[Pat]

Just an update to let you all know I went with the iPod over the Zen. The thing absolutely gorgeous... by far the most elegant piece of electronic equipment I've ever owned. Pictures don't do the iPod enough justice. You gotta hold it to really understand its aesthetics.

It sounds terrific so far. At least for an mp3 player. I'm using lame 3.90.2 (Dibrom) with --alt-preset standard. I have yet to hear the clicks and pops people have been complaining about. The iPod decoder seems to be fine (at least on mine).

I'm thinking my D-777 needs to be sold...

 

[I 8 thesandbox]

Totally cool..Good luck with it and enjoy !

I still only have one problem with it, which is the "for now" deciding factor in not buying it. I just find it so bizarre that the battery is not replaceable. I'd hate to reach the implied 500th charge and find that this was my last time using the product. Sure, 500 charges would be alot if this were a disposable MP3 player, but what the hell are you supposed to do after that ? I feel really sorry for those people who are probably just about getting to that point and I hope that Apple will accomodate by giving them a brand new one. If that was the case, I'd get one. But still, I find this to be a tremendous turn off.

By the way, please keep us updated if you should happen to experience any negative effects (clicks, pops etc.) One more thing...try playing a song encoded at a better Lame setting just to see if any of those artifacts pop up (for experiments sake)....perhaps alt preset insane or what ever comes before that one. (don't know what it is cause i use razor lame..usually do 190 or 224 kbps)

 

[richpjr]

In case you didn't know, the Zen does not have a replaceable battery either. You will have to send it or the iPod back to the manufacturer for repair. The NJB3 does have a removable battery (actually spaces for 2 of them).

Rich

 

[sohcahtoa]

You should check out the messageboards at Apple at discussions.info.apple.com I have been surfing the Ipod Usage boards some, and it appears that there is battery-drain problem with the latest firmware. There also are rumors that Apple may start a battery replacement plan, but no official word and thus no guarantees.

I too have been sitting on the fence about which HD mp3 player to go for. I recently went to a CompUSA and was able to test-drive many different devices. First of all, I was suprised at how small and "palm-sized" all of the HD Mp3 devices are! Even the Nomad Jukebox 3 was smaller than I thought it would be, easily smaller than your normal PCDP. The Rio Riot was also much smaller than I had anticipated it to be. The Archos Multimedia Jukebox was nifty with its LCD screen, but I don't know about encoding movies in mpeg4 cif format, sounds like a pain in the ***** to me. I really wish the Rio Riot was able to hold non-mp3 files. I really want my HD mp3 player to double as a portable storage device, and I think the Rio Riot has the coolest interface. Right now, I am leaning (back) towards the Nomad Jukebox 3. It's easily the cheapest at $220 (after $50 rebate), and has replaceable batteries, and after reading enough about all of these devices, there is no way you are going to find one that will last forever. Your best bet is to go for the cheapest, as the Ipod 2 and Nomad Jukebox 4 are just around the corner anyway.

 

[AIM9x]

I think i'm going to take the cheapest route myself. Well, to a limit. I was big into this portability thing, but now, i realize that the zen won't even fit in my jeans pockets. Made a box out of cardboard and enforced it so it wouldn't collapse and it did not fit in my pockets.

My plan was for the zen since I'd really enjoy the whole queue-on-the-fly thing, but since it won't fit in ALL my pants pockets, No point. Can't afford to drop 350 on a 10GB ipod, so that just leaves the nomad jukebox 3. It's smaller than my PCDPs, holds 20GB, can be found for around 225, has dual line-outs, eats annoying crying babies on command, and has usb support (i won't feel rushed to get me a firewire card if there's no deals around).

If i ever feel the need to go uber-portable, i'll buy myself a uber-tiny solid-state player and get a pair of MX500s at newegg.

 

[richpjr]

AIM9x,

You'll be happy with the NJB3. There is only one thing wrong with it - the size, and even that is smaller than a PCDP. In every other way it is a great player and the firmware updates have addressed just about every major gripe users had with the user interface.

Like I said before, the iPod, Zen, and NJB3 are all great players and you can't go wrong with any of them.


Good luck!

Rich

 

[ssblood]

The reasons the zen will never replace the iPod...

 

[richpjr]

Quote:

Originally posted by ssblood The reasons the zen will never replace the iPod...

Did you mean reason as in size, or reasons as in something else?

If size matters to you, then the NJB3 is much bigger than both the Zen and iPod and is not for you.

But if you want a line out, the option to add an extra battery to double playing time, the ability to record, an FM tuner (via the optional remote), and $250 plus dollars left over (after rebate), than the NJB3 is hard to beat.

Rich

 

[ssblood]

Totally size. If the NJB3 was smaller I would buy it without hesitation

 

[Peddler]

With the Creative carrying case the Jukebox 3 can easily strap to either my belt or even the waistband of my trousers with no problems and you hardly know it's there.

I'm not particularly happy about the battery for the unit being a non-standard type - potentially involving some cost eventually but at least it can be changed by the user - unlike the other players mentioned. I also like the idea of being able to put two batteries in the unit to double the playing time but to be honest mine works really well with just the one battery and if I did have another I think I would be tempted to put it in storage until the first one failed.

I love the Jukebox 3 because of its sound quality. I tried the Archos Jukebox Studio 20 but was very unimpressed with the sound quality of the thing - even through the line outputs. I then tried the Rio Riot which has excellent sound quality but also suffers with non-replacable batteries. I do not have the chance to try the Apple Ipod because the town I live in is utterly devoid of anything which could be intepreted as cool! The Nomad Jukebox 3 has virtually got it right. A nice range of features including the ability to record from optical (even performs sync recordings like MD with the latest firmware), firewire interface, reasonable EQ controls (which I rarely use), true line output and, best of all, outstanding sound quality.

I am still very pleased with my purchase - and I have had it for a couple of months now. Although the machine is nearly full I'm not particularly hankering after a larger drive (at the moment anyway) because at least a third of it is taken up with stuff I rarely listen to and just have "because I can".

Anyone thinking of getting an HD-based MP3 player should perhaps stop sitting on the fence waiting for the next best thing to come out - look at the state of personal CD players now - they look cool, have good battery life but sound like **** compared with the earlier machines. Don't make the same mistake with this new technology - from here on in it's gonna be sacrifice sound quality for battery life, storage and features.

I rate the players as follows

Equal Top Place
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3
Apple IPOD (based on what I have read on the net)
Zen (based on what I have read on the net)

Creative Nomad Jukebox 2

Rio Riot

Archos Jukebox (later models)

 

[AIM9x]

Good point peddler.........

Buy now or complain later.