Fantastic MP3 player with upgrade-ability
Written: Dec 28 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Upgradeable operating system via free open sources
Cons: Won't automatically play subdirectories (yet!)
The Bottom Line: If you decide to buy this unit, you will be richly rewarded with fantastic sound, upgradeability in capacity and in operating systems (Rockbox), at a GREAT price!!
|
|
|
| docrings's Full Review: Archos Jukebox Recorder 20GB MP3 Player |
I received this for Christmas after doing ALOT of research on all available portable players.
I'm a long-time MP3 fanatic and have had an indash RIO MP3 carplayer for over a year now, but wanted something portable.
In the last two days I have about 200 albums loaded on the unit, which was EXTREMELY fast when connected to my USB 2.0 PCI card I installed at the same time. Downloading 10GB took about 17 minutes.
I have Windows XP Pro, and when I connected the Archos to the computer with the included 2.0 compatible USB cable, it just "appeared" as another hard drive on my computer. Copying files was a simple as "copy" and "paste" of all my album folders onto the Archos icon. What could be simpler???
The second thing I did which I HIGHLY recommend is downloading the Rockbox operating system from rockbox dot haxx dot se (replace the "dot" with a ".") This completely independent operating system is loaded onto the Archos hard-drive and boots with the system. It was designed and crafted by Archos fans and geeks who love this unit, and share this with all other Archos users, and are daily upgrading it for more functionality. It even adds tetris to the operating system!
The Rockbox upgrade extends battery life, reduces background noise while playing, customizes fonts to your liking, loads playlists 200 times faster, customizes backlight times, variable pitch playback, and the list goes on. Archos is even considering adding this to the retail unit! If you don't want to boot the OS, you just move the OS file from the root directory, and the Archos firmware chip boots as normal (but who'd want to?)
The unit has great equalizer functions with bass/treble having -15 to 15 settings, 16 levels of loudness, 0 to 100% bass boost, as well as selectable stereo or mono output (good for lecture playback, etc.)
The unit can record three ways DIRECT to MP3 format!! You can record (1) with a microphone (lectures, concerts, etc.), (2) line-in from a stereo, etc., or (3) electrical digital-in (SPDIF) (from stereo, computer or DVD audio out). The unit also has digital OUT (SPDIF) as well, to output to your home theater reciever/amp for playback (no more CDs!, just put on the Archos with 2000 party songs in jukebox/shuffle playback over the home surround system!!!) If you don't have a digital "in" on your stereo, don't fret, just use the stereo out with the included 1/8" to RCA stereo connectors to the "AUX" in on your stereo. EASY!
Of course, there is earphone out as well for the majority of listening "on the go" in 1/8" output jack. Good volume, and I find myself listening at "80" or so. There is more volume for louder environments, but I use noice cancelling headphones from Wal-Mart ($50) that eliminate alot of the background "drone" you get on planes, trains and even at home (computer fans, A/C, etc.)
The Archos Recorder 20 comes with a carrying case, small AC adapter for charging (9-10 hours between recharges), and some slip on the ear headphones (adequate, but alot of afficianados have a favorite pair that would probably sound better), I like the full ear-cup style with noise cancellation.
The unit comes with MusicMatch software that is NOT required to use the unit. I haven't even opened the CD, as there are plenty of CD rippers to convert your CD's to MP3 format files. Copying the MP3's to the Archos does NOT require the software (unlike other portable MP3 players, like Creative Jukebox). The Archos is recognized as a hard drive and it's just "drag'n'drop" heaven!)
The new Archos Recorder 20's come with black corner bumpers which are totally cool! I didn't quite like the blue bumpers of the older versions, but the black bumpers look very modern and slick.
The only drawback so far is that the unit will only play one directory at a time, and not automatically play subdirectories. An example would be if you organized music by genre folder, with artist subdirectories with individual album subdirectories... so, you would not be able to just select "rock" and then get all the artists and albums with one touch of the "play" button. The way around this is to make playlists using the Archos playlist editor, or a bit more advanced is to make playlists on the computer and pasting them to the Archos. Not hard, but shouldn't really be required... The Rockbox folks are addressing this and hope to have it conquered soon! The Archos also has a "hard" limit of 400 files in any one subdirectory, but that's not really a concern the way I have mine filed. The Rockbox allows 10,000 songs in a playlist.
For the true geeks out there, the unit is user upgradeable as well (after the warranty is expired, of course!)... with a 40GB or 60GB laptop hard-drive formatted to FAT32.
The Archos rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) AA batteries are replaceable if you ever need to do so 2 or 3 years down the road, just pick up a set at Wal-Mart for $5-$10! (unlike the iPod batteries which are proprietary and cost $250 from Apple... oops they don't want you iPod users to know that!!)
The screen is more readable than I would have guessed for its size. The contrast is gradiently selectable to get it just the way you like via the menu. The iPod does have a bit better user interface, but it better for that price! Actally, the Rockbox upgrade doubles the useful information, and allows you to customized fonts on-screen, too... a nice touch.
The unit has a text file reader which converts text files to speech, but I haven't had need for that. Guess it would be a plus for downloading e-book texts for the car or train ride, or for the sight-impaired to "hear" email or books.
The CD also includes the drivers for Mac OS 9x/X/Cypress systems to use the Archos on the Apple computers. It uses the same drag'n'drop interface as the PC computers.
If you decide to buy this unit, you will be richly rewarded with fantastic sound, upgradeability in capacity and in operating systems (Rockbox), at a GREAT price!!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
docrings
|
|
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.