51 out of 51 people found this review helpful.
Stylish and in a class of its own
Date of Review: Dec 20, 2000
The main complaint anyone has for portable MP3 music players has been the extraordinary expense due mainly, we are told, to the cost of flash memory that is used in the majority of the players. Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox takes a different approach. It has moved away from the flash memory solution used in its other MP3 players in its Nomad family of products by using a 6Gb 2.5 in hard disk. The Nomad Jukebox is about the same size as a Sony Discman and is about 100g heavier.
Our review model came in an attractive contoured blue and silver shell. It looks like a rugged piece of equipment and is somewhat ?ruggedised? through the choice of notebook drive, which is built to withstand rougher than normal handling. There is a LCD display holding track details and where you navigate through the functions, below this is a standard set of audio playback buttons.
Creative has stuck with a USB interface for passing down files down to the Nomad Jukebox. Another major attraction that should appeal to anyone who has had to constantly replace batteries is that Creative has included four AA rechargeable batteries with the Nomad Jukebox. The need for 4 batters is evident from the use of a mechanical hard disk. A hard disk would draw more power than solid state flash memory and deplete batteries quicker than a player using flash memory. Not only does this stop the need to replace the batteries but they can be charged while inside the Nomad Jukebox.
Nevertheless he main attraction for any user is the extraordinary potential in having 6Gb of capacity to fill. That translates to about 100 hours of MP3 playing encoded at 128Kb/sec bitrate or 200 hours of WMA music, which is half the filesize but also, half the bitrate. In anyone?s terms this is a lot of music, probably surpassing most reader?s entire CD collection. Creative has also impressed with a full software bundle. It has revamped the Creative Digital Audio Centre, which allows you to source the MP3s from a CD, rip, encode and download to the Nomad all in one application. Many of the competition prefer separate applications but this is a happier arrangement. ON the other hand there are some operating quirks with the Play Centre, which are downright annoying. Other offerings include Creative?s LAVA Player and Media Ring Talk.
Quality of the playback was good with Creative adding its EAX environmental effects technology as a feature. The EAX choices are limited but add what dimension to whatever you listen to. Creative?s wraparound headphones are included and suit the dynamics of the Nomad Jukebox although you will find them uncomfortable if you have anything remotely like my sized head. There are some drawbacks to the Nomad Jukebox, not least of which is the asking price. There is also a perceptible lag between pressing commands and the player then performing the action. Also, purists will wince at some perceptible clicks and pops from the hard disk when playing back. In some ways the Nomad Jukebox is a revolutionary product but at the moment the privilege of having one must be limited to those with a generous disposable income.
