The Rio Riot is WAY smaller than it looks...

[AIM9x]

Both of these players look really great. Jukebox 3 looks like it'll do really well, especially since it'll be 20GB on FIREWIRE. 20GB will load up in under an hour, meaning even if 20GB is not enough for you, taking a few songs out and dropping new ones in the player won't take you four months. Hopefully they both have good sound. I'll end up using them both through a JMT so a line-out is all I need. Good Fight, Good night!

 

[Raymond Kim]

Awesome! The Nomad Jukebox 3 supports WAV files!!! Move over Rio Riot.

 

[Flasken]

Notice the Keybpard on the right... REmember, this is A 20 GIG player with firewire... and usb... I would still prefere the riot because of it's shape and display and the Rio DJ which seems like a VERY nice feature...

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by RVD Still the nomads not too much bigger then the ipod and its the same price as the ipod,but still the ipod is damn awesome looking.

Not too much bigger? It's HUGE!!! It's bigger than a PCD player. Plus it still has the hideous Nomad interface.

Personally, I think the Rio Riot is the first non-iPod MP3 player that looks like the manufacturer actually paid some modicum of attention to navigation and interface. We'll see how well they did, but at least it looks like they tried

 

[lextek]

The Mp3 scene is getting interesting. The Nomad3 looks interesting for a larger,larger capacity player. As long as the UI is improved. Toshiba said that there were a couple of companies working with their 10/20 gig 1.8 drives. They said they were start-up companies. Would Headroom be considered a start up company in the MP3 player market? Shoul get interesting with larger capacity, small drives. Maybe I'll even be able to swap my "litttle" drive out for a larger one in my iPod soon.

Lextek

 

[Neruda]

Quote:

Originally posted by RVD The Treo is ugly though just kidding but seriously the nomad 3 also has a 100mw amp.

they claimed that with the original nomad, but in reality it actually had a 5mW amp, perhaps less. The Treo is made by Hy-Tek, which also built the Personal Jukebox. The PJB has a true 50mW into 32 ohms, and it's most likely that the Treo has the same amp, but they rated it at 100mW into 16 ohms instead of 50mW into 32. I'd believe the Treo's output rating before I'd believe Nomad's.

 

[RVD]

Quote:

Originally posted by MacDEF Not too much bigger? It's HUGE!!! It's bigger than a PCD player. Plus it still has the hideous Nomad interface. Personally, I think the Rio Riot is the first non-iPod MP3 player that looks like the manufacturer actually paid some modicum of attention to navigation and interface. We'll see how well they did, but at least it looks like they tried

Yes I was probably a little wrong by saying the nomad is not too much bigger then the ipod but still you do get 15gb more, still only time will tell which one will end up being best. Also Neruda your probably right about the nomad 3 and its amp I had totally forgotten about the claims about the first one.

 

[gloco]

Like Raymond Kim pointed out, it supports wav files which is great.

Question: Why do all these new mp3/jukebox players have strong headphone jack outputs while all the other portable pcdp's and md's have crummy/weak (ok...****TY) headphone jacks? Whats the story?

George

 

[RVD]

Thats a good question gloco the only thing I can think of and I am probably wrong on this is maybe because the mp3 players use a lithium ion battery which can supply more power then normal batteries also could be because there also bigger which gives more room for more powerful amp. Just my thoughts on it.

 

[citroeniste]

It's still much too big, compared to the Archos or iPod. The Archos is 4.5" x 3.2" x 1.3", and the iPod is (not going to look it up) smaller still. The Creative is 4.84" x 5.12" x 1.38", which is nearly 2" wider!

Also, one feature that no one talks about but is crucially important to a large-capacity traveling music system is dual-voltage capability. Only the lowly (in most senses of the word) Neo25 is dual-voltage. (It doesn't really work as an MP3 player at all, but mine makes a passable extra HDD.


Quote:

Originally posted by jcorkery Now there's the real deal! It might not be as cute 'n cuddly as some of the others on the market, but feature-wise it's got just about everything you could want!

 

[jcorkery]

Quote:

Originally posted by citroeniste It's still much too big, compared to the Archos or iPod.

Well, I guess "much too big" is a matter of personal preference. If you're looking for something to listen to while you're taking walks and stuff like that, I agree, you'd probably want something smaller. What's of more interest to me is something I can store ALL of my favorite songs on (from a 1000+ CD collection) and take with me on trips so I can enjoy music on airplanes, in hotel rooms, etc. I'm not much into listening to music while I'm walking around in public. The new NJB has 20GB, Firewire AND USB, optional docking station (makes it much easier to hook up to the home system or computer), optional wired and IR remotes, lithium ion battery (lasts 10-12 hours), optional FM tuner, analog/optical input (to record MP3 or WAV), 2 line outs... I haven't seen any other product that comes close, feature-wise. The 20GB HD can be upgraded, of course, so if you'd prefer to store your music as lossless WAV files, you have plenty of space to do so. I don't care that it's not tiny as long as it's portable. Heck, we're talking about a matter of 1-2 inches here. That only really matters if you're looking for something that you can put in your pants pocket. Most people here are used to carrying around a PCDP, but then an MP3 player that's the same size which can store 100x more music is suddenly TOO BIG?

Isn't the iPod still only useable with a Mac? I'd think this issue alone would rule it out for a large majority of the population...

 

[Locke]

The Rio Riot and the Treo both look like they might be good products, but I think it's premature to talk about them as real competition for the iPod. The iPod's draw isn't only its looks, but the fact that it combines a large amount of storage, small size, and an elegant user interface. When a competitor comes out with a player with more storage, equal or smaller size, and a better UI, then maybe I'll pay attention.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by jcorkery Most people here are used to carrying around a PCDP, but then an MP3 player that's the same size which can store 100x more music is suddenly TOO BIG?

A lot of people here are big MiniDisc fans because of the combination of sound quality and size -- CDPs are indeed too big for these people. I'll take MD over CD any day for portable use. So it follows that size matters (in the inverse sense of the phrase

).

I agree with you that this new unit seems to have a great feature set. And I also agree that for someone who's idea of "portable" means "moving from place to place and having as much storage space as possible at each place" this sounds like a great player. The iPod is more of a "actually carry with me all the time and have a lot of music" player.

As for the iPod, as Locke said, it's the whole package that makes it such an amazing piece of work: size, features, interaction with the desktop, interface, design, sound quality. So far, this new player appears to have more features, we don't know about sound quality, and loses out in the other four. Which is "better" will depend on how each person values these areas.

Quote:

Isn't the iPod still only useable with a Mac? I'd think this issue alone would rule it out for a large majority of the population...

There are actually two or three Windows software utilities out that let the iPod work with Windows.

 

[jcorkery]

Quote:

Originally posted by MacDEF There are actually two or three Windows software utilities out that let the iPod work with Windows.

Aha... I didn't know that!

As far as the sound quality of the NJB goes, I have the previous version (6GB which I'm going to upgrade to 20 soon), and it sounds great--using lame with the "--alt-preset extreme" setting which is very high quality VBR. I haven't tried listening to WAV files out of it yet because I think 6GB is way too small to start storing 60-70MB WAVs on. I have a pretty good home system with Paradigm Active/40 speakers and I think the NJB with ER4Ps is comparable in sound quality, but I do use the NJB's EQ to drop the midrange just a bit in the 800hz range. I've never had any problems whatsoever using the hardware interface or the PlayCenter software. They're pretty easy to use, but I've read that Creative has improved them with the new model, and they're often posting new firmware and software updates that customers can download from their website.

Knowing Apple's flair for design, I'm sure their interface is better but, to me, easy is easy. If a product is already easy to use, I don't usually trouble myself to find something that's even easier. What I do look for is additional, useful features.

Believe me, I have no feelings of loyalty at all towards Creative or any other company, but I do think the NJB is surprisingly good for the price, and it looks like the NJB3 has added a LOT of great, new, useful features to an already good product.

 

[e-r0ck]

Im very against the iPod. Its nice and small, but for 400 bucks I better be gettin some MAD features crazy huge hard drive space.

Its just not worth the money IMO.

PS. Im not against Apple, I own an iBook.