ARCHOS 5GB Jukebox
USB Drive

BY BILL CHACHKES

Editorial

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The Age of digital music is here, and everyone is jumping in. For months I had been weighing the options. Should I get a less expensive flash memory player, or a more expensive hard disk based player? I love the iPod, but even the base model was a bit out of my price range. I had looked into several different third party alternatives, and finally decided on the Archos USB Jukebox hard disk. The player comes in 4 sizes (5, 10, 15, & 20 GB). I was only concerned with the slightly larger body of the jukebox compared to the iPod. Once I held the demo in my hand, my concerns vanished. It’s shock-resistant blue corners and silver faceplate, rotational menu controls, and backlit LCD won me over.

Setting up the Jukebox was a breeze, taking less then two minutes total! The A/A USB cable is non-standard so you can’t confuse it with regular cables. I was less than impressed with the choice of Music Match as the Mp3 bundled software, but you can drag and drop any Mp3 file onto the Jukebox drive and create playlists be placing songs in different folders. While USB is slower than Firewire, the jukebox is a decent speed drive, and it only took about 11 minutes to fill the drive up about 80%. Even with the 5 GB unit, you still can fit about 1,200 songs on your drive, or partition the drive any way you like for the best balance of music versus free space for traveling with large files between work locations.

While the supplied headphones are marginally acceptable for sound, you can use any pair with a standard 1/8-inch stereo plug, or use the line in jack to record from another device, or the line out jack to play sound through your home or car stereo system. The Jukebox uses a rechargeable battery pack, and the charger/ac adapter charges the battery in 6 to 8 hours. The case is made of water-repellent neoprene, and further protects the unit from shock if it bumps into another object.

Overall, the 5 GB model is a good choice for the money conscious, and for a few dollars more you can get a 10 or 15 GB unit that also records with an external microphone.

Archos 5GB
Jukebox USB drive

List Price: $149.95

Sale Price $119.95

Purchased at:
J&R Computer