Archos Jukebox Stereo Microphone

by Archos

Product Details

• Item Weight: 12 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000096B00
• Item model number: 100878
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 14, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Jukebox Recorder Stereo Microphone is the perfect accessory for your portable Jukebox Recorders, FM Recorder, Jukebox Multimedia, AV100 & AV300 Series. The Jukebox Recorder Stereo Microphone allows you to record any 'live' performance in stereo sound.

Just plug in the specially designed microphone into your Jukebox Recorder or Jukebox Multimedia and you're ready to record any lecture, speech, or presentation!

• General information: Jukebox Dynamic Stereo Microphone
• Works with: Jukebox Recorder, Jukebox Recorder 10, Jukebox Recorder 15, Jukebox Recorder 20, Jukebox FM Recorder, Jukebox Multimedia 20, AV100 Series, AV300 Series
• Package Includes: Dynamic Stereo Microphone

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable if you want to record with a Jukebox Recorder, August 11, 2003

By 

Nuits Blanches in Seattle (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Archos Jukebox Stereo Microphone (Electronics)

I give it 5 stars for the value, as well as for the more than adequate quality for its intended home audience.

One of the reasons I bought the Archos Jukebox Recorder (AJBR) was its ability (at the time pretty unique) to record live. I was quickly disappointed with the quality of the recording, though. The built-in mike, albeit very convenient, picks up every noise the hard drive makes. It seems that every 30 seconds or so it starts spinning to save to disk what has been recorded, and the startup noise and the whirring really screw up whatever you're trying to record. Adequate for quick note taking, or possibly for a lecture, for instance, but not for any recording that needs to be as pristine as possible, like little Johnny's first recital. Fortunately, you can use and external mike with the AJBR. Unfortunately, not _any_ mike will do: you can't just plug in one of those convenient mikes that came with your computer, as the Recorder requires a pre-amped input. You need a battery powered pre-amped microphone.

The Archos microphone is quite adequate, and its price can't be beat. Regular pre-amped microphones, which are not that easy to find in your average music store, start at a much higher price, and pro-level setups will be more expensive than the AJBR... Quality-wise, I'm sure that those other microphones will provide better performance, but for everyday recording, it works just fine and totally gets rid of the harddrive noise. It's also quite adequate for home-quality voice or music recording. The stereo lapel mike is small enough, and has a clip to attach it, well, to a lapel - not so hot if you want to mount it on a stand or whatever, but it's not to hard to rubegoldberg a way to rig it. As it plugs into the preamp through a regular jack, you can also replace it with another more convenient and/or better mike if you want. The preamp is quite unobtrusive and can be hidden easily, and it has a clip to secure it to pants or shirt. I can't vouch for actual battery life: I've had the same AAA battery for probably 8~10 hours of recording over a couple months, and it's still holding up.

Caveat - make sure to choose Line-in in the input menu. If you keep "Mike", the built-in mike will be still selected and active, and you'll end up with the same crummy quality.

A bit off subject, but another warning still related to the mike usage: the AJBR is brain-dead when it comes to naming files - and as you already know if you own an Archos Jukebox, the manual is a useless mess. A new recording will use the last file name you entered, and stealthily overwrite your previous recording :-( BEFORE starting the recording, you should surf on into the folder where you want to store your file, and change the filename in the Record menu. Then you can launch the recording session. (Of course, if you use the wonderful Rockbox instead of the OEM software, the process is more intuitive and safe.) One nice feature, though, is that once you've started recording, you can hit the F2 button to create new files on the fly, sequentially numbered. Nice to, say, store your schoolband's various fighting songs in separate files. You can pause with F1, and stop the recording with F3. Don't forget to use the Lock feature to avoid messing your recording: press and hold the ON button for a few seconds. Pressing ON again will unlock the other buttons.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From a sound engineer..., December 17, 2004

By 

Randy Sofia "Randy" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Archos Jukebox Stereo Microphone (Electronics)

This microphone needs to be used for exactly what it was intended in order to sound right (recording a speaking engagement). It's a lapel style mic but actually has two different microphones in it: one for Left, one for Right (stereo).

If you are unaware of this you may pin it on your shirt wrong. It should not be pinned with a microphone facing up towards your face (vertical). If you do this then the other will be facing the ground and result in lower volume and more noise. It should be pinned with the microphones facing to the left and right (horizontal).

This is not standard for lapel mics but works well to reduce mid and bass when placed directly on the neck.

I'm guessing the engineers did this to make up for the price and the lack of sound experience on the part of the user. The device uses a AAA battery and so obviously you are not going to get enormous gain. In order to make up for it you HAVE to place it at the top of your shirt, hence why the horizontal position was chosen.

To get a decent volume you must place the Gain all the way up on both the device and recording instrument (I used an Archos Gmini 120). It picks up even a whisper relatively clear.

I am satisfied with the microphone but think they should have included these tips with the product.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Noisy, weak, and horrible., May 30, 2004

By 

A. K. Smith "buddyroo" (Lawrenceville, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Archos Jukebox Stereo Microphone (Electronics)

I read the bad review and thought maybe the guy hadn't set things right. I made sure I had the best settings --- quality 7, 48 KHZ sampling, stereo, source "line in", and made sure the gain was set high. The results still sound like crap: recording my wife's choir from about 15 feet away, there was lot's of noise and the signal was very weak so you had to turn the volume up to the highest level to hear anything (which makes the noise all the louder). It might be that the line-in on my Archos Jukebox Recorder is bad/noisy, but anyway you're not going to get anything decent with this. In fact, except for the hard-drive noise, the built-in Archos mic sounds much better than this (can even get it to record in Stereo if you use Rockbox). Summary: do not buy this; instead record with a DAT or minidisc (or good PC soundcard) and good mic, or be content with the built in mic which actually isn't that bad in my opinion.