7. Connection Benchmarks

We ran a test to compare the two connections on the Jukebox 3 and find out whether the SB1394 port is the best bet. The tables above speak for themselves. There is a distinct advantage for the SB1394 port, which has a rate of 4 MB/s on a copy of several MP3 files totaling 100 MB to the Jukebox 3. With a rate of less than 1 MB/s, the USB 1.1 is a real snail. It goes without saying that the SB1394 is by far the best interface for file transfer.

Interview With Neal Leggett, European Brand Manager

THG : For what kind of use do you think the JB3 is meant?

N.L : Creative have designed the Creative Jukebox 3 first and foremost as a portable music playback device. With its 20 GB capacity you will no doubt want to rip at a higher bit rate to experience higher quality audio. Therefore, we have added high quality components to maximize your listening experience. As you have experienced, we have excellent audio quality output up to 98dB which is on a par with high-end expensive HiFi separates. We can also record up to 48 kHz Wav ( on a par with DAT) and encode in real-time in MP3 up to 320 kbps via the analogue/digital line-in, which opens the JB up to a whole host of other music recording environments, i.e. in the studio to record your mix and share with your friends. We can play back Wav, MP3 and WMA. We have improved the User Interface and added a scroll wheel selector to vastly improve the speed and ease of managing music on the Creative Jukebox 3. We have a host of audio features integrated in the device: Smart Volume Management (SVM), which normalizes tracks; Advanced EQ settings; Spacialization; and Time Scaling, which are not found on other devices.

As the Creative Jukebox 3 has a 20 GB disk drive and can hold up to 8000 songs (800 Albums @ 80 kbps WMA), which the average person is not likely to have (I don't!!), it means that you are likely to have some space to carry around other data files such as pictures, presentations etc. We have therefore added the additional function of using the Creative Jukebox 3 as a portable data storage device. Non-music files are managed with the Creative File Manager application, which allows you to manage your files as if you were in Windows. We have also made this application small enough to fit on a floppy, which means you can carry the floppy and the Creative Jukebox 3 around with you and transfer to any PC via USB or 1394.