Rating: 
Summary: Archos Jukbox 6000
Review: I have to give product a so-so rating. Using Windows 2000 software and a 500 MHz processor I had the following happen: 3 times I got the blue screen of death(hung computer) as i loaded MP3 files from the computer to the 6000. I found that I had to close all other applications and run the down load all by itself, and then things ran well. In using the 6000 I found the following; The battery life is about 2 hours of continues use. Replacing batteries is difficult and causes you to bend the housing to open the battery area. Some of the MP3 files were corrupted during transfer. I did not discover this little problem until I was trying to play back this one file. My most frustrating experience so far is that from time to time the 6000 just hangs/stalls during it's initial start up. It will not get past the first screen. I have found the only cure is to turn off the box and leave it alone for about 15 minutes and then it seems to come up just fine.When it runs it runs just fine and I like it. I decided to keep the unit(I was considering returning it) as I have figured out how to get around all of it's annoying bad habits. I am building an external power pack to get around the limited battery life.
Rating: 
Summary: Scary......
Review: Hi, this is the my first MP3 player. I use to have walkman or discman, but no MP3. This is a good product: - light, compact, easy to handle, easy to operate, easy to connect to your PC, but if you look at it there is also a lot of default, and in fact more problems than expected !!!! Very small problems (not really an issue): - 12 char to display the song names is not enough. - the random function just work for one directory, no shuffle mode over the directory (album in my case) - the playlist can't be bigger than 300 entries !!!! - Once you finished play a directory (an album), the player stops !!! It does not resume to the next directory, so you have to manipulate it to go to the next one !!!! - The battery display is not accurate (once it's empty, than after it's fully loaded, than again, and again...) Bigger issue : - the sound is not so great ! my walkman works far much better, even with songs encoded from one of my CD's at 192Kb/s or more..there is a white noise, static, some time it stops playing then resume (micro-stops!) - the volume is not very good..I like it loud. In the train, or in a crowded street the outside noise cover the music...it's crazy ! Even when plugged into my stereo, it still not very good..the sound is, how to say, not very clear, not sharp ! The worst, the unaceptable : - I bought this item 6 days ago. In 6 days, I had to reformat the Hard drive 3 times. First day, I was walking in the street, then the music stop and the display was saying "HARD DISK ERROR"...after power it down and up, all my songs had dissapeared !!!! I was unable to recover anything !!!! I had to reformat the device to be able to use it again. - Second time 2 days ago: I was at my place, the jukebox was plugged on my stereo. I took it into my hands to skip a song, thank just by touching the device,...BOUM..it crashed again !!!! - yesterday, I made a final test. I downloaded a few songs into it and took it for a test. I was just shaking midly the device into my hand (somehow like walking) and it crashed again !!!!! ...
Rating: 
Summary: The Good, The better and The Best
Review: I borught the Archos jukebox not knowing what to expect, since my last two Creative Jukeboxes broke down in less than 2 Days! but it turns out that the archos Jukebox was the best thing i ever bourght, so if you don't have one yet, GO BUY ONE! NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Archos 6000 is Awesome--6 Stars!!!
Review: 64 MB or 6000 MB? That's the first question. And the second question is do you want a cheap piece of plastic or do you want a heavy duty metal case of rugged construction reinforced with shock absorbers and built to last? Thirdly, would you rather pay $500 or $250 for the same quality product? Finally, do you want something bigger than a discman and awkward even in your jacket pocket or do you want something compact which will easily fit into a suit or jacket pocket? If your answer to all of these questions is the latter, then by all means get the Archos Jukebox 6000. Now I have to admit that when I first looked at the box, I had my doubts. Those big blue things on the corners seemed cheesy and also given the size of the box I was wondering just how big this "jukebox" was. But then I opened it up, and realized that it was the size of a compact walkman, considerably smaller than a discman. It's heavy, but that's because they packed 6 GB of memory into it. When you have it, you're holding in your hand a huge hunk of hard drive. And that's where this product really shines--the hardware. When I conceive of the company I picture their allocating almost all of their resources to their engineering and computing department and very little anywhere else. I can't overestimate just how much 6 GB is--the classical afficionado for example could probably put every single work by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven on it. I am a fan of alternative, classical, and 80's music. The sound quality for all three is excellent. Now the headphones that come with it are lacking--after all they are a computer hardware accessory company, not a headphone company. And so I tossed it and got a pair of Koss "Plug" headphones--revolutionary in design in itself--which has a high sensitivity rating of 108. The sound did sound a little diluted at first especially at the bass end, but that's because I'm so used to the Sony Megabass sound. But the Archos 6000 comes with a graphic equalizer and if you increase the bass setting to a '3' (on a 1 to 5 scale) then you get the mega-bass and it's indistinguishable from my Sony Megabass Discman. In fact, you might not always want the mega-bass especially for classical music for which it would make it sound un-balanced. And so, for testing purposes, try Depeche Mode with the enhanced bass setting and Vivaldi's Four Seasons and you'll see what I mean when I say the sound quality is clear and excellent. Another thing which should be mentioned is the ease of use as far as putting songs onto it. There's a single cable which you use to connect it to your computer, and the Jukebox then becomes your 'E' drive. Anyone who knows how to use windows can set up folders and subfolders and files on this 'E' drive, and when you're done, the Jukebox is reconfigured to your specifications and the mp3's are reorganized accordingly. I've heard that there was a problem with the randomizer at some point but that's fixed with the upgraded downloadable software for the machine which also solves the "volume" issue by allowing you to change volume simply by holding down the on button and clicking increase or decrease on the dial. Now the big blue things I actually grew to appreciate after I realized their function, which was that they are rubber shock absorbers just in case you drop the machine accidentally. They really didn't have to add this function, nor did they have to add in its being able to double as a backup hard drive--but both added features are certainly nice and are the kind of luxury items which you would expect only with much more expensive models. Anyway, that's why I feel this unit deserves a 6th star. Now the blue bumpers plus the silver color of the case and center dial do give this portable mp3 player a "space cowboy look." And so both the internal and exterior features of this Jukebox mp3 player really make me feel like it's 2001.
Rating:
Summary: Best MP3 Player Available
Review: I've been looking for an mp3 player for several months. However, I couldn't see paying $200 + for a unit that only had 64 - 128 mb of storage space. You might get you 16 - 32 songs. I needed a unit that would allow me to save hundreds of songs. I recently bought an Archos 6000 mp3 player for only .... So far I love it. I'd rate is a 10!!! It has a hard drive that will store 6 gigs of music or data. I literally have all of mp3's in one place. Although it will void the 90 day warranty, you can upgrade the unit by purchasing a larger capacity hard drive. Updating firmware is easy. Just download the mod file and copy it to the root of the player. Old units would not boot up if the file was not on the unit's hard drive. The newer units have a default mod file burned into the unit. So if you ever have to reformat you drive or loose you config, the player will still boot. The unit is quite small for having a hard drive in it. The unit is a bit heavy at 12 oz, but it's not too bad. The only odd thing that Archos needs to change is the volume controls. It would be nice to chage the volume easily while playing songs. To change the volume, you have to press the menu key, go into the volume menu, then adjust the volume. This is not bad if you keep the volume steady. However, once in a while I like to crank things up. Final thought: BUY IT !!! You'll love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Archos JUNKbox 6000
Review: I'm now on my third JUNKbox 6000. The first one I got locked up on start up after only using it 2 times. I called Archos tech support and they couldn't figure out the problem and had me send it back for an exchange. JUNKbox #2 arrives I spend hours formatting it and transfering my MP3 files to it. I use it 1 time for 3 hours no problem. I go to turn it on the next day and guess what.....Lock up AGAIN!!!! I take the batteries out and put them back in....still locked. I go through this sequence about 6 times and finally it boots up and tells me to check hard drive....which I can't do because it dosen't let me go any further then that screen. I call tech support again and they say they'll send me another one for exchange. I'm now getting ready to go through the task of formatting and adding MP3 files to this JUNKbox. Aargh!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE!!!
Review: The thing looks nice. But after the initial 6 hour charge and I started to use it it proved that looks can be decieving. I got many PC freeze-ups and bluescreen errors trying to deal with the USB uplading but it eventually worked and I threw in about 250 tracks. But after only one day of only a few hours of listening The unit stopped working and displayed an error message upon startup. I couldn't even access the drive through the USB because it had somehow messed itself up so badly. The thing to keep in mind is that unlike other MP3 players, this unit is a Hard drive so it can have all the same glitches and quirks that a computer can have with a much more confusing interface then a computer. Wish me luck on my return process...
Rating:
Summary: Quality control may be an issue but this is still a gem
Review: P>1. Sound Quality: I can't comment on the headphones that came with the unit as I did not try them. I bought some Koss KSC-50 headphones at Circuit City before the unit was even shipped to me. The sound quality with the Koss headphones is great. There are things in the songs that I had never heard before that are now audible due to the great stereo seperation (could be the headphones giving the unit the edge here). The volume is very good. Bass response and trebel are good once I boosted bass a couple notches. Overall using 128kbs MP3s provides VERY good sound quality with this unit and KSC-50 headphones. It rivals the Panasonic CD player and clip-on headphones that I had tried before I got this unit. 2. Size: It's smaller than a portable CD player but feels heavier than one. It is actually a lot like holding a regular hard-drive in weight and size. Still I think it is more portable than a CD player due to the dimensions (IMO). 3. Ease of use: The guy that wrote the review that said he was a Tech with Intel and still could not figure it out appears to be very technically challenged. I found it very easy to use. I never had to look in the manual. It was very intuitive. I already knew the trick using the power and "+" and "-" buttons to adjust the volume so no problems here. They could have put more buttons on the unit to make it easier to set repeat and shuffle modes but that is not a big deal as I usually only set that once. Also, they just came out with the remote. If all you want is a volume control then just go to Radio Shack and buy the mini-phono female to mini-phono male cord with integrated volume control. It allows you to plug it into anything and provides an external rotary volume control and it only costs five dollars. 4. Skipping: I don't jog with it but I just walked to the subway and it was bouncing around in my attache hanging on my shoulder with no skips so far. I shook it to try to get it to skip but didn't. It is probably not the best thing for active sports but then that is not what it was made for. For that get a inexpensive walkman. 5. Support: Don't know about phone support. I have heard that tech support is hard to reach and not very responsive but I haven't tried to reach them so I don't know. Firmware releases have been relatively responsive it appears. 6. Wish-list: I would like the ability to create my playlists on the machine itself (I understand the recorder version can do this) as I have Win NT at work and therefore cannot create them there (no USB support). More buttons would be nice but not essential. 7. Conclusion: Overall it is a good product. Perhaps if I have problems in the future I will feel different but for now I am happy with it. The ability to put every CD I own on it and carry it around with me is great. The ability it has to function as an extra back-up hard drive is also great.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but...
Review: This player has a lot going for it (see other reviews). However, you should be aware that there are a lot of other options, some clearly superior (albeit more expensive). Most notably, Archos has come out with a newer version of its 6 Gig jukebox, the "player/recorder," which is widely regarded as being a *major* upgrade in terms of sound quality and functionality. Also, it's worth considering the NEO Jukebox, which has 20 Gigs of storage, better sound quality, superior LCD display, wireless remote, and which also doubles as a general purpose USB hard drive. Then there's the 20 Gig PJB by HanGo -- all are choices with superior features and sound quality (but for more $$). Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't currently appear to be selling any of these other units. (Hint, hint, Amazon!)
Rating:
Summary: KEEP YOUR RECIEPT
Review: I got this thing because I have a lot of music and I don't like every song on a cd. This thing is great when it works, which most of the time it does not. The reason I said keep the receipt was because of TONS of errors that it has. you have to format and run scan disk (the through one). You also have to run disk defragmenter all of which are very time consuming. Don't waist your time trying e-mail or call Archos because it's not worth it. Most of the time they don't return your e-mails and you have to wait about 2 hrs. to talk to a tech who really know what they're talking about. I'm returning mine and buying a Nomad Jukebox. It holds the same amount and costs a little less than what I paid for this piece of junk.
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