The Nomad Jukebox just got Bigger.
Written: Feb 16 '02
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Pros: 20GB Hard Drive, incredible sound.
Cons: Bulky, no FM tuner, short battery life.
The Bottom Line: If you have a very large collection of audio files and would like to take them with you, the Nomad Jukebox is a great product for that.
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| lavoisier's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox (20 GB) MP3 Play... |
Since the inception of the Nomad Jukebox by Creative, the product has been a success, primarily because there are people out there that have a gigantic collection of audio files. But for those who are looking for even greater capacity out of any portable digital audio player, you may want to have a look at the Nomad Jukebox 20GB as your contender. With that, it's like taking several hundreds of CDs in a size of a portable CD player. But for those who are rather concerned about the size of the player, you might want to avoid this product; then again, it's really worth it.
Hardware
With the 20GB hard disk built into the audio player, it allows you to store about 340 hours of audio in one small player that has the size of a portable CD player. Of course to store that much, you really need to use the compressed audio formats such as WMA. Plus, the audio player is ready to support any other compressed audio formats, so your Nomad Jukebox 20GB can keep up the advances of technology.
With the USB interface for the player, it uses the universal USB port on the back of the player, so if you've lost your USB cable bundled with the player, it's no problem to replace the cable at all. With the USB, it means that this player is Mac compatible, so it means that you don't have to use the PC to make this player useful, unlike the iPod, which doesn't support Windows.
The control panel is easy to use and intuitive, which features a large LCD screen, not as large as the Rio Riot¡¦s, but it's sufficiently legible to really control the audio player in the dark though. However, I wished that the audio player could be supplied with a remote control as a standard feature or even as an accessory, so that you don' have to bring the player up to your eyes just to control the playback of the player. Plus, with the control panel, you can personalize your own play list, so that you can easily share the audio player.
The audio that is generated from the player is excellent with the supplied street style stereo headphones. They're comfortable to wear and even more comfortable to hear into. With the 2 line outputs on the back of the audio player, it allows you to use the player with a 4.1 speaker system like the Cambridge Soundworks FPS 2000 Digital speaker system. With that, you don't have to turn on your computer for your digital audio, a great amount of savings on your energy bill. Since it does have a moving part, it does skip though if you pound on the pavement too harshly though.
With the infrared port feature on the front of the player, it allows you to accessorize your audio player with a remote control for total entertainment control or accept any PDE (Personal Digital Entertainment) devices.
With the player it comes with 2 packs of 4 AA NiMH rechargeable batteries, which allow you to play your audio player up to 4 hours, which is rather short compared to the Rio Riot or the iPod. But if you want to, you can still use those non-rechargeable alkaline batteries if you're not near a power supply.
What happens when our moods do change in a short while though, then we seek for an FM radio station to resort from the digital audio. But the Nomad Jukebox 20GB doesn't feature an FM tuner at all. Without that, it could make it a lesser interesting product at all.
The software bundle for the PC includes the PlayCenter 2 and for the Mac, it features SoundJam MP, both from Creative to organize and upload your audio files that you've downloaded off the Internet and even your existing CD audio collection (PC only) can download into the audio player, after the format compression is placed.
Conclusion
At $350, this is really worth every penny over a multi disc changer and you can take the player with you. But the player is rather bulky, since it has the size of a portable CD player, but it's well worth the capacity. For that money, you can really beat the value of buying a CD changer. With the car adapter and cigarette power adapter, you can truly take the audio player with you wherever you go.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 350
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lavoisier
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Member: Hugh Jazz
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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