Archos Jukebox Recorder 20

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Eliot Van Buskirk
• Reviewed on: 06/30/2002
• Updated on: 05/09/2003

Last year, Archos's original Jukebox Recorder impressed us with its ability to encode MP3s to a hard drive. But after Apple's iPod and Creative's upped the ante with high-speed FireWire connections, Archos had to respond, and it has done so with the Recorder Jukebox 20. While the 20's feature set and design are identical to its predecessor's, it does offer a larger 20GB hard drive and a lightning-fast USB 2.0 connection at a very fair price.Last year, Archos's original Jukebox Recorder impressed us with its ability to encode MP3s to a hard drive. But after Apple's iPod and Creative's upped the ante with high-speed FireWire connections, Archos had to respond, and it has done so with the Recorder Jukebox 20. While the 20's feature set and design are identical to its predecessor's, it does offer a larger 20GB hard drive and a lightning-fast USB 2.0 connection at a very fair price.

A real workhorse
At 4.5 by 3.2 by 1.3 inches, the rectangular Recorder 20 is currently smaller than every except the iPod. However, its 12.3-ounce weight keeps it from being pocket-friendly. Four oversized rubberized corners offer some degree of protection, but don't let that fool you into thinking that this is a rugged unit.

As far as controls go, the player's 10 buttons are arranged for very intuitive operation, which almost makes up for the fact that the in-line remote consists of only a volume wheel. The large, backlit display uses a fairly small font, but a no-nonsense layout and a simple navigation system make operation logical and free of hassle.

Connect the player via USB 1.1 or 2.0 after installing the drivers, and the Recorder 20 shows up on your PC as an external hard drive. This means that you can simply drag and drop your MP3s, music folders, and any data files onto the unit without learning how to use proprietary software. Archos claims transfer speeds of up to 1.5MB per second for USB 1.1 and 60MB per second with USB 2.0, but that's optimistic. Our test machine transferred files at 1.06MB per second over USB 1.1 and 8.43MB per second when using USB 2.0. Still, the latter number--a brisk two songs per second--compares favorably to that of other hard drive-based MP3 players with fast connections that we've tested.

Versatile, yet intuitive
In the menu, you can select MP3 Record, Sound, Play Mode, Playlist, Language (English, French, German), and Hard Disk Diagnose. Behind these choices lie myriad playback and recording options that let you fine-tune EQ using graphical sliders, choose recording quality, and create playlists on the fly, among other things.

The device's inputs and outputs are just as versatile: you'll find an optical S/PDIF in/out, a headphone out (a 1/8-inch-to-RCA cable is included), and a 1/8-inch analog input. This means that you can play back audio over the folding around-the-neck headphones or on a stereo with optical-digital or analog RCA inputs. In addition, you can record from any digital or analog line-level source, such as a digital microphone, a CD player, or a record player via a receiver. However, the built-in microphone is suitable for only voice memos. Continue reading

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Recent user reviews

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 187 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 3 of 187 user reviews

• 4.0 stars

  1 out of 1 people found this helpful

  "This hard-drive based mp3 player is STILL the bomb"

  by Mboloanio on June 3, 2007

• 4.0 stars

  1 out of 1 people found this helpful

  "Bulletproof - almost"

  by piedpiper11 on August 23, 2006

• 3.0 stars

  "Second unit much much better"

  by msbeetlejuce30533 on September 12, 2005

• See all 187 user reviews Write review

Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

• alaTest.com

  Editors' rating: 79

  Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 1256 reviews of Archos Jukebox 20 from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 82/100 and users 66/100. Comparing these reviews to 401954 other MP3 Players reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 79/100 = Good.

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• newbie.org

  Editors' rating: 100

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• personal computer world

  Editors' rating: 60

  Summary: We had hoped that the jukebox would offer much more advanced video playback, but as it is the mpeg-4 decoding just feels like a gimmick. The Archos Multimedia 20 is merely an interesting device when it could easily have been a 'must have' one

  Read full review