Rating: 
Summary: amazing...
Review: I spend a lot of time on the road for work, and thus used to drag around a whole mess of cd cases. NO LONGER! The creative labs jukebox is nothing short of spectacular -- multiple formats, flexible input/output, good software, solid constuction, decent interface, etc...
Rating:
Summary: This one has the best features for a gadget geek like me
Review: I've had my 20GB Nomad JB for 3 weeks now, and I'm obsessed. I've ripped 300 of my CD's into it, and it's still got 5GB free. I'm using MP3 for compatibility with my less-privileged friends, but I tried the WMA format and it's better IMHO. The EAX and equalizer effects are great, esp. when hooked up to some cheesy... Labtec speakers w/subwoofer. This thing's got all the others beat for features! VERY MINOR GRIPES: You can record directly off another device using built-in line-in jack 1/8", but you need a powered mic to record voice. The battery life is right about 4 hours, but charge them a good long time on first charge before using them. Carrying case is inadequate, but who cares? Get a CaseLogic case. GOOD STUFF: The USB connection is plenty fast, takes under 5 minutes to fully rip a 60+minute CD and transfer to it (use a fast 40X CD-ROM or better). I thought the headphones included with were fine -- there's better, but they're okay. The included software is very easy, converting from WAV to MP3 or WMA etc. is easy (right click it), you can store ANY type of file from computer on it in a pinch (I tote stuff home from office computer on it). SOUND IS EXCELLENT. Your title and track info can be displayed during playback, which is nice for party scenes where my non-tech friends want to know what song is playing, they can just look. The CDDB (internet database) service is great, I only had to key in 4 discs out of 300 that I ripped. But check the titles, some folks are submitting and drinking, apparently. WHAT I COMPARED THIS TO: ARCHOS, DLINK and pretty much every other jukebox. In the stores, hands-on. THIS THING ROCKS. No regrets. Go get one. Live a little. Everyone will hate you.
Review update: What other guy said is right, if you go WMA you can pack a lot more music on this thing, up to 700 hours. I went MP3 because I dump files to my friends' computers, and some of them have enough trouble with MP3 (get Windows Media player update people!) I DROPPED MINE. Know what? Nothin' happened. Don't try it at home though! There is a hard disk that COULD get damaged, but mine fell about 3 feet onto a hard carpeted floor with no apparent harm. And USB isn't too fast compared to firewire, but heck, 2 or 3 minutes for a whole album? Come on. Last thing I forgot, there's an infrared port on it for "future upgrades" such as an IR remote control. Which would be nice when I'm connected to my home sound system.
Rating:
Summary: Best for Portable Music
Review: I've had my 6GB version of the Jukebox for a year now and use it in many places -- car, bicycle, walking, gym, stereo. Had some initial problems but Creative has upgraded the firmware and all have been fixed. Its pretty rugged and I've only dropped it twice with no consequences, although I don't recommend it. May upgrade to the 20gb version but I don't need it now. Overall, its an excellent PDA with good software and good support from both Creative and a great support website.
Rating: 
Summary: A large capacity, well made unit
Review: i've had my jukebox for about 6 months. The Good: well made, solid unit. lcd is legible and concise. controlling the unit takes some getting used to, but the controls are flexible enough to select individual songs or albums to play. you start by making a playlist which you may save or discard after playing. firmware upgradable means you can add upgrades easily after they become available. sound is clear. full volume output for line out, volume controlled output for headphones. goes about 4 hours on 1800 rechargable NiMH AA. the 20gb capacity is a winner. you load the jukebox via a usb cable. this is a slow process since this unit is only at usb 1.1, but you can cue up your uploads, and do dinner. if you don't eat too fast, they'll be done when you return. Navagation is good. The Bad: loudest volume is not quite enough. for example, when listening with headphones on an airplane, you can just about hear. when using the unit to drive an amplied device such as a stereo, the stereo volume bust be boosted quiite a bit for volume equivalent to that from other sources. boot times, down to 30 sec with new firmware, still too long. Recommended: it is highly recommended that you purchase additional sets of batteries and a battery charger. A cover (skin) is a nice extra.
Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, no polish.
Review: I've used this item both before and after the iPod. It's a nice product. It seems somewhat well made. As one of the first hard drive-based players, it's not fair to judge it against newer products, so here are some issues that Creative should have gotten right, but failed to.
First, the UI is very, very slow when used while playing a song. The menus are otherwise easy to navigate. It seems like the same processor is being used to decode the MP3 music and to run the UI - and that processor isn't up to the task.
Second, the UI has some minor glitches that keep it from being as smooth as I'd like. It's designed well for someone that has time to think, but a player that will be used in the car or while running or working shouldn't assume it will have the user's attention.
Creative Playcenter is actually decent software. Not great, mind you, but decent. It would be nice if the software were downloadable from Creative's site - I've never found it. It would also be nice if I could get some sort of drive letter access to the drive for data storage.
Other applications work with the Nomad Jukebox. I've used Windows Media Player on Windows and iTunes on the Mac. RealPlayer is supposed to support it as well, but I've not tried it. None of the third party applications I've used seem to support data and transfering music from the player to the computer. For that, you must use the Creative Playcenter application.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate
Review: It is the ultimate thing of all time I have ever come across!
Rating: 
Summary: great idea, if you can put up with...
Review: It's great to have all my CD's on this little portable thing, and the sound quality is pretty good. I don't use the EAX stuff either (who wants to mess with the sound of a CD?)
The problem with it is that somewhere (I guess probably the software) it messes up the mp3 files while ripping, and it's an intermittent problem. I ripped (or though I did) all my CDs only to find out afterwards that about half of them were messed up due to the "garbled" or "skipping" artifacts in the mp3s.
I hope there is a fix for this available soon. It's really annoying having to rip CDs twice or sometimes 3 times before it's right.
Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect
Review: Picture this, your on vacation in Aruba. You're sitting poolside and that warm glow of the second Planter's Punch has started to settle in. You're ready to throw on the headphones and tune out the world. Now, normally at this time you'd start flipping through the limited selection of CD's you decided to bring down from your hotel room to find the one that comes closest to your mood. And usually this means a compromise. But not with a Nomad. You power up the unit, go into the library mode and it strikes you that the advertisements were true - you really have carried your entire CD collection with you. That was my story a few weeks ago.
Nomads other real strong point is it's easily navigated interface. You can find any artist, album, or song in seconds. Assemble playlists just as quickly and sit back and enjoy. All album info is transfered automatically if you have a internet connection. You only need to manually label downloaded tunes or stuff off of home burned CDs.
A friend just purchased the ARCHOS 20G unit and found the loading and navigating of tunes to be much less friendly.
THE WEAKEST POINT - Battery life is under four hours per set - it comes with two sets of rechargable batteries and they are easily changed or substituted with alkaline AAs. The EAX feature I found to be virtually worthless.
Rating:
Summary: very useful
Review: the nomad jukebox is not perfect. the main flaw's i've seen have been 1. crazy battery gauge. it goes to almost empty as soon as i turn on the device. however the EAX menu tells you the exact percent of battery you have left, which is accurate
2 it has frozen once or twice, but that only happens if i push too many buttons while it is switching songs
3 unpredictable battery use. i have managed to suck 5 or more hours out of the batteries, but dont count on it. expect 4, cause thats what you'll get. for your information, turning the device on uses 20-30% of the battery sometimes. if you can, leave it on when its on.
however these dissadvantages are minor compared to the advantages. my computer cannot handle more than 150 songs. but by storing music on my mp3 player, i can still have realtivly quick access to all my music. i dont have to carry around cds, and it is create to have such a flexible playlist. i usually put all my favorite and play them in random. i'll admit my nomad has some scratchs, but it still works great. the backlit screen is easy to see in pitch black, and the most important feature is the size i dont think i'll every come close to filling it.
Rating:
Summary: Truly the best digital music companion
Review: The other reviewers have said it all. This is truly the best digital music device on the market. I just want to add that the 340 hours rating refers to MP3 encoded at 128Khz. If you do WMA at 64Khz, which gives roughly the same quality of music, you can go up to 700 hours! That's over 560 full-capacity audio CDs! Like the first reviewer I wish there were an IEEE-1394 connection for faster music transfer. Another thing that you have to be careful about is not to drop this thing. It doesn't skip when you jog, but I'm still not sure whether the hard drive will crash if you shake it too much, so do be careful. Other than these very minor gripes, get this for this holiday season. Simply the best!
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