[zhtham]

NJB3 Or IPod?

I've been shopping for a HDD based MP3 player for a while now. It boils down to NJB3 or IPod. I have 250+ CDs and in the process of ripping and saving em' on my HD. I rip em' in 256kbit/s constant bitrate. So far i have 170+ CDs ripped, and they take up approx. 16GB.

Main reason i'm still holding back on both of them is that i can't get gapless playback for DJ Mixed albums (20% of my CDs)! Anyone knows how to solve this problem? After reading from Nomadness.net & IpodHacks.com I found that:

NJB3 40GB:
In terms of storage space, better value for the money compared to Ipod 20GB. But accessibility, stability, & portability is not as good. NJB3 doesn't have Artist>Albums search function, hangs after charging / during playback, bulky compares to IPod. However, the sound quality is suposedly good and it has a line out which can be use with a headphone amp.

IPod 20GB:
Very nice looking, superior portability. Stable, user friendly. It has less buttons & simpler design. On the flip side, it doesn't have a line out and 20GB is not big enough for my CD collections (my major concern!). And i'll need to get Xplay or some 3rd party software to run it on my WinXp. Unless i wait til' the mid-September for the Windows Version of IPod.

NJB3 & IPod Owners Or any Head-Fier out there, Please help me choose!

Thanks

,
Z.

p.s. Who knows where to get a decent priced NJB3/Ipod?

 

[aeberbach]

NJ3B hangs? As in needs a reset ? Forget it!

 

[fredpb]

I have a NJB3. It is my fourth NJB. Thank goodness for Best Buy extended warranty! Hardware wise, it sounds outstanding with the line out. But software wise, it's a buggy load of bugs.
Creative usually does not acknowledge problems on their support lines. They have been useless since day one. Their batteries cost a fortune. Their interface on the NJB1 was ok, and they really screwed it up on the NJB3.

I am not impressed with their support or their fixes. A Creative firmware update always introduces new bugs. Their software is a mess. I don't know about iPod.

Me? If I was going to spend the money over again it would be the PJB100. Just my opinion.

 

[grinch]

i voted for the ipod. creative's software support has always been horrible trash.. anybody use their live! drivers? so bloated and horrendous to use, i hate them.

the ipod is one damn fine machine. overpriced (of course) but really smooth and easy to use. i'd definitely have one of those if i had the cash laying around..

 

[sapphiremodena]

I say wait for a better iPod to come out, or at least for the prices to come down on the 20gb iPod... that's what I'll probably do.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by zhtham Main reason i'm still holding back on both of them is that i can't get gapless playback for DJ Mixed albums (20% of my CDs)! Anyone knows how to solve this problem?

The iPod has the ability to "join" tracks -- this was done for classical albums where you don't want a split between tracks, but it should work perfectly for what you want, as well.

The only issue is that I'm not sure how you'd do it in Windows. On the Mac side, iTunes lets you simply select the tracks, order them, then join them. Perhaps the upcoming version of MusicMatch for the iPod will provide that feature.

 

[Taphil]

iTunes and the iPod only provide a workaround for gapless playback by just making one big mp3 file. On the PC, you can just rip your CD's as one big file, with whatever program you use. It's not very convenient.

With the NJB3, be sure and have paperclips handy, as you never know when the thing will freeze and need a hard reset.

 

[grinch]

i have often used eac to rip the entire album as a single .wav file and then encoded it with lame. it makes for one ~120mb file or whatever, but everything goes on without a hitch.

it's especially fun to do this with the really good album albums, like dark side of the moon, ok computer, etc..

this is exactly what i would do if i listened to that trance garbage.

 

[aznhoward]

Quote:

Originally posted by sapphiremodena I say wait for a better iPod to come out, or at least for the prices to come down on the 20gb iPod... that's what I'll probably do.

The only way for the iPods' prices to come down is if Apple introduces new iPods (or something similar.) The old iPods never came down in price (or at least not much) until they introduced the newer models. And by that time, you'll probably be wanting the newer version.. and so on and so forth.

Hmm... now if only a local retailer comes out with a really good rebate or something... CHRISTMAS SAVINGS!! maybe that's when the prices might come down?

 

[zhtham]

hmm... seems like ipod is prefered by most Head-Fier. However, i'm leaning towards NJB3 because of its storage capacity. Having all/most of my cds availble in a single player is what i'm looking for as well. I used to have Sony 400CDXP, a Jukebox CD Player that holds 400 cds with a 2 way remote control. I sold it when i moved .

Imagine how neat it is that your music follows your mood

just a click of a button, music switched from blues to classical. Another click brings you to Trip-Hop...

If only Creative fix all those bugs... or Apple can squeeze extra 20GB into IPod, oh, well

... come to think of it, first senerio seems more plausible in the near future, what do you guys think?


Z.

 

[DeanA]

I’ve had the NJB3 40GB for about two months, the NJB 20GB before that, and I’m quite happy with both the sound and performance. And I love having the recordings of over 450 CDs wherever I go, and still have room for a lot more. The NJB3 did freeze up with the initial battery charge, but the problem never returned even though I constantly run off the battery. Nor do I ever have to initiate the reset function. I don’t know why others seem to have reset so much and I don’t. It may be because I never use third party software to rip my CDs, but that’s just a guess. I absolutely detest the inability to list albums under an artist, as I could with the NJB, but that should be resolved with the next firmware upgrade. There certainly have been enough people complaining about dropping that feature to warrant the upgrade.

 

[aznhoward]

Have you heard of Toshiba's Gigabeat? I don't know much about this, but the advertised 18 hours of playback per recharge cycle sounds really nice...

anybody have any info on this and when it's gonna be out in the US?

 

[richpjr]

I went through a very similar struggle about 2 months ago (only difference was a 20 gig NJB3 vs a 10 gig iPod). I ended up choosing the NJB3. I really love the iPod's size and the firmware looks much more polished than the NJB3, but I still went with the NJB3. I mostly listen to it at work so size wasn't that much of an issue to me. Having removable batteries was a huge plus for me. If your battery dies on the iPod, you have to send it to Apple for a replacement. The NJB3 has a removable battery, so you can just plop in a new one if needed. As I'm sure you know, the second battery slot gives you up to 22 hours of playback.

I have had to reset the NJB3 twice in two months. The firmware is sadly lacking in the album - author selection, but you can get around it by creating playlist for each album and selecting albums way. If you pick up the excellent notmad explorer program from red chair software, it will create the playlists for you automatically when you download your MP3s, so it is no extra work. Supposedly this feature will be added in the next firmware release.

The sound quality of the NJB3 is very good and the line out is a plus if you want to use a headphone amp.

I also use the NJB3 to transfer large files back and forth from home and work. I use the firewire at home and USB at work (slow, but heck, the cable was included). I'll eventually pick up another firewire card for work to speed things up.

All in all, I do not regret the NJB3. The iPod looks like a great machine, but I think the NJB3 was better for me.

 

[aznhoward]

Quote:

Originally posted by richpjr Having removable batteries was a huge plus for me. If your battery dies on the iPod, you have to send it to Apple for a replacement. The NJB3 has a removable battery, so you can just plop in a new one if needed. As I'm sure you know, the second battery slot gives you up to 22 hours of playback.

One question: Has the NJB3 battery ever died out on you yet? And has anybody experienced the iPod's battery die out before? I'm heavily considering the iPod, but if the battery fails to function, then that renders the iPod useless.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by aznhoward And has anybody experienced the iPod's battery die out before? I'm heavily considering the iPod, but if the battery fails to function, then that renders the iPod useless.

There were some issues with the first batch of iPods having bad batteries, but they were replaced under warranty (and, thankfully, Apple finally changed the warranty from a pathetic 90 days to a more reasonable 1 year).

That said, I wouldn't worry too much about the "non-replaceable" battery. It's a standard Sony battery, and if you iPod is out of warranty, you can open it up yourself and replace it (there are a number of web sites with instructions on how to do it).