Rating: 
Summary: archos 20 GB jukebox
Review: A very functional device, and once you have understood the manual,( which is not well-written)- relatively easy to use. The device supports XP, but the drivers are not in some of the earlier versions of XP; thus you may get a warning when loading, that the drivers are not approved; I loaded anyway, and it has performed well. The instruction manual is full of typos and poor syntax, perhaps the French staff wrote it.You must charge the device fully ( not just an hour as the manual suggests) before trying to load the drivers on your computer.The controls are NOT intuituive, and you need awhile to get facile with them. I purchased this for listening to audio materials (books, history etc)in the car( to avoid multiple burns on many CD's)as opposed to a jukebox per se; it works well in that regard. Radio Shack sells a 9 volt car charger that will work with the device, 13 bucks, and for 21$, a line level unit that will plug into your auto tape deck. A simple Y-connector will hook into your home audio system. Playback quality is excellent.Forget about getting anyone on the phone if you've got questions; this is about the usual for all electronics manufacturers, computer makers, etc. Also the headphones are small and uncomfortable( I dont use them anyway), although the sound reproduction is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Archos Recorder 20 A-
Review: I enjoy the quality of the music, and the 20 GB that hold soooo many songs. The negative thing is that it is big and bulky when compared to the Diamond Rio 300. I brought it with me to the gym today, and felt like it was pulling my shorts down when I was working out (that's how heavy it is compared to the popular light weight Mp3 players now available). While I realize it can hold 20 GB's of information, I only use the Mp3 player for workout's, so I wish the advertisement would of mentioned it's weight and compatibility for people on the go. I am finding it hard to find a strap for the case that was provided with the player. Otherwise, it is really awesome.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Player...
Review: I just got this Player for Christmas (I "only" have the Jukebox Recorder 15 GB) and I am really pleased. It is true that this player has some things that aren't as good as an Apple iPod, but what do you expect for that price? I didn't have the money to get an iPod and then as well a Fire- Wire card (because I'm a Windows User), so this was a really good alternative for it.
What I don't like is:- no Hold- button, which is absolutely no problem, until now I didn't have any problems because of that....
- the menu is confusing, I don't know what they were thinking of that, but the menu is poor at some points, I wish they would have made it show the ID3 Tags in the menu instead of the the file names...but there are Firmware upgrades available, so if you have such a player check the homepage sometimes for upgrades...
- It is slow, but only when you switch folders and files too often if you have a playlist it works just fine, although at the beginning it always checks if all files of the playlist are still available and if you have a playlist with 500 songs it really takes a minute, but I don't care about that...
- I couldn't figure out yet how to make playlists with just the player, it asks me if I want to save the playlist in the folder I am in and I can only push "no", so the playlist is deleted again. Just produce your playlists with MusicMatch Jukebox (or something like that) on your PC, it is a lot easier...
- It doesn't come with the right Mac drivers for OS 10.2 Jaguar, I had to download these, but even then the drivers weren't really good and the whole thing was awfully slow (even my 266 Mhz Windows Box was faster than an iMac)...
- the quality is not comparable with an iPod, it is really worse, but that is also fine when you see the price difference between an iPod and the Archos Jukebox Recorder...
- The headphones that goes around your head, ... you cannot lean back on a sofa or a seat in a bus or plane without pushing them away from your ears...and they aren't even really good...
- DON'T EVER RIP your CD's with the MusicMatch Jukebox program for Windows or Mac, this program is bad, the quality of the ripped MP3's is terrible and it sometimes just makes the song skipping in between the play...BETTER use CD'n'GO or any alternative programs NOW what I really really like: - 15 GB...I have now 2800 songs on it and still have more than 4 GB left, that is really awesome....
- useable as a USB Hardrive, works just like one on a PC or Mac, that means you can load it with everything, not just MP3's...
- you can copy MP3's from the Player to the harddrive again, not like the iPod or any other inexpensive Player that tells you about the copyright restrictions (which is true, but I am totally legal, so it isreally bad when I deleted MP3's on the Computer and only have them on my MP3 Player...I mean I could just convert the CD again, but that is work..8 -)))))...
- Batteries last long...I don't exactly know how long, but when you turn off the backlight of the display it lasts really pretty long... So now I can say that this Player has some mistakes, but it is still a nice MP3 Player and a good alternative for Windows User like me, who cannot afford 400 dollars (+ Fire Wire Card) for an iPod. I can extremely recommend this product, but can say that techno-folks who always find something that is bad on high- tech electronics like that should better wait for something better for the same price or buy the Apple iPod (which is really a better MP3 Player if you have the money for it). For the rest Buy it, it is worth the money....
Rating: 
Summary: Dud
Review: According to many of the reviews on Amazon this is a great machine. However, that has not been my experience. To start off, the instructions are at best wholly inadequate - making it difficult to get started (and I am relatively good at computer gadgets). Second, the unit stopped working (just froze into an expensive paperweight) after about 10 minutes of use. I am going to return this unit and exchange it for another one. Maybe I just got the exceptional dud, but maybe I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Great way to carry a lot of music
Review: I bought the Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 because I wanted to carry a large collection of music with me all the time. I decided on the hard-drive based MP3 player because of the huge capacity. You cannot use these types of players for activities like running so if that is what you need go for one of the small solid-state players. Anyway, after using the Archos for a couple of weeks I have the follow observations.
1) Great sound when used with good headphones
2) The supplied headphones are very subpar and you should buy the Koss KTX/Pro headphones.
3) The unit is very easy to use once you have your MP3s organized well on your PC harddrive before transfering to the player
4) Transfers using USB 1.1 is very slow but the USB 2.0 is supposed to be MUCH faster if you have the USB 2.0 card in your PC
5) If you have a cassette player in your car you should buy the adapter so that you can play your MP3s through your car speakers. You can also attach the player to yor home stereo and play it over your speakers.
6) Consider upgrading your firmware to the free open-source Rockbox software
7) I get about 10-12 hours of play from the included rechargeable batteries Overall a very good player for the money.
Rating:
Summary: this thing is awesome!
Review: The archos is way better than any other choice of jukeboxes with 20 gigs of memory on the hard drive because: 1.It is a bargain
2.It has a built in mic. (really neat I never have seen this on a mp3 player)
3.It has a in line hole to hook up any audio player with an output hole
4.The battery rumor is a...rumor!!!! There's 2 sets of them so if they come dead use the other set (both are 10 hours rechargable)
5.Very handy usb idea (only problem is that it is the same on both ends and I cant find many wires like that so don't do anything to the one it has)
6.It has upgradable firmware (rockware is the best)
7.It is very customizable (a lot of options)
8.The headphones are convenient but have bad sound quality
9.Hang ups are very rare One problem was the manual. I'm the kind of person that gets something and wants to use it then. I did (after I first charged it) but I didn't figure out many features for a week. But once you learn how the features work they are useful like resume.
It won't skip as long as you don't test it by banging it on the walls or dropping it. Very good for sports types (It's durable and skip resistant). I dont regret getting this device.
The only problem I'm having is trying to fill up this thing's hard drive!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great sound but..............
Review: Well, It has a great sound. I was very pleased with it after using it the first couple of days. The third day: After shutting it off, I plugged it in and charged it then it refused to turn on again. Until I came back home to the computer (which was awful since I was vacationing in the Caribbean and took my unreliable little device as my only music source). Needless to say I will never again leave on a long trip with just the Archos!!! Maybe my (Awesome) Phillips MP3 player put a curse on it. In any event, I cannot say it is reliable and that is worth, frankly, a good 3***
Rating:
Summary: I'm havin' a blast with mine.
Review: While drooling over Apple's iPod, I'm glad I saw alternatives. The Archos unit has the incredibly useful ability to record. This feature is huge! Newer units have a 20 GB disc and USB 2.0 which only makes things better. Consider this. Remember all those times you needed to record something? Tape recorder, right? 120 minutes at best. Special long-play units degrade quality. Remember scrambling to flip the tape? 10 GB means 10,000 minutes at standard MP3 settings. Use an external plug-in mic for a cleaner recording. Can we say college lectures? Piano recitals? You name it. No software needed to have an MP3 version. The J'box does it for you. Just hook it up to the computer and drag it over. Burn a CD, save on the 'puter. Whatever. If you don't like MusicMatch, sheeeesh, use something else. I do. Don't have a computer? Plug into your CD player and record/encode that way. Record radio too! Got a concert DVD? You can record that too! I kinda wish mine had an FM tuner (Archos makes one with that too), it'd be a nice addition, but after a couple of those stupid commercials I don't miss it so much. One glaring feature that isn't present in the firmware is sleep mode. It can be a minor hassle starting up all the time. Adjusting the "stay on" time helps, but also eats power. The headphones aren't the best, but not that bad either, especially out in the world where they can get smooshed. I get along fine with USB 1.1 since I'm not swapping 1000 tunes every 3 days. Just drop the files, go do something else, come back in a few min. and it's done. The manual? So-so. Remember to charge the unit for several hours the first time before first use, and any time you replace the batteries. Frustrating, but necessary. I also use a cassette adapter in the car. It still amazes me that all my stuff is in that little box. No backseat-full of tape and CD cases, and the big black music briefcase...anybody remember slamming on brakes with a carload of tapes? INCOMING!!! Speaking of tapes. If you have a lifetime of taped stuff, you can plug in and record onto the J'box and have a digital copy of all that stuff. Burn it all onto a CD or two and finally ditch those boxes of old tapes (which are degrading as you read this). Like I said, I'm havin' a blast with this thing!
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS!
Review: I have had this MP3 for awhile. It is not very easy to move around in and the buttons are not very well laid out. Holds a good amount of CD's. The provided headphones are not very good. I switched to the iPod and have never looked back.
Rating:
Summary: Get an iPod
Review: Bought one of these archos things, then returned it, within 2 hours. It's Slow, it crashes, the build quality it terrible, its really heavy, did i mention it's slow? I think its well worth paying double the money (or more) for an Mp3 player like the iPod that will last MUCH longer, that you will enjoy MUCH more, and that is smaller, lighter, louder, faster, and just plain BETTER. Avoid these Archos pieces of junk, at least until they are much much much improved.
|
