Creative Jukebox 1 HDD/Flash Mod=6hrs wav recording 4AA's..

[bonzo71]

I was checking out the nomadness.net forum for Creative audio players and saw where someone had taken the hard drive out of a Nomad Jukebox 1 and replaced it with a compact flash drive. I thought I would give it a shot and it turned out to be a nice recording device. The Nomad Jukebox 1 records in wav at 48khz/16, 44.1/16, 32khz/16 as well as some lower quality setting (all wav) into a line-in with adjustable gain setting/recording meters(with updated firmware). It uses 4 AA's and has a nice back-lit display. With its original hard drive the battery life is not sufficient for long recordings, but with the compact flash drive and some new ni-mh batteries I was able to record 6.5 hours and still have plenty of battery life to spare. Compact flash memory is getting very cheap-around $40 for 4gb(6+ hours on recording in 44.1khz/16bit wav. Used Jukebox 1's usually go for under $40 on ebay. The only weird thing about the Jukebox 1 is that is records in 15 minute chunks. There is NO lost data between the chunks, but you must have an audio editing program to link them back together. If you buy one, make sure to get one with an AC adaptor-the firmware/OS will no reload without it.. Here are some links with more details:

http://www.nomadness.net/modules.php?name=...pic&t=17587

http://nomadness.net/modules.php?name=Foru...pic&t=19825

[Roamer]

If you want to go for a Creative Jukebox, I would recommend a Jukebox 3 : line/optical in (like MDs), record 3 hours without a break (and can continue with a 0.5s skip), 6 hours recording with 2 fully charged batteries (but they are hard to find, or you should get a external power supply). The mic option is not that good, so a preamp could be usefull for anything but loud recording.

[bonzo71]

Nomad Jukebox 1:

Pros:

1. 6+ hours of wav recording via line-in with battery

2. total cost $92 ($30 for unit on ebay, $5 for ide/flash adaptor and $37 for a 4gb compact flash card on newegg and $20 for Energizer rechargeable AA's)

3. Runs cool/no moving parts

4. plenty of units on ebay-very few bids

Cons:

1. Splits wav's at 15 minutes (but they can be seamlessly connected-data NOT missing)

2. Line-in is not digital-in

Nomad Jukebox 3:

Pros:

1. Line-in is digital-In

2. 6 hours of wav recording with batteries

3. Records in 3 hour chunks

Cons:

1. Price.. $200++ ($118 for new batteries and $100 for the unit)

2. Only source for new batteries is ebay..one seller

3. Hdd will be years old

4. Very few used units for sale

[greenmachine]

What do you think about the quality of the analog/line input? I have a NJB3 and am not too impressed with the A/D quality, but for recording from the optical in it's probably a nice gadget.

[bonzo71]

What do you think about the quality of the analog/line input? I have a NJB3 and am not too impressed with the A/D quality, but for recording from the optical in it's probably a nice gadget.

I've heard others comment about the a/d conversion quality of the jb3 not being equal to MD, but to my ears it sounds fine. If you want, post a wav(or flac) file and I'll burn it on a cd and transfer it using the line-in on the JB1 then upload to my pc and repost. I've got a fairly good cd player..Denon DN600F.

Could the hdd have and effect on the line-in quality? Maybe this is another benefit of the hdd being removed?

Edited February 21, 2007 by bonzo71

[Sparda]

Interesting how you can go from a flash interface to HDD with a simple PC board.

[greenmachine]

I've heard others comment about the a/d conversion quality of the jb3 not being equal to MD, but to my ears it sounds fine. If you want, post a wav(or flac) file and I'll burn it on a cd and transfer it using the line-in on the JB1 then upload to my pc and repost. I've got a fairly good cd player..Denon DN600F.

I have prepared and uploaded a sample here. Thank you for your effort. I shall do a similar test with my NJB3 as well as the NH700 when I have the time and post back. The source would be a Pioneer PD-S504 CD player, also fairly decent quality.

Could the hdd have and effect on the line-in quality? Maybe this is another benefit of the hdd being removed?

I think there were some noises from the hdd that were audible on the recording. Using flash could get rid of these.

[bonzo71]

Here is the sample:

Flac>WAV>CDR>Denon DN600F>JB1(powered with AA batteries)Line-In( gain=0 boost=off)>PC(uploaded with notmad exlorer)>FLAC

http://rapidshare.com/files/17723596/Origi...0030_.flac.html

Hope this helps.

[greenmachine]

Thanks, sounds good to me. Maybe i was just irritated by the occasional hdd noise which is now gone with the CF replacement as it seems. Are the gain controls and level meter (display) usable?

[bonzo71]

Thanks, sounds good to me. Maybe i was just irritated by the occasional hdd noise which is now gone with the CF replacement as it seems. Are the gain controls and level meter (display) usable?

The gain control is usable, it is adjustable in 15 increments-kinda like the 30 increments for MD. The level meter is small, but no smaller than on any of other md's(mz-s1, nhf800). There is a separate meter for the left and right channel and the level can be adjusted on the fly. Older units (like mine) require an easy firmware upgrade to have the recording level meter. In general, the green back-lit display is very easy to read.

The Jukebox 1 has headphone out, line-out, and usb 1.1. I believe the Jukebox 3 offers usb 2 and fire-wire. The usb 1.1 can be a bit slow when uploading large amounts of data.