Topic: NOMAD JUKEBOX CONS?

[reverendjimmy]

Hi again....Ive heard a lot of "pros" about the nomad jukebox and im thinking about getting one.....what are The Con's to the nomad jukebox? id like to hear all the reasons i should NOT get one to record!   Thanks in advance for any help!!

RevJimmy

[Brian Skalinder]

Try searching this and the Recording Gear forum, you'll find lots of discussion around both pros and cons.

[Sean Gallemore]

everything I am about to type is hearsay

1) sub-par mic preamp
2) sub-par adc
3) crappy level meters
4) they are being discontinued, which may affect future tech support and repair services
5) it's a consumer level recorder, not professional grade
6) doesn't support 24-bit recordeing (yet)

some of these aren't CONS, just disadvantages to other recorders, fwiw

[Nick in Edinboro]

I think there are a long list of pro's that out weigh this small list but here's what I can think of:

 - Level's suck.
 - Warrenties short.
 - Consumer grade product, not a piece of pro audio.

[Lee]

add headphone amp to that

[InfiniteOhms]

*headphone amp is total shit
*as is the pre-amp
*not well built, its quite fragile
*hard to get outboard powering working
*the optictal/line in is ressed and requires some mod-ing to fit some miniplugs in
*the software that comes with it sucks
*you cant re-name files on the JB3

Ok .. thats all i got for cons w/o going into "it would be better if ..."

[DaryanLenz]

What about creative tech support, they suck big donkey balls!

D

[reverendjimmy]

kk....I think ill just hold out till i can find a real good deal on a used Dat on ebay!

[caymanreview]

awhile back i bought a jb3, i allready owned a M1. and i sold my dat 2 weeks later. dat is a thing of the past, and a jb3 will hold me off till a good HD recorder comes out

i coudnt like my jb3 better. i just transferred 3 shows in 15 minutes from my jb3 > pc.... i dont ahve to buy dat tapes, i dont have misloads... yeah my level meters suck ass but i can deal with that

[nickgregory]

dat is a thing of the past

I know that there are quite a few people who feel this way, but in my opinion, until there is a medium that has a better guarantee on shelf life (CD-R's just dont cut it) as compared with my dat tapes....I still have tapes that are a few years old that work great..I cant say that for some of the old CD-Rs I have

[zhianosatch]

dat is a thing of the past

not yet

[zhianosatch]

Exactly, Spaceman.

[Nick's Picks]

the big con of the JB3, IMO ..is that there is no great way to get a s/pdif signal into it if your output from your ADC is coax.
If this is the case, you will almost always have a click or small dropout in the recording somewhere.

if you can feed it a toslink signal, then it is hands down, w/o doubt 1,000 times better than a sony DAT deck.  Both in ease of use, internal battery life and ESPECIALLY transfering.
No need for sound cards w/bit accurate i/o.
I havent used a DAT deck of my own in two years.


Say what you want about the medium you store your files on.  if you are that hard core about preservation of the files, buy a used DDS drive on eBay and there is your DAT equiv for storage.

[Scuba Jeremy]

Say what you want about the medium you store your files on.  if you are that hard core about preservation of the files, buy a used DDS drive on eBay and there is your DAT equiv for storage.

Love that DDS drive! Just as easy to dump audio to a PC as your JB3 ... albeit in real time. But no worry about bit perfection, or wearing down the heads of my portable DAT.

[Ed.]

con:  jb3 isn't and never will be as respected as a dat deck
pro:  still better than an MD

for me, the pro's out weighed the cons on the jb3, but if i could afford a dat, i probably woulda bought one of those back when i got the jb3.  However, I tape a show just about every week, thats about 3+ hours of recording every week...a lot of dats to buy and a lot of transfer time.

now i'm just waiting patiently for that sd722, as for storage, dvd media seems to be the way to go, at least for me.

ed

ed

[caymanreview]

ed, sounds like me and you are in about the same boat. i tape alot here locally and also big shows quite often. so buying dats and transfer time is an issue, thats why i sold my M1

ive never really had anyone not give my rig respect because i am running a jb3.... hell most tapers that arent online dont even know what the hell it is.... at primus in chicago, i talked to each taper, and only the ones who frequent here knew what a jb3 was, and the others were very interested

[Ed.]

yeah, same here.  I get asked everytime i pull it out if its a cd player and then i have to go thru the whole explanation.  I do admit tho, I've been hassled by some tapers saying that its not a dat and never will have the quality of the dat, etc.  but i honestly think, whatever, i'm taping for myself, so i can have copies of the shows i go to.  if other people want a copy, great, if you want to bitch about my equipment, don't ask for a copy.

seriously tho, now that i got my modded ua-5, i think the njb3 might be one of the best purchaces i've made.  I've got in april and have recorded well over 100 shows with it and its still works like the day i bought it.

ed

[Nick in Edinboro]

At nearly every show, people think my JB3 is a mini disc recorder...  

[Tim]

the big con of the JB3, IMO ..is that there is no great way to get a s/pdif signal into it if your output from your ADC is coax.
If this is the case, you will almost always have a click or small dropout in the recording somewhere.

if you can feed it a toslink signal, then it is hands down, w/o doubt 1,000 times better than a sony DAT deck.  Both in ease of use, internal battery life and ESPECIALLY transfering.
No need for sound cards w/bit accurate i/o.
I havent used a DAT deck of my own in two years.


Say what you want about the medium you store your files on.  if you are that hard core about preservation of the files, buy a used DDS drive on eBay and there is your DAT equiv for storage.

since switching to the mod-sbm-1 I'm thinking about going optical out->jb3

then I can just firewire to my HD

[Dankman]

everything I am about to type is hearsay

1) sub-par mic preamp
2) sub-par adc
3) crappy level meters
4) they are being discontinued, which may affect future tech support and repair services
5) it's a consumer level recorder, not professional grade
6) doesn't support 24-bit recordeing (yet)

some of these aren't CONS, just disadvantages to other recorders, fwiw

I have seen on this site on a couple of occasions that the Nomad Jukebox 3 is being discontinued by Creative.  Where did this information come from?  I've been considering the purchase of one, and then I saw a post on this site stating that the JB3 is a discontinued item.  I was pretty bummed when I read that post.  I called and emailed Creative Labs to find out for certain whether or not the JB3 had been discontinued.

According to Creative Labs, the Nomad Jukebox 3 had not been discontinued.  

[Sean Gallemore]

I'm all hearsay

[Dankman]

You weren't the only one that said it.  I'm just was wondering where that started that it was discontinued.  I don't have complete faith in those that I spoke with at Creative.  They did tell me after all that they made a 30GB model of the JB3.

[caymanreview]

the word that i hear is they are making 2 new models, not neccesarily jukeboxes or jukebox styles, but 2 new models. wether they be the  same or different, at least one is going to take an optical signal.

i got that info from the nomadness.net boards. the best place ever for jb3 info!

[Nick's Picks]

I think the "discontinued" rumors are concerning the 20gb JB3.  I dont think they are making those, but are still making the 40gb version.
...I think.

[utahtaper]

Excuse me for my ignorance because I don't claim to know a thing about JB3's. But doesn't the unit use some form of compression when storing music files? Just like MP3?

I have always liked dat. I wasn't going to consider moving away from it until a professional, stable solution popped up that would sway me. Very interested in the 722.

[Sean Gallemore]

ummm, the jb3 can store files in mp3, as well as wav, maybe a few other formats.

[Brian Skalinder]

Excuse me for my ignorance because I don't claim to know a thing about JB3's. But doesn't the unit use some form of compression when storing music files? Just like MP3?

I have always liked dat. I wasn't going to consider moving away from it until a professional, stable solution popped up that would sway me. Very interested in the 722.

Ahem...check the archives.    Definitely stores files in WAV, I've used it myself the last couple shows.  I just checked and mine only records in 44.1k WAV, though maybe newer firmware will do 48k?  Not sure.  At any rate, I'm hoping to use this with my V3 and will be testing the Hosa ODL-312 signal converter for bit accuracy the next couple months.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

The JB3 will go 48k, just set your AD to output 48k...  I usually just do 44 though, much easier later...  But I've taken the audio track from several DVDs for my own personal use in my car stereo and they've recorded 48k - requiring SFing...

The NJ3 will store any kind of file as data using the file manager.  But as a playback device it is WAV, MP3 and I think WMA compatible...

I love the fact that it is a portable USB harddrive...

On another note, Brain, let us know how the Hosa ODL project goes, the Midiman failed miserably during my first rough test, converting the coav out from my CD player to optical for my Nomad.  DO/skips on the JB3 wav that are not on the disc...

Terry

[Brian Skalinder]

The JB3 will go 48k, just set your AD to output 48k...

Duh.  Must engage...brain...before posting...  

let us know how the Hosa ODL project goes, the Midiman failed miserably during my first rough test

Too bad about the CO2.  Have you tried the CO3?  I suspect it would have the same problems, but...I know a local guy here who says he's never had problems with his CO3.  He doesn't get out to tape much, though, and the CO3 is BIG.  Maybe in your initial test the problem is with the quality of the cable or the quality of the signal being provided by the CD.  Dunno...but I guess whatever the cause it's not surprising as others have reported problems running CO2 > JB3.

I'll definitely keep you guys informed.  If the Hosa ODL-312 doesn't cut it, I'll keep trying to find something else that does - even if it costs a pretty penny more.  I figure a new DAT costs $500 or so.  My JB3 was $200, so if I have to spend $300 to get a damn signal converter that is bit-perfect, I may just do it.  We'll see.  Hopefully, I can get by with something a little less expensive, though, like the Hosa.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

Maybe in your initial test the problem is with the quality of the cable or the quality of the signal being provided by the CD.  Dunno...but I guess whatever the cause it's not surprising as others have reported problems running CO2 > JB3.

No, the cable is fine, though it could be the output.  I made the same recording immediately after using the same player, cable and everything, except used optical out (my player has both).  No problem there...

I've been thinking, why not get the Oade Bros. to make one, or mod the UA5 to include one...

Terry

[utahtaper]

I have ran into issues with optical on other equipment. I would be leary already especially after reading the hassles in this thread about converting the signal. Seems like you would have to carry one or two more of the optical cables just to be safe. I mean one kink and it's finished, and you may never know til you get the chance to listen to your stuff. Anyone have this problem or am I just being paranoid?

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

HOSA ODL 276:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2578381141&category=41784