Detailed Creative Jukebox 2 10GB MP3 Player Description & Review

Creative: Jukebox 2 10GB £179.50inc. VAT  &  Delivery

The Creative Jukebox 2

Which came first - Creative Jukebox 2 or Jukebox3? Correct answer: JB3 which was launched back in July 02, officially if not actually. The JB2 followed close on its heels in November 02.

The JB2 has been superceded by players such as the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8gb and the Creative Zen Sleek 20GB.

The styling and such may be similar, but there are some fundamental differences betwixt them. The JB2 is the first Creative Jukebox to feature USB 2.0. The name may not be as slick as FireWire and it may not be capable of sustained transfer at its theoretically high of 480Mbps but after a couple of hours of poking fun, you have to admit that USB 2.0 is a significant step-up from USB 1.1. USB 2.0 connections are backward compatible with 1.1, so if your computer only has USB 1.1 you will still be able to connect the JB2. If you would like to upgrade your computer to USB 2.0 we sell the PCI cards. Go here.

There is something about the styling of this Jukebox that puts you in mind of Zombies. Dark shades combined with an unnatural green. Creative call this unnatural green 'blue'.

The first thing that you notice about this Jukebox is that start-up time is immediate. The original 6GB DAP made by Creative got up, had a shower and made breakfast after power-on and before it would allow you to play - so annoying. Creative have learned from their mistakes. Power-on = Go.

It's lighter than you might think. The Jukebox 3 is about the size of a slimline CD player, but the Jukebox2 (although it shares a similar shape) is 15% lighter than the Jukebox3. People will say that it's noticeably smaller than the Jukebox 3, but check the specs. It's 3mm thinner, but the rest of the dimensional extremes are the same.

This Player features Smart Volume Control. Similar to iPod's Sound Check, basically it provides volume leveling so that tunes recorded at different volume levels play back at similar levels. This helps prevent 'sonic shock' - that sounds serious, but we just made it up.

The Jukebox 3 used to hold the record for longest battery life with 11 hours (a significant improvement on the 4 hours of the original Creative DAP 6 GB batteries), but now the circle is squared - up to 16 hours battery life for the Jukebox 2. A full waking day. Recharge while you sleep.

Creative marketing bumf claims that you can store 5000 WMA tracks compressed at 64Kbps. That may be true, but we're not sure you would actually want to bother listening to them. The normal comparison is MP3 at 128Kbps is 'equivalent' (give or take a little quality of sound) to 96Kbps of WMA. Doing the maths using different figures makes their machine look better.

The screen is small. It looks especially small in comparison with the overall size of the MP3 Player. Having said that it is quite clear and easy to read compared to other earlier Jukeboxes.

Like the iPod and utterly unlike the JB3 the JB2 is severely lacking in the input/ output department. I.e. there is no line-in and no line-out. Archos were so keen to keep their connection options open they even put a redundant line-in on the Studio 20. No such dead weight for the lighter Jukebox2.

The fact that this jukebox is missing a line-in can mean only one thing: you cannot record from real-time sources. Processed CDs and internet MP3s are your main options - live sounds in the field are not on the menu. You cannot plug your jukebox into an amp and record your friends murdering a classic rock song. No entrapment games for you either.

The fact that the JB2 is missing outward connections is the biggest surprise of all. This from the company that wants to connect everything to everything.

All the menus etc on the Jukebox2 are the same as the Jukebox3, so navigation is easy for those who have driven before.

Overall the JB2 is the value version of the JB3. It looks and feels like a relative of the mighty JB3 and costs a great deal less.

Battery news:

Even though we have mentioned battery performance before there is something even more unusual about the JB2 battery. The JB3 battery looks incredibly sleek and ultra modern. You would expect the battery that creative have followed this up with to be even more slick - especially with an extra 50% life in it.

It doesn't look fantastically slick. It looks like your Jukebox runs off a stick of rock. From Creative. For about 16 hours worth of music, who cares what the battery is like?

Red Chair Software: Notmad Explorer

Most people who use Creative's PlayCenter will have come across its limitations. It's not a terrible piece of software, but then again it is ...

We heartily recommend that anyone with a Creative Jukebox buys themselves this piece of software to use instead. Notmad from Red Chair Software has just about every feature you can think of to give you full control over your Jukebox and its contents.

Manage all your music on your PC and on your Jukebox with this one all-embracing program.

Navigate through your Jukebox using the 'Notmad Explorer'. It has the look and feel of Windows Explorer, so it's instantly recognisable. It has very similar features too:

Drag-and-drop or copy/ paste Playlists, files or folders. Where did you put that song? Is it on your Jukebox at all? Is it on your Jukebox 4 times under different Playlists? Find out quickly with a search that uses a built-in, powerful SQL engine. Synchronise the contents of your PC and your Jukebox with one click. Notmad will automatically build any necessary new Playlists and directories when you transfer the MP3s (or WMAs) from your PC.

This software has advanced features as well. You can set your Jukebox up so that you can control it over a Network, for example, meaning you could access your Jukebox from the other side of the world!

Boasted features include:

• Clean, intuitive integration with Windows Explorer.
• Transfer files, folders, and Playlists by drag-and-drop, copy-and-paste, and SendTo.
• Automatic playlist and directory generation following transfers.
• Drag-and-drop playlist and ID3v2 and WMA tag editing.
• One-Touch PC-to-Jukebox synchronisation.
• Search and HTML/XML reporting provided by embedded Notmad SQL Engine.
• Internal Memory, SmartMedia Card, and FM Tuner support for Nomad II series.
• Tunes2Go: Automatically fill your Nomad II with songs on your way out the door.

Unlike some software manufacturers (e.g. Realnetworks) Red Chair have not taken the "Cash Cow" attitude that customers should buy their goods and then buy an update every six months for life, because with one purchase you can get lifetime updates, if you so choose.

All-in-all a great piece of software that does exactly what software should do: make your life easier.