I’m looking for a new hard drive based MP3 player and I’ve narrowed it down to two: Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 and eDigital Treo 15. Here’s the pros and cons for each:
ARCHOS
Pros:
Bigger storage (20GB)
Faster file transfer (USB 2)
User-created firmware with many features
Recording capabilities, built-in microphone
Runs on standard AA NiMH batteries
Cons:
Some reviews mention very short battery life (others say it’s long)
Official firmware old (mid-'02), low on features, highly unstable (according to reviewers)
Ugly
EDIGITAL
Pros:
Big storage (15GB)
Official firmware still updated, good features
User-replaceable Li-Ion battery
Case to hide ugliness
WMA and MP3
Cons:
Ugly
Slow file transfer (USB 1)
I’m torn between the two. The eDigital is significantly cheaper, and its cons aren’t as bad as for the Archos. But, it has a smaller drive and slower file transfer.
But, the file transfer speed doesn’t really matter. Besides the initial transfer, I’m not going to be transfering more than the occasional file to it. And the updated official firmware is a big plus.
But, the Archos has the recording capabilities, faster file transfers, and runs on more standard batteries. But I’m not sure about the battery life issue. Some people report problems with it, but others say the battery life is quite long. The fact that the official firmware is crap and unupdated is sort of… bad, but the unofficial (Rockbox) is updated on a daily basis and has a lot of features going for it.
I really can’t decide between the two. The Archos would be about $220, and the eDigital would be about $180. Which would you choose? And if you own either of these players, how has it worked for you?
Does your computer have USB 2 ports? Because most don’t. Even modern ones.
Don’t worry about the smaller hard drive - I doubt you will ever fill it (unless you are going to use your player to store non-music fies.)
Also most of the time when reviewers say “very short battery life” they usually mean “surprisingly long battery life” If my digital camera is anything to go by. But don’t take my word for it.
If I were you I’d go for the more expensive one, but I am not you.
I have a Creative DAP jukebox 3. I am happy with it, the sound quality is good (Advanced EQ or EAX environmental effects)
I have the Archos Multimedia Jukebox (it plays video files, too) and love it. Honestly, though, if I were just looking for an MP3 player, I’d go with an iPod. It’s the video capability that made the difference for me.
Well, neither one would be my chioce, but since you’ve limited my suggestion to those two, I’d say the Archos. When I was making this same chioce a few months ago, It was down to the Ipod, Nomad Zen and the Archos. Those are the three that made my cut. I ended up with the Nomad Zen (by Creative). I based my decision on battery life, price, sound quality and looks. (Ipod costs too much for what you get, and I though the Archos was big and ugly)
No matter what you get, go out and buy a better set of headphones. The ones you get with the players almost always suck. I use a pair of Koss SportaPros for headphones and for earbuds I use Sennheiser MX-500SEN (I think). Both are great for the price.
My experience with Archos has been less than stellar. My Recorder 20 had a problem with the charger circuit and would not stop charging. Tech support said it’s not supposed to happen, but it won’t hurt either (read: live with it). I got it replaced by the store but the new one also had the same problem. I didn’t have time to get it replaced again before I left for a trip so I ended up living with it. To add insult to injury, the replaced unit came with a defective manual with many pages missing.
I recently replaced it with an iPod and I’m much happier with it. It’s hard to justify the iPod based on the specs alone, but it’s a more refined with a better design and well thought out interface. It’s a joy to use. I suddenly understood why Apple customers are so loyal.
I currently own the edigital treo 10, and the I owned the archos FM recorder 20 for about… a week.
I didn’t try the rockbox firmware, but Archo’s firmware is most definitely absolute crap. While you can definitely record on the archos recorder(and it sounds alright) there is a problem. when one records for a few minutes on the archos the hd spins up and the mic records that too! it’s an annoying ass harddrive spinup squeel sound. The battery life was pretty good for me. I played my fm recorder for 6+ hours. Thats plenty of time for me. The sound quality was alright, but the bundled headphones are crap. Most definitely get better ones. I own sennhieser mx500’s but I didn’t get to try em on the archos.
the edigital 10 is just like the 15, but with less storage. I own the newer 10, and therefore the fugly ass version(the older one was aluminium cased, and looked ALOT better). The first thing you should do is upgrade the firmware on your edigital. The original is so crappy I can’t even begin to explain how bad it is. The new firmware handles things quite well. But theres still problems with it. Random bugs that make absolutely no sense. Whenever you plug the unit into the USB it resets all the user settings. THats really REALLY annoying, but it can be rectified about 3 seconds after you unplug it from the USB. You can’t use the unit as a harddrive unless it’s plugged into the AC adapter port as well as USB(basically, you have to plan to use the unit as a harddrive every time you do, I don’t remember about the archos.) Oh, and the case for the treo 10 doesn’t have a belt clip. Thats really annoying as well. I haven’t taken the treo 10 joggging with me yet, but it has an 8 mb buffer instead of the archo’s paltry 2mb. Therefore it should last 4x as long before it skips… i guess thats what I got to say. If you have any more specific questions feel free to e-mail me.
oh, and all that said. Get an IPOD. the new ipods are out and they’re not as huge as a rip as the old ones used to be. Still a rip, but hey, if money is no issue the ipod is definitely the way to go,
At the Apple site, iPods are $400 for the 15GB (10 isn’t enough, I have 12gb of music… so far…). $400? I don’t think so. I might go for a slightly used Zen, though.
I have the Archos Jukebox Recorder 20, and I love it. I’ve replaced the official firmware with the Rockbox firmware and that made a big difference to my enjoyment. If you go with the Archos, I would recommend doing this right away, don’t waste time on the offical firmware.
I get pretty good battery life out of mine (about 8 hours per charge I’d guess), and the fact that you can use regular batteries with it helps with this issue as well if you’re going on a long trip or whatever.
As far as looking ugly, well, I don’t really care how it looks, as long as it does what I want. Funnily enough, my wife says the same about me
My answer depends on your operating system. All the onlines that I trust (C/Net, ZdNet) said the IPOD was FLAWLESS with a MAC PC. Windows on the otherhand…well I never saw the word “Eh…” stretched out to a 3 page review before.
I got my wife the Archos Multimedia Jukebox last christmas instead because I found it for Less than the IPOD (It was like getting color video capability Free). She plays it in her car with a standard walkman car-kit going to work & taking the kids to school in the morning. An avid IMESH fiend, she adds new songs to it nightly as well as ‘Justice League’ cartoons for the boys. And it’s Still not out of room.
She’s never had a complaint. (batteries never come into play as we run it off AC in the house & a car charger in the car)
If you arn’t hopelessly in love with the idea of a hard drive based player and money is an issue, I’d seriously consider a CD/MP3 player. I have an iRiver SlimX, which I love to death and while I don’t regret not having an iPod for a minute, I’ve certainly had a lot of fun with the three hundred bucks that I didn’t spend on one.
A CD will hold about a hundred and twenty songs. I have CDs with all of my music collection on them (about ten CDs), and CDs for different moods (going to school music, dentist music, sunny day music) but usually every few weeks I’ll just burn a couple CDs with whatever sounds like fun to carry around with me. Even after listening to a CD for a month I still discover new songs on it. Another big plus is your friends can burn CDs for you (all public domain stuff, I’m sure) It doesn’t fit in a shirt pocket, but its slim profile is great for my backpack, and its wired remote (which is the best thing ever) has an interface that allows for files to be put into folders, a huge variety of sound and playback options, and very nice song information display. The batteries (especially with the included AA attachement) last forever and the sound is great.
