Got a Creative Nomad Jukebox

[poop]

It is the 6 GB model, and it is awesome. I was looking at prices, and saw that the Rio 800 (128 MB) was $250!!! The Jukebox was $229. Did I really have a choice?

Well, this thing is one of the coolest gadgets I own. But first, a few of its lesser points:
1. Battery life. I only get about 2.5 hours out of 4 1.2 V 1800 mAh NiMH batteries. So if you want to carry it around where you don't have an AC outlet, you need extra batteries.
2. Size/weight. This thing feels like it weighs about a pound. Thus, it isn't a player you can stick in your shirt-pocket and walk around with.
3. Boot-up time. It takes about 45 seconds to boot up. A minor concern, really.

Now, on to the good stuff.
1. Capacity. I encode using LAME with the --r3mix switch. So some files have huges sizes. Bands with a lot of noisy material (early mxpx, weezer), tend to AVERAGE over 200 kbps. But 6 GB is plenty of room to hold many of my albums.
2. Sound Quality. Wow. What else can I say but Wow! The NJB sounds better than my PC. I listen with Grado SR-60's, and the quality is great. The headphone output is pleny loud enough. I usually leave the volume around 50%-60%, and it is plenty loud enough for me.
3. Batteries. This thing does eat batteries, but it comes with 2 sets of high-capacity rechargables. Extras sell for about $9.99/4 from creative. That is a pretty nice deal. Similar batteries are $17/4 at radio shack. So you do get 5 hours of portability out of the box (after a charge, that is).
4. Software. I was afraid the software would suck, but I really like it. There is no SDMI protection in sight, and I can copy songs to and from the player almost (see below) unrestriced.

The NJB isn't the most portable player on the market, but it's sound quality and capacity more than make up for any marks against it. Now that I bought it, I don't know why I waited so long to get one. I have only had it for a week or so, but I can take it with me to school and listen to it between classes and when I am at work. I have to keep office hours as a GTA, so my NJB makes sitting at a desk a little more tolerable. Since I am not moving around too much, the NJB fits my needs perfectly. Instead of carrying a discman + album of CD's, I can carry an even larger portion of my CD collection with me in a smaller package.

The jukebox comes with about 2.7 GB of 'protected' content on it. It includes 2 audio books and a ton of classical music. I was able to goto http://www.nomadness.net and d/l a tool that removed that protection so I can upload the music to my PC. The lack of strong copy protection is a plus. Many other players will only let you move music. That is, when you copy to the player, the original is deleted, and vice versa. The NJB doesn't have this annoying 'feature', so it is perfect for me.

The bottom line is this: If you find yourself away from home, but sitting at a desk, the NJB is perfect for you (assuming you can listen to music at work).