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Travel far with the Nomad

MP3 player holds more tunes for less

BY ERIC GRIFFITH

The Nomad Jukebox can hold about 100 hours of music.

MP3 players that store an hour of songs on chips may soon be dinosaurs. The chips, which usually hold about 10 to 12 tracks, will soon make way for full-fledged digital jukeboxes with hard drives that hold hundreds of songs. Jukeboxes aren't new (we looked at the $749 PJB-100 by Remote Solution in our Jan. 16 issue), but they are getting more affordable and stylish.

Case in point: Creative's Nomad Jukebox (877-653-6227). It's similar to the PJB-100 in some ways. Both players have 6GB hard drives, big enough to hold about 100 hours of music. They connect to computers via the USB plug and show a readout of what's playing on the display screen.

The Nomad beats the PJB-100 with a $500 price tag, a blue or silver metallic case that looks like any portable CD player, and the great PlayCenter 2 software. The program makes it easy to transfer (or "rip") music from your CDs to the Jukebox. Unlike the PJB-100, which works only with Windows computers, the Nomad also works with Macs, including iMacs and G3s. On the Jukebox itself, you can search for tracks by name and organize them into playlists to suit your mood.

The Nomad has built-in EAX capability, a sound technology by Creative that can modify the way music sounds. Play tunes slower or faster, or make them sound like you're listening in an auditorium, with little or no distortion. The Nomad comes with classical music, tunes from modern bands (mostly unknown), even readings of "Frankenstein" and "Robinson Crusoe."

If the Nomad has a downside, it's size—the player is too bulky to store in your pocket or take along for a jog. But until high-capacity hard drives get smaller and cheaper, there's little way around that.

So just hook the Nomad Jukebox to your home stereo or headphones and hit the play button. You'll be ready to rock or swing or croon for up to 100 hours.

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PJB-100
www.pjbox.com

Nomad Jukebox
www.nomadworld.com