Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra Silver (40 GB) Digital Media Player

I decided to buy this because I already had one which was 30G. It had served me well for four years, and I knew it was one of the best, if not the best ever made. I wanted to give it to my spouse so we could each have one.

The Jukebox Zen Xtra doesn't have a lot of fancy bells or whistles, no video or radio features, but you don't miss them at all. What you get is great sound quality and equalization options, among other excellent features. (It even served as a temporary pocket watch last year when mine got damaged!) You can plug in a transmitter and listen to it through your car stereo. Due to its huge capacity (it runs on a small hard drive, similar to a laptop's, instead of a flash drive) it's perfect for serious music collectors who want to take their library on the road.

Some of these Xtras come with a certain type of firmware that might cause a little trouble getting the player to talk to some computers (not just a Vista problem). Also, Creative has discontinued this player for some reason, but you can still download drivers from their website (they're a bit hard to find but still there as of 2-2009). I found that I could manage files and playlists successfully using Winamp's Media Library. If you have problems with an Xtra, or with any Creative player, go to anythingbutipod.com -- they are very knowledgeable about the different drivers and so on.

Be sure to get some kind of case for it so it doesn't get scratched or banged around - we could never find a case for the old player, although the second player came with a beautiful leather-like case.

After doing a lot of research on MP3 players I decided that the Nomad Jukebox would be the one for me. If you are not into current top 40 music but like historical as well as current music and you have a ton of CDs in your collection then an MP3 player with a large hard drive is probably what you need too. I have close to 2500 songs on the hard drive and it is about half full.

So far, I’ve put about 80% of my CDs on this player. I hook it up to my car, my home entertainment system, and I play it thru ear buds at night to go to sleep. NO more CDs to fool with!

Pros:
 laptop hard drive is cheap and replaceable
 battery is cheap and replaceable (I bought a 2nd one for it)
 large capacity
 has more functions than the current Creative Labs hard drive MP3 players
 scroll function is easy
 create permanent play lists
 create your own temp playlists on-the-fly

Cons:
 Bulkier and heavier than current models
 Software it comes with is not too great
 The support and download page is terrible
 No longer available in most stores

Originally written July 24, 2005.

Well, this is the 3rd Creative product I have purchased and I'm just as satisfied. I was pondering getting this, the Creative Zen Micro 5GB MP3 Player, or the Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 Player. I actually slept on the Zen 40 gig when it was under $200.00. Not this time, I got the 30 gig for $180.00 and I'm very happy.

Other than not having a Radio, it has the features that make or break a MP3 player. I can create Play list on the fly if I desire, import playlist from the computer. There are a zillion EQ settings with the ability to customize my own.

The sound is great, even at 64 kbps WMA format. For hundreds less that the so called leaders, this is a true value and I'm so glad I finally made the purchase. I know I'm forgetting some items, but I'm listening to it as I type and load my CD's onto my computer. This MP3 player is everything I'll ever need.

Recommended:
Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 180.00
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection

Update: June 15, 2006.
Well, a year later and my review is pretty much the same. I can say that I have had a couple (2 times this happened) of instances where the unit has frozen completely and I had to either reboot or remove and replace (same battery) the battery. This has been a great product for me and I have moved on to the Archos AV500 (sorry Zen Vision M, not enough features to compete). Now the 40 and 60 gig units can be purchased for much less than what I originally paid. Great device, Monk....

I'm a person who loves my music. I write it, play it, listen to it, talk about it, live it, breathe it. So, believe me when I tell you that having high quality music around me at all times is important.

As my music collection expanded, I needed to get a larger MP3 player, and I started to search around for a 30 gig. Obviously, I looked at iPods, but I wasn't really all that impressed for the price I was paying. As I searched around for alternatives, the Creative Zen really caught my eye.

Feature wise, it easily keeps pace with the older iPod's, with such things as custom playlists, track searching etc. It holds 30 gigabytes of songs, which is more than enough to keep you entertained for a long, long time.

The interface it uses is surprisingly simple, with self explanatory menus and it's extremely easy to synchronize your music collection with it using Windows Media Player. My only complaint about the interface is it's a little bland, but who really cares about that? It's all about the music.

In fact, that's really my only complaint about the whole unit. It's a little bigger than modern MP3 players, and the interface isn't flashy. Other than that, it's everything you could ask for in music device. When you can get one as cheaply as you can with this, why bother with an iPod or anything else? Get a Zen.

I bought Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Extra it was exactly as I expected. I own the 80 mb version. I like the number of features available on this inexpensive MP3 player. The Zen Extra is perfect for carrying in a pocket and the battery has a pretty good lifespan. Other MP3 players I've owned have more difficult menus and does not get you to important features easily. Overall, I'd recommend the mp3 player. I received it in good working condition, it was exactly what I expected.