I can hear the screams of "traitor" and "infidel" already, but now that there are starting to be a few HD-based MP3 players out there, I think there's a lot that can be learned from discussing the pros and cons of each. (Those of you who are exposed to Product Marketing types in the real world call this Competitive Analysis.)

Anyone with a PJB-100 want to chime in?

I just returned my Jukebox today to Best Buy.

There is a lot to like about it and I think it will get better with firmware upgrades.

I hope so. I'm willing to stick this one out for a while. It's particularly interesting given how stupidly simple it is to upgrade to a larger drive. (given a Linux box and no fear of voiding the warranty, anyway)

The Creative rep on the Nomad newsgroup (only at news.creative.com) is very responsive and actively solicits suggestions.

I didn't know that existed, thanks for pointing it out. I just read through it the newsgroup and found a lot of interesting tidbits. Of course, the #1 complaint is the same as here: No way to either back up the unit or retrieve MP3s. This is even more of a concern with the NJB since it comes half-full of music.

I found the interface on the unit to be non-intuitive but once I groked it, it was functional.

I agree that it had a less-than-gentle learning curve, but for a device that can safely get more user attention than the empeg car, I like the library/queue metaphor.

It does a nice job of providing some default organization based on ID3 tags without having to create playlists.

This is nice, though emplode accomplishes the same thing by being directory aware. Since MP3Rage (Mac) and I assume MP3TagStudio or similar can build directory structures from ID3 tags, that feature's covered already.

I agree that the PC software is awful. It's another non-standard, polished chrome UI that doesn't follow conventional UI rules and can't be maximized.

Oh, it's worse than that. Did you actually hit maximize? The window gets slightly larger and gets some scaling artifacts.

The Mac software doesn't suffer from Polished Chrome Syndrome, but then it doesn't appear to suffer from any features, either. It's a custom version of SoundJam MP that has a single drag/drop window for the upload queue.

And I agree that it's inexcusable that it doesn't automatically traverse deep directory structures.

Which is the one complaint I *didn't* see in the newsgroup. Sigh. One more group to straighten out.

Despite the flaws of the PC software, the unit itself is nice and I might have kept it.... except for it's fatal flaw: it sounds like crap!

I haven't put it through it's paces through anything but the supplied headphones, but I'll do that. I've already resigned myself to buying a Boostaroo for it, mostly because my primary application will be on long airline flights. Maybe the roar of the turbofans will cover the audio quality issue.

It's unfortunate that Creative decided to skimp in this area. I'm guessing one or both of these conditions led to them using such a poor amp.

1. They were struggling to make the magic $499 price point and had to cut corners.
2. They knew that battery life was going to be a big complaint so they tried to minimize power consumption.

I didn't realize it until I saw his name mentioned in the Creative newsgroup, but I know McHugh from a past life. I'll see if I can find out what they were thinking...

Their newsgroup is already full of requests for them to increase the volume level. People seem to be under the illusion that it can be fixed with firmware. (Like they'll just turn the knob to 11.)

Well, it can be fixed in firmware if you don't care about audio quality. I wouldn't put it past them to boost the output level in the DSP, clipping be damned.

It's a nice unit for portability if used with undemanding headphones.

Or, I hope, in a poor listening environment. ;)

-Zandr
Mk.I #150
Mk.II #39