Which mp3 player would you buy - Nomad Jukebox Zen or iPod?

[austonia]

as far as the Odyssey 1000, e.digital would only tell me $300 - 400 and they would not give me any further information than what was in that press release. sounds like it's going to be a real product but who knows about the delivery date. They announced thier new CD/MP3 player months ago and it just started shipping last week. I went ahead and bought the Nomad Zen through the Creative website for $350 - $50 rebate + $14 shipping (2-day). There was about 20 states listed where they will charge you tax. I actually live in Kansas City, MO (taxed) but my Ma lives right across the state line on the Kansas side, so I save $22 by shipping there. I will do a review on the Zen when I get it next week. If it sucks, no big deal just off to e.bay with it.

Comments
Zen is about 1/2 inch longer and wider than iPod. I think the Zen's button layout is probably better for one-handed operation. The Zen's screen looks too small compared to iPod. Zen's display is "132 x 64 pixel resolution blue LED backlit display" vs. Ipod's 160-by-128-pixel 2-inch display. The USB capability of the Zen makes it easily portable and there's no restriction to how many PC's it can connect to, so it should be easy to leach files. Also i don't have firewire yet, I am waiting on an nForce2 mobo for that. I don't think it auto-registers as a hard drive, you probably need the Creative Playcenter software. The Zen battery life (claimed) is 12 hrs vs iPod's 10.. a 20% improvement. You can create playlists on the Zen, not so on iPod. The Zen's DSP function is stupid, who wants to change thier music to sound like its in a hall, bathroom, etc.. in the end the portability of the unit and the $300 tag is what sells it. The Nomad3 is cool for recording but still a little too big to lug around on your belt. Also would be nice if Zen had more than one minijack output port.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Lucky
why does the ipod prevent you from copying MP3's from one computer to another?

The iPod reconfigures MP3s for it's music DB. As such, their names become mangled and split from their ID3 tags, so for obvious reasons, drive software ignores the iPod'd MP3's since they're more or less worthless to anything but the iPod. Because of that, you need external programs to just get the MP3's off. This is just the cliff-notes version though; there's a better explaination on Slashdot. Basically, it boils down to the iPod having to reconfigure songs(basically, a technological limitation), and not, as another Slashdot user pointed out, DRM.

 

[LarryJoe]

I got my 20GB Ipod a few weeks back and it was worth every penny of the $500 plus the $60 TAP I bought with it. It depends on how much you use something like this. In my case - all the time: train, gym, yardwork, travel, running.

From all the reviews I have read, nothing comes close to the Ipod. See Maximum PC this month for a 5GB Toshiba vs 20GB Ipod head to head. Toshiba - 5, Ipod a kickass 9. They are both $500. 20GB vs. 5GB, same price? No brainer, removable or not. The quality, sound and ease of navigation are unbelievable.

It is a removable hard drive, so you can just put files on in Explorer and pull them back on any PC. Transferring music to the Ipod's hidden database folder will cause the songs to be named differently, BUT, they can be transferred back with Ephpod and retagged. I use 10GB for music and the other 10GB for backing up pics and docs. If you were to copy an mp3 to a folder other than the Ipod system folder, you would have no problem transferring them off to any firewire enabled PC. They just won't play on the ipod unless they are in the system folder.

Parting words as I just can't resist taking a shot at Creative, they suck. Nothing but bad experiences with drivers and customer service. The Zen also looks too big IMO compared to the sleek Ipod.

 

[Atlantean]

How about this one. It seems to be a decent media player.

 

[LarryJoe]

Looks to be the size of a shoebox. Instead of a belt clip, it will come with a back pack

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: LarryJoe
Looks to be the size of a shoebox. Instead of a belt clip, it will come with a back pack

Dimensions: 113 x 79 x 30 mm (4.45? x 3.11? x 1.18?)

Viper GTS

 

[dolph]

Originally posted by: LarryJoe
Looks to be the size of a shoebox. Instead of a belt clip, it will come with a back pack

not quite...
Dimensions: 113 x 79 x 30 mm (4.45? x 3.11? x 1.18?) Weight: 290g (10.23 oz)
but some of those other ones look pretty good. just because it started with the ipod doesn't mean it's going to end with it, too.

edit: damn you viper, always 1 step ahead

 

[EvilYoda]

Austonia beat me too it......there are a number of other hard drive players coming out soon (I was gonna mention the Bantam), and hopefully with so many competitors, the pricing will be driven down.

 

[neomits]

yeah I'd just really like to ask for a 10gig version for Xmas

20 gigs is a lot but then the price is a lot too


I'll have to read all the reviews and stuff once all of the ones are out

 

[LarryJoe]

Fair enough, didn't read the dimensions and assumed it was a 3.5 inch hdd player. Still love my Ipod. I hope these players drive the Ipod price down and they release a 40GB version so I can exercise my Technology Assurance Plan and upgrade for almost nothing.

The biggest thing these other players will have to conquer is navigation. Nothing comes close to the touch pad system.

 

[0roo0roo]

size would be my consideration. something in your pocket thats too big will eventually bug u big time.

 

[LarryJoe]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: LarryJoe
Looks to be the size of a shoebox. Instead of a belt clip, it will come with a back pack

Dimensions: 113 x 79 x 30 mm (4.45? x 3.11? x 1.18?)

Viper GTS

Ipod 20GB - 4" x 2.4" x 0.84"

That is almost a half inch smaller all around. That's enough for me to pick the Ipod, especially the width difference. The Ipod is just small enough to clip to your belt, anything larger would be awkward. This is important to active users of MP3 players.

 

[llc00ljoel]

anyone know the sound quality specs (S/N) with numbers on all the ipod, jukebox 3 and jukebox zen? i've wired my car to take an mp3 player...all i need is a good quality one and i'm set with never burning another audio cd again!

 

[LarryJoe]

How did you go about wiring it? Does your head unit have a line-in jack? I am using an FM transmitter with my factory (Pioneer) BMW head unit. It sounds as good as FM, but not CD or MP3 quality. Also, tried the cassette adapter route and the sound quality was poor by my standards.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: LarryJoe

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: LarryJoe
Looks to be the size of a shoebox. Instead of a belt clip, it will come with a back pack

Dimensions: 113 x 79 x 30 mm (4.45? x 3.11? x 1.18?)

Viper GTS

Ipod 20GB - 4" x 2.4" x 0.84"

That is almost a half inch smaller all around. That's enough for me to pick the Ipod, especially the width difference. The Ipod is just small enough to clip to your belt, anything larger would be awkward. This is important to active users of MP3 players.

yup, i'd say the ipod is the upper limit of truely wearable size. its bigger then flash memory players of course.

nomads and archos are for backpacks.

 

[frizzlefry]

i'm in the market right now. decision within the next couple of days. I've researched this thoroughly. One thing no one's mentioned about the Toshiba is that it uses proprietary encryption of the audio files in order to have it play on the player. This may be of some consequence to some, but for me it's not an issue as I don't plan on using my MP3 player as an MP3 transport hard drive. It's primary purpose is for use in my car and as a travel device.

The decision was between the Nomad Zen, Treo10, and the Toshiba Mobilephile. The toshiba one is the closest to the ipod and has USB 2.0 which is great. Also the removable 5GB is a nice feature. If I wanted to use this just as a simple file swapping device, then it just needs to pop into my hard drive.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

ipod