Rating: 
Summary: Great product, worth every penny
Review: I bought this item recently and I must admit I was a little sceptical before I received it with all the bad reviews and everything. However, now I can certainly say this is a great product I cannot imagine a day withoug using it. I provides you with great sound quality, awesome amount of space, long battery endurance and easy to use ability. If I had to find some weak points it would be only two small points: a) the support for this product is very limited, and neither the manual, nor the CD provided offer you any additional info besides the facts that you could figure out by yourself in about 1 hour. The other minus, is the hard disk background noise generated when recording with the built-in mic. However, this noise is not present when recording from an external mic, or other source.Great product and you will not regret spending a couple of hundred bucks for this.
Rating: 
Summary: I would give this ZERO STARS if it were possible
Review: Stop. Don't buy this product. It is not a high quality product and the interface is limited. P>Turn around and buy Creative Lab's NOMAD JUKEBOX. This is the product Archos is trying to compete with and will never be able to touch. The NOMAD JUKEBOX works right out of the box. The interface and software are SO (so, So, SO) easy to use. You can browse and add to the queue while songs are playing! You can shuffle the entire jukebox, albums or just the queue. There is no need to set up play lists on the computer (though you can) because you can set up the queue on the fly! I've never had any technical problems with either of the two my girlfriend & I own (and one of them I bought used!), and the friend of mine that turned me on to the NOMAD JUKEBOX has had his 20GB player for over 2years!!! This is truely the superior player on the market and the best investment for your money. (Also, the hard drive is upgradeable too!) I love the NOMAD JUKEBOX!!!
Rating:
Summary: Step above the older Archos Jukebox's
Review: I had listened to the older jukebox's and had some concerns about the sound quality, the 20GB player/recorder addressed all of those concerns and then some. The volume has been increased, the EQ settings of the unit has been completely changed, and the interface is much better. Good job Archos!
Rating:
Summary: False Advertising and Marketing Leaves Many Frustrations
Review: There is much about the Jukebox Recorder 20 that can be appreciated. Yet it fails in many areas to perform as promised by Archos' website and marketing materials. LESS THAN 20 GB HARD DRIVE
They claim that the device can hold 20 GB. In reality, it can only hold 18.6 GB. MP3 FORMATS
They claim that the Jukebox Recorder 20 supports MP3 (30 to 320 kBps) VBR and MP3 (30 to 160 kBps) RTE formats. I have tested most of these formats and found that some of them do not display their tags correctly. Specifically, MP3s recorded at 112 kBps fail to properly display their tag information. Instead, the Jukebox displays the folder the song resides in. FOLDER CAPACITY
Archos requires you to organize your MP3 collection using folders and subfolders. Folders that contain more than 999 songs will not properly display all of their contents. Nowhere on Archos' website or within the manual is this limitation mentioned. It is mentioned, however, on a single page for one of Archos' other recorders; but not the Jukebox Recorder 20. This is a big disadvantage for anyone who whishes to use the Recorder's shuffle (random play) mode, for you can randomly listen to no more than 999 songs. PLAY LIST CAPACITY
Every play list that had more than 500 songs caused the Jukebox Recorder 20 to crash. And that was after waiting several minutes for the play list to load. Nothing is more disappointing than hitting play and waiting five minutes only to have the recorder crash on you. SUMMARY
When asked why the Jukebox Recorder 20 does not support the 112 kBps format despite their marketing materials that say that it does, Archos responded that they will continue marketing that the Recorder supports the 112 kBps format because they will eventually offer a firmware upgrade to fix the problem. It saddens me that Archos knows of this problem and the others I mentioned. Yet they continue to falsely market the Jukebox Recorder 20, claiming that it meets all of its specifications.
Rating:
Summary: Great, but still 'some' problems
Review: I was the first person in Northern Ireland to have one of these i mail ordered it. I have to tell you that i was not on the best terms with Archos after 4 other players died (3 jukebox 6000 and 1 jukebox 20 studio) although i was not happy with them i gave them the benifit of the dubt and i am happy to report this one still works (so far) The Jukebox 20 recorder is incredibly impressive by anyones standards and i wish that it was all good news but technology is only as flawless as the people who build and create it and that was humans and we ain't perfect by a long stretch of the imagination so i will put all the good points and BAD points in a list: Good Points 20 Gigs of storage (WOOOOOO)
Built in mic (More info in bad points)
Light (unless you enjoy carrying 500 cds with you)
Drag and Drop interface (soooooo easy)
Small (the size of a walkman)
Doesn't skip (unless you try to prove them wrong and beat it up/good for fitness finatics)
Can Record from other musical devices (go to your mates house and record thier stuff ha ha)
Easy to find songs
Headphones are stylish and foldable(is that a word) anyway they also have a volume control
Carrying case supplied (Blue what a 'shock')
It looks cool
The screen lights up for all you people who can't sleep
You get a charger (you can use any multi charger despite what it says in the book)
2x 4 rechargeable batteries (they are meant to last 10 hours, they do)
Best of all it doubles as a hard drive so you can store all the stuff you don't want anyone to see (Wink Wink) Thats a lot of good points and i'm sure i left some out but now what you really want to know what are the bad points: Bad Points The mic does record your voice but the machines built in fan to cool it down mutes most things out
The batteries are to ... difficult to change without bending the side of the machine
It can brake down a lot
The headphones quality is ok but not great for digital music (buy a good set yourself you will have to admit that it was worth it)
The build quality is not great but as i say human error
The program that comes with it sucks (thats all i'll say)
Even though you have 10 hours of battery they take 6 hours to charge
The time and date reset everytime you run out of battery or change them, this means there is no built in battery for the clock
The manuel is an insult to anyone who has a brain and it doesn't even tell you about some of the functions (i will tell you later)
They only supply you with the lead that can connect to another machine with two ports (if your like me your getto blater only has one Aux port so flash the cash and get a one to one. A fiver will get you a good sony one)
It has a usb 2.0 cable (but most people don't have usb 2.0)
The tech help is useless Ok that was the bad points but again i left some out (i didn't include the problems with the other players as that wouldn't be fair to Archos) Now for those of you that do buy one and do cause it is worth it, here are some of the things it don't tell you in that ... manuel The resume option puts you straight back to where you left off not in the middle of a song like people think but just to that song (this also is reset after you change batteries) The queue option only lets you queue one or two can't remember but don't pick a load of songs cause it will skip the middle ones
The mic is accually at the top of the machine above where it says archos (it don't make much odds) The diagnostic always says ok cause it wouldn't work at all if the machine had a problem If you want to find your songs fast stuff those playlists and put your songs into folders like eg. A's, B's, C's Etc.... Remember your songs length has nothing to do with how much is left on it, its the size of the song that matters (size DOES matter AAAAAAhhhhhh) The difference in size is to do with the quality of the song. Ok thats it i'm tired and i want to go to bed any questions irritate the tech support (PLEASE) All in all this is a great machine buy it (don't forget you can trust everyone online ha ha ha) only joking have fun with it and impress all your friends and family with a toy thats out of Star Trek. P.S. I know i put this down as 5 stars but then you didin't see the old ones
Rating:
Summary: Buggy + Noisy => Disappointing
Review: A friend and I bought these. After working with Archos tech support for *weeks* we returned them. * The user-interface (UI) has a ton of bugs. We could never get playlists to work. In general, the UI is flaky and klunky. It's possible to hang the unit by plugging and unplugging the headphone jack. No kidding. * There is constant "digital sounding" background noise, independent of what's playing, or the volume level. Archos tech support reproduced and acknowledged this problem, but wasn't able to resolve it. On the bright side, hard disk performance with a USB 2.0 interface is great.
Rating:
Summary: The best way to carry and listen to all your music
Review: The Jukebox worked perfectly right out of the box. I converted music and book CDs to MP3 format using the MusicMatch software included and now have the Jukebox 75% full. It works great. I use it with the travel accessory kit to play music through my car and home stereo systems. It took a while to learn all of the features because the instruction manual is brief and does not cover all the options. I have now used the Jukebox for over two weeks and am extremely satisfied and would recommend it to anyone that travels and appreciates music. Strengths:
Easy to use, excellent display, large storage capacity Weaknesses:
User manual does not provide sufficient detail to understand all of the features and/or how to use them.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware of ARCHOS
Review: I have purchased 3 different Archos MP3 Players and they all have 1 thing in common within a year they are broke. I like the features and the ease of handling with their product but the quality is just not there. The Studio 20 is a paperweight. The 2nd I gave away and the 3rd one Broke today. Their support is inferior and takes forever. The batteries constantly die out. Good product just bad engineering. Dont make the same mistake I did it will be a waste of money. I think I am going to get a IPOD
Rating:
Summary: Keep looking...
Review: I have had mine for about a year and a half now. It is reliably unreliable. There are bad sectors on the drive (apparently of Hitachi manufacture), which are uncorrectable and often result in unrecoverable data. The drive seems to panic unpredictably during data transfers (clicks, thrashes, locks up my computer for minutes at a time or until I reboot it), even when it is fully powered up and has been connected to the power cable for hours. This is the least reliable hard drive I've ever seen.
I bought it because it was supposed to be easier to see this drive in Linux than the Creative or Apple MP3 players. I also liked the idea that you can download the open-source Rockbox software to improve the functionality of the player. I wish now that I had just paid the premium for a better designed product. The factors on which I based my purchasing decision are moot if the product itself doesn't work for squat. I'm staying away from Archos from now on and hoping I don't get burned the next time I pick an MP3 player.
Rating: 
Summary: Dated Jukebox Still Satisfies
Review: Though it's getting kind of dated already (gee, has it already been two years?), the Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 is still my favorite electronics device I own. It has incredible sound for an MP3 player, let me say. I love its look and feel and the navigation is very user friendly and natural, in my opinion. It also seems to be quite sturdy, as I've dropped it several times without a problem.
Also, a note about its versatility: The early Jukebox models like this are really nice for people who are into customizable music collections, variable bit rate MP3s, etc. If you want to also, you can download the Rockbox hack for the Jukebox. It's basically an open source OS for the Jukebox that replaces the lackluster ARCHOS software. This adds much capability to your player, including gaming software, added functionality, battery life extension, customizeable sound, etc. Just do a search for it online.
PROS:
- Wonderful full-spectrum sound.
- Large storage space (it might as well have been unlimited for me)
- Great for people who are in to customizing their MP3 collection, using open source, etc.
- Easy menu system
- Batteries are replaceable, so you could keep it forever.
CONS:
- Heavy, heavy, heavy
- Initial software is limited, though Rockbox software is great.
- ARCHOS product support is bad, from what I know.
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