Rating: 
Summary: Never let me down.
Review: The unit isn't perfect but it gets the job done. I've had the Archos for over a year and always get at least 7 hours out of a charge.
There were some issue with the included operating system, but since the Archos is an Open platform, you can install a 3rd party OS. I am using the Rockbox interface and it is great, no lockups, longer playlist, a bunch of extra features and settings.
The instruction manual is bad and the layout of the controls is a little clunky, so if you are looking for something simple to use you may want to stay away. However, if you have a little tech-savy and are patient enought to spend a little time getting to know the product, this is a great little gadget.
I've used an iPod, which is a superior product overall, but it's not worth the differnce in price.
I mainly use this product with a tape play adapter in the car and it has never let me down.
Rating: 
Summary: I Didn't Believe the Reviews
Review: The very first thing I noticed, was the terrible instruction booklet, it really is the worst I have ever seen, they might as well not give you one and let you figure it out by yourself. Though I have to give them credit for the online instructions, those are great and very easy to understand.
The second thing I noticed after I downloaded my music, is that the sound quality was terrible and I had to adjust it with every song.
Third, the earphones are the worst, maybe the bad sound quality was due to the earphones, because when I changed them for my sony earphones, the sound quality improved a lot, but I didn't like having to go through many menus to adjust the volume. It's stupid not to have a volume control on the player.
In the end, I decided to return it and spring for the Ipod.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally Worthless Piece of Equipment
Review: This is the biggest piece of junk I've ever purchased. I'm on my FIFTH one and it still doesn't work properly- one froze, one wouldn't hold a chare, one shut off for no reason, etc. Too late to return it, though. Archos customer service is worthless. The manual it comes with is useless. I totally regret my purchase. Do yourself a favor and buy an Ipod or even a disc man.
Rating:
Summary: A good idea gone bad...
Review: This product is a really good idea, but a bad product. Two things have made this a bad product. 1. Horrible battery life. I travel 1 1/2 hrs to work ea. day. I I love music. Before my round trip commute is over usually the battery is dead. I charge it each night for over 5 hours. Doesn't help. I try not to touch too many buttons or replay the same part in a song too many times or even fast foward. Doesn't help. 2. Random shutdowns...by this I mean the unit at random times just shuts down while in the middle of a track. Each time you boot up you use more battery life. If I have 5 random shutdowns during my commute, I will run out of battery life by the completion of my round trip commute. It's really sad because this box has excellent sound quality and I luv the FM tuner, and it's easy to transfer music, but I cannot live being a slave to what I use on this product. I think I may have to bow out and purchase an Ipod. PS. Tech support took 3 days to email me a reply regarding my issues only to tell me to call them on there pay number. Doesn't sound like much thought has been put into Tech support.
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I got one sooner.
Review: This thing is amazing! This is my first mp3 player and with so many out on the market, my decision was tough. The biggest problem I encountered was deciding between a flash player or a hard disk player. I ended up choosing the latter only because for a few more bucks you can store you entire cd collection and never worry about it again. Flash players are also great but I knew that I would get lazy plugging back into my computer and re-loading songs every now and then. Right out of the box I charged the internal battery for the recommended 8 hrs and started downloading songs. The usb 2.0 connection is great, within a few minutes I had 3gigs of music transferred. You have 2 options for transferring music; 1) windows explorer or 2)musicmatch, I used windows explorer since I was unfamilar with musicmatch and I wanted to use the player asap. As far as the FM tuner is concerned, I was very skeptical at first about the reception since I read so many complaints about MP3 players with FM tuners having poor reception. This was definitely not the problem with the Archos. Radio stations came in loud and clear and the amount of presets is more then I can find stations for. I also picked up a Cendyne GRUVX, FM Transmitter. It's tiny like a car alarm remote, has an internal antenna and can broadcast on any FM Station. Now I can hear my entire CD collection while driving in my car. Overall, I am pleased with my purchase and very happy with my new toy.
Rating:
Summary: No support, none!
Review: To be honest, I actually like the product. Great sound, nice features, fairly easy to use, however this unit does seem to be a little "buggy", some of the features dont work as explained in the users guide. If I were to do it over again I may have gone with the ipod. This company (archos) has what seems to be a 4 person operation here in the US. I called to order the multi voltage adapter for use in europe, and the representative I spoke to had no clue what this was. After being put on hold for another 10 minutes she came back with a little more understanding, but no part number. I also have a fairly simple technical question and left an e-mail 1 week ago with no reply. I've given up. If you want to save money and are willing to take a chance on what is really a nice product than this is for you, just understand that once you buy it you are on your own!
Oh ya, the batteries only last about 3-4 hours, the literature states up to 12 hours.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: What can i say... this product is simply fantastic! it comes with no problems and no tech support. good sound quality, good everything. I must say that if you are seeking a hard drive based player STOP RIGHT HERE this is definitely the best there is. period.
Rating:
Summary: Has potential if they fix the firmware
Review: When its working this device makes a great backup harddrive, an ok Mp3 player, and an alright radio. Unfortunately there are many issues with the firmware that detract from its usability.
As a backup hardrive: This device is great. All you have to do is pop it into your USB drive and under Windows 2000/XP you automatically get an new drive letter that you can drag and drop files to/from.
As an MP3 player the sound is ok. I really have no complaints. I think most of my issue with the sound are with the ... headphones rather than the sound card on the device. My main issue is that the device sometime locks up and all that you can do is let the batteries run out. Also the device exhibits strange behavior (Skips tracks, skips to begginning, skips bytes) if while playing an mp3 it is subjected to a small mechanical shock. Another problem is that you cannot use really big playlists easily. The frmware will try to cache all the tracks on the playlists when it is cliked on and god help yopu if your playlist has more than 500 songs because the thing will start to thrash like an old 286-PC running windows 2000.
As a radio player i have had problems with reception for my favorite NPR station. It seems like the position of the headphones interfere with reception in some way and that can be annoying.
As a recorder it seems to work fine although I have not used that feature much yet.
Rating:
Summary: Open Source Your Mind and Your Wallet Will Follow . . .
Review: With the other review being so glowing, I find myself scratching my head for something further to add. I don't find myself out of the country or frequently travelling, my music tends to hover in three areas: work, home, and auto. The last two are covered, but getting music at work can be a bit trying. This is where this little jewel comes in handy. With as many hours of music as this wee metal box can provide, I'm never at a loss for different music to listen to. However, I'm one of those odd open-source (i.e., Linux) types, so I'm always looking for a way to integrate different hardware. Archos is very platform neutral--while they actively support Windoze and Mac, this little guy works on Linux. So, I only have to rip my CDs once and then copy them down. The website cites a Linux USB driver link, but that proved not to be to useful. If you're sporting the right Linux kernal, you need only configure it right (my distribution had it configured by default, making this almost plug-n-play), and the rest is a cinch (edit a text file, one command line command). I also keep a few key configuration files on my Archos so if I need to start from scratch with an install I can bring back those configurations more quickly. On other notes, it takes a little while to get used to the minimalist controls--that 'off' can also mean 'stop' doesn't register at first, so don't be afraid to experiment. The player responds to "m3u" playlists. I'm currently assuming that the USB connection also provides power to play and charge the batteries.
Rating:
Summary: Battery Runs Out Very Quickly
Review: Would you buy a car that can only drive for 5 miles before running out of petrol ? If yes then this gadget is for you. Functions are great but it runs of juice unbeleivably quickly. I charged the battery fully, copied a bunch of files over and next time I switched the thing on... battery empty. Happens over and over again. I've got a 20 GB Creative Zen jukebox which I play all week on holiday on one charge. It can also play WMA files as well and is all round fab. I have relegated my Archos to using as a back up hard drive for my important PC files. I suggest you do not buy an archos. If you are thinking of buying one, at least try them out by sending a query to the helpdesk and see if you get a reply.... think that may be enough to give you a clear idea of what you are (not) getting for your money. PG
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