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CreativeLabs NOMAD MUVO TX 256MB MP3 (73PD051000031)

CreativeLabs NOMAD MUVO TX 256MB MP3 (73PD051000031)

List Price: $179.99
Your Price: $81.69
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love It
Review: Small, compact, lightweight, easy to up-load & play. Great display and controls. The included carrier and arm band accessories let me use it doing just about anything. The only negative is that I wish the MuVo TX 512Mb version was cheaper.

Love It.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Creative Labs Muvo TX 256 MB MP3 Player
Review: This is a brilliant worck of machinary, and anyone who could afford to buy this peice of equipment is very lucky, and should use ot to its highest extent.
Also, don't pollute the earth, recycle and you may save our planet.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Mighty Muvo
Review: This is a great and tiny alternative for those who think other MP3 players are too expensive, big, or complicated. As a Mac user using System 9.2, this couldn't be easier to use. Even without the battery (only needed for playback), the tiny unit plugged in right into the USB port and came up instantly on my Mac without having to install anything; true plug & play! This also makes sharing songs with other people easy (assuming you want to risk the wrath of the RIAA, not that I'd ever do it of course). Windows users will probably have to install the enclosed software. Then it was simply drag and drop. This makes updating it so easy! This is especially useful when you just want to hear individual songs. It will hold folders of songs like if you want a whole album, but unless you preface each track with a order number (01, 02, 03, etc), it will play the folder in alphabetical order. It has a decent MP3 display for song titles (not artists). Also, the included headphones are crappy but the sound is very good if you replace them. And yes, there's a slight buzz when the backlight goes on for half a second, but if you don't make any adjustments while playing you'll never hear it like during a workout. Also, the single AAA battery lasts 11 hours which is also replacable, unlike iPods which you have send the whole thing back. It holds 4 hours of music in non-compressed CD quality (a minimum 128kbs), which is plently of non-repetetive music for the commuter, excersise enthusiast, or pretty much anyone. It can hold more in a more compressed format, but you'll lose some quality in sound. It includes most of the major playback selections like normal, repeat, and shuffle play for the whole player or folders. No programming feature, but that can be fixed by making a folder on you computer of songs and tranferring it to the Muvo. It also doubles as a voice recorder or for holding any small non-audio file. For the very minor problems it has, this a very simple machine that really delivers.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Small & simple, but not loud enough
Review: This is a well-designed compact little player that was very easy to use. I returned it however for two reasons:

- I wanted to transfer transfer playlists from my computer to the device, but the Muvo only played songs in alphabetical order. I found a third party application that claimed to provide playlist support for ~$20, but did not try.

- The highest volume was just not loud enough for me when jogging, even in quiet areas with low traffic. I could hear the tune and the lyrics well enough, but could not get into the music sonically as I could when using a regular CD player. I read other reviews mentioning the volume limitations but didn't realize it would be so apparent even in quiet outdoor settings. [Note that I was using over the ear headphones, not the supplied earbuds.]

I returned and purchased an Iriver flash player, which has better sound, bigger display, better interface, and better playlist management capabilities for ~$50 more.


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tips for using this player
Review: This is an excellent small mp3 player. I was looking for something to use while I'm on the treadmill. Thus I did not need the huge capacity of a hard drive player like an iPod, and I was concerned about the durability of the moving parts inside--not to mention the non-user-replaceable battery you'll find in an iPod.

For exercisers this player is quite nifty. It is the size of a small pack of gum, so you can easily run while carrying it in your hand. It is equally easy to place it in your pocket. The controls are very well thought out: a small wheel zips forward or backward through your tracks and also navigates the menu. Two buttons control the volume.

Using the player with any computer is easy, as there is no software to install assuming you're using an operating system with built-in USB support (Windows XP qualifies.) Just plug the player into a USB port and it shows up on your computer as a drive. You can drag individual tracks to it. You can also drag entire folders, and then the tracks will be organized when you play them back.

Battery life has been superb, and I've found no need to use rechargeables with AAA batteries being so cheap. If the battery indicator is low when I'm heading down to the treadmill, I just bring an extra battery with me.

I find 256MB of memory to be quite generous. I only need enough to last me the 40 minutes or so on the treadmill, and 256MB is plenty for that. I'll fill it up with music for use over three or so workouts. When I get tired of that music, re-filling the player is easy.

If you buy this player I have a few tips for you. First, though Windows Media Player has a feature allowing you to "sync" the player to load it up with tracks, I have found that this feature will not organize the tracks into folders. Therefore, they will play back on the player in a jumbled order rather than one album at a time. If this bothers you, just use Windows Explorer to drag the tracks by the folder over to the Creative player.

Second, the included headphones are awful. The cord for one ear is longer than the cord for the other ear, for reasons I don't understand. Further, if you are a runner, they will fall out of your ears. I quickly replaced the headphones with better ones.

Third, if you are a runner, the headphone cord will pick up static electricity as you run. All the bouncing of the cord generates electricity. This can deliver little shocks to your ears. It can also travel into the player, producing odd glitches. To prevent this problem I simply use a safety pin to clip the headphone cord to my shirt, keeping it from bouncing so much. You could also run it inside your shirt (especially if you wear tight shirts.)

Fourth, sometimes the maximum volume may not be quite loud enough. A great solution for this is to use "volume leveling" software. Such software allows you to boost the volume of your tracks and also to equalize the volume so one track is not louder than the other. A good free program for this is called MediaMonkey and you can download it. After using this I have plenty of volume for all my tracks.

So the only things keeping me from giving this player five stars are the poor included headphones and the low maximum volume. Those things are easily fixed, though.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a great MP3 player + USB stick + voice recorder!
Review: This is my first portable mp3 player and I'm glad I have it.

Here is what I like: 1) it's a combination of three devices: MP3 player, USB stick and voice recorder, so I don't have to carry these separately, 2) long battery life: with some 2 hours of daily playback an AAA battery lasts about 2 weeks - I expected much worse, and there is also the battery strength icon, 3) the earphones supplied with the units are not bad at all, 4) support of faster USB standard for file transfer.

Some drawbacks, of course: 1) 256Mb is not enough for a modern mp3 player - get you a bigger one! 2) no support for non-Latin symbols in track names, 3) no fastforwarding of tracks

Trick: if you don't use the display often, turn off the backlight completely - it saves battery life.

Resume: it's a good product, but you'd better get the 512Mb version!


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: MuVo TX 256 MB player Rocks!
Review: This player is perfect for the mobile individual. it weighs very little, has decent sound quality and battery life is pretty good considering it only uses 1 AAA battery! Tranfering music to the player using the supplied software is pretty quick since the player is designed to use USB 2.0. The controls are easy to use and the on screen menu is very easy to view and navigate. The blue backlit screen is excellent and is a nice change from the standard green that is utilized in prettymuch everything that requires a LCD display.

EDIT:
Also, after reading some of the other reviews, you can increase the volume using the EQ, in the custom setting, you can raise all the bars to the top and that will give you the volume of a 30 setting when the player is at 20, I haven't found an ideal setting for all the bars yet but if you want loud without playing with the volume buttons then this option works.

I would reccommend this player to anyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Terrific!
Review: Very small and light weight, good for runners or even you like to listen your MP3 at work. The quality of recorder is also quite good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AAA Battery, EXCELLENT!!!!
Review: What makes this player so great is what it DOESN'T come with. No charger, no cradle, no special cables, just one AAA battery and you're good to go. That means if you are carrying this with you a lot, and you run out of power, all you have to find is another AAA battery and you are running again.

Also, there is no special software, I just plugged it in to my PC, and it was recognized as a removable drive, then it was all drag and drop. I can even put folders of songs on it to make collections of music.

Every other player I've looked at requires some special lithium battery, or charger stand to work, I am amazed that someone finally designed a player that is so simple, and works so well. If it were possible to give this 6 stars, I would!


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