Archos JukeBox Studio (6 GB) MP3 Player
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- Number of Songs: 1500
- Usage: Music Recording
- Interface: USB
- Main Storage Type: Hard Drive
- Storage Capacity: 6 GB
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Chicago Radio? NO MORE!
Pros
Tiny, solid feeling, Holds both data and MP3s.
Cons
Controls and menu navigation, sometimes just drops sound for a split second
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A solid device that has saved me much aggravation with its ability to store data files. To me, the MP3 player is an added bonus.
Chicago. City of Big Shoulders. The City that works. With so much high quality entertainment value in Chicago, its amazing the FM radio band is about as entertaining as listening to a dentist drill. Now of course this is all debatable and strictly opinion. If you like like Hip Hop dance stuff, then I guess its OK. If you like sappy lite tunes, or stations that play the same stuff about ever 5 minutes, then you?re at home. I will say that 95.1 and 96.7 seem to have a better playlist, but even those are still the same tired rock tunes or new stuff every 10 minutes.
However, if you like a quality mix of Hard Rock, Heavy or Progressive Metal with a dash of old school thrown in, you?re out of luck.
So I turn to the land of MP3s. Now I?m not a big fan of Napster. All of my MP3s are encoded from my original CDs. I figure if I can?t write songs like Dream Theater or Spock?s Beard, I might as well support the guys who can by buying their albums.
Enter my second obstacle: The need for a small in size but large in capacity, portable storage device. I install digital security servers that record video files in AVI format. Once in a while something will happen that will require me to save about 20 minutes of video information for processing. CDRW drives are OK, but not always installed. USB Hard drives are OK, but bulky and expensive. Tape backups are way too slow. So I start reading?.
Enter the Archos Jukebox 6000. About the size of a average cell phone and just a tad heavier, it contains a 6 gig Fujitsu hard drive that can store both data and MP3 files.
Well, this looks good on paper, but I wanted to see for myself. After searching 4 Best Buys, (the day of their ad, and yet not one store has one) I come across the 6000 at CompUSA. Now on any normal day, I?d have turned and left. But I was in a jam and needed a solution fast. I managed to get CompUSA to pricematch Best Buy at $249.00. And since the units were selling briskly on Ebay at around that price, if it turned out I didn?t like the unit, instead of paying CompUSA?s horrible restocking fee, I could just ebay it.
First Impressions.
Heavy. For its size, it has some weight to it. The casing is a silver box surrounded by a hard foamy plastic covering on the corners. The 3 controls on the main panel are easy to see and operate, though the control scheme is dubious at best. The LCD readout is clear, though not very large.
Contents.
I must say I?m impressed with the items that are included. TWO (2) sets of rechargeable batteries. I found that simply amazing in this day and age. The charger is also included, along with a pretty neat foam type belt mountable carry case. There is also a USB cable, and a very nice set of in-ear headphones. A retail version of MusicMatch software is also included.
Setup and usage.
Setup is pretty straight forward. Load the software on, connect the USB cable, and the 6000 is seen as another drive. From here you can copy MP3 or data files to the 6000. The USB rate is fairly fast. You can use MusicMatch to create play lists that the 6000 can read. I loaded on 300 songs in various directories and after hitting the shuffle play style, it varied the songs nicely. Navigating the menu is a tad tedious. You have to use a 4 position dial to scroll through the directories on the hard drive for data and songs. A separate menu button accesses items such as bass, treble, play mode (shuffle, repeat, ect) and volume. You are very limited in the ability to quickly find a song. You have to either know the directory its in, or have it be part of a master play list you download. You can?t just type in any song you want and have it search that one out. It takes several clicks to move from directory to directory, song to song. But I just upload the playlist and let it go. If it gets to a song I don?t want to hear, I just press the ?forward? button for the next song in the list. My biggest use for this machine so far is hooking it up to a cassette adapter for my car when I?m driving. The 6000 is small enough to hide in the glove box or rest in the center console unnoticed.
Sound Quality.
Well, all I have to compare this to is standard cassette tapes and the radio. Aside from an occasional, yet annoying split second sound dropout, the sound quality through my GM Delco system is fine. I don?t know if that sound dropout is related to the MP3 or if it?s caching on the hard drive. Either way, it is very annoying.
Overall.
This is a very cool device. The size is much smaller than its counterparts, and the ability to store both data and MP3s makes it very useful. It?s good on batteries as well, going about 5 hours of constant playing between charges. The 2 sets of batteries mean you should never have dead cells. I?ve only had it a couple of weeks, so as far as reliability goes, I don?t have enough time with it. But it sure has helped me cope during snarled city traffic, far better than Chicago?s radio stations.
However, if you like a quality mix of Hard Rock, Heavy or Progressive Metal with a dash of old school thrown in, you?re out of luck.
So I turn to the land of MP3s. Now I?m not a big fan of Napster. All of my MP3s are encoded from my original CDs. I figure if I can?t write songs like Dream Theater or Spock?s Beard, I might as well support the guys who can by buying their albums.
Enter my second obstacle: The need for a small in size but large in capacity, portable storage device. I install digital security servers that record video files in AVI format. Once in a while something will happen that will require me to save about 20 minutes of video information for processing. CDRW drives are OK, but not always installed. USB Hard drives are OK, but bulky and expensive. Tape backups are way too slow. So I start reading?.
Enter the Archos Jukebox 6000. About the size of a average cell phone and just a tad heavier, it contains a 6 gig Fujitsu hard drive that can store both data and MP3 files.
Well, this looks good on paper, but I wanted to see for myself. After searching 4 Best Buys, (the day of their ad, and yet not one store has one) I come across the 6000 at CompUSA. Now on any normal day, I?d have turned and left. But I was in a jam and needed a solution fast. I managed to get CompUSA to pricematch Best Buy at $249.00. And since the units were selling briskly on Ebay at around that price, if it turned out I didn?t like the unit, instead of paying CompUSA?s horrible restocking fee, I could just ebay it.
First Impressions.
Heavy. For its size, it has some weight to it. The casing is a silver box surrounded by a hard foamy plastic covering on the corners. The 3 controls on the main panel are easy to see and operate, though the control scheme is dubious at best. The LCD readout is clear, though not very large.
Contents.
I must say I?m impressed with the items that are included. TWO (2) sets of rechargeable batteries. I found that simply amazing in this day and age. The charger is also included, along with a pretty neat foam type belt mountable carry case. There is also a USB cable, and a very nice set of in-ear headphones. A retail version of MusicMatch software is also included.
Setup and usage.
Setup is pretty straight forward. Load the software on, connect the USB cable, and the 6000 is seen as another drive. From here you can copy MP3 or data files to the 6000. The USB rate is fairly fast. You can use MusicMatch to create play lists that the 6000 can read. I loaded on 300 songs in various directories and after hitting the shuffle play style, it varied the songs nicely. Navigating the menu is a tad tedious. You have to use a 4 position dial to scroll through the directories on the hard drive for data and songs. A separate menu button accesses items such as bass, treble, play mode (shuffle, repeat, ect) and volume. You are very limited in the ability to quickly find a song. You have to either know the directory its in, or have it be part of a master play list you download. You can?t just type in any song you want and have it search that one out. It takes several clicks to move from directory to directory, song to song. But I just upload the playlist and let it go. If it gets to a song I don?t want to hear, I just press the ?forward? button for the next song in the list. My biggest use for this machine so far is hooking it up to a cassette adapter for my car when I?m driving. The 6000 is small enough to hide in the glove box or rest in the center console unnoticed.
Sound Quality.
Well, all I have to compare this to is standard cassette tapes and the radio. Aside from an occasional, yet annoying split second sound dropout, the sound quality through my GM Delco system is fine. I don?t know if that sound dropout is related to the MP3 or if it?s caching on the hard drive. Either way, it is very annoying.
Overall.
This is a very cool device. The size is much smaller than its counterparts, and the ability to store both data and MP3s makes it very useful. It?s good on batteries as well, going about 5 hours of constant playing between charges. The 2 sets of batteries mean you should never have dead cells. I?ve only had it a couple of weeks, so as far as reliability goes, I don?t have enough time with it. But it sure has helped me cope during snarled city traffic, far better than Chicago?s radio stations.
