ARCHOS mp3 HD Player Deals @ Best Buy (*DEAD* Classic mp3 @ CC)

[Atrac]

EDIT: DEAL OVER at CIRCUIT CITY...but Scroll down for Archos Deal(s) at Best Buy!!!

I'm posting this because I believe that this is a deal that got "lost in the shuffle" over the past few days. It has been mentioned in Circuit City's "Black Friday" list on here and in other forums, but I wanted to single it out because I bought one this morning and have been quite impressed with it. It's $229.99 on sale and has a $50 mail-in rebate ($179.99 plus tax on the $229.99 total).

It rocks! It supports mp3's and wma files, has a 10 Gig Hard Drive, and it very light and relatively small (compared to the Nomad Jukebox). It also supports recording from the Analog Line-in Function...very handy for recording on the go (although not pure digital).

Compared to the ipod from Apple at $399 (which only has 5 gigs of storage, BUT does have a Firewire connector while this Classic has a USB Connector) this is a great deal!

The store I went to didn't even have it on display. They had sold 0 Units thus far. The salesguy had to search for it on his system. If you're interested, the receipt refers to it as CLL CHD1000.

The only weak aspects of this unit is it doesn't appear to support storage as a Hard Drive through Windows Explorer (at least in XP). I'm hoping they release a Firmware Upgrade that will allow this. For now, you transfer files through Musicmatch software (and it's a FULL version...not a limited demo).

At any rate, questions and comments welcome. My thanks to the original posters who pointed this baby out in there Black Friday CC coverage.

Since Circuit City uses session ID's, I can only like to the picture here.

 

[taotun]

I am also thinking about getting this player. Great price compare to Archos or Neo and much smaller too. By the way, do you know if it has a "resume" function? I listen to audiobooks a lot and really need the resume.

Also, do you think we can replace the HD with a larger notebook HD? It would be nice to have a 30G jukebox.

 

[Atrac]

Unfortunately, it does not have a resume feature. The best that it does is remember the last song you were playing, but it does not "resume" to the exact point in the song that you were at when you turn it off.

I am not sure how, but it seems likely that you can upgrade the hard drive. Since you cannot access the hard drive from Windows Explorer (it does not show up as a drive), I am not sure how you would get the software off of it to install on a larger hard drive. I suppose you could hook it up to a computer directly and then copy the software off of it to the larger drive, but that would require some kind of notebook hard drive to desktop hard drive converter. Unless you have a notebook that happens to support two hard drives.

This all could change though if the rather unknown company comes through with "Downloadable OS" for upgrades and extended features (as the box optimistically indicates).

I hesitate to provide a link to their website, since the picture of the player is different. If you compare it with the actual unit that I linked on the CC website, it's very similar (and the same size)... the one on their webpage just looks cooler.

Cooler looking version of same player

 

[Burnt]

atrac: What mp3 players (hard drive based) show up on windows explorer as a removable drive? I'm just curious because that sounds like a better than using software

 

[HaVoC]

Too bad it doesn't appear to have an optical or S/PDIF output. This would be great hooked up to a receiver at home for a 10 gig Jukebox where you can use the superior DAC of the receiver. I'd like to have as much flexibility as possible with my MP3 Jukebox.

 

[Atrac]

Burnt: The Archos Hard Drive Based mp3 players show up as a disc drive icon in Windows Explorer. I also believe the one sold at Compgeeks.com does as well.

The one at Compgeeks does not include a hard drive and only lasts (according to their description) 1.5 hours on batteries. That alone makes it rather useless in my opinion.

I have seen the cheapest Archos model that doesn't record with only 6 gigs for $229 on Best Buy when it's on sale.

 

[taotun]

The mStation sold at Compgeeks are exactly the same as SSi/I-Omagic Neo. Both works as external USB drive so you can drag-and-drop MP3 files directly in Explorer.

The Neo accepts standard 9.5mm notebook HD and is very easy to upgrade. I am wondering if this Classic use standard HD or not since the player is not much larger than a HD. Maybe it's similar to the I-pod which uses a tiny proprietary HD?

 

[Atrac]

The iPod is actually smaller than this unit. I held the Classic up to my Laptop's 20 Gig hard drive and I can see that it would fit. Hopefully that's a good sign and not just "selective guessing" on my part.

On a sidenote, although this Classic is found on the EMI Global Website, it says it's made by "Combined Luck Industries, LTD." Why does that make me slightly nervous?

Sorry to rain on Classic/Combined Luck Industry's parade, but I found the OEM of the player: e.Digital

 

[Atrac]

I'd like to add that this unit's estimate of 8 Hour Battery Life is no lie. It is still going strong after 5 hours. Considering the incredibly weak battery life of other Hard Drive based mp3 players on the market, that makes this unit a very strong buy.

...also serves as a nice *bump* for my post.

In my continued effort to make this player "interesting" (Lord knows why...I guess I feel sorry for it?), I found some intersting information:

This mp3 player was apparently going to be called the "TreoPlayer" and was going to be released a few months ago. If you check out this page , you'll see that this never happened.

Here's a reviewer that is quite upset that it was never officially released: Disappointed TreoPlayer Reviewer . Note that the pictures in this review are of a very very similar unit. The Classic is slightly bigger and thicker though. But not by much.

The only thing I can figure is that the two companies involved had a falling out or *something* so "Classic" came along and purchased the hardware, design, and software and made their own version out of China (since the original was apparently going to be made in Korea).

And that is probably all I'm ever going to find out about how a no-name company like Classic could come up with such a good piece of electronics.

Maybe some Combined Luck played a part in it.

 

[sirfergy]

Did you find out if you could upgrade the HD?

 

[acedaddy323]

Is there one that you can hook up to your receiver and that has a a/c option so you don't have to burn up the batteries.

 

[S0me1X]

For only 179? Nice deal... now if I can find a store in Canada that sells this.
The webprice is 229 :| but it doesn't mention a MIR. Does the MIR come with the box?

 

[HaVoC]

I guess it's too much to ask for digital-output on players of this price range? Anyone know of one, other than a standalone DVD-player like an APEX that can do the digital output? My receiver has Optical input jacks on the front so it would be very convenient to connect this to have hours of music listening.

 

[Atrac]

I still don't know if you can upgrade the hard drive on this, I'm afraid. Although 10 Gigs seems like more than enough for my needs.

The unit comes with an A/C Adapter, so you have that to charge the internal battery as well as use it on it's own so as not to burn up the batteries.

The rebate receipt printed out of the cash register when I bought it...it did not have it in the box. If you buy it online, you can click on the "Rebates" tab at the top of the main page, then click on "Portable Electronics." The $50 rebate is there so you can print it out.

And I'm not aware of any portable devices like this that have an optical output, except of course for MiniDisc players.

 

[mwatson68]

Thanks for the heads up. I made a special trip to my local CC (Austin,TX). They had the unit on display but no price tag that matched it. Had to call another guy over and after pulling it on the computer was told that it's $279.99. Said I thought it was less but fine I'd keep looking. Was the lower price you mentioned only good for the Thanksgiving sale??
Curious, I just pulled up the CC website and sure enough, they list the unit as $279.99. I'm interested in this unit, or else I'll wait until the Nomad w/ 30 gig hd comes down in price. But the 8 hour battery life seems pretty unique.. especially when I find a few clones on Ebaay with 10-20 gig HD, but an estimated battery life of 90 minutes.. ouch!

Here's the CC link.. Nevermind, it's about 4 lines long with session id embedded.

Any idea how we'd find it for $179 still? Last thing, if I'd have found it for the lower price I received a CC snail-mail mail-in promotion offering discounts, $20 off $200-300 in this case, on Friday & Sat. which would have made it even better! Odd as I never usually get these mailers.

 

[kyutip]

really nice looking and tempting.
hmm, but somehow I feel suspicious of something.
Too unknown maybe.
But nice price, really nice.

 

[Atrac]

Unfortunately, this unit is no longer on sale. It was Friday & Saturday Only ($229 minus $50 rebate). I'll edit the title of this Thread to reflect the bad news.

 

[SirDante]

damn. pretty flaming deal there.

 

[Lizardman]

the archos mp3 player is onsale for $199.99 dollars down from 250. And you say this can act as a removable HD, if so this sounds like a better deal.

 

[Ash74]

Best Buy has the Archos 20GB version for $249 after rebate this week. Wouldn't this be a better deal since it's twice as much space and it can be used as a hard drive?

 

[SirDante]

BB Archos 20 Gig

Well this looks pretty hot as well!

 

[Atrac]

I owned the original Archos but ended up returning it because it had a major design flaw: the blue rubber protectors that hold the batteries come loose quite easily. If they are not exactly lined up on the unit when it is running on the batteries, the power fails. Worse, I had a lot of trouble just charging the batteries. It really became a MAJOR headache just trying to get it to turn on. I read in some newsgroups that this was a common problem and people were devising their own "fixes." Although I admire that, I think the responsibility should go to the manufacturer, not the user, to fix defects with the unit.

I'd hope that since this unit has been released in several new variations that they have fixed the problems.

 

[bpb30]

I have had the opposite experience with the Archos Jukebox. I think it is great. The 20GB for $249 at BB is a fantastic deal. Archos has had constant firmware upgrades that have fixed all of the early production model problems. The blue bumper issue can easily be fixed by slightly extending the spring battery contacts. I'm getting ~15 hours with 4 x 1600mah NiMH batteries and that will only increase as NiMH AA output increases (2000mah possibly)?. There is a version of the archos jukebox that records, sounds better than the original , AND has a SPDIF digital output. As a big fan of portable MP3 players I was looking forward to this Treo/Classic player but the proprietary battery system kills it for me. Rechargeable NiMH AA batteries are super cheap and readily available.

 

[Citrus538]

I have the recording model. There are more buttons which makes it soo much easier to use than the original 6GB and 20GB models. There's analog in, digital in, built-in microphone input, analog out and digital out.

 

[Atrac]

My local Best Buy in Southern CA has the Archos 6 Gig version for $169.97...no rebates or anything! I think that's a great deal for someone who doesn't need 20 Gigs and doesn't want to wait for a rebate. It is still $249.99 on Best Buy's Website.

So maybe the Archos isn't so bad after all. (Yes, I am a sucker for a good deal).

Link to Player on Best Buy's Site (Full Price)