Smeghead, would that be the Archos Jukebox Multimedia? I got one of those too, and would recommend it to anyone. Another great thing it does is store digital photos - it comes with card readers for SmartMedia and Compact Flash cards. I’m nearing the end of a 6-month RTW trip, and I’ve got about 8000 photos (8 gigabytes worth) stored on it, with the rest of the space filled up with tunes.
I just got a RIO CD walkman that plays MP3 CDs. If you’re looking to have lots of songs at your finger tips, but not spend too much, this is your answer.
You burn MP3s on to a standard CDR (so think 700MB of data or so), and it plays them off there like a normal CD. You can fit a few hundred songs on one disc easily. In fact I’ve taken to putting all my favourite artists on one disc, so I can listen to anything they’ve made anytime I want. (I have one disc that has every Cult album and B-side ever recorded.)
Plus, you don’t have to upgrade storage, download/upload songs, etc. Just change your disk and you’re good to go.
Mine also plays regular CDs (interchangebaly) so I’m not limited to MP3 discs. (I can also burn Windows Media Files to play on the player.)
Highly recommended.
iPod… accept no substitutes. You should wait though, the new model with up to 30 gb storage and a new button scheme is coming out soon. If nothing else it will mean you can get the old model cheaper.
Yep. Though I didn’t get the photo or card reader modules.
Go MiniDisc. www.minisico.com One disc can hold 320 minutes of music. Each disc costs about $2.00. Plus, you can get different colored discs and cases for each disc. Ever see The Matrix? The little discs Neo gives to the gang with the girl with the white rabbit are MiniDiscs. Plus, a NetMD player is about as fast as an MP3 player when transferring songs. I have a Net MD Walkman Recorder MZ-S1 that I got for about $130 on eBay. Pretty cheap when you consider that flash memory cards are about 30x more expensive when you get less expandability. Other good choices would be MP3 CD players and hard drive type players with 10-20gigs worth of space. MiniDisc players are solely for playing music, as are MP3 CD players. The hard drive type players are useful for transferring files, too, so that’s something to consider. If you do go hard drive, make sure it’s an iPod. And wait a little for the newer iPods to come out. A price drop is expected, I believe.
I’ve got an Archos Jukebox and I love it. Can you iPod heads out there give me any reason why I should have bought an iPod for hundreds of dollars more?
Comparing the 10 gig models: $360 vs $250
iPod is smaller and thinner, weighs almost half as much, has a cleaner design, firewire instead of USB, bigger more clear display, internal lithium ion battery instead of nickel cad AA’s, 32mb buffer compared to 2mb on Archos, much better included headphones, and a remote control. It also has the audio scrubbing feature to skip to any part of a song, and an address book and calendar.
The Archos, however has a microphone, and audio recording capabilities the pod lacks. It definitely takes home the most bang for your buck award. They are both great devices. But, some people like hamburger and some people prefer steak. 
I would have got an iPod until I saw the Multimedia Jukebox. The video capability did it for me. There’s nothing better for a slow night at work than to whip that thing out and start watching some movie.
I’m sure it is great. I’m the one who told you about it. Looks like you couldn’t resist the temptation. 
My next device will definately be a video jukebox. I didn’t spend all that time cough backing up those episodes of South Park in divx for nothing. 
Holy crap, you’re right!! I’d forgotten that. Thanks!!
No one’s mentioned the Zen? It uses a standard laptop HD and can be upgraded to 60 gigs.