Creative Nomad IIC MP3 Player – Enjoy Your Train Ride To Work
Written: Aug 06 '03
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Pros: Very Simple To Use
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: I am extremely happy with the Nomad IIC. I use it all the time and can finally enjoy my train ride to work.
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| splinky313's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad IIc (64 MB) MP3 Player |
Introduction
I purchased the Nomad IIC to listen to music while riding on the Long Island Rail Road. I frequently travel from Long Island to Manhattan at least once a week. I wanted a small, easy to use, music player that I could store lots of songs onto, and easily download new songs.
Smartmedia Cards
One important factor I wanted was to have a player that uses Smart Media cards for storage. I own 2 Olympus digital cameras, and they both use Smart Media cards. I own a bunch of 64 Meg Smart Media cards that I have purchased over the past year that I wasn’t using for my cameras. And, in the last few months the prices of memory cards have dropped considerably. One year ago a 64 Meg card was selling for $ 75 to $ 100. Today, you can get them for free after rebates. I have recently purchased 3 more on Ecost.com , and they end up being free after the rebates.
Included Software
Creative includes their own software called Playcenter with the Nomad IIC player. I have found this software extremely easy to use. It allows me to take my existing audio CD’s, and transfer the songs, by album onto my hard drive. By experimenting, I have found that choosing the MP3 at 32 Kbps setting, works the best for me. I am able to fit about 70 MP3 songs on each 64 Meg card. I find no difference in the sound quality at this rate of storage, vs. choosing a higher setting. Once I have converted my songs into MP3 , its very easy to transfer them onto the Nomad. You can choose by Artist, By Album or by Individual song. You highlight the songs you want, and the software transfers a copy to the Smartmedia card in your Nomad. And it’s very quick. I can transfer 70 songs in about 5 minutes, using a USB connection. I am using Windows XP and it works great.
FM Radio
Included with the Nomad is the ability to listen to your favorite radio stations. You can scan the digital radio frequencies and save your favorite stations. However , the strength of the signal is very important. I find it difficult to pick up stations inside the train. I can only listen as I get closer to Manhattan and the signal becomes stronger.
Accessories
Included with the player is a nice looking pair of backband headphones. I ended up buying an inexpensive Sony foldable headphones (MDR-A110) for about $15, and they fit nicely in my attaché case. I also purchased a small case by Case Logic that fits the player and a few Smartmedia cards.
Docking Station
One of the best accessories I bought was the silver Creative Docking Station. It comes with a rechargeable AA battery and USB cable. After using the player all day, it’s so much easier just to slip the player into the docking station. It starts recharging, and automatically connects to your computer for downloading, if necessary. I highly recommend it, but unfortunately, it was discontinued recently by Creative. If you can still find one, definitely buy it.
PC Music Library
One the great things about the Playcenter software is the PC Music Library. You can use it as a standalone MP3 player for your computer. Very helpful, and easy to categorize your songs stored on your hard drive. All the MP3 songs have ID tags telling you the artist and song title both on your computer and on the large LCD of your Nomad player. Its very easy to see the name of the song your playing , and the time length in mins and secs. It describes the title, artist, album and genre of each song, all downloaded from a database from the internet. This all happens automatically when you convert your CD’s into MP3’s.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 75
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Epinions.com ID:
splinky313
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Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
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