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Creative Labs NOMAD Jukebox Zen (USB 2.0)

Creative Labs NOMAD Jukebox Zen (USB 2.0)

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Music Lover's Dream Come True
Review: The IPOD falls short of its target. However, The Nomad Jukebox does extremely well at reaching its goal. It carries a heck of a sound and the hard drive seems to never fill. Its looks are Slick and Cool, but the safety pouch it come in makes it a little bulgy. One true concern I have though is the software that comes with it. It's a pain to handle and just plain clumsy in its design. I've had to delete its contents twice already because when it was synchronizing with the PC it kept repeating some of the songs it already had. All in all though, the Hardware (the Jukebox itself) is excellent; I give it a 10++ out of 10. However, the software needs a lot of work. But, you can always use the Windows Media Player as a back up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: it's very good product if you care about sound quality
Review: I own a lot of portable player. 3 top MDs, 3 top MP3/CD. I also bought iPod 2nd 20GB. I had to return iPod 'cause of its sound quality. Finally I got Zen. I have to say it's the best portable player. Only problem it has would be its short battery life.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Problem software
Review: The player itself is not so bad. The unit feels reasonably durable, although the the buttons are on the side of the unit. It would make more sense if the buttons were on the front where you could see them. Of course the price is the player's main plus. The problem is that the software that comes with the unit is terrible (several other reviewers have pointed this out). When you install the software on Windows XP, XP will warn you to NOT continue the installation. The instructions that come with the player say to ignore this warning. I wonder why. Could it be that it's because the software is terrible and will destabilize your PC? That's what happened to me. I had to reinstall XP.

Advice: flash memory makers are going to be releasing flash memory cards (CompactFlash, etc.) up to 4GB soon. Hold off on buying an MP3 player until then. You'll get a smaller, high-capacity MP3 player without the breakable hard disk. Look for one that comes with some decent software.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sound, Sound, Sound...Sound output is top-notch
Review: I've always been reluctant about buying an mp3 player because I was afraid the sound quality would not be up to par... but was I pleasantly surprised with the Nomad-Zen. The sound quality is excellent. The size is great, fits nicely in the palm of your hands... The navigation menu takes a little getting used to but its effective. Im also very pleased with the ease of use of transferrig and ripping songs. Very good product, highly reccommended.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beware
Review: I own one of these. At first it was pure love... easy transfers, auto sync btween the player and the computer. Then I loaded it on a new computer and all hell broke loose. Now everytime I load the software or try to transfer songs they are tagged with the wrong artist and who isn't even on the artist list even the preloaded songs from the player. Tech support thus far has been no help I have loaded and cleared this program more times than I can count. Now I use it with Windows Media but it cannot keep the songs in order and will not load the songs from the player to the computer like the creative software does. When it worked I loved this program and device. When it doesn't... beware. The whole thing has me thinking about dumping it and getting an iPod.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Don't buy it if you are considering a Mac
Review: Most of the top end Nomad devices are completely incompatible with Mac's, no matter what the website says, they neglect that the Nomad Jukebox is, but the Zen, II, III, etc. are NOT.

Also, software with the device is terrible. Fine for a small library, but if you are planning to buy a large one, it is extremely difficult to view and manage.

Device its self is fine. There is no fast forward or rewind within a song, so you must always start at the beginning, which is a problem if using it for audio books.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bad software, doesn't work with USB 1.1
Review: I bought a Nomad Zen for use with my Windows 98 powered PC, which is about two years old. It's too old to use with this product, unfortunately. The PlayCenter software continually crashes, I've installed and uninstalled and been with technical support for Creative on several occasions, and after a week, I've given up.

I'm sure this is a marvelous piece of equipment if you have a PC that has USB 2.0 or Firewire, but even though it says it is USB 1.1 compatible, it's not.

Besides the system crashes, my Zen also experienced very odd skips in songs, plus songs would start and others would take over, and the shuffle play feature played the same 10 songs over and over, despite the fact that I had over 200 loaded on.

Besides that, the PlayCenter software that comes with the Zen is barely adequate, and Creative's tech support, while trying to be helpful, ultimately isn't.

I recommend checking out the Ipod instead.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sounds good, very fragile
Review: Purchased one of these after deciding the iPod was too expensive and the hard drive failed within a month. I don't think it was my fault, but I did drop it once, in its case, on a thick carpet from about two and a half feet up. I had to pay outbound shipping and after a month they sent me back a used, refurbished unit with scratches on it (mine was in perfect condition). I would recommend spending the extra money on an iPod. At least you get a one year warranty, as opposed to 90 days for the Jukebox Zen (they must know how fragile it is).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good for music but not a portable hard drive
Review: I bought this product for a friend. He is really pleased with it and was impressed with how easy it is to get the music onto the machine. The web interface for ripping is great.

I am a little disappointed that it is not more useful as a portable hard drive. I was hoping he could use it to bring files home from work and to store digital photos on, but because you need to install the file manager software it is not that good for this.

Still good value and better battery life than the Ipod

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best for the Money
Review: The Nomad Jukebox Zen is the best 20GB MP3 player on the market for the money. The Zen is very user friendly and stores all I need of my favorite music. I'm up 3700 songs and have space for 2000 more. It delivers a strong sound with quality!


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