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Archos Jukebox 6 GB MP3 Player/Recorder/Hard Drive 500201

Archos Jukebox 6 GB MP3 Player/Recorder/Hard Drive 500201

List Price: $349.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Archos Technical Support
Review: My review is not directed solely at this product, but at the Archos technical support. That support is virtually non-existent. I have tried numerous times over the last month via both email and phone to reach their support team, but have had no success. I have sent 4 separate emails, and called twice. I have received no reply to my email (not even the friendly "auto-reply" that at least reminds you that their email server works), and spent a few of my own long distance dollars on interminable hold since they do not have a toll free number. I even called the main number in Irvine and got the sympathetic receptionist to try to connect me to the tech support staff. Despite her willingness to help, she wasn't able to pull that off. After a little coaxing, she did give me the direct email addresses of two of what she thought were the more responsive members of the technical support staff. That didn't help either. Still no reply. All this is necessary since (depending on which Archos product you buy) you may or may not have any technical support info available to you on their website. In my case, there was none.

If you feel that an Archos product is a "must have", keep the receipt. Your only recourse may be to return it if you have ANY problem with it after purchase. I doubt that you will get anywhere with their technical support program. Good luck.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awsome--my first player!!
Review: Ok i just got this mp3 player for xmas,but i got the 20 gigabyte one,which i heard was alot better, this player has enough internal memory that you dont have to worry about expensive memory cards,,,you will never fill it up, i didnt find one flaw except the headphones that come with it are a bit flimsy,i would sugest buying a new pair,,but other than that its the best piece of of equipment i have everv had, but i suggest spending the extra 100 dollars for the 20 gig player over all i wouldnt give it up for nothing

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great MP3 player
Review: Slight learning curve at first, but its proven its worth.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't waste your cash, you'll thank me later, believe me.
Review: Strongly recommend Amazon.com remove Archos product line from online store. Have you heard the ol' saying,"if it sounds to good to be true...", well Archos uses this for the worse. Archos 800# is disconnected, Archos support is almost non-existant via the only source of help...Email, Customer support when found is no help at all, making the player/recorder work is very tedious and tiresome, you always have to be looking for something else to make the player function correctly with your computer by downloading and upgrading different plug-ins, software, & running configurations through online web-sites, the included software seems like it doesn't even belong to the Archos product, the player/recorder comes with two sets of four batteries because the batteries mess up very often and you can only use Archos batteries...how convenient, the headphone sound is a waste of ears...terrible, very low..."a software issue"...Archos says, the hard drive is very noisy...kind of sounds broken, the hard drive is very slow, the menu on the unit is very time consumming...you always have to be changing around through the menu options...takes forever to search through tracks, corrupt files, corrupt hard drive errors, lost mp3's, folder errors, assigning group folder errors, drive freezes,TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, "SKIP THE TROUBLE OF WHAT I WENT THROUGH AND SAY NO TO ARCHOS". Have five friends returning theirs too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent multipurpose tool
Review: The Archos Jukebox is an excellent little multipurpose tool that has replaced my Sharp 722 Minidisc unit as my primary music unit. Of course it's an excellent MP3 player, but I've been using it more and more as a portable HD between my work and home computers. I had some problems with the provided USB drivers for Win2000, but I found better drivers at another site (it is now very well-behaved and shows up as a removable Fujitsu hard drive on my Win2000 desktop).

The MP3 functionality is outstanding. The large screen is very nice; it shows six lines of informational text at a time, which allows you to navigate through your folders easily. I cannot overstate the importance of navigational ease, since you'll end up with 6 GB of MP3 on this machine! You will definitely want to create a well-defined hierarchical tree to keep your files organised. The playback quality is fantastic as well. The sound is in fact too loud -- the lowest volume setting is a bit too loud for me when I'm trying to fall asleep to music (I use a Radio Shack analog volume controller between my headphones and the Archos). You will not have any qualms about sound quality on this machine.

The only cons I can state are: (1) the battery covers are very cumbersome; (2) the paint on the buttons are bit cheap; (3) the manual is written by a 12-year-old.

Other pros (besides what I wrote above) are: (1) battery recharges within the unit with the included AC adapter; (2) recording functionality (which I've not yet used); (3) rock-solid feel; (4) boots in under 5 seconds; (5) easily installable upgrades (just drop a file into the root directory); and (6) extremely small size for such large capacity -- it has a very small volume and is much smaller than the TDK Mojo CD-MP3 I used to have.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Instructions would be helpful
Review: The Archos Jukebox Player-Recorder is a great piece of hardware that is almost unuseable for lack of user-friendly software to drive it. It looks sharp, feels great in your hand, and has a legible display, but after spending 5+ hours trying to figure out how to use it, I'm ready to give up! The instruction booklet is inscrutable and I still have not been able to organize and play the songs I've copied to the disk. Take a lesson from Apple and make it EASY for human beings to operate. Otherwise its just an expensive doorstop.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good Recorder, BAD Player
Review: The Good
Despite all the negative reviews, I went with the Archos Jukebox Recorder because of its recording capabilities. I was looking for something to replace my DAT recorder (D8) for concerts as well as an alternative solution to convert all my DAT tapes to MP3s. Well I can tell you that after a week of use it works great for recording. You can record about 2 hours (mp3) at the highest quality (160kbit) on a full charge of batteries. I have yet to find a flaw with it's recording capabilities.

The Bad
The Player SUCKS! Every two minutes or so it'll stop and buffer for about 1-10 seconds (This is a known problem with the product). Then it'll pick up where it left off. Extremely annoying! I almost chucked it across the room at one point. Weird cause, when it records, it doesn't miss a beat.

The Ugly
Replacing the batteries is a royal pain.
The earphones are cheap.
USB is slow
Slow scroll to view entire name of file
Takes about 10 hours of charging to get maybe 10 hours of play

I haven't decided if I'm going to return it yet. It's almost worth the price just for the portable digital recording capability, if that's important to you. But if you want a MP3 player with a lot of space, I'd stay away from this product.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What a shame
Review: The idea is *so* cool, and the Archos guys are *this* close to getting it right. The sound is great, the ease of use is amazing (plug in USB, see drive, drop song in place, play).

But that's as close as they get - the finish of the unit, the crappy controls, the hopeless manual, and last but not least the fact that the thing fails repeatedly after only a couple of months use renders it pretty much a waste of money IMHO...Shop around for something better, or wait until Archos get purchased by some big name tech outfit that can deliver the QA and support required for a device of this kind.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Archos buyers beware
Review: The thing worked great for a year. The recording function did a great job transfering a bunch of vinyl to mp3, and the sound was good. Then the AC adaptor cord broke. Couldn't just use a Radioshack replacement, so I gave ARchos another 30 bucks for their version. Then the power started crapping out for no apparent reason. I've tried new batteries, new software and everything else, including Archos customer support, which is absolutely non-existent crap. Now the thing only runs when plugged into an AC outlet, making it rather useless. Archos buyers beware!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The BEST
Review: This is a great mp3 player/recorder, it has by far the most features. I love this thing, it is like a child to me.


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