Archos Jukebox Recorder 20GB MP3 Player

Pros: Excellent Sound Quality, Simple Navigation, Rockbox-Enabled
Cons: NONE AT ALL. Best bang-for-buck I've seen in a LONG time.

Pros: Mac/PC, hi-capacity, lo-price, no software required, no copy protection, recording feature, open-source OS
Cons: A little bulkier than the iPod

Let me run down the long list of praises, offer some criticisms, and briefly include an iPod comparison.

For just over $200, you're not going to find a better feature set than this device. Highlights:

Every unit is Mac and PC...

Pros: Moderately priced, adequate controls.
Cons: Large, heavy, poor display, *not* Mac compatible

I was completely stunned by every aspect of this ghastly product. Firstly, it comes hopelessly seal ...

Pros: Fantabulous Storage, splendid sound, easy drag and drop files, batteries rock
Cons: A little heavy. CD recording issues with music match. Headphones blow.

This is an overall smashing product, and I'll tell you why.

Pros:

1. If you've got Windows XP or 2000, as soon as you plug in your Recorder via USB, it shows up on the desktop as "Mega Storage USB Drive", or conveniently,...

Pros: Great Sound, Lightweight, Durable, Easy USB Interface, Great Battery Life
Cons: On/Off Buttons, Included Carrying Case

The Archos Jukebox Recorder is everything that I hoped it would be. It is very compact with powerful sound. The included headphones are sub-par and should be replaced at your earliest possible convenience. Also, the supplied carrying case is less than...

Pros: Worth the price - a great gadget with great features.
Cons: A little larger than some of its competitors.

After my iRiver fiasco (see iRiver iFP-180T review for more info) I finally gave in and spent the extra hundred dollars for the Archos Jukebox Recorder 20. What a difference a hundred dollars makes!! This little jukebox has all the features you're...

Pros: Good possibilities for recording, great sound quality, portable 20 GB hard-drive
Cons: Heavy, clumsy, supports only MP3, menu-system

Do you have a large collection of MP3-files? Then listen to this. A portable MP3-player with 20 GB of storage and a super fast transfer through USB 2.0. Sounds interesting? If it does, then check out the rest of my review of the Archos Jukebox Recorder...

Pros: Storage size, OS upgradeablity, user community, ease of use, overall quality & heavy duty construction.
Cons: This unit (literally) smells. Not a joke! It has an unpleasant odor. BYO headphones.

I've replaced an older (slightly) MP3 player with this unit, and although my PDA can also play MP3s it doesn't have the volume or sound quality that the Archos provides & I really want to have a more robust music player. So while it has taken the place...

Pros: Upgradeable operating system via free open sources
Cons: Won't automatically play subdirectories (yet!)

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...

Pros: No copy protection, great built-in microphone, nice controls, great battery life, USB 2.0 optional
Cons: Slow navigation, poor in-unit file management, low volume output

I did extensive research before purchasing this unit and chose it over the iPod because of its recording capability and its ability to accept regular AAA batteries in case I was unable to recharge the NiMH ones (I'm planning on doing some traveling)....

Pros: Compact, good sound, high capacity, needs no software.
Cons: poor display, cheap headphones, short battery duration, locks-up frequently

This item looks good and delivers excellent sound, and needs no software -- it becomes another disk ...

Pros: Reliability Sound Size Price
Cons: VBR recording only

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...

Pros: digital in/out low cost/mb solid unit fast interface
Cons: bad interface bad documentation tiny screen

We got one of these for my dad, so he could carry around his music collection. For those who have not seen them, they are a very nice unit, and are much smaller than they seem in the photos. The device is about twice the size of my original palm pilot,...

Pros: Pocket sized, storage capacity appearance, sound quality, batteries
Cons: Display appearance, quality (or lack thereof) of included headphones

This was my first product from Archos and I was a bit hesitant as I had'nt seen anyone else with one. However, after purchasing, I'm an Archos fan forever. This is a great product, of which, I have a hard time finding any real complaints about.
...

Pros: 20 GB Simple File transfer Size of a cassette tape
Cons: Non-intuitive User interface Weak Playlist feature Heavy

20 GB...it makes those 128 MB players seem like they're from the 90's. 1/150th of the amount of space.

Definitely the best feature is the ease of connectivity to any NT based system (Windows 2000/NT/XP). Most computers that I have connected to...

Pros: Lots of memory, Inexpensive, nice portable hard drive
Cons: Very low quality, very heavy

I thought I was the only one who had problems with this product because the reviews have been good. Someone in my office had the same problems with the screen going out. Without the LCD screen, you can't play MP3s.

Now mine functions as a...

Pros: cheap, half as much as an IPOD
Cons: crappy construction, crashes my PC, loses data regularly!

so i decide i want to treat myself to a large storage device because my minidisc player, while reliable, is limited.
a friend at work had this unit and so i asked him what he thought as i had read mixed reviews everywhere else (other than here!)...

Pros: Holds a lot of data/not only songs.
Cons: Hard disk errors.

Okay this is my first review so I hope you find it helpful.

This player allows you to upload any mp3 music and you can store them in playlists. I use MusicMatch to format my lists. It holds a lot of music and can even be used as a portable...

Pros: memory, size, weight
Cons: menu system, battery loses charge, interface with PC, USB slow, random button function

I have the FM Recorder. When it works it seems great, but there are too many niggles.
(1) It takes several shut down/re-start attempts to get the PC to recognise it's there (no problem with other Plug & Play items)

(2) It won't start up...

Pros: compact, great storage capacity, long battery life
Cons: lags or hangs when heavily loaded

If you ask me, Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 is the mp3 player we've all been dreaming to own ever since the term MP3 entered our lives! The player promises a storage of 20GB which is practically the storage of your PC! It can store upto 5,000 songs and...

Pros: 20gb
Cons: no reliability, horrible customer service.

within three weeks of purchasing this product for $279 tax, it became totally useless, (would not turn on) so i call customer service and their general attitude, (instead of being apologetic and trying to right the situation) was "well thats too bad,...

Pros: Very efficient and fast. Good sound Quality
Cons: Small viewing screen, somewhat heavy.

The Archos Mp3 Player is by far the best portable mp3 device on the market. The best feature about this player is that you can put basically your whole CD collection onto this machine. It has great sound and easy to follow directions. The only negative...

Pros: Seemed to have a lot of great features
Cons: Unfortunately after 15 minutes of use it stopped working

I bought this unit and spent many hours getting my music collection loaded on it only to have it fai ...

Pros: Recording options, Open source firmware, sound quality, battery power, 20GB data storage, internal microphone
Cons: Disk motor noise for internal mic, mp3 only support, cons are low

This is absolutely the best mp3 player/recorder out there hands down. It has features and interfaces that the other ones don't have yet. As I began to study all my choices for personal players/rec, this one stood out because of what it can do. It beat...

Pros: Small size, no CDs, HUGE hard drive,
Cons: I guess the LCD is kinda small, but definitely not a big deal

Man, I love this thing. Remember while reading this - I basically only use this in my car.

Ok, I used to have a Philips Expandium MP3 CD player. I got it about a year and a half ago. I really liked it, but there were some major drawbacks....

Pros: the pros of this mp3 player is the easy pc connection and interface
Cons: kind of cheap easy to scratch plastic.

this would be a great gift idea for the music junkie you know and/or love. This is a product i have used before and there aren't enough cons to its name for you not to buy it. It is a easy to learn and use piece of equipment that isn't too costly for...

Pros: Low price, huge storage, recording input
Cons: Haven't found one yet

I use it on my Mac. I use it on my Wintel box. I record my vinyl LPs to MP3 files. I record rad ...

Pros: Good value Nice display Decent volume
Cons: Battery Life Headphones (easy to replace)

This product is a reasonably good buy. It holds an amazing amount of music for the price. But its short battery life (3-4 hours) is quite frustrating, especially the gauge -- as soon as it goes from 3 to 2, that's it, so you don't even have any warning! As long as you can charge it up every few hours, go with the Archos. If you're on a long trip, though, you're out of luck.

Pros: Buy a Maha charger and rechargeable batteries and throw the Archos charger away.
Cons: Why use an A/Male to A/Male USB cable. Finding a spare required mail order.

ROCKBOX!

rockbox.haxx.se/

This firmware replacement took away almost all of the complaints I had with the Archos firmware. The upgrade is a piece of cake. Go to the site and check it out.

Pros: Easy to use, good sound, lots of room for music or files.
Cons: Beware the HD Register Error gremlin. If you get it, good luck. You'll need it.

I bought the Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 because it was the most reasonably priced of the hard drive-based MP3 players at the time. After discarding the uncomfortable earphones that came with the unit and replacing them with a better pair, I loaded all my music onto the Jukebox. Performance was flawless at first, and the addition of the RockBox file manager overcame the quirky Archos operating system faults.
However, that was then. Now, the unit will run through one battery charge okay, but after charging will have "HD Register Errors". The Archos site tells you if charging the battery doesn't fix this, you will have to reformat the hard drive in the unit. What they don't tell you is just how you do that with a unit that refuses to boot. There is no help at all on the website for units that consistently refuse to boot up.

I love it. I bought this recorder because i wanted something that would hold a vast amount of mp3s, double as a portable hard drive, and could go anywhere. I didnt buy this just for the sake of listening to music (altho i do that a lot). For one, I have an audio input on my car stereo, so I can hook up this Recorder and essentially have a 200 disc "cd changer" at my fingertips. I also can pipe it through my home stereo and create my own radio station :-) I can also transfer anything i want to and from my computer. All this is possible with the hookups the Recorder comes with (except the input jack line for my car stereo). I have since upgraded the batteries to NiMh 1850mA that i got at Walmart for $12. Now it lasts a few hours longer per charge. My only complaint is the weight of it (I cant go excersizing with it). I used it a while ago when i had to recover my computers OS.

I bought this player because on of my friends has one and he said it was awsome. I bought one right away for use in my car. It is all highway driving too, so I am not running over pot holes. I drive 8 hours a day, and I left it on the whole time. Sometimes it would work the whole time and some times it would run out of powr at 4 and 6 hours. I also found that it SUCKs in a car. Later I found out that my friend uses his in the office, and it never moves. You have to defragment the thing almost once a week. Not to mention that mine broke in 15 days. Ohh, do not nuy this product from BEST BUY either. They will not help you in any way.

Purchased this MP3 player when I was looking for a device that would store all my music and would double as a voice recorder. The archos jukebox does both reasonably well. To my dissapointment, this MP3 player can not play windows media player files - it will store them - just not play them. Otherwise, device works great as a portable hard drive. Interface is a little basic and creating directories directly through the device rather than on a PC is very slow. But all and all, a good purchase.

i like this mp3 player a lot. althouhg it is a little heavy and bulky and at first the software was confusing to install after every thing was staightened out it worked fine.it hplds so many songs i have put most of my cd collection on it and there is still tons of space left. easy to use controls and easy to figure out. sound quality was good but when i added 20 sony head phones sound quality is perfect. all in it is a great mp3 player

i got my archos for christmas and it is sweet. i use it everyday at school and have had no problems with it. My brother got one to and no problems there either. i like tht way it is ass set up and it is pritty durable i have dropped it a few times and nuthing has gone wrong. If your looking for and mp3 player i would recomend it for the price it is diffinetly worth it.

I got this Mp3 player as a Christmas gift. I opened it...turned it on, and to my surprise, without any charging...it went on. I read the manual...saw that I had to charge it for 6 hours. GREAT. I'll play with it after dinner on Christmas night! When I returned from dinner it said the unit had a full charge. When I pulled the AC line out, and hit the on button,,,N-O-T-H-I-N-G...no green lights, no red lights, no lcd...no nothing. Big disappointment. No tech support...no toll free number...their supporting literature is aweful, and thier website is worse. Overall, I'd say avoid the archos. It shouldn't be this hard when you spend 300.00ish, should it?

i bought this because i needed a voice recorder and wanted an mp3 player. it worked very well. there were a few problems such as the speed of the processor while shuffling through the tracks and the noise from the player while recording. also the batteries take a very long time to charge. this player was a very good buy for me though. i put all of my music onto it and i'm ready to go. i take it everywhere. it even saves the setlists of live concerts that i've got on file. definitely a good choice.

Came with *registered* recording software, not just free version. Software also lets you set up how it will organize songs automatically, so *you do not* have to do it manually unless you forgot to specify before recording, or don't use computer. Very easy. Archos has online and telephone tech support printed in the manual. Online responded to my ?'s in about a day. Charge battery while asleep. Great for work, or the car especially. Love it.

I bought a jukebox once, and that was surely the last time i held one, i now use an 20 Gb iPod it has much more features and can hold Contacts, Calander and more, Jukebox, is bad, it crashes some time (Way To much), wenn i show my friends my iPod, they all say: WOW, then: how much did it cost? Well the iPod costs more than the Jukebox, but is Way better, and sure is worth the price.

I am now on my third Jukebox 20. The first was returned to the store after two days of ripping from my CD collection only to have the unit crash when I was nearly finished with almost 400 CDs worth of data. The 2nd unit worked o.k., but only lasted < 3 months. The sound could be better. Lots of popping / static when switching tracks or power on/off. No balance control. Included headphones suck. There is about a 1 second delay between consecutive tracks, which is annoying if you have any music that starts on one track and continues, such as in musicals. Battery life is better if you remove the batteries and recharge with an external charger. (I get up to 9 hours use.) Now on the 3rd unit (thankfully I backed up all the .mp3s to CD the 2nd time) these are not very reliable. BIOS is buggy and has not been updated as of today’s writing in over a year. Only plays MP3 format, not MP3PRO, WMF, etc. etc. Next time I’ll look at units from Apple (despite the high cost) or other vendors.

The unit is pretty durable, ok you can read wordpad documents as well which is good... but then there's the bad part: THE SOFTWARE SUCKS! no ability to browse by artist or record or genre... nothing!... you basically have to scroll thru your whole library which take a long time when your got 700 songs or put them all in sepperate folders based on artist or genre or something which really sucks. I just wish they'd come out with some browsing software so when i wanted to listen to industrial music i would type industrial in a search field and all my industrial music would pop up and play continuously... and that brings me to my next problem: if you create playlists you have to play them from beginning to end; you can't skip songs! i kinda wished i would've bought the CL Nomad Zen, which has the software i wanted.. bestbuy told me the archos 20 was the best MP3 on the market. fuck bestbuy!

the biggest issue i had was how to get albums to transfer to the device in track order. called archos, turns out you need to go through and add numbers before the titles, which is a pain, but once done is okay. i love the wide selection of music available to me now, and for a very good price (I understand the ipod is much better, but at $500 the price difference is pretty substantial)