[nales]

the anodized aluminum, brick-strong body shimmers under the well-deserved limelight

the genuine-leather case, equipped with a durable velcro belt strap, secures its baby for a rugged trek


http://www.americas.creative.com/cor...D=334&nav=2003

Since we launched the original NOMAD Jukebox Zen with 20GB last December, it has rapidly grown in popularity and demand," said Sim Wong Hoo, founder and CEO of Creative. "In fact, the NOMAD Jukebox Zen was the number one selling hard drive MP3 player in U.S. retail for the month of March, outselling all other competitors' hard drive based players, according to NPD data1."

congratulations, sim wong!

The huge storage capacity of the NOMAD Jukebox Zen with 60GB enables users to store large uncompressed audio recordings in WAV format without loss of audio quality. Then they can transfer the files to virtually any desktop or notebook PC using the NOMAD Jukebox Zen's ultra-fast USB 2.0 connectivity.

The new NOMAD Jukebox Zen with 60GB boasts industry-leading audio quality at 98dB SNR, plus 14 hours of battery life, compared to the Apple iPod's eight hours. Additional differentiating features of the NOMAD Jukebox Zen include the intuitive Scroller, for fast, easy movement through an entire music collection of MP3, WMA or WAV files. Creative's unique "Find" function allows users to locate any of thousands of songs quickly and easily using alphabetical input—just press the Scroller on the first letter of a favorite artist, song or genre to quickly jump through the alphabetical listings to a desired selection in just seconds. The NOMAD Jukebox Zen's AudioSync feature even enables consumers to move and synchronize their music between multiple desktop and notebook PCs. The bundled Creative File Manager program enables the NOMAD Jukebox Zen to be easily used as a high-speed external portable hard drive.

The NOMAD Jukebox Zen incorporates Creative's proprietary and powerful EAX® audio technologies to offer a wide range of music customization and enhancement tools. For noisy listening environments such as a plane or car, Smart Volume Management™ (SVM) intelligently controls the dynamic range of a song for a superior listening experience, so that the quieter portions of a track are not missed. For late night listening, SVM lowers the very loud portions of a song so that sudden volume increases are not disturbing. In addition, users can enable the SVM "Match Volume" feature to keep the playback volume of all the tracks on a playlist at the same level regardless of the volume level in which they were encoded; users do not have to reach for the volume control between songs. EAX technology also boasts Advanced EQ, Time-Scaling, Environmental Effects, and 3D Spatialization feature, all with a 16383th order FIR filter[size=xx-small]*[/size] to maintain its industry-leading audio quality.

why would anyone **** around with apple?

[size=xx-small]* i added this in myself[/size]

 

[austonia]

cool. users have been upgrading Zen's to 40 and 60gb for some time now. see nomadness.net forums. There used to be a 8 - 10k track limit based on the amount of data in the ID3 tags, but I guess they expanded the unit's capability for this release. it's a good buy at $400.

 

[Digital-Monk]

Wonder if apple will feel the pressure to drop it's prices at all. 30GB and $100 is quite a premium to pay for the cute case.

 

[austonia]

You are paying for a friendlier OS, and a 30% smaller and 40% lighter chassis. Anytime you shrink something, especially hard drives, you have to pay the premium.

I have both iPod and Zen and I actually use the iPod alot more because its point and play setup fits my style. With Zen you always have to dick with the playlist, but some people like that. Plus, the iPod is hardly noticable in your pocket while the Zen feels like a brick.

 

[KennyX]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia You are paying for a friendlier OS, and a 30% smaller and 40% lighter chassis. Anytime you shrink something, especially hard drives, you have to pay the premium. I have both iPod and Zen and I actually use the iPod alot more because its point and play setup fits my style. With Zen you always have to dick with the playlist, but some people like that. Plus, the iPod is hardly noticable in your pocket while the Zen feels like a brick.

Not to mention that the new iPod is slimmer and even lighter. I think it something around 160g now? We're almost getting down MD unit weight now

In anycase, the only thing Im not liking about the iPods is the reduced battery life.

 

[jaskin]

The Ipod does look nicer but the Zen is way more budget friendly. However I do not have 60Gbs worth of MP3s but storing over 90+ albums in wav form is enticing.

 

[Murasame]

in a forum of Hi-Fi fanatics, i think the fact to put all song in wave is premium point to consider.

i have the NCJ3 and Etymotics, and wave or 320mp3 are the standard...

ipod is lighter, smaller...yes.
but with a meta42 or a total airhead, this avantage will desappear very quickly

a mini maybe...

however ipod is sexy, very sexy

i don't know...

maybe wait a bit the new philips?

 

[Digital-Monk]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia You are paying for a friendlier OS, and a 30% smaller and 40% lighter chassis. Anytime you shrink something, especially hard drives, you have to pay the premium. I have both iPod and Zen and I actually use the iPod alot more because its point and play setup fits my style. With Zen you always have to dick with the playlist, but some people like that. Plus, the iPod is hardly noticable in your pocket while the Zen feels like a brick.

Agreed, I love my ipod. Haven't had a chance to play around with my friends Zen much yet, but from the few minutes I spent with it I would prefer the ipod.

 

[pikawel]

I'm biased as all hell. I've had the Jukebox 20GB and the Jukebox 3 20GB (I upgraded it to 40GB myself *smiles... teeth shimmer*) and the latter fulfills all of my portable audio wishes!

I listen at work and have never had the problems that face most NJB3 payers. Since I listen to nothing but full albums at work in my futile attempts to kill an hour... repeatedly, I've never had to deal with playlists. Is their playlist management really that awful? I can only assume this is where all of the problems from PlayCenter arise because I haven't faced any

Well, aside from this one time...

Seriously, though, buying an iPod, to me, always seemed absolutely ludicrous for non-Mac users. No line-out, wayyy expensive by comparison, inferior sound quality (from what I've read), and it's uhhh... less fun.

 

[KennyX]

Quote:

Originally posted by pikawel I'm biased as all hell. I've had the Jukebox 20GB and the Jukebox 3 20GB (I upgraded it to 40GB myself *smiles... teeth shimmer*) and the latter fulfills all of my portable audio wishes! I listen at work and have never had the problems that face most NJB3 payers. Since I listen to nothing but full albums at work in my futile attempts to kill an hour... repeatedly, I've never had to deal with playlists. Is their playlist management really that awful? I can only assume this is where all of the problems from PlayCenter arise because I haven't faced any Well, aside from this one time... Seriously, though, buying an iPod, to me, always seemed absolutely ludicrous for non-Mac users. No line-out, wayyy expensive by comparison, inferior sound quality (from what I've read), and it's uhhh... less fun.

Well just because you dont need an iPod doesnt mean that windows users are ludricous to get one. You basically use the njb3 to listen to music when stationary... Try doing that when mobile. YOU CANT. That's the beauty of the iPod. Sure it's expensive, but it's the only true portable player out there.

 

[fyleow]

Quote:

Originally posted by KennyX Well just because you dont need an iPod doesnt mean that windows users are ludricous to get one. You basically use the njb3 to listen to music when stationary... Try doing that when mobile. YOU CANT. That's the beauty of the iPod. Sure it's expensive, but it's the only true portable player out there.

I wouldn't go running with my Nomad Jukebox 3, no. I doubt I would do it with an Ipod either. The only thing I'd consider doing it with might be the Muvo or one of those Iriver small keychain players. The Jukebox isn't all that bad, now if the remote would be easier to find....

 

[venzuel00]

I have been using my ipod/etys for running every day. I average about 2 miles each day. No skips yet because I hold it in my hand.

 

[Murasame]

i have a question about the sound: i have read the old ipod lacks bass in front of the creative jukebox 3, because the output and the internal amp are better in the CJ3.
that's why i bought the jukebox...

but, if i use an amp, does the original sound remain important, or it becomes useless?

 

[pikawel]

Well, if you're comparing it against the thought of you having potentially bought an iPod instead, it's not useless as the iPod has no line-out.

Otherwise, I think that signal to noise ratio they boast about to no end may still count for something... I don't know, heh.

 

[grrr223]

Quote:

Originally posted by pikawel Seriously, though, buying an iPod, to me, always seemed absolutely ludicrous for non-Mac users. No line-out, wayyy expensive by comparison, inferior sound quality (from what I've read), and it's uhhh... less fun.

I know about 10 people with iPods, and I think only one of them actually owns a mac, and they have no problems at all using the iPod with a windows machine. The new iPods DO have a line out (I think it's on the docking station actualy), I don't know what you read, but from actually using one, I don't experience inferior sound quality. And the iPod is a lot more fun than any other MP3 player, esp. now that it has Solitaire

. I have something like 50 or 60 gig of MP3s at the moment, but I think I'd be okay with even the 10 or 15 gig iPods because syncing and making playlists with iTunes and firewire makes it so simple, I don't have to have a month of music on my iPod at any given time.

The iPod also lets you sync your address book, and iCal data, and now has a text viewer if you want to add text to read. And it all just works, by plugging it into the firewire port on your computer. Do you enjoy plugging in a separate power cable into your nomad?