Rating: 
Summary: Great sound with heaps of storage
Review: This is a great buy considers the amount of storage you get as a MP3 player and as a portable hard drive. The size of this unit is compact enough to fit in a pocket for easy carrying around. It produces high quality sound provided that you use a high quality set of head phones. You can manage your of collection of songs and data easily via your PC by using the familiar windows explorer. The USB interface setup is quite straightforward and I was able to get it up and running within a few minutes. There are quite a few things which I would consider as less than perfect. First of all, the user manuel is poorly written. Many valuable information is missing (most of it can be found, however, in the Archos support FAQ site). The battery compartment door is poorly designed. If you follow the manual's instructions to pry open the cover with a screw driver, chances are that you would damage the plastic surrounding it. However, you could easily open the battey compartment door by graping the 3 notches on the side of the cover with your fingers and lift it up. The control of the features on the MP3 player is mainly done by scrolling through an on-screen menu, which would be less convenient than having a separate dial control for the volume or for searching. However, there are many great features on the menus which allow you to control the sound quality and songs play back. The unit does not allow recording even though a line-in jack is provided. If you want to delete songs on the player, you would need to do it through the windows explorer on the PC. I have also tried to backup about 1.5 Gbyte of my work data. The unit ran into a few underrun problems and that not all files were backed up. I found out later that the problem was caused by low batteries voltage. You definitely should connect the charger to the unit for data backup. When you disconnect the jukebox from the PC, I strongly recommend that you use windows to eject the hardware (for windows 98, click on My Computer; right click on the drive icon; then click Eject) rather than simply unplugging the USB cable. I suspect that many people who complained about hard disk errors did not follow this procedure. Anyway, this unit deserves a 4-star for the convenience of being able to store thousands of MP3 songs in a box and being able to use it as a portable hard drive.
Rating: 
Summary: The most bang for the buck
Review: I've had my archos studio 20 for almost 3 months and for the money, I think it is the best out there. First of all, I was unprepared for the vastness of a 20 gb hard drive and what that would actually mean. It means that I have my ENTIRE 200+ CD collection stored on it, as well as about 1000 songs I've downloaded, and it's still hungry! The feeling of having all that music available in my car, when I'm walking, or wherever, is amazing. ... I belong to an Archos users group with hundreds of members, and most of them have had their units for a long long time, treated them well, and enjoyed long life from them. Remember that this is a sensitive piece of computer hardware, not just another walkman. Walk, run, play with it, but protect it and use it properly, and I believe you'll have no problems. The second most common complaint deals with the lousy user interface. I have to agree with that one. I used the operating software it came with for about a day and was so frustrated I was about to send the thing back. Then I discovered that there is a group of Archos users out there who programmed a new operating system for it just because they were fed up with its limitations as well, and made the software they wrote available for free download to the public. The group is called Rockbox, ... The rockbox software is like a dream come true for Archos owners. The sound quality is much improved, and the user interface is so much more intuitive and has better features than the original. If you get a studio 20, you'll NEED to get Rockbox running on it! The third most common complaint is the sound quality. Again, a non issue. Get the Rockbox software, and throw away those awful headphones they ship with the unit. I bought a nice pair of Sennheisers for most of my use, and a relatively cheap pair of Sony earbuds, and I get PHENOMINAL sound quality out of my unit. Bottom line: if you're looking for a hard drive mp3 player, this one is the best value. And, there really is nothing to be scared of. Treat it well, and it will treat you well.
Rating:
Summary: serves its purpose quite well but install Rockbox.
Review: I've had this player just over 2 weeks now and so far it has been working well. The batteries actually lasted the claimed 10 hours. That was amazing in and of itself. Set up was no problem and loading up the player was very simple. That was the main reason for purchasing this - that it was a plug-n-play USB drive. No stupid MusicMatch software. Just drag-n-drop. I can use it to transport non-MP3 files between computers when I travel. A thousand thanks to the one reviewer who suggested replacing the firmware with Rockbox! Rockbox rocks! I used the pre-installed firmware for a day and replaced it immediately with Rockbox. It added much more flexibility and even programmability (you can even change the WPS display). One major advantage - the Archos firmware limits playlists to 999 songs. Rockbox allows something like 14,000. I already have 2500+ songs loaded so the Archos firmware simply couldn't handle it. Odd given the purpose of a hard-drive jukebox. Rockbox gives you oodles more menu options and controls and is easily installed or removed. As far as the hardware itself, the controls are the most counter-intuitive design you could possibly imagine. There is no volume control. You have to go through a menu to change it (I couldn't get the shortcut to work with Rockbox and the shortcut still requires 2 hands) so make sure you buy headphones with a volume control. Also, everything in the display scrolls up and down, so why Archos chose to use the left/right buttons to scroll instead of the up/down buttons is beyond me. Talk about vertigo. I continually press up/down which sends me to all sorts of menu levels I didn't intend to get to. I recommend this unit with the following caveats: Don't expect iPod flexibility/useability, install Rockbox and get some decent headphones with a volume control. For the price, it can't be beat.
Rating:
Summary: It's an external hard drive!
Review: I'm new to Digital Jukebox's, so I can't comment on sound quality, etc. However, this unit sound ok to me. The main reason I bought this unit over the NOMAD or iPod ... is because1) The NOMAD requires you to send the unit in to replace the batteries (a process I don't trust). 2) The ARCHOS acts like an external hard drive. You can drag and drop ANY type of file in Windows Explorer. It's essentially a hard drive with MP3 capabilities. However, that being said....the user interface adequate at best. Songs display as folders that yor navigate to and then hit the "play" button. Like I said...adequate. Can't comment on the NOMAD interface, but reviews rate it higher. (However, NOMAD cannot store any type of file from what I can tell). Songs display the album name 1st, so the song title is off screen and many times can't be seen till you scroll to the song...my main beef about the ARCHOS. In conclusion...batteries can be recharged outside the unit and replaced easily.....acts like an external hard drive for transporting or backing up ANY type of files....the price is right.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Product, Lousy Instructions
Review: Archos should be ashamed of the documentation that they provide with the Jukebox. I had to contact them by phone to ask some basic questions. Luckily, I hooked up with a Tech that walked me through setting up folders. We swapped emails and carried on answering questions so I wouldn't go broke with long distance. Although there are 20 gigs of room on the drive they don't tell you that you can't load more than 999 MP3 files in any folder, so you HAVE to create folders to really load the thing up. Also upon the first battery charge, I let the batteries charge for about 8 hours. I was stunned to find the unit very hot, and an HD Error message on the screen. I all but panicked. I couldn't get the message to clear until I breifly removed a battery. Whew! Lots of other little problems too, but 20 gigs is 20 gigs. Today I have over 1400 MP3 Files loaded with almost 15 gigs left to use. Now that I've bumped my way through the learning curve I like the unit and use it in my car, every day. I guess with all the usage difficulties, there's one good thing...Anyone who would steal it wouldnt be able to use it anyway!
Rating:
Summary: Once you discover the tricks, a best buy!
Review: Firstly, to look at the many negative comments would scare most people out of ever buying any H/D MP3 player. To be fair, I have fully read everything there is to read about this product, as well as competitors. Grass is always greener, and it is true here as well. Bottom line, all have both great and horrible reviews. What they have in common is that newer manufactured units have appeared to resolve many of the issues. Now to specifics. I purchased my Studio 20 two months ago. I have had absolutely no hardware issues whats so ever. I do agree that the documentation is the worse I have seen, and the onboard firmware programming leaves much to be desired. I have suffered many software lock-ups, poor sound, bad navigation, and everything else others have spoken about. However, I found a fix that changed all of that...... I located a Archos users group for both the recorders and players. This group of programmers numbering hundreds have rewritten the firmware code, and the result is the difference between night and day. No more lock-ups, sound issues fixed, navigation is awesome, and about 80 percent of everything people found so hateful about this unit is gone. The best part, is they have full and complete information concerning their firmware from a software point of view. Immagine, an owners manual of 30 pages (Yes, all in english) listing everything to the smallest detail. This includes hundreds of experts you can IRC at anytime for questions. Best of all, this modification is free, easy to install, and doesn't violate the units warranty. To locate the web-site, go here: http://rockbox.haxx.se/ I also recommend that you look at their daily builds. You see, each day, their programmers are developing new changes in the firmware which make it more powerful, capable, and user friendly. This is as much fun to see the changes as it is to use the unit. At any rate, I fully understand the anger of those who have suffered hardware failures. This seems to concern those units built from post time to the mid 2002's. I also know the Archos people are about as easy to find as tax break. If you are willing to get past that, then the firmware change will make a believer out of you as it has me, and litterally the thousands of people like me who log onto their web-site daily! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Lots Of Space, In Sacrifice For Sound Quality ( It Is Small)
Review: I bought the 20 gig ARCHOS Studio on Thursday and returned it by Saturday. When playing the thing on my car stereo via gold-plug input, it sounded like a darn cassette player. Ok great (I said), maybe it will sound better with a gold-plug input on a Yamaha 300-watt reciever. Nope, cassette player quality. Well I said, maybe I can run with it. Nope! It skips. Ok, maybe the quality will be worth it with 40 dollar Sony earphones. Wrong again, a Sony non-skip CD-ONLY walkman sounds better and does not skip while running. Ok great! Why am I paying all this money for it? HAVE NO IDEA. I have 60 gigs on my computer, I don't need to pay all this money for extra hard drive space, which is pretty much what you are paying for. Bottom line is, you get higher quality sound with other players. Oh and by the way, all my rips were 128 kbps, the same I use in my car CD-AUDIO player, the same I use when playing my files on my 300-watt Yamaha, the same I (now and will continue) use on my ripped CD-AUDIO CD-WALKMAN. Every meduim sounds better than the ARCHOS. Hey, remember, every player needs some sort of sound card-type device to produce the sound you hear from data. This thing is really small and has 20 freaking gigs in that little space. Do the math. What else do you expect from a device that bases its advertising on its hard drive space?
Rating: 
Summary: Unrecoverable hard disk errors
Review: I bought this on the recommendation of a friend. I should ask if she still has it and if it still works. The first unit I bought lasted less than a week before the screen displayed "Hard Disk Error." Following the manual to recover from the error was useless. Luckily, I was able to exchange it at the store (Compusa) for the second unit. The second unit lasted several months of on-again, off-again play before it also died the same way: in mid-song, no warning. I'm not going to bother a third time. If all MP3 players function like this, I'll buy whichever offers 2 hours of music for the least money so I don't feel the pain of throwing it away when it, too, crashes. With both units, the nebulous Hard Disk Error showed up not long after I uploaded a group of songs (last time, 90 files using MusicMatch Jukebox's export feature). Also, I was playing the selected folder on random. After that error showed, nothing I did could revive the unit. It would start, but not go beyond the Jukebox Ver: 5.08 screen. Now it's an attractive-looking high tech paperweight. I used both units exclusively at my desk. That is, I did not take them out while running, and I kept moving them while they were playing to a minimum. The design of the case makes exchanging the batteries insanely difficult, which is frustrating as the unit goes through batteries fast. If you are going to purchase one of these units, do not pay full price. If you do, buy the "extended warranty" or "product protection plan" from the store. That way you can have them replace again and again for less money.
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY!!
Review: Seems like a great little gadget and it would be, if it worked. It worked for the first few months I owned it. Started having all these problems with it and ARCHOS replaced it under warranty. The replacement then worked for a few months and is now doing the exact same thing as the original one. It does not work as a portable mp3 player. You turn it on, it turns itself off 2 seconds later. It works fine when it's connected to the computer, but if all I wanted was an external hard drive, I would have bought an external hard drive. This is a huge waste of money! Do yourself a favor, buy an iPod.
Rating:
Summary: Total Waste of Money
Review: I have sent mine back to Archos twice due to malfunctions. Their help line is not helpful at all. Do not buy this
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