Rating: 
Summary: Oh Man! This is the best product of all time!
Review: I can't believe it! I love this product! I just got it and couldn't believe how easy it is to use.It sounds great, it works great (After the FirmWare update), it's small and cheaper than the others of its type! I recommend this item to anyone who loves music! But make sure to go to the web site and download the FirmWare update! Once that is installed, it sounds and works even better! A++++++++++++++++
Rating: 
Summary: Technical Problems
Review: I rate this unit a 9+ for design but the implementation is below par. I purchased the unit at Fry's (in Sunnyvale, CA) and here are my observations: 1) None of the Volume, Bass, Tre controls work at all. 2) The audio sounds "tiny" - there is no bass to speak of. 3) The left-right channels are opposite that of my PC and stereo. 4) It is impossible to change batteries but you probably don't need to. 5) The USB device driver crashes my Win98 (eMachine) everytime I remove the Jukebox after downloading. 6) On the positive side, it's firmware is downloadable and I upgraded mine immediately (ver. 4.12a) 7) The product is perfect in concept but I would wait for the next version. This one is going back to the store.
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Summary: I love it (after downloading the new firmware)!
Review: I was a little worried when I first got the Archos 6000 because I got an early, buggy version of the firmware that caused a lot of problems. However, since I upgraded the firmware I have not had a single problem that lasted more than about 2 seconds. I have loaded 800 songs on it and it's only 2/3 full! I have not been able to make it skip even once - and I have taken it on a very rough bus ride through a construction site, and run up and down the stairs with it, etc. Way better than a CD player that way. Also, with the headphones I have (nothing special, but decent ones) and the new firmware, the sound quality is really great. Better than my Walkman, definitely, and better than my computer speakers (decent ones). Very nearly on par with my stereo, actually. The biggest difference in quality is from the program you use to rip your .mp3s, I think, and the one included with the Archos seems to be really good. I highly recommend getting this, and if you're worried about the bugs, wait a month or so before getting it and I'm sure they will all be ironed out.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: This little beauty is almost perfect. Just make sure to download the latest firmware because it fixes the sound. Pros: - 6GB storage: I stored 565 mp3 music files and 140 mp3 audio book files (20MB average) and still had 400 MB left. - Sound: After firmware upgrade, the sound is excellent, better than my Phillips eXpanium CD/MP3 player because I can change the bass and treble settings (can't do this on the eXpanium). - Can scroll forward and backwards through MP3s (Can't do this on eXpanium either) - ID3 tag support: shows the CD track number and song name, or the filename if no id3 tag. - M3u playlist support. - Upgradeable firmware (Thank you Archos). - Doubles as a hard drive: Drag and drop any file from explorer into Archos drive. - Rechargeable batteries that last 8 hours on average. - If you live on the edge you can upgrade the hardrive to 20MB (this will invalidate you warranty) Cons: - Playlist chokes on lists of more than 30 or so songs - Shuffle does not quite shuffle correctly - No "Resume" function - No car kit, though it will work with any standard cassette kit (I don't know about the power, though) If they fix the playlist and shuffle bugs this unit could be the killer.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: Acknowledging that this has some rough edges--mostly quirks in the firmware such as a worthless battery indicator and a lousy equalizer--this product is amazingly well conceived and executed. It feels solid, its user interface is simple and intuitive, it's eminently pocketable, it plugs-and-plays without a problem in Win98, and it holds an incredible quantity of music and books on tape. And it's very reasonably priced. As to the sound quality, it's probably true that this is not audiophile quality sound, but I guess that's not what I'm looking for in a high capacity portable player. This sounds about as good as my portable CD player, a Sony 815, certainly good enough for casual listening, and great for plane flights and the daily drive to work. For books on tape the only thing missing is a resume function--this has the second best alternative, the ability to fast forward within tracks. Other than that small lapse, this is the holy grail for audio readers. Some of the complaints puzzle me. One reviewer says the machine wouldn't stay on. I wonder whether he read the instruction manual, which says you have to hold the on button for three seconds. I made this mistake initially, then rtfm, and all's been fine since. The only time it won't stay on is when the battery's low. Another reviewer says he crashed the drive removing the batteries by pressing on the back cover. Admittedly the instructions for changing the battery are a little obscure, but pressing on the back cover is not part of the process. I apologize if I'm misunderstanding these complaints, but my experience has been that once you figure out the instructions and act accordingly this thing is a superb gadget, by far the best portable audio solution I've encountered yet, and almost good enough to cause me to retire my minidisc recorder. Since the firmware's upgradeable, I expect this will get even better. I'm sure it will never be perfect, but it's already insanely great at what it does.
Rating: 
Summary: I had a bad experience too
Review: I guess it's hit or miss with this unit, and I was a miss. I'm returning it and will buy a Nomad, or maybe wait for a treoplayer. Pros: - it is very small and reasonably lightweight - comes with spare batteries - when I did get it working the preloaded music sounded good Cons: - the instructions are terrible (even with the errata) - batteries are hard to replace (you have to poke with a screwdriver) - supplied headphones aren't great. On top of this, it just didn't work... even after charging it, it kept switching itself off - only once did it stay on long enough to actually play music - which made installation of the drivers on my PC impossible. Tech support told me a firmware upgrade 'tomorrow' would fix it (hard to see how when it won't connect with my PC) and then that '80% of our problems are caused by Compaqs' (my PC is a Compaq). I wasn't convinced so I'm returning it; a shame because had it worked, it would have been good.
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Summary: Bad Experience with the Archos 6000
Review: The following is the letter I sent to Archos concerning my experience with their product ... To whom it may concern, I went out today to purchase Creative Labs 6GB Mp3 Player and came upon Arcos's version of this device. I was really excited about finding the same type of device but with a smaller footprint and for a lesser price( about 150.00 less). I had to admit that it was the first time I had heard of your brand name but I thought that it would be safe to take a chance ( the dealer did not know much about your brand name either). I purchased your MP3 (6gb capacity) Player and it was returned to the store within a one hour period. I pressed on the back of the unit (trying to gain access to the battery compartment) , it made a really nasty 'grinding' sound and gave me a Hard Drive Error. After that it just started this loop between the Error Message and Auto Power Off and back again. The store representative had had the same problems with the one they had just opened to put out as a demo. We could not figure out why this was happening (the only thing we could figure was that the backing on the units were not providing adequate protection for the hard drive). The batteries were also difficult, the instructions led us to believe that the front cover needed to be removed vice the side covers. I was really surprised how poorly the unit seemed to be designed. The store rep actually said that he hoped that the store would stop selling them because he (and I agreed) thought that the unit was going to be a real 'pain' to deal with. I was amazed that your company would represent itself with such a low quality device. Furthermore, I had attempted to reach your customer support line (Tuesday, December 26th between the hours of 1pm-2pm Mountain Time), and got an answering machine that stated that all techs were busy with other customers, please leave a message. That was not that bad until the message followed up stating that a message could not be taken. People, People, People .... do you guys believe that with these sort of devices (6GB capacity MP3/Portable digital storage device) being so new, you can really continue expecting your product to sell (poor design, bad service, ...). I really thought it was just me but when the store representative told me that he had had the same problems, I knew that I had made a bad choice going with your brand name. I will most probably be purchasing from your competitor, Creative Labs, the ratings/specs on their device look pretty good. I will also be sharing this experience with friends and family whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I just got this and it is so easy, i had it running in less than 5 minutes. It is very easy to put songs on the player, it appears as another drive and you just drag the songs onto it. You can also drag playlists! I had tried it with both Pc and Mac and it works equally well on each. Sound quality is superb especially when hooked up to a cambridge soundworks model 88. Highly Recommend to anyone.
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Summary: Simply the best!
Review: Waiting for this item to get in stockand finally shipped to me had me really anxious. This product is simply amazing. Copying files to it is simple. I thought you have a make a playlist and all that, but all do is take an existing folder of mp3s i had on my computer, and copied it to the jukebox drive. A whole cd takes only about 1 to download to the player. However, it takes 20-30 minutes to burn a cd with MusicMatch. Especially with the great price compared to other mp3 players I would definately recommend this product to everyone out there considering an mp3 player.
Rating:
Summary: Archos Jukebox Short On Sound Quality
Review: OK, for anyone interested, I thought I would post my initial feelings about the Archos Jukebox 6000. Some good some bad, with one really major problem. First the major issue...the sound. Anticipating the Jukebox taking a while to be available, I purchased the Phillips Expanium MP3-CD Player. Great sound, great bass, very deep full sound all the way around. So last night I compared the Jukebox to the Expanium as far as sound quality goes. The Jukebox sound was no where near the rich tones and fullness of the Expanium, especially when using the Expaniums "DBB" bass option. After tuning the Bass and Treble and playing with the Volume, the Jukebox still sounded really "tinny". The music had little depth and hardly any Bass. I hooked it up to the Boosteroo I have (an in-line amp)and though that helped a little, it was still very tinny sounding. I used five different sets of headphones I have for different applications, all performed great on the Expanium, all sounded weak and tinny on the Jukebox. I am very dissapointed in the sound in this Jukebox. The coolness factor is undeniable, transfer rates, ID3 Tag scrolling, and all the other technical factors are really top notch, but IMHO, the reason I bought this was because I love music, and for reasons of sound quality, I will have to think long and hard about whether I return this product, as much as I love the other aspects, because the sound quality simply is not up to my particular standards. Carrying a few RW discs around may be a drag, but the quality of the sound in the Expanium is vastly superior to the Jukebox, again IMHO.
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