Guide for the original Nomad jukebox (AKA Jukebox 1, AKA Creative DAP)

[sunjan]

Largely obsolete by now, but it's kinda endearing to see how much pain he went thru to get everything right:
http://www.toddh.net/music/njb/

Might be interesting for those on an extreme budget, these go for $10-20 on ebay nowadays. After a CF mod it's still a viable recorder.

[bonzo71]

I have one of these with a CF mod.  Without the mod the batteries last about last about 45 minutes after the mod they are good for at least 6 hours(enough to fill my 2gb card twice and still have power left).  The recorder creates a new wav file for each 15 minutes of recording.  They can be seamlessly (no missing samples) joined in a wav editing program.  With a firmware upgrade, it does have recording level meters.  It sounds great when recording from another audio source, but when I record with my battery box/mics there seems to be some background noise and very low levels...compared to my Iriver.  Maybe a preamp or more sensitive mics would give better results? 

[sunjan]

when I record with my battery box/mics there seems to be some background noise and very low levels...compared to my Iriver.  Maybe a preamp or more sensitive mics would give better results? 

Yeah, I guess that is what Todd who wrote the guide also concluded. Like the JB3, the internal gain is noisy and insufficient.
From what I understand, the JB1 doesn't have digi-in, so you have to rely on the internal AD, which probably is another weak spot contributing to the noise?!
But kudos for doing the CF mod! How much does the adapter cost these days?

[bonzo71]

From memory, the adapter was around $7.  The JB1 does not have a digital input..only analog.  The defunct nomadness site had links to the firmware upgrade/loader.   It has been a while, but I recall there were no issues changing from the original 6gb hdd to the compact flash card.