Warm: Archos Jukebox FM Recorder with 20Gig HD ~$222 at BB (AC, MIR)

[Mehdi]

Bestbuy has the Archos Jukebox FM Recorder with 20Gig Hard disk & USB 2.0 for $279.99
Customer appreciation 10% off coupons are mailed out for this coming weekend 2/14-2/17.
There is a $30 mail-in rebate when you purchase this.

Total cost= $279.99-$27.99-$30 = $221.99

Not a bad deal for this device... Slightly larger than the iPod and the Creative Zen, but more flexible. Refer to this site for more info.

The coupon is only for B&M use and cannot be used online. Here's the link to the product on their site.

 

[GusSmed]

I just purchased this unit from Fry's on Saturday for the same rough price ($250 in store - $30 rebate = $220 + tax).

I'm pretty happy with it so far. I fit my entire CD collection on to it and still had 10 GB left. This is the lowest price I've seen for a 20 GB MP3 player. I could have purchased a Creative Labs 10 GB Jukebox 2 for less, and while it turns out I could have fit my CD's in that space, I wouldn't have had any room for expansion.

Using it is a snap. You plug it into a USB port, and it looks like another hard disk from Windows. It also has Mac support.

It's really pretty small, not much larger than the slimline 3.5" hard disk it's based on. I wish the hard-disk based car MP3 players were this small. That's what I primarily intend to use it for, combined with a earphone jack to cassette player adapter. I tried an FM transmitter (also from Fry's) and found the sound muddy, so I'm going to put up with the extra wire.

Here's a site devoted to a 3rd party alternate OS for the Archos:
Rockbox

One of the esotric, but interesting things about the unit is that it's relatively easy and safe to upgrade the firmware. If the Jukebox sees a file with .AJZ extension in the root directory, it boots to that instead of the firmware. That's how the Rockbox stuff works.

- Gus

 

[AsianriceX]

Does anyone know if the rechargable batteries are replaceable after they wear out? I was spec'ing out the iPod and the Nomad Zen, but then I found that after around 1.5-2 years of use, the internal battery loses its ability to keep charge. That totally ruined all ideas of buying either one of those. Also, the rebate is good after using the 10% off coupon right? None of those "this deal not good with any other combination" type stipulations?

 

[GusSmed]

The manual says it's a rechargable lithium-ion battery that will "last for the lifetime of the product." Take that for what it's worth. There's no obvious way to open it.

I saw a message on Epinions that claimed it took NiMH AA's, but they must have been referring to some other model.

- Gus

 

[BobSnob]

Originally posted by: GusSmed
The manual says it's a rechargable lithium-ion battery that will "last for the lifetime of the product." Take that for what it's worth. There's no obvious way to open it.

Li-Ion is good for 300 recharge cycles. Realistically that's probably 2-3 years for most people.

 

[android]

I don't recommend this unit. I used one for about a week, and the battery life was poor, less than 6 hours, and unpredictable. Also, the unit takes a while to boot up, just like a computer. The hard drive whines, and the user interface is awful as is, and only somewhat better with the Rockbox software (which I recommend if you want this unit.) There's no microphone input, so recording is either thru the built in mike, which picks up the hd whine, or thru an expensive preamp/mike combination into the line in jack. What's good is the USB 2.0 interface, which is fast and easy.

I also own an Ipod, and it doesn't have any of the above problems. Instant on, quiet, 10 hours battery life, quick charging, great interface. But no recording, and needs firewire.

If I had to choose I would pick a smaller capacity Ipod over this unit for the same price.

There's still no ideal HD based mp3 player on the market, but for the money, the Ipod is pretty great. (Although unless the hackers find a source for the battery, kinda disposable after 2-3 years).

 

[tracerbullet]

I had an older Archos (but sold it after about a year 'cause I needed the $). I liked mine - the batteries lasted about 4 hours for me, but that was usually enough anyways. They are replaceable, you just lift up the two plastic covers (one on each side) and the pop right in / out, only takes a minute. I guess you could upgrade the batteries perhaps?

The headphones that came with it were poor, but that's been my opinion of headphones I get with anything I buy like this.

The one real killer for me - and this may impress a lot of you - is that it acts as a portable hard drive. Not that a 20 gig drive is a big deal anymore, but it is pretty nice. Want to take an avi movie to a friends? Update your parent's computer without burning a lot of CD's? These are some of the things I did with mine, and it was great to have.

Everything has it's goods and bads, but I really liked mine. Witht he other features on top of the portable hard drive thing, I may have to get another one...

 

[sidarous]

ROCKBOX (3rd party firmware) does not work on the FM Recorder (which this is), just the regular Recorder and earlier models.

 

[GusSmed]

Ah-HA. I didn't know the Rockbox software didn't work on the FM model, which I have. I thought I was doing something wrong because I couldn't get it to work.

I can't speak for the battery life yet, since I haven't used it except to move music on to it. I've used it for at least 8 hours this way without the charger, but maybe it's leaching power off the USB cable.

It's totally silent. The only thing I've noticed when it's on is a slight gyroscope effect when I hold it, a sensation of something moving that's unlike a vibration.

It does take a second or two to boot, and loading a 20 song playlist also takes about a second. I tried to load the Rockbox software because it claims to eliminate the playlist load delay. It's not a huge deal, though.

It does not have a microphone jack, just a line in. I don't really care, since if I'm going to record something, I'm going to do it from my stereo, or by converting a CD. That's why I didn't comment on the record-from-radio feature, it just doesn't interest me.

It does act as a portable hard disk, which doesn't really matter to me either, but could be useful to some people. If there was some way to hook it to my digital camera, I'd be really psyched, since smartmedia cards are expensive, and I'd use it to store photos in trips. However, while they are both slave USB devices, and cannot talk to each other. I suppose I could use it that way if I borrowed someone else's computer.

If Android's Archos Jukebox could run the Rockbox software, maybe it was the non-FM model, and perhaps they changed the batteries? As I said, a review I saw of the Recorder claimed it took AA's, not an internal lithium-ion battery. I know that the new GBA-SP has a lithium ion battery, which gives it about 60% more battery life than a regular GBA with two AA's.

All in all, though, I'd rather have 6 hours of battery life and easily replaceable AA's than 10 hours and a hard/expensive to replace specialized battery. I've got several extra NiMH AA's.

It's possible the whining problem could have been specific to Android's copy. Hard drives just don't whine these days, as a rule. I assume it depends on the bearings.

- Gus

 

[GusSmed]

If I had to choose I would pick a smaller capacity Ipod over this unit for the same price.

By the way, is this really fair? I don't think you can get an iPod for $220. A quick search on mySimon says the cheapest iPod is $283, and that's for a 5 GB unit - 1/4 the capacity. The same search said $393 for a 10GB iPod, and $493 for a 20 GB unit. I don't know that everyone needs 20 GB, but I certainly needed at least 10, and I don't think my music collection is that large.

I saw some iPod's at Fry's when I bought my Archos, and they were somewhere in that price range. They were enough more expensive that I dismissed them out of hand. The Creative Labs Jukeboxes were closer in price, but still more expensive, and didn't seem as nice.

Maybe the iPod's interface is worth $270 more to you.

- Gus