MP3 Reviews

Overall, this is the best overall value, IMO, for a portable headphone. Small and lightweight, the KSC-35s also sound better than any of their competitors, including the S/Portapros. They have OVERALLY bloated bass, the kind that gives me headaches. The KSC-35s would, too, if it wasn't for their very interesting design. Unlike usual headphones which go over your head, or even the neck-band types, the KSC-35s have no headband whatsoever! They hang around your ear - clip is the word most people use, but that sounds painful, and the KSC-35s are the most comfortable headphones i've ever worn. Ever.

To the most important part: Sound. These things ound great. With only 32 ohms of resistance, they will be driven easily from any portable, including MP3/MD players with low output strength. The clip design, as i mentioned above, changes the acoustic properties of the KSC-35s. They are no longer exerting pressure on your ears; they instead simply drape the earlobe. Because of this "loose" grip (when compared to the S/Portapros), they lose some of the boominess in the bass department. They do, however, have a peak in frequency response favoring bass, so bass lovers will truly enjoy these headphones. I prefer the mid-range, and the KSC-35s have a decent midrange presentation, as well a good treble presentation. The excessive bass, while less than the S/Portapros, is still too much to allow the the other frequencies to shine.

All in all, a very active-use friendly design, excellent sound for minimal price, and a superiority over other models in the same price range BY THE SAME COMPANY (KOSS), won me over. These headphones are perfect for an active listener who wants to get great sound out of his portable.

NOTE: I have been constantly comparing the KSC-35s to the Sportapro and Portapro models because all three models have the same drivers. In fact, the S/Portaprose tend to be highly reccommended, while actually their sporty-looking cousin, the KSC-35, sound better! For less! The only draw-back being a slightly unusual design, which I have grown to love!

The Koss KSC-50s, along with the other Koss headphones that use the PortaPro drivers are truly giant killers. These include the KSC-50, KSC-55, KSC-35, Porta Pro, Sporta Pro, KTX Pro, and also some Radio Shack models.

Most cheap headphones sound terrible, but I find these quite enjoyable. I use them when I don't want to take my Sennheiser HD600s out, and while they don't compare to the Senns, they are very plesant to listen to.

First comes the bass. Bass is very good for an inexpensive headphone. While they won't play as deep as a good subwoofer, they play much deeper then most cheap headphones I have tried, and the upper bass is not very boomy (Most cheap headphones have exaggerated upper bass to make them sound like they play deeper, many more expensive headphones do too, such as the Sony MDR-V600).

The midrange is probably the KSC-50s biggest weakness, in particular the lower mids - they just don't have the presence my HD600s have. They also seem to sound slightly colored, which is bad, but it isn't as bad as I make it out to be, I am comparing them to my HD600s. This isn't a fair comparison at all, comparing some (dollar amount) headphones to some (dollar amount) headphones, it is like comparing a Hyundai to a Ferrari.

Highs aren't very airy, but treble is played up fairly high (Most cheap headphones barely play upper treble), and it isn't overpowering at all.

Comfort: These are relatively comfortable headphones, sometimes the earclips can be annoying, but they are extremely light and you usually barely feel them on you.

In short, everything sounds pretty good on these headphones. You really can't compare to them at anywhere this price range. They literally sound better then every Sony headphone from the MDR-Vxxx line which goes from the (dollar amount) V-150 through the V-900s, yes, they sound better then all of them, also they sound better then the Sennheiser HD490 and 500. If you are looking for something under (dollar amount), one of this series of headphones is your best bet. The next real step up from them would be the Grado SR-60 around (dollar amount) and the Sennheiser HD495 around (dollar amount), or the Sony MDR-V7506 around (dollar amount).

The one potential drawback is that these are an open design, which leaks sound out, and lets sound in. The problem is that most cheap closed headphones like the Sony MDR-Vxxx and CD-xxx series sound terrible in comparison. If you are willing to let some sound leak out, and have no isolation from outside noise, these are the headphones for you at this price. The only closed headphone of the above three I reccomend are the Sonys, both the Grados and Sennheisers are open. Most high end headphones other then monitors like the MDR-v7506, or Beyerdynamic DT831 are open. These include the Sennheiser HD600, the AKG K1000, Beyerdynamic DT931, Sony CD3000, and the rather expensive (At (dollar amount)) Sennheiser Orpheus.

As always, be careful with volume levels when listening on headphones, you can damage your hearing very easily. If you can't hear someone at all when they are talking to you, or screaming at you, I would highly reccomend you turn the volume down some, unless you want to wear a hearing aid later.

I'm purchasing my 2nd pair of these. Only one other lightweight headphone that I've owned has beaten the sound quality of these. My general advice on buying lightweight headphones with the best sound (learned through experimentation):<br /> <br /> 1. Frequency Response: I believe this is the most important specification. The wider the range, the better the sound. I wouldn't even bother with any headphone that starts above 16hz or ends below 23,000hz, because you'll lose some of the high-end and low-end sounds. For instance, when I played the soundtrack from Star Wars on headphones that didn't meet this criteria, I noticed that I couldn't hear some of the background instruments.<br /> <br /> 2. Gold Plated Plug: The sound from non-gold plated headphones doesn't seem as good.<br /> <br /> I'd encourage you to read the other reviews here, too. These headphones fit very comfortably for me, but I guess that's not the case with everyone. Also, I wouldn't know how well these headphones handle heavy wear & tear, because I don't use them in such situations.

Honestly guys, I'm a big pc, compaq, bill gates guy. I really like them. But I must admit that this attempt at mp3 players crashed and burned. This is an older model. DO NOT GET IT. Mine came with ZERO internal harddrive. Get one that COMES with something. Like a rio chiba like I now have. I might pay 40 bucks for this. I received this as a gift and kinda liked it. I could only get 20 songs on it with my 64 megs of space. I would only recommend this, more like give it another star, if you had a couple of 128 or 256 meg mmc's lying around that you're dying to sell. (...)

I had a [hard]time trying to figure out which mp3 player to get. I looked at the sony viao clip had the worst reviews I have ever seen! Also its not a real mp3 player. Lets talk about the Compaq.The first thing I have to say is when you buy this, GO OUT NOW AND BUY SOME RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES! Seriously I have spent hundreds (NOT JOKING) of dollars on batts. I get about 2 hours of playback if I am lucky(at volume set at 4 bass at 7 trebel at 6). My other complaint is that while going across a very very very large parkinglot And a cell phone store somewhere along the way I lost the memory cover, and customer service [was not good],I was on the phone for 2 hours they had me call more than 10 diffrent phone numbers some where the same that I had already called. I finally got hold of the MP3 customer service, they wanted me to send the whole unit in for the cover I could simply put it on. Rather than spend the $8.00 for a simple $1.00 part I went without! But I do LOVE THIS MP3 player. I have noticed that they aren't kidding when they tell you to not put an mp3 file from the net at more than a whatever bitrate. How I just figured this out the other day. If you do go over the bitrate it will start to play the song for however long and then go to the next song! That makes me angry but I just fast foward a little bit and its fine!I like this unit it is pretty cool, and people outher what are you talking about being able to just use WMP(windows media player), IT COMES WITH RIO PORT TO! which is simple, [heck] I am 14 and I figured it out all and all in a days time! O yeah it eats up your batterties when u load songs to FYI. If you walk and hate the stupid cd player skiping get the MP3 player. I replaced the headphone with sony the little sony headphones that go inside your ear(the earbuds it came with hurt my ears) and the sony makes the sound quality alot better(go spend the $10 on the sony headphones, you have gone this far). My main aim was when I went joggin not to notice this, which I don't, expect the PERFECT sound this provides!have fun crank up thos tunes and hey kids I do this, take the airbud headphones and put one in one of your ears and turn the volume down(do this in class he he) and tilt your head to where the teacher wont really notice run the wire threw your shirt! pluses is its lighter than my palm M100 and I love the belt clip! but DO NOT BUY A SONY, K? GO buy those batts b4 u buy this u will thank me! HAVE FUN AND BUY THIS! DO it all over again, ... YEAH! ~ANDREW AZZARITI~

I've had the iPaq PA-1 for about a week. Before buying it I read the reviews and for the most part they're accurate except for the few people who will never be happy no matter what they buy. I fortunately didn't cut my hand or damage the player trying to get it out of the plastic wrap. What a stupid idea. Battery life is poor and so far I haven't seen any good solutions. I would like to get a 64MB memory card, but there's nothing in the manual about mixing a 64 and 32 sized card so I don't know if it's possible. The included software seems adequate. I think the sound is great although the headphones need to be replaced if you're going to use the player while exercising (the included ones fall off). On the other hand the player's small size is great for running and it doesn't skip like my "antiskip" CD player.

I have been carrying this unit on my daily 2-hour commute since buying it two weeks ago. I record programs I want to watch on the hard drive of my DVD recorder in my absence, then copy to the lyra. Saves me the cost of recording shows I don't want to keep permanently to DVD's just for portability. Wish the timer recording feature allowed selections of smaller than 1/2 hour increments, though. The video and audio quality are plenty good for me.

But... the fast-foward bug is NOT fixed. I have to reset the unit several times daily. It should have come with an attached reset accessory. Plus the leather cover has to be removed to reach the reset hole - not good planning. Also, the cover's see-through plastic over the display ripples and reflects light so it's sometimes a struggle to have a glare-free picture.

Battery life is not impressive -- under two hours for me so far.

You can't name files using the unit directly, but you can re-name in windows explorer when attached to your PC.

On-line customer support is non-existant. I've sent two inquiries -- one about buying additional accessories and the other reporting the FF bug remaining -- both replies came quickly but basically said they weren't equipped to respond.

The buttons are quirky - and if you don't push in the precise direction, you won't get the result you want.

Despite the problems, I really like this unit and will be keeping it.

Got this for my son for his teenage birthday. He wanted an ipod, but they're just so antiquated already. He loves this machine, and all the buds are clamoring over it because he can play movies, funny TV clips, all his favorite music, and show photos. It also can play stored movies and music onto a friend's TV or stereo, or do a slideshow from our camera's CF card. Also comes with a tape adapter to play your music on your car's tape player. The size is still pocket-sized and not too heavy (around 12oz.). The video screen is excellent and shows up much better than the Archos models. Comes with nice earbuds and has great sound quality. A HUGE plus is that it comes with all the accessories you need: case, USB cable, two audio/video in/out cables, self-contained battery, tape player adapter, etc. Has 20Gb memory, and if you go to the yahoogroups user site, you'll see that alot of techhies have upgraded their Lyras to 80Gb without much difficulty.

Guess what people. On April 3, 2004, RCA came out with a new firmware upgrade (Ver. 17.9) for its RD2780 A/V Jukebox. It is the best yet!!
I was really disappointed when I just bought this device and noticed all the features it had but were not available yet. Finally yesterday, I went to their website and there it was..,, the new firmware upgrade, Even though it doesn't have completely all of the features ready to use, it has a lot of stuff that I personally was dying to try and now I will!!!

Some of the enhancements are:

*Audio Graphic EQ enabled! Choose from 21 unique settings as well as a customizable 5 band graphic equalizer.

*Video Book marking enabled! Bookmark and restore up to 10 separate time-indexed locations from each movie on your Lyra™ AV.

*Smart Tagging and Playlist Creation Enabled! By using the plus and minus keys, songs, photos and videos can be tagged for creation of and adding to "playlists" for each media type.

*Video Indexing Feature Enabled! When the menu button is depressed during Video playback, a NEW video banner is presented with +/- 30 second and +/- 15-minute fast forward and fast rewind (small and large arrows).

*PAL Recording Frame rate Bug has been fixed!

So do yourselves a favor and download this last firmware version and start getting the best out of your Lyra RD2780 A/V Jukeboxes!!

Customer service is rather bad. First of all, to get a pretty standard item for all wireless/portable product, a car adapter, you're going to have to shell out an extra $40 and this is for any of Creative's Nomads since they purposely made the input voltage a non-standard one of 5V. Secondly if you ask questions to tech support, they pretty much just answer questions you didn't even ask and ignore the one you really want answered. I had this issue both through e-mail and on the phone. Finally, during a phone call, I said, "So am I never going to know the answer to this question?" The tech guy ACTUALLY said something in regard to it making his call time average high, if he looks for the answer. To get a replacement battery, expect to pay around $120. $20 for diagnosis, $15 to ship it there and $85 for the battery itself. All of this just a couple months after it's 90 day warranty.

OK, I've bought this machine back in 2002 and it still works !
This is a good player in many ways, but the best thing about it is its battery life. It's supposed to be 14 hrs, but mine lasts about 10 hrs with all the extra options turned on. This is still much compared to the iPods 8 hrs.
I've also used the 20gb iPod and it's great as well, especially the design, the OS and the scroller. And I must admit that iTunes (the software) is a lot better than Creatives Play Center. The play center is clumsy and slow, while iTunes is a lot faster and easier to use. The choise between this and the iPod was easy for me though.... the iPods price was too high, especially here in Finand, and battery life was important to me. My player has some scars and it almoust broke down once... but I realized that the harddrive had stuck, so I gave it a little smack and it worked again. I've read that many have had problems with this player but I've used mine for 1 ½ years. I've fallen on it a couple of times and the front cover looks f**ked up, but it still works fine for me.... The choise between this and the iPod might be hard. the Zen is cheaper, has better sound quality and longer battery life, while the iPod is a bit smaller, looks cooler and the software is better.

Just got mine a few days ago...and I am nothing but satisfied. I won't waste time with technical specs and all that. You can look them up yourself.

The low-down: This "toy" is amazing.
1. battery life: very good, made it through many hours of shoveling.
2. ease of use: to be honest....it could be better. BUT it is fine once you get the hang of it.
3. software: takes getting use to, but again doable.
4. space: 19GB after formatting, but still more than enough
5. size: a bit larger than the IPOD, but still fit nicely in my pocket.
6. Sound: i have a pair of mediocre SONY headphones and still has great sound. I also used an adapter and played it through my stereo. Again, amazing sound quality. Also, I would like to say that I could hear the music over the snow thrower and the volume wasn't even half way up.
7. BEST PART: firwire and USB compatable.

I think that about sums it up. One last thing. I have a fried that has the IPOD, and I will be honest I almost bought one of them instead and if I had a MAC i probably would have. BUT, I am a PC fan myself and worried about the IPOD and Windows working well together (even though there is now a Win IPOD)

Bottome line: Creative Labs put out a worthy competitor to the IPOD.

The FM radio is OK, but it buzzes any time the backlight comes on. Customer service neither knows their product or offers a solution. Their solution is for me to try to fix it by going to their website and updating the firmware. This is brand new and they want me troubleshoot it and fix it. How about making a product that works out of the box. This is another example of a product with alot of Hype, and poor execution. This product would get good rating if it was free of that backlight buzz.

I bought an MP3 player so I could listen to music while running. The Rio s30s serves this purpose well.

The good: inexpensive, good ergonomics, rubberized outer shell (keeps sweat out), easy to use, expandable memory, light weight, decent battery life, built in FM radio, large, large easy to read display.

The bad: the plastic carrying case, interference in the radio when backlight is lit, and the ear buds lack a full sound.

Design:
The rubberized body makes the Rio s30s easy to hold on to, easy to clean and helps protect it from my sweat. It weighs about 2.5 ounces WITH the battery which makes it small and light enough to be practical to use while running , working out, or even just gardening. The display is large and easy to read making it easy to navigate songs and the menu options.

The ear buds are the round, padded type that fit into your ear and have a clip that fits over you ear to hold them in place. They're comfortable enough but I found they didn't stay in my ear well while running. They also seemed to be a little weak in the middle frequencies. I replaced them with a pair of Sony MDR-J10.

The case is another area I thought could use some improvement. It's a pliable plastic case with a belt clip connected to the back. It wraps around the sides and back of the player and secures the player pretty well. The problem I have with it is that the holes cut into the top of the case do not line up that well with the buttons they're intended for, so you'll find yourself playing around with the alignment in order to use the USB cord. This is easily solved with a Dremel tool. :) The case can also clip to the included armband. I found that using the armband while running caused the ear bud wires to get tangled with my arms.

Features:
The Rio s30s plays MP3 or WMA and has a built in FM radio, which works perfectly well for me. It also has a built in stopwatch (nice for running), book marks (nice for audio book fans)and the standard repeat and shuffle mode. The s30s comes with 64mb internal memory. This is enough to hold around 30 songs encoded in WMA, 64kbps. It also has an expansion slot so you can increase storage using MMC or SD cards. The expansion slot will support cards up to 512mb. That's over half a gig including the 64mb built in.

Performance:
The s30s uses on AAA battery. Battery life was around 8 hours using a standard alkaline and around 10 hours using 750mHa NiMh rechargeable.
Using the included ear buds the sound quality is acceptable. Changing these out for a pair of Sony MDR-J10 helped increase the middle frequencies and bass.
The FM radio works fine here in Orlando. The weaker stations are fuzzy sounding but it pulls in the major stations here fine.

Based on some of the other reviews, I'm not sure whether others got lemons, or I just received an exceptional unit. I purchased this to listen to while walking. Carrying around a portable CD player was not working for me. I wanted something I could throw in a pocket, or clip on a waistband. This player is EASY to use. 15 minutes from box to my first transferred MP3's. Software installed easily, and was easy to use. No problems with installation or transfer using only the provided software and Windows XP Home OS. Sound is exceptional - even through the included headphones, radio reception was phenomenal - and I live in a rural area where I cannot get radio stations on my home stereo! The display was easy to read and the menu easy to use. The only additional items I can see that will be necessary, are 'better' headphones (only because I prefer the type I currently use) and somewhere down the line - additional memory. For me, 5 songs, took half the 64mb storage capacity, and I can see the possibility of needing more time. For the money, this cannot be beat. I'm sure there are 'better' units out there - with more features, more memory, better sound - whatever, but I wanted something basic and simple to use but yet equalled that of my CD player - and lightweight and portable - and this unit is definately the solution for me.

I found the Lyra to initally be pretty good. I am always on the go and kind of clumsy. I need an mp3 player to be durable. I will soon be purchasing a new mp3 player because my battery cover is now held on by tape. I dropped the player on carpet and the piece that locked the cover on, broke off. so I am very disappointed in the structure of the player, the size of the player is nice and conveniant and the buttons are easy to find but that is where it stops. The headphones are uncomfortable, who was in charge of that decision! I don't drive, so public transportation is key for me and I use my headphones all the time. I had to switch out the headset so my poor ears would be comfortable. It is really sad more thought was not put into this player.

I picked this player up a few days ago from Walmart to replace an old intel player I had. I mostly wanted it for going back and forth to class and the occasional roadtrip. I'd done a bit of research and read reviews and this seemed like a great product that was easy to use - and it definitely is.

I came home in a rush and wanted to add on songs before I had to leave 15 minutes later, I had the player full in about 5 minutes - no problems whatsoever. My computer (WIN XP) recognized the device immediately. One of the reasons I decided on this player was because you don't necessarily need to use the programs included, you can go to your My Computer folder and the Lyra shows up as an additional drive, and you can simply drag your files into the folder. It works like a charm.

In MP3 format I'm able to fit about 25-30 songs, depending on quality. I just loaded it with WMA files and was able to fit 38 songs at 128kbps quality and the sound is perfect, next time I'm going to bump it down to 96kbps.

I was real hesitant about the headphones included, I usually stick to earbuds or the wraparound style that Sony has. I really do like the ones included though. The sound on them is great and they feel secure on my ears. I also like that when I get to class I'm able to just clip them onto the neck of my shirt and don't have to worry about stuffing them in my pocket or having them around my neck.

It's nice that they included the armband/case with the Lyra, while most of the time it will be in my pocket I know I will take it on my bike with me when the weather gets nice. And the actual case does remove from the armstrap, you are even able to use the loop on the case to attach it to your belt.

There's two things I don't really like about the Lyra and they could be easily added by RCA if they chose, so I gave it four stars. 1. The casing is plastic, it should be more durable, especially if RCA intends this to be a sport player. 2. No backlight, this isn't a huge drawback, but it seems like such a simple thing it should be included automatically.

Overall great player and I would definitely purchase it again and recommend it to my friends.

First of all, I think Amazon.com site is great! This is the first place I look to see customer reviews before plunking down a chunk of change for electronics.

** Thanks to the many users of the site!!!! **

Just got mine's today (at "Wally World" for 94 bucks, no sales tax in Anchorage, Alaska). Can't think of any easier way to operate the player.
1. DO NOT NEED TO INSTALL THE LYRA SOFTWARE WITH WINDOWS XP unless you need to "rip" your CD's and don't already have a program that does that.
2. Once you plug in the USB cable, Windows treats the Lyra player as another drive. All you have to do is cut and paste MP3 and WMA files.
3. Can set up a playlist right on the player.

Thought about getting the newer "Combo memory/MP3 players", but problem is that they are not expandable. Also with Rio players, you need to have another program/patch for Media player to transfer the music onto the player itself.

Device works great..however, there is no updated software that is XP compatable. Customer service told me that they were 'sorry, but the 2100 is no longer a supported product'. They suggested that I purchase a newer model that was XP compatable. Will never buy anything from Sonic Blue again.

I purchased the Rave MP2100 after reviewing comments on Amazon and several other web sites.

I purchased it primarily for use while running and biking. So far I have found it to be an excellent mp3 player.

It comes with 64MB RAM, expandable to 96MB (which I did a week later, purchased directly from the Sensory Science Web site, the only place I could find that sold it.

So far it has worked perfectly. I did replace the headphone with another model, but only be- cause I am not blessed with ears that have the notches required for most ear-bud headphones. This, also improved the sound quality and loudness.

The software installed without a hitch on a win98 system, and the parallel port connection has worked perfectly. I am sure that a USB link would be much quicker, but most songs transfer inn 20-30 seconds. Acceptable to me.

My biggest complaint, and this applies to ALL MP3 players that I reviewed, is that the software ONLY runs on win95/98. (some USB systems now have software for Macintoshes). I run Linux and am reduced to using a win98 system to transfer files.

The strange hourglass design of the case is actually great for sports, fits in the hand very well. When I purchased the memory upgrade, it installed exactly as specified. Opened the back, plugged it in, and the system recoginized the ram immediately. It did not even affect the songs that were stored in the system.

Other features include voice recording, memos, and the software includes a few audio books you can download to the player, and a demo version of an MP3 ripping program that works pretty well. Pay them money and it will work much better!

The first few hours after I received the raveMP 2100 were frustrating. First, I learned that the software is not compatible with Windows 2000, which I use at work; it works only with Windows 95 and Windows 98.

Second, after I successfully loaded the software on my home computer (Windows 98), configuration of the parallel port was my next obstacle. This is a necessary step, I believe, and can be frustrating if you don't know where to look on your computer to perform this configuration.

Finally, after I successfully established the connection between my computer and raveMP 2100, it appeared to successfully download several MP3 files to the player. Alas, on the player, I received a "file error" message.

I sent an e-mail to Sensory Science through its Web site but still have not received a reply. I called the company's support number (a toll call) and received good instructions (essentially needed to reset the player).

Now my player is up and running and I am very satisfied with the ease of the file transfer process as well as with the sound quality (near-CD). In other words, although I believe Sensory Science can add additional troubleshooting content to its manual, once I was up an running, I have had no problems with the player. Both the player's user interface and the desktop software are intuitive, and I am impressed by the sound.

Pro's
1. Easy to operate
2. Plays both MP3's and WMA's
3. Built in FM transmitter to play music through vehicle antenna
4. Plenty of storage space
5. Good sound quality through headphones
6. 20 "free" songs from Napster
7. Nice visual appeal

Cons
1. FM transmitter (not radio receiver)is too weak, sometimes the sound quality is worse than AM radio (6 foot range between car antenna and unit if you are lucky)
2. The FM transmitter is especially degraded while charging in vehicle

3. I have been unsuccessful in attempts to remove music from the unit.
4. No ability to creat playlists without hooking unit back up to computer.

Impression: I don't care for Apple products much my friends IPOD seems to work much better for my purposes

I was almost convinced to get an ipod by some friends of mine. They all say the ipod is "awesome". Well, its not, its just an overpriced storage device that some people think looks cool.

Its large and costs too much. So does the Napster player BUT, if you are going to shell out this kind of money you might as well get the S. Napster player as its sturdier, has fm, a car adaptor, voice recorder, fm recording capabilities and works with Mp3 and WMedia files instead of the iTunes format.

I got my Napster player as a gift so I am happy but I almost ended up asking for an iPod.

I would never spend this much just to listen to music. A Gateway or Samsung 256mb keyring player for around $100 is a fra smaller player and a better bet unless you are planning on using your device as your primary storage component, in which case the Samsung Napster player almost justifies the price while the Ipod is a blatant ripoff.

This Samsung Has more feature than any other MP3 Player.
I can record the music directly from any CD player without a PC. And also I can record from FM radio directly to this player. It is a excellent MP3 Player. I can play music using FM transmitter in my car. I am very pleased with this Samsung MP3 Player. Finally, you pay less, and get more feature than iPod.

I used this product 5 hours before the batteries died. Pathetic in my opinion my Sony cassette player with moving parts lasts 25 hours with continuous use.

The DSP modes are pathetic, the sound quality is terrible. The only way I could listen to any of the music was in the Classic DSP mode. There's not enough amplification to make some songs loud enough.

The downloads were pretty fast, about 32 seconds for a 4mb song with ECP enabled.

The player's mp3 internal software froze 3 times when I was listening to the player. Making all buttons stop functioning and I finally had to remove the batteries to reboot it. When it the software froze it got stuck on the same song. Very anonying.

I think most will be unhappy with this item. Although the price and rebate offer isn't to bad for a 64mb player. However if your going to spend 10 bucks a month in batteries it ain't really worth it. Not to mention if it freezes everytime you use it.

There wasn't much documentation with it, the uploading and downloading software for the player wasn't that great. Pretty pathetic actually.

In short I was very unhappy with this player and I'd recemmend people look for a better more reliable item, because this player is pretty much a piece of junk.

The player is great. Just great, especially if you use rechargeable batteries. The parallel port connection is the worst though. I've had the unit for over a year and for the past 4 months I've been unable to upload mp3s to it.

Go for a unit with a USB connection instead and save your money.

I just received this product today and I am listening to it now. My experience is as follows:

1) Installed software and connected unit. Software would not recognize the player. 2) Reconfigured parallel port for ECP. Followed documentation exactly. Unit still not recognized. Tested port - port OK. 3) Called BestData support and after being disconnected several times I was told it would cost ... to find out why it wasn't working. Paid ... to have tech read the manual to me and tell me to download the latest software. 4) Downloaded software - didn't help. Went to BestData site ... to find my answer buried in a FAQ. A step not in the documentation and unknown to the tech support person, "You must click on the File menu and choose Connect And List before you can transfer files to the Cabo. " Also, make sure the "HOLD" button is off when attempting to activate the unit. 5) Finally got unit to download files. Surprisingly quick for a parallel connection.

Once I got it working, I was impressed with it overall. I've been listening for several hours and the battery indicator still shows fully charged. Holds 12 songs and sounds excellent to me. Highest volume hurts my ears! Very light and somewhat cheap feel to the case but for ... with the rebate, it appears to be the best deal around on a 64MB unit. Don't bother calling tech support, just muddle through the inept documentation as best you can.

I remember as soon as I laid eyes on this seemingly magnificant player, I wanted it so bad, I got a part time job and I saved up about 4 weeks worth of pay to get this. The moment I had enough money I went to my local CompUSA to get it, and drove back home. As soon as I franticly tore it out of the package, I did everything the instructions told me to, hook up AC adapter and plug it in the wall, and plug the USB in excetra excetra. Well, the installation took me a few tries because my MP3 player kept shutting down on me, I finally managed to get it to work, I put a few of my CD's I had on it and it worked great... for about a month. Coincidence that Creative's MP3 player would start to f*uck up after it's warranty? I think not. After about of months worth of frustration with the player freezing up, shutting down, and then the USB not even working at all, I decided to send it to their customer service only to find that it was all a gimmik. I sent in the player so they can fix whatever problems it was having, only to have it returned with the EXACT SAME PROBLEMS. Lets face it, Creative is a company of a Creative scheme, not MP3 players, if you want to get a good MP3 player, I would try GoPo RipDrive, this is a great player that won't f*uck up after it's warranty.

After looking at every portable jukebox as well as home audio servers, I found that Creative Nomad 3 is the best product today.

I initiallly ordered one player. Then I went back and ordered 4 more. Two of them will be used as audio servers in 2 different rooms of my house - other 2 as gifts.

-- Setting it up
I downloaded and upgraded to the latest firmware release v1.20.06. To do that I had to first upgrade to the 2 previous releases.

I found the software that comes with this player, Creative Playcenter to be useless for ripping and organizing music. I downloaded Media Jukebox 8.0 based on on-line reviews. Music Jukebox is a promising music manager program - although I haven't found one that I really like so far. I ripped all my CDs at 192Kbps - about 15GB worth so far. I then diligently got the Genre, Artist, Album and Track information right - a lot of it initially filled in from the on-line CDDB database. What I found that even though this organization is becoming the standard in the industry, it is a lot of hard work to get it right, and doesn't reconcile with my usage. I then resorted to a straightforward playlist organization.

For uploading to Nomad Jukebox, I used the Firewire connection - USB 1.1 is simply too slow. I had to go and buy a Firewire card for my PC - about $50. Then I found that the upload plug-in that comes with Music Jukebox doesn't upload Playlists, only tracks. What a bummer!!! I then bought Notmad software ($20) - and it does upload Playlists. As a side note, Notmad's license enforcement mechanism is bizzare and cumbersome.

-- Using It
After all this hard work, the payback was huge. The sound from this device is excellent. EAX capabilities are great - try them all out. The user interface is easy, the button layout is intuitive. The features are plentiful, yet not in the way. I do think they should increase the size of the LCD display.

I use it as a portable player. It is a little bulky, but with the buttons locked (get the latest firmware), I can shove it in my jacket or jeans pockets. I use the headphones that come with it, and they are pretty good.

I use it as a car player, although the only way to hook it up to my expensive car stereo is through an audio tape - with great loss of sound quality. What a bummer. So I sometimes used headphones in the car. Luckily I am about to buy a new car - and its car stereo system must have front audio input.

Mostly, I use it as a player at home. I have speakers set up in 4 different rooms and I just take it with me and hook it up to the speakers. I have used it in 2 and 4 speaker settings. I use a wire to hook it up my home stereo. Now I have ordered 2 more so that I don't have to lug it around.

It has transformed my music experience. I've become an avid listener. It has expanded my range of music. I'm now looking to buy a lot more CDs to fill gaps in my collection and to experiment new types of music.

Positives:
- Great sound
- Great feature set
- Great transfer speed - using Firewire
- Good user interface
- Good music organization - I primarily use Playlists.
- Ability to drive 2 or 4 speakers.
- Decent headphones
- Remote control with the optional home kit
- Long battery life - with the optional battery
- Voice recording capability - with the optional accessory. I haven't tried it yet
- You can use it as hard drive storage
- Excellent value compared to iPod

Negatives
- Size is a little bulky
- Creative Playcenter software that comes with it is useless - but you dont need it - download something else
- LCD display is too small

I highly recommend it. As a portable, I would also consider Creative Nomad Zen.

Well, back in the day, I used to own the original Nomad. Granted the battery life was horrid, but the thing had more than decent sound. I had that for about a year and half (no lie) but I finally filled it up and had to upgrade. Two days ago, after drooling over it for an eternity, I got my Nomad Jukebox 3. Lets start with sound quality. This thing's headphone amp is the most powerful I've ever heard. It can drive any pair of headphones to ear shattering levels, and I listen to a lot of hardcore metal (among other things). The sound quality itself is phenomenal. There's no distortion at high volume, and that's a huge plus for me. Of course, by the unwritten law of bundled headphones, the ones that come with this MP3 player [are not good]. I bought new ones the next day. Now, the software. The bundled software was what I was used to using for the first Nomad. The software isn't buggy for me, even though my computer is ancient. To tell you the truth, I love Creative Playcenter. It's very easy to use and it's organized. Windows Media Player will work too, but I don't like it, its fast but you cant organize anything with it. I have to use USB 1.1 because my OS (Windows 98) is too old to use FireWire. The CD encoding goes slow too, but I have a slow computer. I installed all the software on my Grandmas computer as well (who has Windows XP). I experienced no problems with Windows XP, and the CD encoding went insanely fast. The transfer was still slow because she doesnt have FireWire, but other than that it's very nice. Basically it all depends on your style whether or not you want to use the bundled software. Back to the player itself. It's very easy to use. It's icon diven and the menu is set up nicely, but one word of advice. DOWNLOAD FIRMWARE AHEAD OF TIME. I didnt even bother trying to use it until my firmware was up to date. If you scan throught the rest of these reviews you will see why. The blue backlight is pretty, and you can change it to green too! The display size is nice, it works for me at least. The EAX is nice too, but mainly for the EQ. The OS boots up quite fast, especially compared to the first Nomad. Granted I dont have all my CD's on there yet, but there is a more than noticable difference. The thing also loads songs really fast, and there is almost no noticable gap when the songs switch. The scroller thing was something I was a little worried about, I thought it would be excruciatingly annoying to use. Supprisingly, it's not. As long as you aren't trying to browse through a playlist of 5000 songs, the thing works great. Again, download firmware first. For accesories, I bought the extra battery and leather case (also ahead of time) and I strongly recommend both. Also, if your computer can support it (which it probably can), get a FireWire adapter, it will make it so much better. Now I know that some people's NJB3's apparently died on them after a month or so, but I think if you take care of it, it will last you forever like my orginal Nomad did (which people also claimed to die after a month). I say if you have the money, BUY THIS! It really is great. I love it so much; I consider it my child. "You need look no further", this is the god of MP3 players. Remeber though, buy headphones, the extra battery, and the case; and get the firmware ahead of time. If you are thinking of the iPod, it's way too over-rated. The five GB iPod is the same price as the NJB3, and it has a quarter of the space. The Archos isn't any better, infact, its worse. The sound [is not good] on the Archos. The iPod has sound ALMOST as good as the NJB3, but not quite as good. So...buy the Nomad Jukebox 3!