Home > Consumer Reviews > Archos 20 GB USB 2.0 MP3 Jukebox/Recorder/ FM Radio

I go out of town and country several times a year. When I am in town, I go on day hikes around the Bay area. I used to bring a portable radio and a portable CD player, with a few favorite CDs.
More often than not, I would regret not bringing a particular CD with me. Also, there were times when I wanted to record a program or a piece of music on the radio.
All these problems are solved with the Archos Player/Recorder/FM radio with a 20GB hard drive! I bought one about two weeks ago and it has met all my expectations so far. I had a little difficulty initially because the manuals were not as detailed as they should be.(BTW, this is my only gripe with this product otherwise the title would even better.)
This pocket size product with very good sounding headphones, weighs less than 11oz. On the 20GB harddrive, I am loading it with music from my CD collection. I am on my way to including over 200CDs, including a 64 CD set of an audio NIV Bible! Imagine having all this in the palm of your hand.
Each CD is converted into high quality MP3 files by the software provided ,called MusicMatch. You can vary the quality level as well as the sampling rate (which techie readers understand.) So far, sampling at 128kbps for music and 64kbps for voice, produced excellent recordings. I cannot tell the different between listening to the MP3 tracks vs the original tracks(using the same headphones as a test.) It takes MusicMatch about 6 minutes on my Pentium 3 computer to convert an average CD (but this is gated by the speed of your CD-ROM devices.
This product has a built-in microphone to allow you to record the proceedings of a meeting. Setting the sampling rate low, you can store up to 700 hours on the 20GB drive.
But the feature that makes this product different from other Archos and competitive products is the inclusion of a FM radio and the ability to record directly from this radio. The Archos product designers added a feature to have a 30 second buffer. That means, when you decide to record something you have been listening to, by pressing the record button, you will automatically get the previous 30 seconds recorded as well. I find this is a really smart and useful feature. Additional functions allow you to "chop" off unwanted beginnings and ends of a radio recording.
The installation of both the Archos unit and the software went smoothly without any hiccups. I am running Windows 98 on one computer and Windows 98SE on another. All the later versions of Windows and NT are supported according to the specs.
Archos promises to update the firmware for this product from time to time. The new firmware can be downloaded from the internet.
The unit is driven by a builtin Lithium-ion battery and when fully charged I can run the unit for about 10 hours.
So far I am more than pleased with this product- its functionality , its size/capacity and its speed. For the reasons above, this is almost a dream machine for me.

as you are going through these reviews trying to figure out whether or not this player is actually good let me clear some misconceptions. first of all tech support IS not reliable, but this does not relate to the player itself. second of all this player DOES have a pretty good battery life, some people have been exaggerating how short it is, the battery will easily run for at least 5-6 hours; the thing that misleads people is the battery display icon which is frequently wrong, so don't rely on it much. thirdly the sound quality is well above par no complaints here, the FM quality is good enough to listen to raido undisterbed most of the time, the recording features (voice and auido) are outstanding although the hard disk buzz is a little annoying, it coming on every 3 minutes or so, but its not really loud at all just a subtle little sound. lastly know what you are buying, a bigger than ipod player with fm, voice and auido recording capabilities that has a few minor, quirks. so basically if you're lookin for 20 gigs, the best sound quality and functionality in a small packag along with outstanding support for an mp3 ([PLAYER]) then go buy an ipod. i go with archos because its got everything that an ipod has plus functionality at a much smaller pricetag.

oh and one last thing the firmware on the player isn't much, but it's saving grace is the feature to upgrade the firmware (not necessarily through archos). i suggest using rockbox as it is much better, offering more auido, visal, playlist, labeling and ordering options. its much faster, provides an ACCURATE battery display, does NOT freeze up, offers good tech support, it allows you to keep your EXACT spot on the song you were left off at when you turn off the player, a text reader is also included allowing you to read text documents (good for online books!), and finally my favorite feature GAMES! on the rockbox firmware you can play 8 games, sweet! and they're not that bad at all. pretty fun to play while you listen to your tunes and kill time.

Let me first state that my family has two Archos devices the 20 GB Jukebox and the FM Radio/Recorder. These devices work wonderfully well if you understand computers and use the device exactly as told. I will try to describe some of this here. Unfortunately the manual that comes with the machines is not worth the paper it is printed on.

First before you ever download music from your computer, charge the batteries on the device for at least six hours. The hard drive is easily corrupted as the battery power runs down during tranfers. Additionally, you should keep the recorder charging while you are transferring music as this will help prevent corruption. NEVER remove the device from your computer without going through the safely remove process for removing peripheral devices from your computer for Windows XP or 2000. This will corrupt the hard drive.

Finally a few tips. You can listen to music while you charge the device if you push the start button and hold for five seconds. To put music in a playlist go to the song you wish to safe and hold the play button for three seconds until the cross appears next to the song. Then go to the menu to save this in the playlist. If you wish to move from the radio to the Jukebox, you must turn off the radio by pushing stop on the device. You can change the volume while listening to a song by pushing the up and down buttons on the recorder while the song is playing.

Hope some of this helps. If you use this correctly, it is much more cost efficient and as good functionally (not asthetically) as the iPOD.

I have needed an MP3 player with this kind of hard drive for a long time. The Ipod, which I have used, is a nice machine, but I think that the Archos is a better purchase. First of all, it is a LOT cheaper. For me, 20 GB is enough... I have 1500 songs on my Archos and have only used about 1/3 of the memory. The Ipod does not have a radio and therefore does not have a radio recording feature, either. The Archos suits my needs perfectly.

I could spend a lot of time describing the product, but instead I am going to point out the things I have encountered with the machine that either suprised me or agreed/were contrary to other reviews.

As a music player, this machine is probably like all others. Many reviews say that the product locks up, etc, but I have yet to encounter this difficulty. I found that the player's battery life isn't the 12 hours that the specs claim, but I always get through the day. I expected to be able to use the machine while it charged, but I found that you cannot use the system when it is plugged into an AC adapter. This was unexpected.

Since the Archos lacks an antenna, the radio stations are often difficult to hear. One review said that radio reception was excellent, but it has not been in my experience. The radio does work however, you just have to hold the machine in a certain spot.

The biggest problem with the set is the lack of user friendliness. I have had it for over a week now, but I still have not figured out much more than how to operate the basic functions such as listening to music and the radio. I have messed with the settings a little bit, but it is still difficult to unlock some features. You really have to know something about computers, etc, to figure this machine out. I would not reccomend it to someone with minimal computer skills. I have not figured out the voice recorder, the file cropping feature, how to delete files yet, or even how to use the playlists!

I would HIGHLY advise organizing your music directories on your computer before using this product. I have my files put into folders by artist and then album. It would be a mess if my files weren't organized.

The play features are nice. I am the kind of person who likes to put an album in and listen to it and only it-- the Archos reads from one directory at a time. Therefore, if I am in my Pink Floyd folder and am listening to "Animals," when that album finishes, it will not move on to the "Dark Side of the Moon" folder (which comes next alphabetically), but instead it will replay "Animals" until you move out of that directory. Some people think this is a downfall, but I like how it reads the directories. This feature is especially noticeable when you have the "random" setting on. If I am in the "Animals" directory and turn on "random," it will only play the files in the "Animals" folder randomly. In order to play multiple artists randomly, you have to create a playlist, which is fine (with me anyway). My favorite play mode though is called "queue," which should be self explanatory, but it basically means you can select the next song you want to hear before the song you are listening to is over. That way you can make your selection and be done with it when you are ready and can enjoy two songs without stopping to choose a new track. You can only queue one song at a time.

Some other minor things before I move on-- there is no hold button, which was a disappointment, but the "on" button is so hard to accidentally press, plus you have to hold it for a while to get it to turn on so it really doesn't matter. Also, people complain about the lack of an instruction book, but the software includes an interactive guide that shows you how to do just about everything.

And now for my biggest gripe and the most annoying part of this machine. THERE IS NO VOLUME CONTROL. You can change the volume, of course, but I am moving to an MP3 player from a CD player-- meaning this is my first MP3 player, and I am used to having a separate button for volume. On this player, you can only change the volume using the up and down buttons, but these buttons function differently depending on what screen you are at. If I am browsing my catalouge and someone starts talking to me, for example, it is not possible to turn down the volume, because in browse mode, the up and down buttons are used for navigation. Also, you can't exit browse mode. Once you go into it, you have to either select a new song, stop your current song, or wait 20 seconds until it goes away. By then, whoever was talking to you is probably done and you will have to ask them to repeat themselves. I guess that goes back to the lack of user friendliness. To make a long story short, the Archos has too few buttons doing too many tasks.

I spent a long time knocking the volume control, but that was really unexpected to me and is a hassle, but that isn't to say this isn't a great player. I am very satisfied with it. Like I said, I have only had it for a little over a week, though, and who knows what could go wrong in the future. I have not encountered ANY of the problems described by other people, though, and hope that I never do. I DEFINITELY reccomend this player to ANYONE who is even remotely interested in a large capacity MP3 player. For the amount of money it costs, it's better than the Ipod.

**Update: I have had this unit now for several months and have had NO problems, none of the problems listed in other reviews have happened. I have definitely gotten my money's worth of enjoyment from it. A definite recommend!

If I could have a "do-over" I would not buy this JukeBox. Everything needs to setup through MusicMatch. This is not a bad thing but it is not always "friendly". The problems I have are while the player is not plugged into my computer. It will simply shutdown for no reason. (Yes battery is fully charged.) This is their tech supports stardard answer to everything. Navigating a playlist is a simple function. However the player stumbles all the time. If I want to jump 5 songs ahead I should just push ">>" 5 times. This does not happen. I end up 3 or 4 songs ahead according to the display but I am now listening to the 2 or 3 song. To fix this tech support recommended cleaning the hard drive, this did not work. Then they suggested defragmenting the drive, this did not work. Then they suggested formating the drive, this did not work. I sent it in 3 weeks later I recieved a fixed unit. Same flaws.

When I use this a the gym I must strap it to the equipment to prevent it from shutting down. Both units act the same way. DO NOT BUY IF YOU WANT TO RUN with it on your belt. Even walking too roughly will cause it to shut down.

As a USB harddrive it works great. I can backup my files to it flawlessly. It has been recognized by about 5 different types of computers, no problem.

I have connected it to my home stereo and setup a playlist to last 6 hours to act as a virtual DJ. It worked great.

Connected it to my car, using a Generic FM transmitter, worked great. Battery lasted 4 hours. Ride was smooth enough that it did not shut down.

I know a few people that have iPods. They are more expensive but work well under all conditions. For now I am looking for a 128MB-256MB non-harddrive MP3 player for the gym.