Rating: 
Summary: Small, good sound but flimsy construction.
Review: ... Recorded MP3 at 128kbps and sounded good with my ...Optimus headphones. Threw away the supplied headset. Didn't like the fit. With a second 128 mbps SmartMedia card, will play 4 hours of music. Single battery will last a little more than that period of time. Liked it at the beginning but 5 months after purchase, the thing made crackling noises and gave out. Doesn't play. The unit is flimsy in construction and the belt clip provided slips out very easily. I wanted a unit that would play MP3 for at least 4 hours so I can listen to it on flights from/to Hawaii and Washington. ...
Rating: 
Summary: AFTER A FEW MONTHS...
Review: ...I still give this MP3 player 5 stars! I bought this originally to use under my helmet from the back of a motorcycle and it has proven itself time and time again, even on the harsh, macadem-challenged roads of Pennsylvania with the monstrous roar of Hard Krome Double D pipes gnawing at my ears (NOTE: to non-bikers, these are very LOUD exhaust pipes). The sound is terrific-- as I stated in a previous review, I was disappointed in the sound levels of other MP3 players I had tried, but the Nomad IIc continues to outblast them all.There is no skip at all because there is no CD. With 128MB of extended memory, I can burn about 50 songs onto the player (this includes the onboard 128MB of memory built into the Nomad). I use this at work all the time-- with the sound level set around 10 (out of 25), I can easily drown out the annoying ring of phones, chattering staff, and complaining students. Anything louder than that and people want to know "Did I really hear what I THINK I heard??" coming from a song (usually A3), because they can hear the sound coming out of my headset. I've dropped it, banged it around in my briefcase, have hooked it up to external speakers, and have had it handled by numerous curiosity seekers who want to know "What IS that thing?" and it still continues to perform flawlessly. Running on a single AA battery, I get an average of 8-9 hours of play life. I'd actually give this a rating of 4.5 stars, deducting half a star because of the shi*t software that is packaged with it-- you need to install the version provided, and then download and install the updated version from Creative in order for it to see the actual player. But once done, downloading yer favorite tunes is a snap. I'm buying four more for Xmas presents this year because my relatives keep asking to borrow it (which I'm not about to lend). Do yourself a favor-- if music is a mainstay in your life and an effective tool for maintaining your sanity, invest in a few bucks and buy this incredible player.
Rating:
Summary: Good basic MP3 player at a good price
Review: A long-time portable CD user, when MP3 player prices dropped into my range, I decided to look for three things: 1. Primarily something simple - a basic player I could use around the house or while exercising. Ideally I wanted something compatible with Musicmatch, the media player I use for downloading, ripping and organizing my MP3 files. 2. As much memory as I could get in the $100 range. I wasn't interested in loading more than a few hours of music at a time - I wanted only a simple portable unit - so I wasn't interested in the more expensive "jukebox" players out there. 3. A small player - one that could fit in a pocket or on an armband. As this was my first time buying an MP3 player, I consulted Consumer Reports. The Nomad IIc was mentioned as a good choice, and further exploration of the Nomad website (nomadworld.com) convinced me to buy it. The Nomad IIc 128MB is an MP3 player and digital voice recorder only. It doesn't have an FM tuner - if you want radio, go with the Nomad II. I haven't used the voice recorder, but the sound quality for MP3 playback is good. The controls are simple - one button on the front controls power, play, pause, forward and reverse. The controls can be locked, which is useful when the unit is being carried in a pocket. I've dropped my player a few times with no damage outside of a few scratches. I recommend an armband for any sort of physical activity, though, as the small belt clip doesn't seem to grip very well. The short instruction sheet that came packed with the unit is fairly useless, but the PDF users manual (available both on the CD that comes with the unit or at the Nomad website) is helpful in getting started. I had a minor problem reading the manual at first - apparently I was using an outdated version of Adobe Acrobat that couldn't decipher the graphics, leaving me with black boxes where pictures should have been. Upgrading Adobe Acrobat fixed that problem. I use Musicmatch to organize the MP3 files on my PC, so I haven't used the Play Center software that came with the IIc. Musicmatch does support the IIc, although the model isn't specifically mentioned in their online user manual. Adding and deleting songs from the IIc with Musicmatch is a fairly painless drag & drop procedure. It takes only a few minutes to load 25-30 songs (about the max for the on-board 128MB of memory.) The Nomad IIc has an open slot for up to 128MB of additional memory, which was a big selling point for me. (The open slot, by the way, isn't mentioned prominently in the user manual. It's located in the battery case; the card slides in over the battery.) I didn't see any other players that were able to offer that much memory at such a good price. (256MB for me translates into 50 or 60 CD-quality MP3s - if you want to carry around more songs than that, be prepared to shell out more $$.) Battery life has been good, particularly compared to what I'm used to with MP3s on CD. I'd estimate I get about 5-6 hours of play for one AA rechargeable battery, and there is a battery life indicator, which lets me know BEFORE the battery conks out that I need to change it. As someone who's been caught WAY too many times 2 miles from home with a dead CD player, I really appreciate that battery life indicator. Overall, I have no complaints about this player. I haven't seen anything yet that can beat it for price, memory and performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Works great for my workouts.
Review: A nice MP3 player for the price. Sure, the design is a little long in the tooth now, but it still gets the job done. I use mine for listening to music for workouts -- works great. It seems to be durable too. I've bounced it off the floor several times without apparent harm. The software works okay for me under 98SE, though I don't change the music selection that often. Added a cheap smartmedia upgrade no problem. The display is clear and the menus make sense. I don't use the headphones that came with it, so I can't really comment on those. Volume is fine with the Radio Shack earbuds I use. I use rechargeable batteries, so I don't worry much about the battery life. It actually seems pretty reasonable anyway. If you can get this player for the right price and don't need a huge song capacity, you could do a lot worse.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal!
Review: After much researching and agonizing over my first purchase of an MP3 player, I decided on the Nomad IIc and don't regret my decision in the least. Actually, that's not quite true, this is the second MP3 player I've purchased-- the first one I bought last month was an iRiver SlimX and I packed it back up within 20 minutes of opening it and sent it back to Amazon the next day. The sound/volume was terrible (much too low) and the sound quality itself was greatly lacking. The Nomad IIc has unbelievable volume and sound quality both. The Creative wrap-around headphones, included with the player, perform surprisingly well, are very comfortable, and output clear tones and rich bass. The only problem I had (as have others, according to the reviews) was with the software. After installing the software that came with it (Creative Play Center 2) it wouldn't connect with the Nomad. Documentation, likewise, is extraordinarily weak ...I found the solution at their website, however, which was to upgrade to Creative Play Center 3. After I installed the upgrade, I was transferring MP3's in seconds. On an 800MHz Intel PC, 512MB RAM, USB 1.1, W98SE, it takes about 12 seconds to transfer a 5 MB file-- sweet! I bought an extra Viking 128MB smart media card to increase storage ... and had no problems with it being recognized. The Nomad is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, weighs next to nothing, is designed with easy to use and understand controls, and the belt clip seems quite substantial. For the price and quality, this makes a great starter MP3 player!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for workouts
Review: After reading many customer reviews online, I finally decided to ask "santa" for this one... I have been highly impressed with all aspects. However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to insert the SmartMedia 128MB card. Everyone else seems to have an easy time with this- but for some reason, it won't just 'slide in' properly. I wonder which way the card is supposed to go?
Rating:
Summary: Missing a good belt clip, but I fixed that
Review: After reading several reviews, including the wealth of information here, I decided on this player. I use the player mostly while I'm running. The headphones that came with it are fine, but big. I use a pair of Sony earbud type headphones that are more discrete. Volume is fine and I've even noticed aspects of some songs that I've never noticed before! The one drawback that several people complained about was the poor belt clip and how many times they dropped their player. I can see why. I fixed the problem by sticking a strip of Velcro (hook side) to the inside of the belt hook. This provides enough of a surface to catch on a belt or the waist of my running gear. I have never dropped my player once. Also there is no armband with the unit, but I easily made one with some wide elastic and Velcro to hold the strap on my arm. I can then hook my (modified) belt clip onto the armband and I'm set! So despite some of its shortcomings for carrying the unit, these are easily fixed. Overall, I'm very impressed.
Rating:
Summary: EXCEEDS EXPCTATIONS
Review: After reseaching mp3 players in preparation to buying my first one, i finally decided on the NOMAD IIc. I after i bought, i was worried that it would nt hold enough music for me all of the reviews said 25-30 songs).
However, after aobut 45minutes after it arrived (courtesy of FREE shipping) my doubts were gone. I had already ripped my cds into windows media player, WMA format, and i soon discovered that WMA's are a lot smaller than MP3's. I have 45 songs on it now, and only at 50% of the memory is being used up. Ihear the sound qualitys not as good as mp3's, but who cares?
I instaled playcenter 2, tried to use, the deleted it and used windows media player for all my transfering. It is definitely easier than playcenter and musicmatch jukebox, which i also tried. i also liked the included headphones, unlike others. I have three other pairs, so if my mind changes, well... ANother thing to keep in mind, you MUST rename files, or else the computer thinks all of the "track 4's" Are the saMe songs, and only loads one.
Its compact-ness is awesome too! I can fit it in my pocket easily. i haven't had it that long, so i cant say much about its reliability... but so far i very happy. BUY BUY BUY BUY
Rating:
Summary: No problems!
Review: After researching MP3 players extensively online,[...] I was looking for something w/ at least 128 MB, to record a couple of hours or so of music, and very lightweight so he could use it to work out. [...] I gave up, did some more hunting around, and got the Nomad. There were absolutely NO problems here w/ software, music downloaded easily, volume was good, and my husband has loved it ever since for his workouts and has no complaints. It just ended up seeming much more user-friendly!
Rating:
Summary: Is it really user friendly????
Review: As an introduction to MP3 audio, I bought an earlier version of the Nomad IIC. (Nomad II) I got it as a refurbished model, no frills. I chose the Nomad II because 1) USB interface, 2) Smart Media expansion (I already use Smart Media in my camera) 3) re-programmable firmware and 4) the Nomad II has an FM tuner. (The Nomad II C doesn't have a radio.) Others have suggested that these Nomads are a little fragile but based on the previous reviews; it looks like they hold up pretty well. At least mine works well even though I've dropped it a couple of times. It has decent sound quality for such a small economical unit. (Spelled CHEAP because it was ($$$) refurbished.) The included headphones were kind of uncomfortable to me so I use some Sony ear buds. I like these Nomads but I must say that they are FAR from user friendly. The controls are NOT intuitive. Navigating the LCD screen takes some practice. I had to download the manual from nomadworld.com just to figure out how to turn it off and on. I'm having my share of fits with the included software (Music Match) as well. In a word, the unit comes with LOUSY documentation. Also, you can only do one thing at a time. In other words, you can only listen to your MP3 files (or listen to the radio) or check the time or scroll through your playlist one at a time. You can't do all things simultaneously. Overall, I like the unit. It's a good value. Just shop around for a decent price. Be prepared to download information from different websites if you're intellectually challenged (like me).
| 
