Creative Labs 128 MB NOMAD IIc MP3 Player

Rating:
Summary: Price makes this choice a slam dunk
Review: I've owned mine for a year. I have ripped my cd collection to my computer using MusicMatch so I make frequent changes to what's on my Nomad, using the drag and drop feature.

As a runner, I wanted a player with no moving parts (even though hard drive units have gigabytes instead of megabytes of space). I've dropped this player a few times and it has been forgiving.

I love this player! It fits well in my hand while running. The headset is comfortable. A rechargeable AA battery provides hours of listening. LCD shows artist and title. I've never used the voice recording.

There are newer players that offer a slightly higher quality of playback sound and they are even smaller, but heck, look at the price of this unit!

I'm ordering one now for a birthday gift. MP3 players are really best in the hands of people who know how to handle files on a computer.

Rating:
Summary: Great Sound-Can't beat the Price!
Review: The sound quality that this device generates is terrific when using a good headset or good set of earbuds. I use a pair of earbuds that I purchased separately to get the most out of this unit. The headset included is just average sounding but has one advantage, they loop over the top of your ears so when you're working out, they don't slip off.

Setup on my PC was easy with one exception, the device was not recognized by MusicMatch until I went to the NomadWorld site and downloaded and installed a 39 MB app called Creative MediaSource. After that, it worked just fine. You don't need that app if you just want to use the supplied app called Creative PlayCenter 2 to transfer MP3's to the nomad.

I suggest you pick up another 128MB of memory as I did because this unit takes "SmartMedia" cards. Amazon has one from Viking cheap. The memory slipped in fine and was recogized by the unit immediately. The PlayCenter 2 software sees the internal memory and the card separately so don't get nervous...just look at the menu's and choose the memory card when the built in memory is full. One nice little extra is that this unit records voice memo's through a built-in mic.

Rating:
Summary: Great mp3 player
Review: This is my first mp3 player and it is great. It dose everything that I want. It works great with my XP computer, even though many people have had trouble with it, all you have to do is load the disc that comes with the mp3 player and have windows media player. So far I have 7 songs downloaded onto it, and I still have tons of meremory left. Im sure it could hold 20 songs on it. But once you get tired of one of your songs just erase it. Its a great little mp3 player. Im planning on taking it with me when I jog, since its got a clip on it. So far no problems.

Pros: Dosen't feel cheap.
Has good memory.
Great sound even better then my CD player.
Size
Works great on my XP with windows media player.
Good backlight.
Displays the song infomation.

Cons: Software is differnt in the beggining, but you get use to it.

Tis is a great mp3 player if you just want 20-30 songs on it. And don't want to spend alot of money. But only get it if you can find it under a 100 bucks. I highly reccomend it.

Rating:
Summary: Inexpensive and durable
Review: I've owned one of these for more than two years. I've taken it round the world with me on business trips, and subjected it to just about every type of abuse you could imagine. No, it's not an iPod. I added a 128 MB card and with 96 mbps compression on my mp3s/wmas I get a good 130 songs on there. But most importantly, it costs about 1/10th what an iPod costs. It's easy to use, cheap, holds plenty of music, works with any software I've tried (MusicMatch, RealPlayer, Windows Media) and durable. If you're looking for an MP3 player I can't recommend this one enough.

Rating:
Summary: NO SURPRISES!!
Review: Wonderful player, I was almost upset that it was too easy to use. The software took a minute to figure out, but I wouldn't have made it any differently. I was pleased with the player, which held about 30 songs depending upon song size. It's small, skipless, and has pretty good loud sound. I haven't found a use for the voice recorder, but it's nice to have all the bells and whistles. So I give it 5 stars because it's fairly inexpensive and very basic for someone who hates making a new CD every time his/her taste of music changes. Creative is a safe name, I recommend this product.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Investment
Review: I was looking for an MP3 player that would meet all my needs:
1) Made by a good well known company. (a must if you want to find drivers in the years to come.)
2) A simple player. (I just wanted to listen to a few songs at work and can put new songs on it when the current get old.)

So I looked and compared all kinds of MP3 players finally choose on this one. Ordered from Amazon I think for around $60. I later bought a 128MB chip for it for $18.
Well it worked great for the first 5 months. I have never dropped it or banged it or even let it in my car but the screen started to only display for a minute or two after it came on then go all black. So I contacted Creative (they are very slow) and they said reset it... No good. They said update the firmware... Still no good. They did not return my messages..? and then a week ago the player screen stopped working all togeather... Hello Creative are you still there..??? They said you are now out of the service plan and we can give you a refurbished one for $45... WHAT THE CRAP!!! I only paid $60 for it to start... I have only had it for barley a year and it has not worked right for half of it. So I though such is life, it is not like there was that much to the display anyway.... But today after replacing the battier all the player will do is click at me. click. click. click. is all I hear now. Oh and the screen back-light blinks with every click. blink/click. blink/click.

So long story short, this was not a good investment for me and I wish I had gotten an IPod. More money but very high quality! I still plan to bug Creative more and maybe get them to replace it but I will never by something from them again, not even a sound card.