Archos 6 GB Jukebox 6000 MP3 Player/Hard Drive

Archos 6 GB Jukebox 6000 MP3 Player/Hard Drive Review

Archos 6 GB Jukebox 6000 MP3 Player/Hard Drive Feature

• Dual 6-gigabyte (GB) MP3 player and hard drive
• Stores over 100 hours of CD-quality music, or approximately 150 albums
• 2-megabyte (MB) memory buffer stores from 30 to 100 seconds of music to prevent interruptions
• Fast USB plug-and-play connection
• Dual stereo line out with stereo headphones

The palm-sized Archos Jukebox 6000 has a sleek design that will have you listening to your music collection in style. With a whopping storage capacity of 6 GB, you can listen to more than 100 hours of MP3 music at 128 Kbps. It also doubles as a USB hard drive, with up to a 1,150 Kbps sustained transfer rate. Truly palm-sized, the Jukebox 6000 measures 4.5 inches tall, 3.2 inches wide, and 1.3 inches deep.

The Jukebox 6000 features a proprietary shock protection system that senses any sudden drop of the drive and automatically parks the read heads to a safe landing area before the drive hits the ground. Four thick rubber pads in the corners further cushion shocks, and a 2 MB read-ahead buffer stores from 30 to 100 seconds of music to prevent interruptions caused by shocks or unbalance.

MP3 and WAV file formats are supported, and Archos plans to provide the latest firmware upgrades for additional digital audio formats via downloading from its Web site. RealJukebox software (for PC and Mac) comes bundled with the Jukebox 6000.

The Archos Jukebox 6000 features dual stereo line-in and line-out jacks, an LCD backlit screen, stereo headphones, a carrying pouch, USB connector cable, and an AC adapter (for recharging the 4 AA ni-cad batteries, which provide up to 5 hours of playback).

Important note to customers: The Archos Jukebox 6000 requires a USB connection to your computer. It is compatible with Windows 98 and 2000; Windows 95 and Windows NT are not supported. It is also compatible with USB-enabled Macs running Mac OS 8.6 or higher. Imagine being able to take your entire music collection with you everywhere you go. The Archos Jukebox 6000 portable MP3 player makes that dream real in a surprisingly small package and at a surprisingly low price. With its 6 GB portable hard drive (similar to the ones used in laptop PCs), the Jukebox 6000 can store over 100 albums and offers the tools you need to easily navigate and manage your tunes.

When we took the Jukebox 6000 into hand, we were immediately surprised at its small size. Measuring 4.5 by 3.2 x 1.3 inches and weighing only 12 ounces, it's much smaller and lighter than other similar players with 6 GB hard drives. The unit runs on a rechargeable NiMH battery that can deliver up to eight hours of playback on a single charge.

Installation went very smoothly, aided by the clearly written manual. We inserted the driver disk and plugged the unit into our PC's USB port. Windows found and installed the appropriate drivers, and the Jukebox 6000 showed up as a hard drive in Windows Explorer. (The Archos Jukebox 6000 is compatible with Windows 98, Me, or 2000, or a Mac running OS 8.6 or higher.) Transferring music files couldn't have been simpler--we just dragged and dropped files as with any hard drive. The Jukebox also works as an external hard drive for storing nonmusic files, making it perfect for making backups or transporting large files.

Of course, with so much storage capacity, organization becomes an issue. Since it's essentially a USB hard drive, we used folders to arrange our files. We made a Rock folder to store all our head-banging albums, a Jazz folder for the Louis Armstrong collection, and so on. The Jukebox shows the folder names on its backlit LCD display, making navigation very simple. Using the included MusicMatch Jukebox software, we could also create MP3 playlists of our favorite songs, an extremely useful feature for organizing music.

The buttons on the face of the unit offer quick navigation, and there's a menu-driven system for setting volume, bass/treble, and random and repeat modes. The Jukebox comes with a pair of plastic headphones that clip over your ears and have a headband that swings around the back of your head. We found them comfortable to wear, and they provided a clear, crisp sound. There's also a line-out for connecting to your stereo system.

The Jukebox is quite rugged and very resistant to jolts, and it comes with a carrying case, which adds further protection. However, the manual recommends you keep it within a 30-degree angle of a horizontal or vertical position. Unlike a flash-memory based MP3 player, which has no moving parts, the Jukebox might not be ideal for taking along while jogging or doing other intense activity.

The Archos Jukebox 6000 finally puts an end to the problem of which songs to put on your MP3 player by letting you include all of them. It sets a new standard for MP3 players, offering huge storage capacity in a small, well-designed package. --Ken Feinstein

Pros:

• Very small and lightweight
• 6 GB memory can store over 100 albums
• Rechargeable battery

Cons:

• Not ideal for active usage