Pictured above: NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra

Digital music has certainly come a long way since the early days. I can remember the first day I downloaded my first mp3 file from mp3.com VIA DIAL-UP!!! About an hour later, I had downloaded my first song and I was hooked!!

Burning my own customized CDs was OK at first, but when you have kids they quickly become the toy of choice around the house. I thought about getting an Ipod, but they were too expensive (way overpriced in my opinion). So I began to look for an alternative.

A friend of mine told me about the NOMAD series from Creative. The price was enough to catch my attention. The 30 gig hard rive along with the good reviews was enough to sell me on this product. This player puts out a very good sound quality that any music enthusiast would find impressive. With a price of about $194 (as of a few days ago), you will see why this player makes a good alternative to Ipod.

Now I am able to store my entire music collection on one device and listen to it wherever I wish to take it. I also recently bought an FM transmitter (about $20) that allows me to hear my music in the car on the FM band. Incorporate Podcasts on this or any mp3 player with plenty of space and you can pretty much create your own radio program complete with news and the music of your choice.

If you have an mp3 player that you would recommend, please do so on the comments link below.