Archos 20 GB USB 2.0 MP3 Jukebox/Recorder/ FM Radio

by Archos

Product Details

Product Manual [1.43mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007JQLJ
• Item model number: 500326
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,857 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

• Listen to the radio on your built-in FM tuner, store 300 hours of CD-quality MP3 music through the use of a computer, or record straight from the built-in FM tuner or any other analog or digital audio source.
• 30-second retro-recording buffer
• Use the built-in microphone to turn it into a voice recorder during meetings or use it to remember important ideas that come to you while you are on the move. The voice record capacity is 700 hours.
• Take your data with you by storing it on to the 20 GB hard disk, using the speed of the USB 2.0 interface.
• Store any combination of MP3 music (from CD, built-in FM tuner or other audio source), voice and data up to 20 GB

Product Description

20 GB MP3 Jukebox with FM Radio and Voice Recorder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is almost a dream machine!, December 10, 2002

By 

Ang L. Lim "drliplim" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Archos 20 GB USB 2.0 MP3 Jukebox/Recorder/ FM Radio (Electronics)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars top notch player with minor quirks, December 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Archos 20 GB USB 2.0 MP3 Jukebox/Recorder/ FM Radio (Electronics)

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trying to Answer Some Questions, November 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Archos 20 GB USB 2.0 MP3 Jukebox/Recorder/ FM Radio (Electronics)

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.