Rating: 
Summary: Finely nice!
Review: First of all, this is a really good mp3 player. It has decent sound quality (just buy labtec switchback headphones or some better quality than the ones provided), easily navigated menus (just look at the flow chart, and its easy to figure out from there), and it doubles as a portable 6 gig hard drive. Its super easy to connect and set up on your computer. Its small enough that its very portable, alough a bit heavy. the reason I took off a star is that it is not compatable with real juke box, which is the program I use. I find Music Match Juke box a little weird to use, and I like Real's support of some devices so you can add songs right inside the program. The box is really cheesy, and I almost thought I had bought the wrong product, but I opened it to find my new friend inside. Archon's site is easy enough to get drivers and updates from, but I wish they had a Real Juke Box upgrade. I looked at the Creative Nomad Jukebox before this device, but I decided to avoid it for a few reasons: 1.The battery life is significantly less than the Jukebox 6000 2. Its HUGE. Its bigger than a regular 80's box disc man. It looks cooler than a disc man, but Its bigger, and I wanted an mp3 player so i could carry it anywhere. The case that comes with the Jukebox 6000 is a bit cheesy also, but there are better cases out there that probably fit the jukebox. I've heard stories that the battery case is hard to ge6t off, and they're true. It is hard to get off, but with the recargable batteries, why would you want to? theres no reason. If you really feel the need to open the battery case, just be prepared to feel like your breaking it, but your not. Overall, I reccomend this to anyone, but be prepared to do a lot of rerecording if you use real juke box and record in real audio.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldnt ask for any better
Review: I had been looking for months looking for the best mp3, and the Archos 6000 caught my attention. The massive space to store almost endless music was the reason why I bought this.... There are a few minor Cons they install Guide is poorly put toghether which makes it hard to get up and ready, and the headphones hurt your ears and are terribly uncomftable.But the pros out weigh the cons by a ton , the large memory is great for storing your whole music collection! The sound is great , its just like a ...portable cd player. Its tranfers a quick I downloaded 200 megs of music in only 20 seconds. Overall the Archos is the best mp3 player out there....
Rating: 
Summary: Could be better
Review: Don't misunderstand. This is a good device. For the money it is one of a few that can hold so much music.Pros: Size. This really is a joy to hold. The design is nice too, I realy like th ebumper pads at the corners. Personaly I like my electronics to have some heft and the archos has a weight that feels good in my hands. Use as a hard drive. Dump playlists easily. Great battery life. Cons: The sound quality is poor. Sure it's an MP3 player and yes I dont expect high fidelity, but compared to other MP3 players it sounded tinney. Seems corners were cut in the electronics. Also the buttons seem to be flimsy. The user interface while can be mastered is all push button with rather odd sequences. You have to scroll down menus to locate volume before hitting + or - Also to scrol up or down the menu you hit buttons in the horizontal plane. Seems daft to me. In the end I returned this device. I went out and bought a Creative Jukebox instaed and feel happier. The Archos is rough. Feels like a beta device and needs some help with the user interface and could do with better sound and more sensible controls and better plastics.
Rating:
Summary: road test
Review: OK, here's the thing. I just took my Jukebox on a one month, 10,000 mile tour of China with ten college students. If you want to have lots of music with you for 14 hour plane rides, and 20 hour bus rides, this is the one. The only alternative is a CD player with a suitcase of CDs, and that won't do. Battery life was fine. I easily got seven plus hours, but less if I skipped around much. I never ran them dry. I dropped it on a bouncing bus twice, both times pretty hard. First time the display failed, but came back to life somehow on the second reboot. I got lucky, probably. Sound quality was fine--it pauses during songs occasionally. But, if you are an "audiophile" you shouldn't be listening to MP3's anyway. Recharging through a converter was fine. I would like to buy a 220v recharger, but Archos could not get it together to get me one. They're just getting the hang of this. You do need good headphones. I matched it with Koss noise-canceling phones and was in heaven. A great way to escape home in my mind while rolling through the Chinese countryside. Other reviews complain about the controls. They're fine. I could hand it to any student and they could figure it out within thirty seconds without instructions. Wish I could say the same about my VCR. A thumbwheel for volume would be nice, but that is about it. If you sit in your living room and expect this to sound like your $2000 stereo, you will find fault. If you want a compact, reliable road machine that will give you any tune you want in the far corners of the world, this is your player.
Rating:
Summary: So so
Review: Great concept that will likely pave the way for better products. Design and sound quality is mediocre, otherwise solid product. Still deciding whether to keep it.
Rating:
Summary: Best Possible Choice for what is available today!
Review: At first I was a bit skeptical of this player. The box has a somewhat cheap appearence, and does not do a good job of conveying the possibilities of this product. With 6GIG's of space, connectivity to any PC using a USB port, and standard Battery or DC Adapter Voltage, you can use this thing anywhere, anytime, and for so many different things it just cant be beaten for the price. You can easily use it for its intended purpose of listening to MP3 music, but there are so many other things you can use it for, your imagination is really the only boundary. I have really enjoyed using it to listen to Audio Books on long road trips, Flights, and other times when it is nice to have some interesting company. I also use it to store video cd's which I can play through my laptop. Pictures from my Digital Camera (Canon G-1) often take up hundreds of megabytes, which is a pain to have to put on CD to transport elsewhere. I can load 340mb of Images off my Camera into my computer, drag the files onto my 6GIG jukebox using the regular windows explorer, and take the driver cd with me. Then when I get to my parents, friends, associates house or office, I simply load the usb driver on their system (30sec.) plug the Archos into the USB port, and drag and drop my photos onto their system. It transfers about 1.5mb/sec, so it is very fast compared to removable media out there, and almost as fast as most 5400 RPM hard drives.As for the unit itself, it is manufactured in a very utilitarian manner, with most effort put into durability and function. That being said, if you can look past the somewhat handmade appearence, you will learn that the unit really is quite solid, substantial, and durable. I use it in its pouch, in my fanny pack when I go ride my Suzuki DRZ400E OFF-ROAD on roads that make your body ache and it never skips a beat. The only thing I wish it had was remote controls. It is definitly a pain to have to stop, unzip fanny pack, unzip carrying pouch, push stop, then reverse the whole process before proceeding. The sound is good. I have read reviews from other people saying when they turn up the volume or the Bass/Treble it causes distortion and popping etc. I have approx 600 songs loaded on mine all recorded using Music Match at 128kb and I have no concerns about the sound at all, and have not experienced a single pop in the 3 weeks I have had it. I suspect it may have something to do with their recording, or transfer process. The key is to throw away the included headphones and buy a pair of quality Koss, or others. It makes all the difference in the world. The Batteries are a minor inconvenience. You cant use standard off the shelf 1.5v Alkaliines or you will void the warranty, so you must use the 1.2v 1500mAH batteries included with the unit (even though they are AA size). Mine came with 4 batteries already installed and charged in the unit, and 4 more shrink wrapped, which I assume need to be charged, although I have never needed them. With a full 12 hour charge, I can play continuous music for about 5-8 hours. It depends heavily on how much you mess around changing directories, etc. I would be willing to bet you can charge these batteries externally using any number of standard battery chargers available, althought the manual makes no suggestions that I could find. Some people complain about the batteries being hard to get out, but I wonder why they are trying to take them out anyway. You charge them inside the unit with the supplied AC adapter. I took mine out just for fun and it was easy. Just take a small screw driver or other implement with similar shape and pry very lightly in the slot. Once you have it out about 2mm, simply push the whole battery cover up, away from the body of the unit. It slides right out with no hinderances that I could see. The layout of the controls is easy to figure out without using the manual which to me is important. Loading music onto it is also just as easy since Windows sees it as just another drive, and you drag and drop your stuff onto it just like any other drive. Use nested folders to organize your files. Once on the Archos Juke box, you can easily navigate through nested subdirectories by using the + key to scroll sideways, and the Play/Pause key to go up or down the directory structure. Over all I am very impressed with this unit. It has lived up to my expectations in every way, and I am a perfectionist. The only thing I would like to see is a USB interface that you could plug into it that would allow direct download of CF & Smart Media cards. That way you could bring it along with your Digi Cam, and download your 340mb of images at the end of every day without needing to haul your laptop around with you! If you have specific questions, feel free to contact me.
Rating:
Summary: Good features, well worth the money
Review: This is an MP3 listener's--and general audiophile's--dream come true. I've stored my entire 100+ CD collection on my jukebox, and I still have room to spare where I can store a whole data CD if I wanted.
The pros are astounding: The size of the storage is enough to justify its price, and the ability of the unit to double as a mobile hard drive is again worth its price. It's very easy to use, and I really like the line out jack as well as the headphone jack (I use it with my computer speakers now instead of my computer's CD-ROM drive to play audio CDs). It's also heavier than most portable MP3 players, but still realatively lightweight--about the size and weight of a small loaded portable cassette player. Mine has proven to be very stable, also, with very few playback problems. Before I list cons, in fairness, I have to say that it's just so you'll know what you're getting; in my humble opinion, the cons are small annoyances and the pros far outweight them. Note also that an MP3 recordable version of this jukebox is coming out (at a higher price, of course), and according to Archos, a 20GB model (they claim 500 CDs, I estimate more like 400) is due out late in 2001. The cons are a little irritating: The external remote is not yet available (third quarter, Archos told me). The case is just plain awful--it has a belt loop instead of a clip, so to take it off or put it on, you have to remove your belt, and given that there's no external remote, you have to take the unit out of the case if you want to browse around. There is no volume control on the unit, it's in a submenu. Hint if you already own one: If you hold the ON button down and press the + and - button, it adjusts the volume up and down and saves you some navigation. Also, count on getting a different set of headphones, preferably a set with an inline volume jack. The five-hour battery life is more like four with me, but I fiddle with it a lot while stuff is playing. Don't count on replacing batteries if you're somewhere where you can't recharge the unit; the batteries are almost impossible to access. Last but not least, I don't know if this is true of MP3 players in general (it is of Windows Media Player), but there is a split-second (1/8- to 1/4-second) pause between MP3s. This is annoying of you're listening to a band like Pink Floyd, whose songs tend to cross-fade into each other. Here's another helpful hint: If you buy this and are a serious user, go to Radio Shack and get part number 273-1863, an adapter for your car, and 273-1711, the adaptaplug H for the connector. It's US$12 total and you can listen to your stuff on trips without wearing out your batteries. If you have a cassette player in your car, pick up a portable CD player-to-cassette conversion kit at your favorite home audio/video store, and you can listen to it on your car's speakers--sweet! If you carry your player back and forth from home to work, get RS part numbers 273-1770 and 273-1711. It's US$14 total, and you won't have to tote the AC adapter around with you or worry about your batteries going dead.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for audiophiles
Review: I bought and have since returned this product. When I opened the box, I was initially pleased with the compact size and substantial feeling build quality desptie the somewhat cheesy cosmetics. After charging the batteries overnight, I plugged it into my USB port and it installed in a snap. File tranfer was very simple (dragging them in explorer via a drive letter) and the Music Match software included was great and intuitive. This is where the pros end. First of all, the sound out of the headphone jack is terrible - heavy on midrange and terrible on bass. When adjusting the bass to a higher level, heavy distortions appeared. Another annoyance was the intermittent loud "popping" sound that would happen with no warning during playback through the line out or headphone out. I am far too picky about my audio to overlook this design flaw. Lastly, the blue "bumpers" on the outside of the unit have the interesting feature of shutting the power in my unit off when pressured slightly (as would possibly happen in a carrying case or briefcase). A product with huge potential but terrible drawbacks at present. I would have rated it a 2.5 if I could have.
Rating:
Summary: Need some tech support!
Review: I'm sorry for taking up space, but tech support at Archos is non-existent. If anyone owns the product, can answer my questions, and would like to get back to me, please do .... I have noticed that the player only re-charges when it is turned on. Is this true? I have also noticed that the player gets very hot when the power is on. I apologize for my ignorance, but will the player "wear out" re-charging this way? The battery life seems very poor. Is it OK to leave it plugged in all day with the power on? Is that the only way to keep the unit fully charged? Do you suggest upgrading the firmware? Thank you very much. By the way, I think the player is great when it is charged/working. In addition, it does not skip when I am running/working out. Furthermore, I have an older PC, 200 Mhz with 64 Megs of Ram with a USB connection and the transfer of files is amazing. Not problems at all. I tried changing headphones to improve sound quality without success. Maybe I will try another pair of headphones. I also like that fact that it is a hard drive.
Rating:
Summary: Archos Jukebox
Review: I would like to start by saying that I looked at every single review before I decided to buy the Archos Jukebox... This is my first mp3 player and I wanted one that could hold my entire mp3 collection...and it can! Pros 1. Installation - Very easy installation.. but i can imagine it would be very difficult for someone that isn't familiar with computers or electronics..im studying to be an engineer..so its not difficult for me =) 2. Hard drive - It really holds almost 6gb but for some reason the hard drive feature on the unit isnt very accurate...it doesnt really tell how much room there is left..somethigs wrong with it 3. Size - Even tho i knew it was about the size of an index card it didnt really set in until i saw it!! its small about the size of the old walkmans Cons 1. directions- there arent alot of directions on how to use the machine, you really have to look and figure things out on the machine by yourself 2. construction - The construction of the machine is pretty [bad].. the main button is loose..which makes me worry...the batteries are terrible to take out..i tried once and i gave up...I read in other reviews that u shouldnt apply pressure to the back of the unit..so im not gonna try that! The seams on the unit are really big - a sign of poor construction. 3. SOUND - The sound is okay...not great...and I would have given it a 5 if it had great sound..! my old walkmans gave me better sound..and because of this..im trying to decide if i should return it and get the nomad instead. I mean..the sound isnt terrible its just under acceptable..with so many great songs on it...its sucks to be denied great sound! even with better head phones. it doesnt seem to make a huge difference. The bass and the treble control help somewhat but if turned up to high begins to have static, the same with the volume. It would be great if they could upgrade it..but they would need to add an internal subwoofer... 4. The unit heats up alot when its getting charged or connected to the usb port! its kinda scary. 5. battery display isnt accurate at all! Hope this helps you!
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