Advice needed: Portable 20GB MP3 Players

brentsg

brentsg

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I'm going to pick up a portable MP3 player primarily for use in the car. I'd also like to use it as a Jukebox in the home if possible. I have my eye on the Creative Nomad Jukebox III. I'd have to buy the car kit and the home kit (with wireless remote).

I've also considered something like the iRiver SlimX-400 that uses CD/CDRW. It comes with the car kit for a good price. I really don't want to mess with CD's at all though.

Does anyone have any first hand experience with these (or similar)?

I'm not going to buy an iPod, no matter how neat they are. They have a poor reliability record, 90 day warranty, and high price tag.

Thanks

Brent
 
slerch666

slerch666

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I have a Nomad Jukebox, the "original" and love it. The Nomad Jukebox 3 has higher quality connections and supposedly better sound quality. You also get a longer lasting battery. I'd definitely go this route if I were you. The interface is also supposed to be a lot easier to use.

If you are afraid of the price, you could always go to <a href="http://www.hipgizmos.com/" target="_blank">HipGozmos.com</a> and buy an upgraded Jukebox/Jukebox 2.

If you need to upgrade an original Jukebox on your own, it's pretty simple to do, as I had to do it this past Sunday when the HDD in my 10GB Jukebox died. The hardest part was getting the "image" onto the new drive, and if you bought the drive from the site listed above, the image as already there.

If you get one with a hard drive, just be careful not to drop it... AT ALL. Even small falls can be enough to toast a drive.

*EDIT*

Before you ask, the reason the drive died in my system was probably due to a couple of factors, the biggest of which was putting it in my backpack and not remembering it was in there, then dropping the bag on the floor several times. The other factor was HEAVY, and I mean HEAVY usage. I would use the thing between 2-8 hours a day at work, sometimes I would leave it paused for 1-2 hours while I was walking around the plant I work at fixing computer problems. I had the system for 9 months or so. I easily put 1080+ hours of use into the damn thing, and for only paying $200 for it after a coupon, I didn't feel too bad buying a larger hard drive and upgrading it. The worst part was not keeping a back up and having to reload the tracks (which I still haven't fully completed). I lost 1064 tracks of 192 bit WMA, and the drive was only 1/2 full at the time. I had something like 110 albums on that damn thing.

[ December 25, 2002: Message edited by: slerch666 ]</p>
 
brentsg

brentsg

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An ipod would be a foolish choice for me. You pay double for the additional portability )that I don't need). It'll sit on my car seat or on my bookshelf.

I went to the Apple store to look at them and was very impressed. When I checked out some Apple forums I was blown away to see all the problems people are having. They apparently aren't too reliable, and a 90 day warantee for a $500 device isn't satisfactory. After the 90 days if it breaks the support is nonexistent.

B
 
NeoSneth

NeoSneth

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yur full of bullshit.
the ipod has had lil to no problems.
the HD Is high quality toshiba.

even dummy proof items can fool the slowest of folk.

i dunno if the ipod would be great for your car tho.....
 
brentsg

brentsg

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It doesn't really matter to me if the ipod has problems or not. It's not practical for my needs.

Think I made it up to ruin someone's day? I took the time to check it out and found a number of folks with issues.

<a href="http://www.ipodhacks.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=355&forum=5" target="_blank">ipod problem example</a>

There's a lot out there, just an example. And this is from one of the enthusiast sites. For what it's worth, many seem to be firmware related. Regardless, if it requires being sent back to Apple you're screwed after 90 days.

B

[ December 25, 2002: Message edited by: brentsg ]

[ December 25, 2002: Message edited by: brentsg ]</p>
 
twalden

twalden

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I have a Nomad Jukebox 3 which I can't live without. I was considering the Jukebox 3, Jukebox Zen or and ipod to replace my Nomad Jukebox 1 which I dropped accidentally. While the Zen and the ipod are smaller, I was sold on the battery life of the Jukebox 3. If you add an extra battery, you can have over 20 hours of battery life before you have to recharge. The batteries in my old Jukebox would barely last 3 hours before dying. Creative has made many improvments with their newer jukebox players. You no longer have to wait for them to boot up. Seconds after you turn the unit on, you're ready to go. Also, with the Jukebox 3 and Zen you can create playlists and delete tracks on the unit itself. This is currently not possible with the ipod.

[ December 26, 2002: Message edited by: twalden ]</p>
 
slerch666

slerch666

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Originally posted by twalden:
<strong>I have a Nomad Jukebox 3 which I can't live without. I was considering the Jukebox 3, Jukebox Zen or and ipod to replace my Nomad Jukebox 1 which I dropped accidentally. While the Zen and the ipod are smaller, I was sold on the battery life of the Jukebox 3. If you add an extra battery, you can have over 20 hours of battery life before you have to recharge. The batteries in my old Jukebox would barely last 3 hours before dying. Creative has made many improvments with their newer jukebox players. You no longer have to wait for them to boot up. Seconds after you turn the unit on, you're ready to go. Also, with the Jukebox 3 and Zen you can create playlists and delete tracks on the unit itself. This is currently not possible with the ipod.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

You should have bought a replacement drive. It would have cost you around $100 for a 20 GB one. That's what I did (see post above).

Also, I seem to get a hell of a lot of time out of my batteries, like 4-5 hours. When I'm using batteries I always turn on the "battery saver" mode.

With the new 4.01 BIOS/SOftware on your Jukebox one, the boot time seems to be cut in half, which is really nice.

If my drive dies again though, I'm definitely going for the Jukebox 3!
Click to expand...
 
twalden

twalden

Leona's Therapist
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Actually the drive in my original jukebox is fine and I'm currently using it in a laptop. The unit just wouldn't power up anymore after I dropped it for the 3rd time. I dropped it 2 times before in the year and a half I had it and it still worked flawlessly.
 
slerch666

slerch666

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Originally posted by twalden:
<strong>Actually the drive in my original jukebox is fine and I'm currently using it in a laptop. The unit just wouldn't power up anymore after I dropped it for the 3rd time. I dropped it 2 times before in the year and a half I had it and it still worked flawlessly.</strong><hr></blockquote>

D'oh! I guess the killing the electronics would do that to you. :( I thought most problems people had was with the drive dying, but I guess I was wrong. I think they could stand to be built a little more sturdy, but then again if you drop a portable CD player from any distance, your lucky if it still works!
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