence in the quality of this product, and I believe that I would be inviting headaches by purchasing another. Buyer beware - this is a good idea that could be a great product, but the manufacturer falls down in the execution.
Rating:
Summary: It is a portable player and a home music server
Review: After looking at every portable jukebox as well as home audio servers, I found that Creative Nomad 3 is the best product today. I initiallly ordered one player. Then I went back and ordered 4 more. Two of them will be used as audio servers in 2 different rooms of my house - other 2 as gifts. -- Setting it up
I downloaded and upgraded to the latest firmware release v1.20.06. To do that I had to first upgrade to the 2 previous releases. I found the software that comes with this player, Creative Playcenter to be useless for ripping and organizing music. I downloaded Media Jukebox 8.0 based on on-line reviews. Music Jukebox is a promising music manager program - although I haven't found one that I really like so far. I ripped all my CDs at 192Kbps - about 15GB worth so far. I then diligently got the Genre, Artist, Album and Track information right - a lot of it initially filled in from the on-line CDDB database. What I found that even though this organization is becoming the standard in the industry, it is a lot of hard work to get it right, and doesn't reconcile with my usage. I then resorted to a straightforward playlist organization. For uploading to Nomad Jukebox, I used the Firewire connection - USB 1.1 is simply too slow. I had to go and buy a Firewire card for my PC - about $50. Then I found that the upload plug-in that comes with Music Jukebox doesn't upload Playlists, only tracks. What a bummer!!! I then bought Notmad software ($20) - and it does upload Playlists. As a side note, Notmad's license enforcement mechanism is bizzare and cumbersome. -- Using It
After all this hard work, the payback was huge. The sound from this device is excellent. EAX capabilities are great - try them all out. The user interface is easy, the button layout is intuitive. The features are plentiful, yet not in the way. I do think they should increase the size of the LCD display. I use it as a portable player. It is a little bulky, but with the buttons locked (get the latest firmware), I can shove it in my jacket or jeans pockets. I use the headphones that come with it, and they are pretty good. I use it as a car player, although the only way to hook it up to my expensive car stereo is through an audio tape - with great loss of sound quality. What a bummer. So I sometimes used headphones in the car. Luckily I am about to buy a new car - and its car stereo system must have front audio input. Mostly, I use it as a player at home. I have speakers set up in 4 different rooms and I just take it with me and hook it up to the speakers. I have used it in 2 and 4 speaker settings. I use a wire to hook it up my home stereo. Now I have ordered 2 more so that I don't have to lug it around. It has transformed my music experience. I've become an avid listener. It has expanded my range of music. I'm now looking to buy a lot more CDs to fill gaps in my collection and to experiment new types of music. Positives:
- Great sound
- Great feature set
- Great transfer speed - using Firewire
- Good user interface
- Good music organization - I primarily use Playlists.
- Ability to drive 2 or 4 speakers.
- Decent headphones
- Remote control with the optional home kit
- Long battery life - with the optional battery
- Voice recording capability - with the optional accessory. I haven't tried it yet
- You can use it as hard drive storage
- Excellent value compared to iPod Negatives
- Size is a little bulky
- Creative Playcenter software that comes with it is useless - but you dont need it - download something else
- LCD display is too small I highly recommend it. As a portable, I would also consider Creative Nomad Zen.
Rating: 
Summary: Not As Good As I'd Hoped
Review: Here are my first impressions after one week: the unit is light and feels on the fragile side with its all-plastic construction. I'm afraid that if I drop it, it'll be history. The buttons are not intuitive and somewhat confusing at first; for example, you have to hit the fast forward button twice to skip to the next tune on your playlist. A good users manual would have been very helpful instead of providing merely a bare-bones quick-start guide; so be prepared to learn by hitting buttons and experimenting. The sound quality didn't blow me away as I was expecting. In fact, I've yet to reproduce the quality I enjoy from the same tunes played through my Creative Extigy USB module. I would describe the sound as flat, with tinny treble and no bottom. The headphones sound muddy, and the wrap-around design pushes them off my ears when I put my head against a pillow or back onto a plane seat. The unit doesn't have enough gain for me to compare my [$] pair of AKGs. My unit sounds best with the much-hyped EAX feature turned OFF. No great loss since you can only use one of these features at a time; for example, you can't use EQ and room ambience at the same time. And no amount of EQ tweaking would give me a nice crisp sound with punchy bass. In fact, the EQ introduced horrendous distortion. After a full night's charging, the unit was dead when I tried to use it the next morning on an airplane. Pulling out the battery and putting it back finally brought the unit back to life. What's up with that!? The Creative Player PC software is friendly and powerful, which is critical since editing on the devise is borderline impossible. Using the devise as a 20 gig hard drive for data files worked fine and is the unit's strength. The firewire connection is fast, but nowhere near 400mbs/sec. The unit's hard drive access time seems sluggish. Is the Jukebox 3 worth [the money]? Not really. You can buy a 20 gig firewire hard drive for less than half the price. But compared to the competition, I suppose the Jukebox 3 represents one of the better games in town. A wise shopper would also check out the much more reasonable Jukebox and Jukebox 2. You'll get the same music experience without the premium price.
Rating:
Summary: Creative makes a new sequal and its better than 1, or 2
Review: when i first got the NOMAD Jukebox 3 for my birthday i though that this is the best thing ever and it is exept one "error" is that somethimes when you are viewing all the songs then somethimes it displays the same song twice. another one of these "errors" is that the included headphones are uncomfertable. These are the only two errors that i have found yet...
Rating:
Summary: Serious QC Problems
Review: Do not buy Creative lab products. After contacting customer service multiple times about a warranty item, I talked to one of their techs, who said that they estimate 10% product failure on their products. My options were to pay to have it fixed, with another 10% chance that the repair could fail, or get the broken part back. They do not stand up behind their products. Don't throw your money away.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!
Review: I purchased a Nomad Jukebox for my husband less than a year ago. About six months later, it would not play off the battery. We returned it and Creative Labs said that the mother board was defective and that we must pay $75 to have it replaced since its warranty is only three months long. As far as the world of consumer electronics is concerned, a defective mother board is a manufacturer's defect, not the consumer's problem. Reality check....Apple is out there with better products, better design, and better customer service. Too bad that Creative Labs' won't even stand behind its own products.....you are better off going with an IPOD.
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