Rating: 
Summary: Jukebox 20GB is a solid product
Review: I haven't used a portable MP3 player before, but this one does exactly what I want. It plays MP3's at any bitrate through earphones or through a cassette adapter useful for the road.When mounted via USB on the desktop, you see all your songs in folders. You can arrange them in hierarchies of folders, according to your taste. When you play them back, you can specify to play all the songs within a folder (which includes contained folders of songs). The sound quality is good, the battery life is at least 5-6 hours per charge. You can use a low-quality built-in microphone for your own 'songs', or attach an external mike. There is also an SPDIF port which I haven't used. The interface is a bit awkward, which is greatly compounded by a poor user's manual. I found much more relevant info on the FAQ's on the website. One pet peeve: I can select all the songs in the jazz folder using two easy clicks, but to actually PLAY the playlist created by that operation requires a non-intuitive 4 click sequence. I recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Archos MPS Studio 20
Review: This player is a great idea but it's a little difficult with the USB Interface. The player many times stutters or stops for a few seconds and then continues while listening to music. The USB connection to the PC is very slow when dowmloading music to the player. The USB interface is also very sensitive and can cause the player to not respond to the download. The best part about the player is that it can hold a large amount of music. Other than that it's average.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent MP3 Player
Review: I was slightly nervous about purchasing this device after having heard some stories about the equipment's sound quality and battery life, but I went ahead and purchased anyway. It was worth every penny. My first concern was sound quality: I hooked it up to my headphones--definitely /not/ the headphones that came with it--and gave it a listen. Crystal clear sound. The only sound problems are noise from the recording itself and the typical artifacts that accompany any MP3. I try to rip most of my CD's into 192Kbps MP3s, and, while they take up a bit more space, the increase in sound quality is tremendous: it's definitely worth it. Another concern was the battery life. While I've not yet used it enough to completely wear down the charge between my nightly charges, I have used it well in excess of 6 hours at a time and still had over 30% of the battery life left. Some people complain that there are problems with the firmware. I can't say I've experienced these problems, but then again, I installed Rockbox the day I got it. It's a delightful firmware replacement for the Archos that is a breeze to use, somewhat customizable--although if you're a programmer, completely customizable since it's Open Source--and it hasn't given me any problems whatsoever. Most of my MP3s were on CDs because I don't have a big enough harddrive to save them all. But it was no problem. It took me just an hour to copy 22 CDs of MP3s (about 10 GB) and a 1.5 GB hard drive of MP3s over to the JukeBox. I now also use the device as an extra hard drive so that I have access to all of my music at once! My mainboard doesn't have a USB 2.0 port built into it, so I purchased a cheap PCI card. The time I saved was worth every penny of that extra investment. Do yourself a favor and do the same thing if you don't have USB 2.0 ports on your computer. I've heard some people complain about their units being DOA. Well, all of them are: you have to charge the device before you can use it. Read the manual :-) Here's a bit of a tip for if (when) you get one:
One of the problems I heard about with the original firmware was that playlists couldn't be over 1000 songs and that you couldn't recurse subdirectories in shuffle mode. In Rockbox, you can have bigger playlists, so to get a shuffle of all of the music on the device, you can dump a listing of all your mp3 files to an m3u file, then, using your favorite text editor, remove all of the drive letters (Search and Replace) and copy the file to the Archos. Voila, you can shuffle of all the files. I even spent 30 minutes writing a little utility to automate this process. Piece of cake.
Rating:
Summary: THE jukebox for geeks
Review: First impression of the 20Gb Jukebox Recorder is suprisingly positive. Okay, this unit definitely lacks in the looks department - it looks clunky, heavy, and the interface (hardware and software) is anything but intuitive. On the other hand, the USB 2.0 connectivity is BLAZING fast (clocked about 1Gb of transfer in under 20 min), and the rockbox UI add-on (rock on, guys, for your fine, fine work) gives the unit a lot of flexibility (and also a rotated version of Tetris!). I haven't messed around with creating playlists on this unit - I just created artist and album folders on the Jukebox and navigate the files from directory to directory. It's almost like having a AA battery-powered hard drive + WinAmp. Sound quality is on par with my Rio 500, and the output is loud enough to go thru a cassette adapter in the car. Okay, so this isn't as refined or as easy to use as an iPod, but for the use who is more challenged and entertained by the persnicketiness and shortcomings of technology, this may be a good value.
Rating:
Summary: For serious users only...
Review: If you want something pretty, has a mirror on the back of it and costs twice as much, try the iPod. But if you want great functionality, the ability to record from any source at bit rates from 30 to 160 kbps, then the Archos Jukebox recorder is for you. I have gone mountain biking with it and NO skipping, the sound quality is loads better than previous MP3 players, the screen is great, and the menus intuitive. With the whyPod you can't transfer songs from the player back to your HD, so no sharing is possible. The archos is also a portable hard drive so you can share anything with anyone who has a computer. The whyPod is the one button mouse of the MP3 world, all price and little function, but hey it's cute.
Rating:
Summary: Best MP3 player for the money.
Review: This is the best hard drive based MP3 player on the market right now, for the following reasons: - Excellent sound quality. Those complaining about the audio quality and volume levels of this player are either judging it using the included headphones, playing poor quality mp3s, or one of those smug audiophile types who do not like the sound of anything unless it's played on hardware made by an some obscure Swedish company. The Archos sounds excellent. - Standard batteries. The battery in the iPod is proprietary, so you have to buy replacements from Apple, that is, if you can figure out how to change the battery yourself. If not, you have to send the unit back to Apple. The Archos uses four standard "AA" NiMh rechargeable batteries you can buy ... and replace anytime. - Recording ability. You cannot walk into a room, press record on your iPod and capture an 8-hour meeting in MP3 format. You can with the Archos. The player includes a digital in, line in, and a built in microphone. You can record as long as you have drive space and battery power (10+ hours). - USB 2.0. I was able to transfer 10 gigabytes of music to the player in less than 9 minutes. My testing against a similar "Firewire" interface showed the USB 2.0 faster, but the results are very hardware dependent. Your mileage may vary. "Firewire" may be, on average, faster, but only by a few minutes. The difference in speed, if it exists at all, is certainly not worth the additional $300 you'll pay to get an IPod. - Standard laptop hard drive. The unit uses a standard laptop hard drive you can replace three years from now when 120 GB drives are selling for a $100. ... Replacing the drive will violate the warranty. So wait a year or two. - Excellent menu system/navigation. It's a hard drive... files, folders, forward, backward, up, down. I find I can get to the song I want in less clicks (or twirls) than the IPod. - Windows XP: plug it in, it works. No software to load. (You will need to load drivers on Win95 systems.) - Excellent mobile drive. Not just an MP3 player. You can copy any type of file to the unit. - Four times the fun at less than half the price of the same size IPod. ...The Archos is a durable metal object reminiscent of the detonator panel on one of those stolen nuclear weapons you always see in James Bond films. The IPod is thin, white and easily mistaken for a ladies electric razor or one of those IGIA ab-stimulators sold on late night television. Some advice: - Throw away the supplied headphones. - Get a NiMH quick charger. They usually included a extra set of batteries you can charge in 4 hours. - Be careful removing the battery covers. The chassis of the unit is metal, but the covers are plastic. Stick the head of a small screwdriver into the little slots and gently pry the covers outward until the cover tabs are clear, then lift the covers straight up. The covers do not rotate completely outward. - The "resume" feature of the player is off by default. If you listen to audio books, turning it on is helpful. - Just like any portable hard drive you can mistakenly disconnect during a disk write, the FAT can get corrupted. If the unit fails to boot completely running a full Scandisk on the drive will more than likely cure the problem. - Do not use the player as a battery charger. Charging NiMh batteries generates heat. The batteries literally rest on top of the hard drive and trickle charging in the unit takes 8 hours. Although I have not experienced any problems charging the batteries in the player, the quick charger method mentioned above is much more convenient, and probably safer. - If you don't have USB 2.0 ports buy a USB 2.0 expansion card. I ordered the IO Gear 5-port card with mine (Money). Like the player, under Windows XP it installed without requiring me to load any drivers. - If you're offended by foreign languages and expect electronic device manuals to be written by Tolstoy and illustrated by Monet, do not order this player. The manual included adequately covers the basic functions of the player.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Did not PUrchase this item
Review: The negative reviews on this site almost caused me to look for an alternative player/recorder. Thankfully I went to Circuit City and played a bit. Most of the concerns raised by previous negative reviews were resolved by this trip. The unit is a 20gig Hard drive but it is reasonably sized and I don't find the wt all that unappealing. The sound was great even with the Circuit City background noise(I bought a pair of Sony ear buds) and I did't find the volume controll to be that difficult. The unit was plugged in 24/7 at Circuit City and I experienced no problems operating it. I shook the unit for 2 minutes straight and never got a skip out of it. Overall the test drive was quite positive. After using for a few days I am not surprised that the manual is so small. The unit it extremely intuitive. The fact that people have issues with the manual says more about the users than it does about the unit. In XP the unit shows up as another hard drive so files are loaded by drag and drop (very easy). I have a USB 1 and I have not found the speed of the transfer to be discouraging, don't let people pursuede you otherwise. I spent an afternoon compiling files of mp3's on my computer which I then uploaded to the jukebox. After 3 hours of total work (including cleaning up my data) I had 4 gig of music (800 songs) in the unit. Would have been much faster if my files were in better order/condition (thats my problem not the units). As far as the software,it is OK but I didn't buy the unit for it's mp3 software, so I am not sweating it. I have not used the playlist function yet but by all indications this looks really easy (Archos website has a PC Support FAQ that simplifies activity to a few paragraphs). The playlist is simply a list of shortcuts to the songs already on the jukebox. Once started the playlist simply plays the songs in order listed. Overall I would highly reccommend. Price of Ipod is [$$] and it can't communicate via USB (keep this in mind as you might have to purchase additional hardware to get the ipod to work for you). hope this helps.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing unit for the non-technically challenged
Review: If you are the type that has feels challenged setting the clock on your VCR, then this unit is probably not for you. However, for those with basic computer skills, the Archos Recorder can quickly be set up to be the best jukebox player on the market. I have owned mine for about a month and made four critical changes - the batteries supplied with the unit are weak - purchase a set of four AA high capacity 1800mah or 2100mah and replace them. Second, download the latest firmware from the Archos website. Third, get a set of decent headphones - I have a pair of Aiwa noise cancelling headphones which are great for use on a plane. Fourth, and this is the most important - download the Rockbox freeware available on the net - it truly is amazing - besides being far more usable than the original Archos software, it makes the unit sound better and even has some games like Tetris you can play on the Jukebox screen. Without Rockbox, this unit is average, with Rockbox, its definitely a 5.
Rating:
Summary: Good Windows MP3 Player
Review: I originally wanted an iPod, but it was too expensive and was too Mac centric. I did some research on the internet, checking out user forums for Mp3 players ... and found a lot people who like the Archos. The Archos Jukebox is a great alternative to the iPod. It's not as pretty, but has the majority of features you would want from an Mp3 player. The USB 2.0 connection makes transfers quick and the device becomes a general purpose storage device since most PC have USB. 20 Gb of storage at almost $ is hard to beat. 10 hours of life with the recharable Ni-MH batteries. Not bad. There have been complaints about the firmware. I would like to recommend Rockbox, an open source alternative to the Archos firmware. Rockbox vastly improves on the Archos interface. They even added games like Tetris. You can download a copy ... There is definitely a development community supporting the Archos with the firmware alternative and freeware file synchronizers and playlist managers for the Archos.
Rating: 
Summary: good idea, poor execution, dismal tech support
Review: As a small doorstop, the unit is adequate. As a functioning hard drive and MP3 player, it leaves much to be desired on the manufacturing QC front. Like other reviewers, I have now gone through two units that have failed. The battery charges for hours, and the unit winds up in the state "HD Error." It will not work as a playback device on either battery or A/C. It continues to work as a USB-connected hard drive on A/C but not battery. When the unit does work, copying files onto it is ergnomically simple with Windows Explorer, but nail-bitingly slow. Especially when it is on a USB hub, there are frequent write errors. The FAQ list on the manufacturer's site used to recommend using a USB port on the chassis rather than a hub. This helps marginally -- there are still delayed write errors. The FAQ list has now disappeared, replaced with just marketing descriptions of the product, no descriptions of problems and their resolution. Perhaps Archos should rename itself Barnum, but direct itself to the egress ... Another mystery of the free market economy.
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