tesseract's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra (40 GB)...
In 2003, I had one of the lousiest Christmas Eves in living memory. First, I drove from Houston to Fort Worth, a drive of five hours on the dot, to spend Christmas with my boyfriend’s relatives, mostly people I had never met. The good part was that the weather was fine-- at least it wasn’t a drive made through sleet or ice, but since I didn’t have a particularly huge desire to go to Fort Worth in the first place, and I was already exhausted from pre-Christmas activities, I couldn’t dredge up much enthusiasm for it. Carl’s folks kept us up until 2 am, and then we spent the night on an air mattress on the floor of Carl’s aunt and uncle’s house, kept at 60 degrees, with Carl’s sister sawing logs two feet away, and a clock in the next room chiming like church bells every hour all night long. I got about one hour of sleep the whole night. I spent hours chanting to myself, "This is the worst Christmas ever!" I was such a grump Christmas morning that I declared to the entire family that Christmas could bite me.
I started opening my presents more out of duty than any real enthusiasm, and I soon found Christmas wasn’t so bad. There was a copy of the Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy bundle, Star Trek Elite Force II, my very own Korean copy of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a Galileo thermometer, and a space heater for my freezing office (I could have used that the night before), as well as a few other things I had asked for. Not a bad haul, I thought, pretty darn decent, in fact, but it turned out there was one more present lurking in a shadowed corner. I opened it and nearly fainted with amazement to find my very own 40 GB Creative Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox!
I’d had the 20 GB Zen on my wishlist ever since it came out, but I hadn’t dared to hope I might actually receive it this Christmas (or any other Christmas, for that matter). And not just a 20 GB, but the 40 GB... the Cadillac of jukebox MP3 players. He even secretly pre-charged it and pre-loaded about half my CD collection so I could enjoy it right away. I’m going to have to do some seriously perverted things to thank him for one of the most amazing gifts I’ve ever gotten. (I don’t know if it beats the big-girl sky-blue Huffy with white seat and handlebars I got from Santa when I was eight, though...)
It’s More Like A Roadster Than A Sedan
The Zen is only big on the inside. Outside, it’s roughly the size of my whole hand, palm plus fingers, or twice the size of my petite Daisy Diva. It's similar in size and weight to my prehistoric portable cassette player (if you remember what those look like!), but a bit smaller in all dimensions. Its sleek brushed aluminum case and clean lines ooze style. The roomy hi-res viewscreen and side-mounted jog dial make navigating and viewing file information a snap. The shiny silver buttons are all located on the sides, and include Power, Menu, Back, Play/Pause, Volume Up/Down, and Track Forward/Back. The controls are all quite intuitive, which is a lucky thing, since the manual tells you virtually nothing about how to use it.
The padded black vinyl case snaps around it, covering the front and back but leaving the sides open so you can operate all the controls while it’s in the case. The case isn’t the best looking thing in the world but gets the job done. Unfortunately, Creative forgot to include a window in the case so you can see the viewscreen, making certain operations like selecting a new album or changing the audio settings impossible with the case on. But minor operations like changing the volume, skipping a track, or pausing can be done on the fly.
The case includes a plastic belt clip so you can clip it to a belt or waistband (it’s a bit heavy for a shirt collar, but can be done in a pinch) for trips to the gym or park. It might be a bit heavy and bouncy for jogging or high-impact aerobics, but it certainly can’t be any worse than a Discman. (Creative's documentation warns against subjecting it to continuous high-impact shocks like running.) It’s definitely portable enough for all other activities.
Plenty of Leg Room and All the Options
Inside, the Zen’s 40 GB hard drive means there’s plenty of room to grow. My entire collection of roughly 350 CDs (I know, peanuts to some of the musicheads around here, but I have friends who think 100 is a lot) takes up about 18 GB (encoded mostly at 128 kb/s), so it’ll probably take me most of the rest of my life to fill it up. CDs and MP3s will probably be obsolete before I could possibly fill this sucker up. If you think that's still not enough space, you can also shell out an extra $100 for the 60 GB model, woo hoo! (We'll just call that one the Mack truck of MP3 players.)
Files can be viewed and sorted on the screen by Genre, Artist, Album, or All Tracks. Navigation begins with the Menu button, which brings up the main menu. From here you can access the Music Library or Selected Music (essentially a history page which also acts a temporary playlist), change the EAX audio settings or hardware settings, change the play mode (shuffle, repeat one, repeat all, etc) or lock the buttons. Selecting an artist, album or track brings up an option list allowing you to play it, view more information, add it to a playlist, preview a track, or delete it.
The Zen comes with two pieces of software: Nomad Explorer and Creative Media Source. You’ll need to use one of these to load files onto the Zen. Unfortunately, the need for software also reduces its utility as a portable hard drive, since you must have the software installed on both computers in order to transfer any files.
WARNING: Nomad Explorer looks like a good tool when you first start using it, but in reality is one screwed up piece of junk and nearly drove me to tears! It's integrated into Windows Explorer and is very easy to use, but I found that it crashes repeatedly, and will wreak havoc on your music library if you try to replace a folder as a method of updating files (the only convenient way to update if you can't use Creative Media Source). I had to start from scratch twice and reload all my MP3s (a six-hour process if you only have USB 1.1 like me) after Nomad Explorer capriciously deleted huge random chunks of my library from the Zen. I highly recommend investing an extra $25 to download Notmad from www.redchairsoftware.com, a third-party application which works like a dream, transfers faster, and has gobs of cool features. After all, if you've already spent $300 on the player, what's another $25 to get the most out of it?
Creative Media Source includes a ripper, organizer, and media sniffer that checks for new files, but it requires Windows 98 2nd Edition or higher to install. Since I run Win98 1st Edition, I haven’t used it and don’t miss it. I have a perfectly good ripper that I downloaded free anyway (CDex), and Notmad includes all the other features of Creative Media Source and then some.
You can load MP3s, WMAs, or WAVs onto the Zen. You can create playlists using Creative Media Source, but it doesn't allow you to import existing playlists from your computer. (However, Notmad lets you easily import existing playlists in M3U, PLS, B4S, or BPL formats. It will check the Zen for files that match the references in the playlist, and transfer any missing files from your computer.) You can also create playlists on the Zen itself by selecting tracks, adding them to Selected Music, and then saving Selected Music as a playlist, but this is rather tedious. Playlists created on the Zen can't be transferred back to your computer either (at least not without a lot of file duplication), so I recommend using your computer for all playlist creation and editing.
The Zen's Random function is somewhat annoying until you get used to it. Whenever you put it on Random, it appears to pull tracks from everything that's on the Selected Music list. (Are you getting the impression that everything about this player revolves around the Selected Music list?) So if you want to shuffle a particular album, artist, or playlist, you need to be sure to remove everything else from Selected Music first, or you'll be listening to a lot of other stuff as well.
Turbocharged Performance and Fuel-Efficiency
The EAX Audio menu includes five functions: environmental settings (concert hall, living room, etc.); time scaling to speed up or slow down tracks without changing the pitch; equalizer settings (jazz, pop, acoustic, etc) including custom, allowing you to adjust each band manually (only four bands, and a pain to use); spatialization (full, narrow, wide), and smart volume management for particularly noisy or quiet environments. The annoying part is that you can only apply one of them at a time. So if you’re using smart volume, you can kiss your concert hall EQ setting goodbye. But with a bit of fiddling, you’re bound to find a setting that sounds good with your headphones. Speaking of headphones, the set of earbuds that comes with the Zen is so unusually large I can’t even begin to fit them in my ears, so I have no idea how they sound. Carl likes them just fine and claims they have “good, solid sound,” but then he’s the guy who listens to 32 kb/s radio programs for fun. I’ve been using it with my Koss Ear Clips instead, and it sounds great. The Zen Xtra lives up to Creative’s reputation for quality sound. All my friends who've tried mine have been impressed with the sound and commented on it. Creative + Koss = Kool.
The lithium ion battery recharges through the included DC adapter/charger. Creative claims it gets 14 hours of play on a charge, but this may be a bit optimistic. I don’t usually use it for long continuous stretches, but I'd estimate it gets more like 10-12... less if you use juice-sucking features like the EAX settings. I noticed that when you plug it in, you can charge while you transfer or edit files.
What makes the Zen Xtra different than the original Zen or the Zen NX?
It’s the same size as the Zen NX, and they’re both a little smaller and lighter than the original Zen-- 7.9 ounces with battery, compared to 9.5 ounces.
The screen is nearly twice the size of the original Zen or the Zen NX.
USB 2.0. This may be moot due to firmware upgrades on the older models. (But FireWire is gone.)
Creative claims that ID3 tag recognition; organization of files by genre, artist, or album; and the Find function are all new features. Someone with an old Zen can let me know if this is true.
Zen Xtra and NX have a removable battery, so if it craps out for any reason, you can replace it, unlike a certain other high-capacity player. The front panel unlatches to allow access to the battery compartment. Unfortunately, it's prone to popping open on its own any time you set it down on a hard surface.
Also note, you can tell the original Zen by the indentations at the corners. Zen NX and Zen Xtra are smooth. You can differentiate Xtra from NX by the size of the screen. For the full specs on all three models, check www.creativelabs.com or www.nomadworld.com.
Other Factoids
The package includes the player, earbud headphones, AC charger/adapter, and USB cable.
Available accessories (purchased separately) include a travel speaker, car cassette adapter, and replacement battery.
Does not include voice recording.
You can set a bookmark, which is good for those listening to audiobooks or lectures, but as far as I can tell, you can only set one.
It has no output jack other than the headphones, which limits its ability to hook up to your car or home stereo. You can get adapters which will hook into the headphone jack, but the word is the output is not as good as a dedicated auxiliary output.
No more dual colored blue/green backlight. You get only blue.
Final Thoughts - Disappearing Data
I cannot emphasize strongly enough how bad Nomad Explorer is. I was in MP3 hell for a few days because every time I thought I had my entire collection loaded, I would notice a missing album, and a closer check would show it wasn't just one album missing, it was dozens-- albums that had already been loaded and had somehow disappeared. The problem seems to be the result of either editing the metadata of already loaded files or attempting to update the player contents by overwriting folders without using Creative Media Source. I tried deleting the entire contents and starting from scratch, but even after installing Notmad, files would still "disappear." To solve this problem, I wound up having to reformat the Zen's drive and start from scratch AGAIN, using Notmad this time to transfer my entire collection. This seems to have solved the problem, but after losing my hard-earned ID tag edits several times, I'm too afraid and frustrated to try any more edits. So I highly recommend you have your ID tags the way you want them before loading your library... just in case.
I have also found that Notmad's SpeedSync feature is very picky about recognizing edits to the ID tags. Since files are stored and sorted on the Zen and recognized by Notmad based on ID tags, this means that any change to an ID tag, no matter how small, will cause SpeedSync to insist on reloading that file every time you sync your player. So again, to save yourself grief, you should definitely have a reliable ID tag editor handy and get your ID tags exactly the way you want them on your hard drive before you load a single track, and never change them again!
I am giving what would otherwise be a 5-star product 4 stars because of the lousy software, but I was able to solve most of the problems by using Notmad instead of Creative's software, so all's well that ends well.
UPDATE (10/25/04)
I've now had my Zen Xtra for almost a year, and I have not had a single problem with it. I've managed to increase my CD collection to just under 22 GB, which is still barely over half full. I still love it and highly recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 295.00 Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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