Nomad Jukebox 3, the next generation digital audio player.
Written: Aug 09 '02
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Pros: Dual Interfaces, Dual Battery Capability, up to 40GB.
Cons: No USB 2.0 support, still bulky, should have a charging dock bundled.
The Bottom Line: Creative has done it again with the Nomad Jukebox 3, but I wished that it weren't as bulky and it has USB 2.0 compliance.
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| lavoisier's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox (20 GB) MP3 Play... |
After being rather disappointed with the Rio Riot jukebox, due to its rather bulky design and non-removable rechargeable battery, I decided to have a look at the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 instead. Another reason is that Rio Riot only offers a USB 1.1 support and it doesn't even have the capability to act as an external hard drive at all, lacking versatility in a pricey product. In addition, I find that SonicBlue products have somewhat lost quality and even their build has cheapened and that the black housing is rather lifeless. As a result, I went for the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 instead.
The Jukebox
Although not much has changed in-terms of design in the Nomad Jukebox 3 compared to the original, but significant changes are present inside the jukebox itself. One of which in particular is that the player uses different batteries than its previous generation Nomad Jukebox players use. The battery allows me to play the audio player for up to 11 hours on a single battery, however there is a chamber for a second battery (sold separately) to double my playtime. Since one of the complaints that I've had with the previous Nomad Jukebox products was about battery life as it ranges from 2 to 8 hours in just one charge. In addition, it wasn't using the Li-Ion technology that it had with the original Nomad Jukebox series, where there are recharging restrictions with Ni-MH batteries. This player has many new features as I've mentioned, but it still has more individuality and versatility as an audio player.
To start off, the most significant change to the player is that the Nomad Jukebox 3 offers both the IEEE 1394 (Firewire or iLink); commonly used by digital camcorders and many new high capacity external storage devices and all as usual, it includes the USB interface for those that don't have the Firewire on their computers, however the USB interface isn't a USB 2.0 interface, which could have made the player much better by offering a higher data transfer rate than Firewire. As a result, since many computers have USB and they lack Firewire, it would take hours in total to fill 20GB alone.
Another change was that the backlight and faceplate (at an extra cost) could be personalized by the individual. With this feature, I can personalize my own player in whatever fashion I would like it styled.
One of the problems I've experienced with the previous Nomad Jukebox products was the navigation. Here, it's just a matter of using the scroll wheel on the side of the Jukebox. So, if I wanted to search a track by artist, I can easily do that by using the scroll wheel, instead of just repeatedly pushing buttons. With this scroll wheel, I can also set my jukebox according to the preferences. Here, I can even disable the infrared receiver for the accessory IR remote.
On the bottom of the player there's a connector for the accessory dock, which allows me to conveniently charge the player and connect the player to the computer without fiddling with cables and it's a convenient way to work with the jukebox, whether it's work or play. Since the player's battery is Li-Ion instead of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH, I can recharge it at anytime I please, almost everyday. Even now, I use my player almost 9 hours a day and if I want a fresh player, I could go for the charge at the end of the day.
On the side of the player, there's the Optical line-in connector that I can record from different sources of audio, even from a portable CD player that has an optical line-in port. I could even use it to record voice, such as lectures and meetings on the go with the optional wired remote.
On the back of the player it even has a 4-channel audio card built into it, allowing me to plug in a 4.1 speaker system to the player for a great audio playback experience. This is useful, because I don't really want to even bring in a laptop or even a pile of CDs just to enjoy audio and I find that with this feature and the jukebox itself, I can even enjoy my audio at a friend's party. With this feature, the volume of the jukebox is not controllable as it is being switched to the speaker volume control.
The headphones that are supplied aren't really top quality, but it does do the trick quite well for quality audio. But for a better quality audio, I decided to invest on a Sony Street Style Headphones for a better experience.
In the future, the wired remote and FM wired remote will become available to the Nomad Jukebox 3 buyers, for those that would like to control the player without reaching for the player. For the FM wired remote, it features an FM tuner, but I suspect that it would be rather shabby in terms of quality.
With the EAX button, I can even enhance the audio quality of the player without too much of a fuss and I can even do it without a subwoofer. But the best results would come out of speakers that have at least a subwoofer though.
With storage capacities of 20 or 40 GB, you can really store 333 hours of MP3 audio with the 20GB and double the capacity with the 40GB. With these capacities, the product could really last for years to come.
Software
Creative bundles their Nomad Jukebox 3 with the Creative PlayCenter and File Manager.
With the PlayCenter, it allows me to place whatever track I can place into the player and it allows me to use it by playlist too. Here I can rip from CDs, transfer tracks to/from the player and edit track information. But there's more to the play portion to the software as it also features File Manager.
With the File Manager, the software actually makes the Nomad Jukebox 3 a much more versatile product for the money. With it, I can treat the product as an external hard drive for backing up important files on the go or even share files on the go. Because of the large storage capacity, why not use it as an external hard drive too?
Conclusion
In conclusion, I'm very happy with the Nomad Jukebox 3 after I purchased the 20GB version. But it's just that I wished that Creative would include USB 2.0 support for the product, since my desktop computer has USB 2.0 support and that with USB 1.1 it could really take a while to really load up my 4.5GB worth of MP3 downloads, let alone up to 20GB. After I purchased the product for almost 6 weeks now, I have also made a decision to purchase the dock, auto kit and an extra battery. Even though it has been reduced to size, the player itself is still as bulky as most portable CD players and I wished that Creative also bundled the charging and connector dock with the retail package as it would have been a better value. But they did that to cut costs.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 380
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Epinions.com ID:
lavoisier
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Member: Hugh Jazz
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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