Detailed Archos Jukebox FM Recorder 20 MP3 Player Description & Review

Archos: Jukebox FM Recorder 20 £295.00inc. VAT  &  Delivery

The Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 is dead. Long live the Archos Jukebox FM Recorder 20. The Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 was one of the best all round Jukeboxes of 2002. It was one of the first that could record direct to MP3 from live sources and a big hit with the customers.

This model has been superceded by the Archos GMini XS202 20GB MP3 player.

As normally happens, the people who didn't like it much were generally the people who didn't have one.

Now its been back to meet its maker and its maker did find that it was good. So good that they have kept the basics the same, given it a shiny new coat and added a few new tricks (fairly obvious ones, but the best ideas always are).

Lets start with the blatantly obvious: this jukebox plays MP3s; Records live MP3s and has a built-in FM radio tuner (hence the name).

This means that you can listen to your own collection of music stored on the Jukebox, or, you can listen to the radio if you're in the mood for something different. Choose one of the 30 preset radio stations or scan through the whole FM band to find something you want.

What it also means is that you can Record tunes from the radio directly: i.e. there is no need for extra wires to connect up to the radio in order to record from the radio - both are built-in.

All fairly straightforward so far. That is not the sum-total however, because Archos have added a special feature to the record from radio function and called it (depending on what Archos material you read) retro-record or back-track.

Anyone who has ever been a teenager can tell you that there is a fundamental problem with recording your favourite tunes from the radio. You wait around for hours for that one particular song to come on, and when it does you run across the room and hit record (or release the pause button if you have really thought about it). The problem is that you inevitably miss the very start of the track. Sometimes only a couple of seconds, sometimes the first couple of lines. That can be enough to ruin the song, so you resolve to try again.

Welcome to the future. Civilisation has arrived, and not just in the form of included batteries. Now you can start to record a track off the FM radio up to 30 seconds after the tune has started playing and STILL GET THE START OF THE TUNE IN YOUR RECORDING! The FM Recorder actively records the radio station you're listening to at all times on a 30 second loop, so that if you press record just after the song has started, that song's beginning will have been recorded automatically.

Afterwards you can use the erase feature to clean up the start of the track. This can be used to edit the track down so that you only have the song you wanted without the end of the previous song as the intro.

There is a slight downside to this constant recording: normally a radio takes very little power to work at all. That's how Trevor Bayliss was cunningly able to make the clockwork radio. Without this feature the Jukebox would be able to play the radio for much longer, but as it is you can still get 12 hours out of the included batteries - for both radio and normal jukebox use.

Archos claim a capacity of 450 hours of recording from the radio. It is important to note that this 450 hour figure is based on recording at 96kbps - a lower quality recording rate than is normally used for MP3s.

This Archos Jukebox FM Recorder 20 has 20GB (20000MB) of space on which you can store music or other files. This is enough space to store up to 333Hrs of music MP3s encoded at 128Kbps (normal rate - roughly equivalent to CD quality).

There is a line-in stereo minijack which give this model the ability to record from any analogue source in real time. In fact Archos claim that this Jukebox can record from the FM tuner or ANY other analog or digital source (provided you have the right sized connectors).

This Jukebox also doubles easily as a portable external hard drive. Add and remove data files to and from the Jukebox. Bring your work home with you; indulge in a little industrial espionage by bringing your bosses computer contents home with you, whatever floats your boat.

USB 2.0 connection on this baby means hyper fast transfer of data or music for PC users. If your computer only has USB 1.1, USB 2.0 is backwards compatible, so it will still work - you will still be able to transfer your stuff on and off the Jukebox, just at rates up to 40 times slower than USB 2.0. (Upgrade your computer to USB 2.0 enabled here).

The built-in mike allows you to record your own personal musings, if you are exceedingly dull, or other people's conversations. Generally a lot more interesting. Archos claim that the Jukebox has a capacity of 700 hours of voice recording, but its worth pointing out that this is at 64kbps (about the sound quality of a phone call).

If you have never seen one of these we can guarantee that its smaller than you are imagining it to be. Get a ruler and draw the dimensions on a page. This machine is small and lightweight. Well, maybe comparatively light (still almost 300g), but it is small.

There's a clock, timer and alarm too.

Find out more about the Archos Jukebox FM Recorder 20 player and the Archos range in general, including review and system requirements: click here.