Archos 20G MP3 Recorder
Written: Dec 07 '02 (Updated Dec 07 '02)
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Pros: Reliability Sound Size Price
Cons: VBR recording only
The Bottom Line: Affordable, reliable, it works as advertised (and beyond) and it is the ultimate toy for those of you who are wired in "tweak" mode!
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| joshez's Full Review: Archos Jukebox Recorder 20GB MP3 Player |
I'm very satisfied with this device. Already got 2 of them, one for my brother, and one for myself. Both units perform flawlessly and as advertised.
I'm using it as a MP3 player( either at work or in my car) and as a data storage device to carry my work projects home and back to work. It has USB 2.0 and the data transfer is FAST! Of course it is compatible with older USB as well, so it will work with any machine you may have, providing that you have USB ports. Recommendation: when in USB mode, have the power plugged in as well, there are some reports that people had some problems transferring files when the unit was on battery, probably because it was not fully charged... I never experienced this, though.
Great, loud sound and good sound controls, battery seem to last forever (tested at 11 hours!). Never had any problem with either of the units. Compared to competition, this is the best of them in my opinion. One of the competitors is grossly overpriced, and the other's unit is just to big (larger than CD player).
So far I have 290 CDs on it (compressed at 128 kbit, but you can go up to 320), all my work (three huge VC projects) and still have 6Gb free space!
If you wish, you can replace the Archos OS with open source Rockbox OS, so this is the ultimate toy for you hackers out there as well! This unit can do WHOLE LOT more than just play MP3s, the display is large enough to even run waveform (demo project in Rockbox). Oh, by the way - you can replace the built-in HD with bigger one, but anything over 20Gb can be used for data storage only (has to be separate partition due to FAT32 limitations). But then you do have the entire 20G for MP3's only. Of course this will void warranty - I'm adding this info just for these hardware geeks out there...
The only problem I have is that it records in Variable bit rate, so the recording has to be first converted to the fixed bit rate before it can be chopped into separate tracks. But if you record in the highest quality, the recording is really clean and hence suitable for further processing.
I never needed customer support, so I can not help there.
Since this is hard disk based device, it is not suitable for use while running. I did try few times, most of the time everything was fine, but then it stopped on me twice (it has built-in vibration sensor and stops the HD if the vibrations exceed safe threshold). So I decided not to take chances.
If you looking for MP3 player, hell with these 128Mb units that cost just little bit less than this 20Gb monster!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 230
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Epinions.com ID:
joshez
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Reviews written: 1
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