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Archos Jukebox Studio 20 GB MP3 Player/Hard Drive 500204

Archos Jukebox Studio 20 GB MP3 Player/Hard Drive 500204

List Price: $269.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: All my music and room for more.
Review: I have hundreds of songs stored on my computer and so far have burned them onto CD. But this gives me the opportunity to have all my songs in my pocket. I have to agree about the batteries - they are horribly difficult to change. The headphones supplied are not bad, but I used another set of my own that I liked better. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize the folders and I wish there was one button for volume instead of having to go to the menu. It comes with Musicmatch software which I already have and I'm working on using it to transfer playlists. The drag and drop feature works great and you can't beat having an extra 20 gig hard drive. All in all, I think the Jukebox 20 is great.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Store your entire CD collection
Review: If you've read through the product description, you seen the good about the player. It's all there. I have a request of Archos though, controls - better controls. Since this is a hard drive, the music is all stored in directories. You can make one big directory with all the songs in one place, but then getting to the song you like is terribly difficult (next, next, next, ...). You can make each artist/album a directory, but then playing a varied playlist is difficult. I hope that they program firmware that works like the playlists I have on my computer. I pick a bunch of songs, save the list, and then the player plays them from the hard drive. Since there is no playlist feature on the firmware, you have to make all of your musically decisions before hitting the road for the most part. Think of the end result before you take the jukebox approach, all of you music in directories Vs. the 64 meg card players, where playlists are a card swap away. I like all the music in one spot. Nothing more to take, nothing more to buy... I'll find some clever programmer to make better firmware. Even the volume is a couple of clicks away instead of the old faithful dial I've grown to love.
Overall - great sound. With this much room, don't skimp on the the recording quality. Record at 160kps w/oversampling or better if your ripping software allows it. I beileve the player can do 256kps, I haven't tried 320 kps though.
Easy setup. Software and all. The CD that came with the player had the wrong driver, but a simple visit to Archos.com fixed that.
One last bit of advise - don't buy the car kit. If you've had a CD player through your tape deck before, if you've got headphones, you have most of the kit. The remote is nothing without an exact memory of what is on the player (you can't see the song directories since the screen is in your pocket). I also use this to carry 100's of digital pictures to bring to friends and family. Enjoy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I'ts better than ok, but not great.
Review: I was very impressed with the overall look of the unit. However, I was dismayed with the feel of the large, circular navigation button, which seemed to suffer from a cheap feel, and especially with the difficulty I experienced trying to change the batteries. This was especially awkward, as I had to use a screwdriver and ended up scratching the case badly. I still hadn't removed the cover, so I am dreading the day when I'll have to actually change the batteries. Also, it seems that you can only use rechargeable batteries Archos endorses.

I misread the ad for this unit. You cannot record onto the Archos Jukebox Studio 20 using any source--that's the capability of the HD-MP3 recorder. This one has no onboard encoding, so you must use a computer to record songs and files onto it.

The headphones are not very good, which forces me to use my own.

As for the actual performance, it was good. The USB interface is easy to setup and use. And it was great being able to use the Archos Studio as a second hard drive for my laptop.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome and Massive MP3 player
Review: Although a little heavier and bulkier than some of the memory-based MP3 players, this unit is still quite portable and will store your entire MP3 collection, so you can listen to anything you want, whenever you want. Rip your entire CD collection to MP3 format with the included MusicMatch software or any other software you prefer. Once you've filled the Jukebox with your MP3s, you're all set. As a bonus, whatever disc space you don't use for MP3s, you can use for backups for your main computer hard drive. It really is quite easy to use - it looks just like another hard drive when plugged into the USB port on your computer. I'm really enjoying using it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Almost perfect
Review: This is the mp3 player I have been waiting for. It does fit in a pocket, I carry it in my pants pocket no problem. Its a bit heavy for jogging but for anything else it good.

Battery life is 6-8 real hours. It runs longer on the included lithium batteries vs Alkaline. The included headphones look cool and sound ok but if you try a pair of good headphones (50+ dollar type) then this little player really comes to life, superb sound quality.

The USB connection works fine, it does a little over 1 megabyte/sec. So figure 3-4 seconds per song. It took me me a little less than an hour to transfer 1200 mp3s. Yes Firewire or USB-2 would have been faster but they are not as common, most people have a usb-1 port.

I like that it has various play modes like shuffle. And it supports two headphones. I picked up a sony car casset adapter, it really works well in the car.

You charge the batteries in the unit itself but you can use regular batteries if you need, even though the manual says not to. They are just worried you will try to charge alkaline batties in the unit.

I love it!!(...)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Too much hype, too little delivery
Review: This player represents the best and worst of what the MP3 player world has to offer:

1) a huge drive that can be used to store incredible amounts of information, including MP3s
2) a clunky and ugly piece of hardware that is too big to carry around (I wonder what pocket they are talking about in the product review? It sure doesn't fit into pocket of mine, except maybe my jacket pocket)
3) a USB interface, that is extremely SLOW and downloading all this information
4) a clutter of wires and adapters to keep it running for any length of time (AA batteries last no time at all)
5) no software to help synch your files

Like the rest of the PC world, you get what you pay for: a chepa product that SOUNDS like it's a good deal, but I should have held off and bought Apple's new iPod

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great storage capacity, questionable quality control
Review: First I'll start out with the bad stuff. The first Jukebox Studio 20 that I received died in the first couple of hours of actual use. After I spoke with Archos, they issued me an RMA number and a month later I received a new Jukebox. BUT... they send me the wrong one! They mistakenly sent me the Jukebox Recorder which is only a 6GB capacity. So, again, I called them up and had the Jukebox replaced. It took another 5 weeks to get my replacement. So after originally recieving my defective Jukebox, it took over 2 months to get a new one that actually work. Their customer support seems a little unorganized over there, and I grew tired of having to explain things over and over to people who either didn't understand english or didn't believe that my Jukebox was defective. Archos also doesn't have a toll free number, which means that you have to call long distance to Irvine, CA to talk to them. Why am I telling you this? When you buy a product, you are also buying their customer support. I believe people should be aware of these things before buying.

Now on to the good stuff...

I have now used the player for a couple weeks now and it has been working fine. I love the fact that I can put all of my CDs in mp3 format and have them all accessible. This has finally allowed me to listen to music more without worrying that my couple-thousand dollars worth of CDs will get stolen. The battery life is very impressive as well. I have been using my Jukebox during the day while I am at work and they last the whole time that I am there. Archos claims an 8-10 hour life on their rechargable batteries, which beats most of the mp3 players out there. The software that comes with the Jukebox is pretty good and will rip an entire CD in around 5 minutes or less on my computer at home. Sure there are probably better CD-ripping programs out there but it's nice that a package comes with the Jukebox. The Jukebox also comes with a little foamy blue carrying case that will help cushion your player from bumps while you are moving around.

The only complaint I have is mostly with the headphones that come with the Jukebox. They look snazzy, but the sound quality really isn't that great. But you can't expect a whole lot from headphones that come as an extra. The primary problem with the Archos headphones is that they can sound a little tinny and are extremely easy to distort if you turn the bass up on the player.

Also a note to joggers: I would be weary of using this while jogging or anything that would bump the player around a whole lot. Remember that the Jukebox 20 is essentially a miniature hard drive with a mp3 player attached to it in a little box. This means that there are spinning plates on the inside that are just as susceptible to damage as any other hard drive. Archos has done things with the Jukebox to adsorb shock, but think about it this way: would you take your computer hard drive and go out jogging with it? I wouldn't, but maybe that's just me. Personally, considering the price of this player I am extremely careful with it to make sure that I don't drop it or bang it against anything.
And one last thing, I'm not sure why Amazon lists 1.5v batteries here as "accessories" to the Archos Jukebox (check out near the top of the page), but Archos plainly lists on their website FAQ that if you use any batteries but theirs, you will void their warranty. Archos has stated in their FAQ that replacement proprietary batteries will be available from them soon.

All in all, if you're looking for a large capacity mp3 player for times when you are sitting at work or away, this is the one to get. I have been a little scarred by the whole defective/wrong item fiasco, but I am happy now with the unit that I have.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Great MP3 Player and Hard Drive
Review: I have seen reviews of this jukebox at another web site and some people seemed to think that it did not sound good when playing MP3 songs. However, I bought it anyway because I like the fact that I can use it as a regular hard drive.

After loading some MP3 files into the jukebox, I played some songs using my own headphones and they all sounded very good.

I love the fact that I could save many files from work and brought them home to work on. In the past, I had to put files on CD-R or CD-RW discs and it took a long time to do that. Although saving files to the jukebox is not as fast as saving it to a local hard drive on a PC, it is much faster than creating a CD for sure.

I would like to warn people who want to purchase this product that the manual that comes with it contains many errors. I was really having a hard time figuring out how to use a playlist and understand the menu options. The information found on the web site is not as good as it could be either.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exactly what i was waiting for
Review: I have been waiting quite a while for mp3 players to reach a point where they could do what i wanted. They finally can. This product blew me away. A few plesant suprises, like it's built in batery charger, was unexpected. I have been looking for an MP3 player, a second hard drive for my pc, a way of quickly transfering data from my home to my work without waiting for cd's to burn. Done, it does it all. Every album i own was on my pc, not their all in my hand, and i have room left for twice as many! another unexpected suprise was it's size, the picture is misleading i thought it would be large, it's smaller than a tape player walkman.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Love it, hate it.
Review: The Archos Jukebox Studio 20 is a fantastic machine. I have recorded almost my entire CD collection for it - to carry around in my hand. That aspect is great.
However, I have also had to change the batteries when the device seems to "die". - the rechargeable batteries are not forever, and the device will not work if the batteries are dead - even plugged in.
The real problem is, you have to be an engineer to get the new batteries in - take the machine apart, and stuff the plastic parts back in. It's quite a job.
Next time, I'm going the ask the sales clerk to show me how to change the batteries before buying the product.


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