MP3 Jukeboxes I Macworld
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`Macworld
`
`MP3 Jukeboxes
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`By Mathew Honan , Macworld
`May 1, 2001 12:00 AM S~~~~E
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`COMMENTS
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`Back in the early 1980s, the advent of the portable cassette player made it possible to listen to music just
`about anywhere. Technology has come a long way since then, especially in regards to portable MP3
`players. Whereas storage was once measured in megabytes and play time limited to minutes, today's MP3
`
`jukeboxes can store gigabytes and play time can stretch for hours. Macworld took an in-depth look at two
`MP3 jukeboxes: Archos's Jukebox 6000 and Creative Technology's Nomad Jukebox.
`
`Put Another Gig on the Jukebox, Baby
`
`Both of these jukeboxes are stylish and compact, but the Jukebox 6000 is the smaller of the two. Its metallic
`and blue rectangular body will fit comfortably in most users' hands. The Nomad Jukebox, available in blue or
`silver, is about the same size and shape as a portable CD player but slightly heavier. Both jukeboxes come
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`with protective padded carrying cases. The headphones included with each are dinky and potentially painful
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`when the tiny speakers stick into your ears-- investing in a better pair is recommended. The Archos Jukebox
`6000 and the Nomad Jukebox are both powered by four AA rechargeable batteries.
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`Although small by necessity, the interface on the Nomad Jukebox is straightforward and friendly, with a
`Novice setting for new users. You can view multiple songs, albums, and artists on the backlit LCD screen. In
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`addition, the Nomad has a locking switch to prevent you from accidentally turning it on or off or inadvertently
`changing settings. The Jukebox 6000's backlit LCD shows only one file name at a time. It doesn't let you
`view multiple songs, artists, or albums and lacks a locking switch.
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`Setup takes just minutes. Both jukeboxes come with software to install on your Mac-- MusicMatch for the
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`Archos and SoundJam for the Nomad. Plus, iTunes comes equipped with Nomad drivers. The Nomad's
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`installation disc includes a virtual tour to teach new users how to navigate the device. Both the Nomad and
`the Jukebox 6000 have an internal 6GB hard drive and built-in software for playing music files. Each minute
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`of CO-quality music in MP3 format requires about 1MB of available disk space. With 6GB, these jukeboxes
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`will hold more than 1 00 hours' worth of music encoded at 128Kbps.
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`MP3 Jukeboxes I Macworld
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`Listen Up
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`Sound quality on each of these jukeboxes depends on the bit rate at which MP3s are ripped. MP3s ripped at
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`high rates sound great; those ripped at under 128Kbps sound tinny. In addition to MP3s, the Nomad
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`Jukebox reads and records WMA and WAV files. It comes preprogrammed with several equalizer settings
`and lets you customize settings, and its mini jack audio-in port can record directly from audio sources. The
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`Jukebox 6000 reads only MP3 files, but since it doubles as an external hard drive it can store any type of file
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`--from WAVs to PDFs. While both jukeboxes have the ability to repeat and shuffle tracks, use of these
`features frequently caused the Archos Jukebox 6000 to hang, stall out at the end of songs, or inexplicably
`shut off during testing.
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`A Matter of Organization
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`Once connected via USB to a Mac, the Archos appears on the desktop as an external drive. To transfer a
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`library of MP3 files to the Jukebox 6000, just click on and drag your music folder to the Archos drive folder.
`Files transfer seamlessly, albeit slowly, while maintaining any hierarchical structure set up on your Mac. But
`the order in which MP3 files are transferred from your desktop to the Jukebox 6000 is the order in which
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`they will remain on the device, until a file is deleted. There is no search feature, and if you import 1,000 or
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`more songs into the same folder, only the first 999 will show up. Annoyingly, the Archos also imports hidden
`files the Mac OS uses to organize and sort file hierarchies during transfer: you'll find "resource.frk" and
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`others among your MP3s. The Archos's lack of organization is nothing short of maddening.
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`The Nomad's organization system is great-- MP3 files can be organized and searched by artist, album,
`genre, song title, and playlist. It's easy to create new playlists and delete unwanted songs. For transferring
`files selectively, or based on playlists, the Nomad is tops. Just drag and drop specific genres, albums,
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`artists, and/or playlists into the Nomad from either the iTunes or SoundJam window. Within iTunes this is
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`especially simple: the Nomad shows up as a connected device rather than in a separate window. Since the
`Nomad relies on MP3 software-- either iTunes or SoundJam --to transfer files, the MP3 program must run
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`for the length of the transfer. While this may not be a big deal on a new G4 with 128MB of RAM, it's
`potentially problematic on a Rev A iMac with 64MB of RAM.
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`Both jukeboxes connect to the Mac via an included USB cable; therefore, the transfer rate is low. If you plan
`to transfer thousands of MP3 files from your hard drive to your jukebox, as I did, be prepared for the process
`to take several hours. Although the Nomad imports files slightly faster than the Archos, it does not do so at
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`an appreciably higher rate: in either case, transfer speed via USB is between 6MBps and 8MBps. Luckily,
`during transfer you can use other applications on your Mac. The Nomad Jukebox and Archos Jukebox 6000
`would certainly benefit from a FireWire connection.
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`MP3 Jukeboxes I Macworld
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`AT A GLANCE
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`o Archos Jukebox 6000
`··~
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`MACWORLD RATING
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`o Nomad Jukebox
`····~ MACWORLD RATING
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`MP3 Jukeboxes
`1 2
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`J
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