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Creative Labs Digital Audio Player Jukebox
Creative Labs (
03 November, 2000 )
Electronics |
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£
174.99 |
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subject to change. |
This item is not in stock or has been discontinued. |
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Well worth the money  |
Ive been after one of these for ages (the last portable music player I had did tapes!) and I finally got one yesterday. First impressions. The reproduction is superb but I agree with other postings about the inadequate headphones supplied. Youre as well to invest in a decent pair; I bought Sonys MDR-ED268LP earphones which whilst expensive do the DAPs sound reproduction justice. On the conventional headphones the DAP had to be turned up full. With the Sony phones, 15 is adequate. Im also disappointed with the carrycase (it looks like a handbag...) so I ordered one with a belt strap from Creatives site. Without a decent carrycase its very unwieldy and when stuffed into a pocket its very easy to nudge some of the controls The battery life was of major concern to me before I bought this but for six (well, five and a half) gigs of storage, Im prepared to put up with it. As I write this Ive nearly filled it so I might have to resample my MP3s at 96kbps for more space (I have close to 300 albums). The controls are straightforward but for any organising of the songs into playlists, SoundJam for Mac is absolutely essential. Cant comment about the PC software though... I have noticed one or two glitches. The major concern is the DAP listing some songs out of order, despite the correct order being shown in SoundJam. Ive uploaded to the latest firmware but it doesnt seem to help. The ability to save albums being played would be handy too. If Im listening to an album and then have to switch off, I have to reload the album when I switch back on again. Theres no shuttle function either for scanning through songs which isnt a huge problem but the feature would have been nice. On the plus side, for someone who has a number of concept albums without breaks between the songs (Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Yes, et al), there doesnt appear to be any noticeable pause between tracks. Very useful. Also, the library function is superb, listing songs by album, artist and genre and so very easy to locate the album you want. The SoundJam software allows you to easily build up your own compilations too which is another major plus. Overall, I agree with everyone else here, the DAP is definitely a "must have" piece of kit. It looks cute (matches my blue Mac!), it feels robust and well-built, the buffer means zero jumping although I havent taken it out mountain biking yet and just a very nice piece of hardware. If you like music on the move then buy one! Now!
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Great idea, but beware looks are deceiving - has flaws  |
The idea of 6GB of music on a portable player is a fantastic idea, and in terms of storage the dap will not dissapoint. The transfer rate is very fast and the software is very user friendly, the navigation and controls on the player are excellent, however it is apparent that Creative have skimped on areas of the player to reduce the overall cost to the consumer:1: The headphones supplied are diabolically bad, cheap and plasticy looking, lacking in bass ands depth, a decent pair should have been provided. 2: The battery life is unacceptably small for a portable device, 2-4 hours is not log enough to listen to a small fraction of the music recorded onto it, having to plug it into the mains every so often makes the portability value of the player limited. 3: Creative should have used chewing gun Lithium ion batteries instead of 4AAs, the AA batteries give the unit an unsightly buldge on the back, and also add a lot of weight to the system, if Creative had adopted the same battery system in Sonys portable MD players then the unit could have been lighter and sleeker 4: The unit is quite bulky, easp. when the batteries are loaded, making the unit quite heavy to carry around, unlike MD you wouldnt be able to fit it in your pocket. I think this unit has great potential, but like anything new, better versions will be developed in years to come, my advice is to wait until Creative or another company release a DAP with a longer batterylife/smaller lighter design, having said this the fact that the little blue thing your holding has a little wirring hard drive in it, is kinda kewl!
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Great bit of kit - puts the alternatives to shame  |
Bought this after taking the Archos drive back.No major complaints with either the DAP player or the software. The build quality is great considering what else is on the market. The buttons feel solid (no flimsy clicking buttons here). The battery cover locks solidly into place (you dont feel itll break if you change for your spare set of batteries). The EAX features are impressive as is the inclusion of the two line out connectors (front and back). Creative would do well to include the ability to copy music from the player to your computer. That way you can store the pre-recorded tracks on your computer. The only gripes I have is with the carry case and the ear phones. The carry case has no belt attachments (fine it is carry case) however its just big enough for the player, youll struggle to put the player away with the ear phones plugged in. As for the ear phones there good but definitely on the quiet side replace them if you into anything on the loud side. Well worth the money.
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