Devotees of mobile audio are familiar with the dilemma: you've packed your CD case full of Pink Floyd or Yes but then when you have an opportunity to listen, you realize you really need Radiohead, or else you're in a mellow state but you left all of your Eno and Enya behind. Maybe you loaded up on Miles, but then you've got to have some Bach trios. You get the idea.

With this silver Archos box you'll never face this dilemma. We're talking about 20 gigs of storage, here, room enough to store every CD in your collection, more than likely, with enough storage to spare to include all of your Word and Powerpoint files and shuffle them between home and work.

But now I've got to admit to my real dilemma here. I know there are readers out there in Epinion land who are among the true audio faithful, pursuers of the chimerical high-end, people who'll blow a grand on a headphone rig without giving it a second thought. Forget about what they spend on their main listening room.

And those people might be stewing with the very suggestion that we could seriously consider an .MP3 device for serious listening. Fact is, they've got a point, so let's consider the sonic limitations of the .MP3 format, at least in this case.

Plug this machine into a decent sound system and you'll find the bass is muddled and undefined. Notes from the top strings of a bass guitar are accurate within about a third of an octave, and they tend to run together in a rather undefined mush. The sound image itself is quite undefined, owing to the fact that the .MP3 data stream is actually monophonic and a stereo image is recreated by the codec on playback. You may also hear a phase-shifted shimmering on high-frequency sounds such as cymbals which will have you wondering just which ear is supposed to be hearing them. MP3 is far from perfect.

Okay, enough ranting. I mention all of this only to emphasize the point that if you "grow up" listening to music in an .MP3 format, then chances are that you may cripple your listening ability in the long run because you'll never become familiar with the sound of an artist's actual intentions.

So, if you're going to commit to .MP3 listening, get thee to some decent source material on a good system from time to time, just to keep your ears honest.

Enough preaching.

As .MP3 players go, this Archos box is the state of the art. You cannot beat the storage space, or the rush that goes along with the thought that you're carrying every piece of recorded music you own. The sound quality through both the line output and the headphone jack is par for the course for .MP3 players.

The Musicmatch software supplied is very servicable for ripping your CD library. After that you use Windows explorer to transfer tunes to the player. Creating playlists with Musicmatch is a bit of a chore, but if you get it done according to the instructions, they'll work just fine.

Two complaints- the batteries shipped with the unit are proprietary nickel hydride units. There does not appear to be a source for replacements, and the documentation says normal alkalines will void the warranty. This could be a problem, if there is not a resolution.

Also, the unit shows a tendency to lock up under battery power. On many occasions I've had to pry out the batteries in order to get the unit to power up for mobile listening.

Fact is, these complaints are trivial if you absolutely must, Must, MUST have every single tune you own with you.

And if the mobile bug has bitten you that badly, you'll plug your ears against the wails of the Audiophile faithful.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 350