Rating: 
Summary: Tha Best MP3 player on the market
Review: ...its just like another harddrive and the manual doesn't have to explain much because it pursumes that you are ofcourse goin to fool around wit it and eventually get a hang of it. Making different sections for ur songs are easy, just make new folders on the hardrive and drag ur songs in.Pros: Ease, capacity, sound quality, looks, sturdy, Battery life
Cons: Headphones (but no one ever uses the headphones any electronic gives!) All in all if u are like me and need something that is big enough to fit all ur songs and funky lookin so all ur friends "wow" at it then u and this device will go hand in hand.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent product
Review: This is a very good player. Some things I'm really liking:
* Handles long filenames very well - it scrolls them back and forth in the display rather than cutting them off. * Linux recognized it - Debian (woody) recognized it as /dev/sda1, just plugged in the usb cable and mounted the drive. * Very good bass * Plugs into my car audio system * Comes with sample mp3's - I liked this because it meant I got to try it out right away * Has a built-in microphone - this means i can use it as a personal voice recorder and keep notes on it in .mp3 format
Rating:
Summary: Worth Every Penny
Review: I uploaded over 150 of my CDs to this little machine plus over 150 hours of mp3s I downloaded. Very easy to use and a joy to work out with.
Rating: 
Summary: Problems but Good for the Money
Review: After evaluating a number of different HD MP3 players, I settled on the Archos Jukebox Recorder with some trepidation based on previous reviews. I purchased a USB 2.0 card to give me extra ports to use with the Jukebox Recorder to take advantage of the abilty to upload music using USB 2.0. BIG MISTAKE. After downloading the USB drivers onto the computer, I could not get the device recognized on my computer using the USB 2.0 card ports, but could only get this recognized using the USB 1.1 installed ports on the computer. After getting through this problem (which took 3 hours and no help from Archos Tech Support) I found the player to work well. The headphones are junk and Archos should be ashamed to send them. But it is clearly worth the money in the amount of music stored on the device, ease of use of the menus, and ease of interfacing with the computer absent this 2.0 card problem.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT PLAYER FOR THE MONEY
Review: This is a great player, I have probably loaded about 300 CD's on it and it still has some room. The software was easily to navigate, moving files from my hard drive to the player was fast and efficient. The only drawbacks that I have were the supplied batteries and the lack of file editing on the player itself. Concerning the batteries I bought a replacement set of NiMH which worked great. I currently have the player hooked up to a set of powered speakers in my house which has made my stereo obselete.
Rating: 
Summary: A piece of Junk.
Review: I have replaced it once and the second one is just as bad. The hardrive freezes up,randomly gives unintelligible messages and is so unreliable, I can't take it anywhere. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!
Review: ~ Some specs about the computer I'm using with the player ~ Dell Latitude CPx (laptop), 500MHz processor, 12GB HD, 128MB RAM, USB 1.1, Windows XP Professional OS. ~ My Archos Jukebox Studio 20 GB MP3 Player/Hard Drive 500204 Critique ~ (Positive)
1. The sound output is amazing! I'm a die-hard metal-head and when I'm playing tracks from bands like Machine Head or Mudvayne, the bass and treble feature of this player really crank out the power in the music! 2. Installing the driver(s) for this player was a breeze! I was downloading mp3's within 20 minutes after I opened the box! 3. Transferring mp3 files from my laptop to the player did not produce any "artifacts" in the mp3 files...such as pops, crackles, or scratches. Then again, I only transferred 20-30 mp3 files at a time...and waited a few seconds in between transfers. A friend told me that this is the way to go when you are using USB 1.1. 4. Very intuitive to operate the mode functions. You can learn w/o reading the manual. 5. The blue bumper-edges of the player protect the sensitive corners from damage. This also allows the player to not slide around on a smooth surface. You can also place the player on its back or face and not worry about buttons being accidentally pressed. 6. Despite what the other reviews here say about the charge life of the 4 NiMH batteries, they are great! They last 8-10 hours easy! But, let's see how long that lasts. 7. The player will automatically shut off when not in use. Always a great feature which saves power. 8. Fast-forward and rewind work great! No complaints. 9. I travel with my player a lot...and it never skips or shuts off! Very travel friendly! (Neutral)
1. Housing for the batteries is very small and the batteries are tightly encased. In case you don't know...those two silver vertical "tubes" in between the blue-bumpers is where the batteries are housed (2 for each side). To remove the batteries requires a delicate hand, or you may crack the housing. But it's almost unavoidable with such a small player design. 2. Despite what was written in the product description here on Amazon about the pause feature, there is a pause button; you can even see it in the expanded picture. And yes, the pause button works fine. 3. The so called "grinding" sound the HD makes is not very loud. It's more like a "clicking" sound. 4. The LCD display is fine; no complaints. 5. The carrying case and head-phones are a nice addition. 6. The 9V AC adapter is small...and boy, can it get hot when plugged in! 7. Something odd...when I opened the box, the carrying case and bumper-edges reeked like benzene, or some fuel like that. Weird... (Negative)
1. I don't like the fact that Archos solely recommends the use of the NiMH batteries. By the way, these NiMH batteries are rechargeable and output 1.2V. I'd much rather prefer that the unit was compliant with 1.5V batteries...which are much more affordable and available. 2. The owner's manual (English version) has many grammatical errors and a few inconsistencies. It is poorly laid out, and takes a few readings to fully grasp what they are trying to say. It makes me think that it was written by someone whose native language is not English. ####
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic way to store music
Review: I love this product! It holds an incredible amount of music, meaning you can carry entire CD collections with you at all times. My player currently has a 2-hour DVD concert (audio only, of course), about 35 CDs, and another 5-6 CDs worth of single songs, and has only used about 1.5 MB. It helps to download at lower qualities--I find near-CD quality acceptable for acoustic music (e.g. Nickel Creek, Bela Fleck, Tony Rice, etc.), FM radio acceptable for rock and vocals, and even lower for comedy or spoken word. [Quality options available on Musicmatch, which is a free download but also comes with the player; generally a nice program] The easiest way I've found to arrange music is to do it on the computer. Click on "My Computer" and the jukebox comes up as a drive. From there, you can make new folders (e.g. "Rock," "Country," etc.), create individual artist folders in those folders, and then put albums or songs in the artist folders. The results show up on the jukebox when it's unplugged. It still takes some scrolling, but it's organized. I haven't found out how to randomize playing between folders, which is a drawback, but not a real concern to me. I've also found that if I want songs in any order other than alphabetical, I have to title them (again on the computer) with numbers (e.g. first song is 01, etc.). This is a hassle, but manageable. There may be a way for the player to read track listings and do it automatically, but I haven't found it. Biggest drawback is the horrible manual. Most of my learning was trial-and-error (including yanking the USB out without going through the appropriate steps), and a good user-friendly manual seems like a simple way to make things a lot easier. Great product, though.
Rating:
Summary: Out of Box this is 4 stars, but could be 5 stars with ...
Review: Basically Rockbox rips out the stock Archos mini-screen interface with something well designed and conceptually easier. Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for the junk thats on the Archos to begin with and works SOOO much better, especially in setting up default behavoir. Before you get worried, its a ONE file copy/paste install from your HD to the USB HD, although be safe and backup the original firmware file (archos.mod) So the stock interface sucks, but luckily easily upgradable (think car seat covers). The drive is MONSTROUS....I have nearly every CD I own on it at medium-high or high quality and still store all sorts of data backup files. Slow file transfer speed is an annoyance..agreed, but I consider it "workable" with a lil patience. The quality is an X factor if you read the other reviews, but I can only say mine has worked great for over a year now. Also as a USB hard drive it installs fairly easily on windows, no experience on MAC, but I read its compatible, and I am listening to the Archos mp3 files on a Linux box as I type this.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect toy for music lovers!
Review: I did a lot of research (months) before buying an HD MP3 player and finally settled down for Archos Player 20.This is an amazing gadget and definitely worth your money,especially for the 159$ that I payed compared to the rivals like Ipod or Nomad that go for at least 399$ and up.
I read a few negative reviews on Archos performance,sound and the way it sorts out the files and after geting it myself I found none of them to be true.
PROs:
-The design of archos is very compact and even though in pictures it looks bulky and big,when you actually see it its rather small and not that heavy as many people say it is.-The controls and accesing the folders seem confusing at the first time,but its very easy to figure them out in the next 15 minutes if you have even the basic on how to work with folders in any computer OS.Forward,backward and up one level going through options.The best things is that it works just like a hard drive,plug it in and just drag and drop files on to it.Any files.If you organize your folders in neat order like by genre and artist you will never have a problem finding your songs anytime,especially since it renders them in alphabetic order.
-Its rather fast and even though its not USB 2 its still great.I transferred 700Mb in 13 minutes.I read people say Uhg its slow.Well tell me then how often after you fill Archos up with your favourite songs will you erase them and upload them again?
-Sounds quality is great(but you wont feel it with ordinary headphones),you can hear details that probably you didnt hear before.
-Connects to any audio device,so when you go to those parties you dont have to carry none of your CD's.
-Doesnt skip as opposed to some saying it does.Tried it hard shaking it and jumping with it and it will keep playing.
CONS:The only kind of flaw (beside the manual and headphones) that I would find would be the screen,namely display.It has only two lines of display and it looks a little bit archaic compared to other Mp3 players in the market,otherwise it has everything in it that you need like battery life,volume etc.But since I know my structure of the songs and have organized them perfectly I know exactly where I have everything. Overall this HDMP3 player is worth every bit of penny and a lot of people got dissapointed because they never kept it for longer than couple of weeks or simply got a faulty one and never bothered to get the same replacement.Give it a try and you wont be dissapointed.
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